CHAPTER IX
S. ASAPH
Situation of the city—The cathedral—Tomb of Bishop Barrow—Epitaph of Dean Lloyd—The Red Book of S. Asaph—Dick of Aberdaron—Parish church—Catherine of Berain—Meiriadog—The legend of Cynan, and of the Eleven Thousand Virgins—Ffynnon Fair—Cefn caves—Plas Newydd—Cawr Rhufoniog—Covered avenue—Rhuddlan—The air “Morfa Rhuddlan”—Welsh airs—Need for careful examination and discrimination—Stories connected with certain tunes—Welsh hymn tunes—Gruffydd ab Llewelyn—Constitution of Rhuddlan—Edward “Prince of Wales.”
THE city of S. Asaph is pleasantly planted, for the most part, on rising ground above the River Elwy, in the vale of the Clwyd, which unites with the Elwy below this miniature city.
The cathedral is small and not particularly interesting, and the interior effect is spoiled by the choir being moved under the central tower, and the transepts being closed in to form vestries, chapter house, consistory court, and library. The structural choir is a mere chancel without aisles, and possibly the dean, canons, and choristers may have felt cramped in it; but the alteration has robbed the interior effect of its dignity. The clerestory windows are square-headed, and the arches of the nave rise from pillars without capitals. The chancel was restored by Sir Gilbert Scott in the Early English style, and contains some good modern glass, and some that is execrable.
Outside the cathedral, at the west end, is the tomb of Bishop Isaac Barrow, who died in 1680, with the epitaph: “O vos transeuntes in Domum Domini, domum orationis, orate pro conservo vestro ut inveniam misericordiam in Die Domini.”
In the cathedral yard is a cross, with eight figures about it, of those who assisted in the translation of the Bible into Welsh, but it commemorates especially the tercentenary of Bishop Morgan’s first complete translation, published in 1588.
One of the deans of S. Asaph, Dr. David Lloyd, who died in 1663, is said to have made for himself the following epitaph:—
“This is the epitaph
Of the Dean of S. Asaph,
Who, by keeping a table
Better than he was able,
Ran much into debt
Which is not paid yet.”