Chapter III: The Interior--The Nave (2)

Bishop Gower (1328-1347), the Menevian Wykeham, raised the north and east walls of the north chapel aisle and rebuilt the south and east walls of the south aisle from the ground, probably on Early English foundations. Also, this aisle was projected a few feet in an easterly direction and many changes made in the Lady Chapel, where Gower founded a charity in 1334. Bishop Vaughan (1509-1522) appropriated the space east of the presbytery which was described[59] as “vilissimus sive sordidissimus locus in totâ ecclesiâ,” and converted it into the beautiful chapel which bears his name. Previous to this we can find no early references to this space which was walled in north,

south, east, and west (according to Freeman) and may previously never have been roofed. With regard to this numerous suggestions have been made which do not seem entirely satisfactory. At any rate the east windows of the cathedral were glazed and required light, which we venture to suggest may have been obtained from the open passage left for pilgrims to reach the ancient recess in the east wall, which is apparently _in situ_ and bears unmistakable marks of having been polished by use. And, that the remainder of the space was screened off and roofed for the immurement of a recluse, who could perhaps watch unseen the movements of the pilgrims. It must be remembered also that stealing relics carried its own absolution. This might account, too, for its filthy state which necessitated the four pence of 1492[60] to clean. In those days an unusually large sum. In making this Trinity Chapel, Bishop Vaughan blocked up the lower east windows of the cathedral and probably added the upper tier shown on p. 36, and then added his fan-traceried roof and other ornaments.

The Lady Chapel and the ambulatory or vestibule were evidently twice prepared for vaulting before Bishop Vaughan actually completed the scheme, but during the Civil War it was denuded of lead, which eventuated in its collapse about 1775 and in the erection of the extraordinary modern buttresses which prop up the inner walls of the chapel and its aisles.

This brief general description may help the visitor to realise the many changes which produced these peculiar eastern adjuncts, and we will now discuss each more in detail.

=Bishop Vaughan’s, or The Trinity, Chapel.=--This chapel is a peculiarly subtle example of Perpendicular, and retains both its internal and external roofs. Freeman, who does not usually pay high tribute to any phase of Perpendicular, says,[61] “Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel is an extremely fine specimen of late Perpendicular, and that of the best kind, and is the more conspicuous, as being the only portion of the cathedral of any merit or importance belonging to that style. It exhibits the same chasteness of design and delicacy of execution which distinguishes King’s College Chapel, opposed alike to the meagreness of Bath Abbey and the corrupt form and overdone ornament of Henry the Seventh’s Chapel. The arches, one on each side, which divide the chapel from the aisles, command admiration for the justness of their proportions and the purity of their detail, being well moulded, and having shafts with good capitals and bases; the stone screens also with which they are fitted up increase the effect of elegant richness. It is much to be regretted that they should remain exposed to the effect of the weather, even comparatively sheltered as they are by the main body of the cathedral.

The roof is of excellent fan-tracery, consisting of two bays, running north and south, with a small portion of panelled barrel vaulting at each end. It rises from shafts, of which the central ones at each end are corbelled off. The eastern one would have interfered with the altar of the chapel, the western with the doorway[62] which then opened behind the high altar, and whose arch may still be traced.” The angel which acts as a corbel over the Transitional recess is very finely conceived and carved, as also are the bosses of sculpture on the screens. Indeed they are as fine as anything the Perpendicular men ever did. The recess itself is shown on p. 61. The centre cross is 2 feet 3 inches square and is cut out of a stone 1 ft. 9 in. thick, the four spandrils between the arms being pierced through to the high altar. The height of the top of the cill is about 3 feet from the present floor of the chapel and 1 ft. 6 in. from that of the sanctuary. As already mentioned,[63] the lower part was found to contain human bones, run into a solid mass with mortar to prevent desecration, which probably was done at the time of the religious changes in the sixteenth century. The other crosses surrounding the large one are probably some of those cut for dedication purposes; and as the lowest at any rate is earlier than the centre, it is probably a once much venerated relic of St. David’s own church before that of De Leiâ.

On the opposite side of this chapel--_i.e._, in the wall between Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel and the ante-chapel--is more finely detailed Perpendicular work.

In 1898 an interesting discovery was made, and our view was taken the same year immediately after. On the west side of this wall stood the altar to the Holy Trinity, with a tall canopied niche on each side.

On either side of these again traces of a four-centred arch showed faintly through the smooth ashlar at the back, and on removing the ashlar two beautiful windows were disclosed. They have their saddle-bars and stancheons _in situ_, in some places almost rusted through, and it is clear that the windows have not been, nor were they intended to be, glazed. Another interesting point is that they seem scarcely to have been finished before they were walled up again, for the masonry has not even been rubbed down. This seems so unusual a treatment for windows of such refinement, that one is tempted to conjecture that some zealous subordinate of the Bishop’s, anxious to give him a pleasant surprise, had, during his absence, caused these windows to be made, but on his return the incensed prelate promptly ordered their immurement. A squint was, however, left in the centre light of each window, so that from the Trinity Chapel altar the celebrations at those at the east end of the north and south aisles could be seen. When removing the masonry in 1898, it was decided to leave these squint-stones in order not to destroy an important link in the history of these windows.

Curiously enough, the backs of the windows, towards the ambulatory are different from the fronts (one of which we illustrate) and have merely four-centred arches.

At the north end of this chapel is the tomb of Archdeacon Hiot and that of Sir John Wogan, recently brought here for the sake of preservation. The former stood in the chapel of St. Nicholas. Bishop Vaughan’s own tomb is in front of the altar, the leger-stone once bearing a brass on which was engraved his effigy.[64]

Several Celtic stones bearing crosses, which were found at Pen Arthur, are at present in this chapel. The earliest--from the eighth to the eleventh century--Professor Westwood found doing duty as a gate-post on a farm. The holes show the marks where the hinges were. At the top, on the left, can be read Α Ω and (?) JHS. On the right is XPS, cut after the corner was broken away, and below is “Gurmarc.” On the back is another cross of a still earlier character. It is supposed to have commemorated some battle fought in the neighbourhood, and was found on the moor.

=The South Chapel Aisle.=--On coming through the east door of the south choir aisle we enter the Chapel of King Edward the Confessor, and we notice on the right a Decorated recess said to have contained the monument of a priest; but the great buttresses, which meet the eye looking east, are only temporary supports and in no sense form part of the original design. Opposite the Decorated recess is the tomb of a knight (8), but unfortunately this has been badly treated at the hands of the buttress builders. On the north side of the altar is a piscina with a pointed arch, cinquefoiled, and a projecting bracket of singularly bold design which seems to interrupt the Decorated string.[65] A curious groining boss, apparently in order to preserve it, is let into the wall to the west above the piscina. It is carven into the form of three beasts (asses or rabbits) with long ears. The peculiarity of the design, which is met with elsewhere, is that there are only three ears, yet each beast has its full complement.

=The Ante-Chapel.=--Briant (p. 57) says this chapel is known locally as the _Chapel of the Seven Sisters_, on account of the seven hideous heads which are said to be types of the beauty of South Wales. We can find no such record.

This narrow space, which intervenes between Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel and the Lady Chapel to the east, is separated from the aisles by pairs of very elegant Early English arches north and south, and Freeman is of opinion that they differ slightly in date. The capitals have a delicate nail-head moulding not to be found elsewhere in the cathedral. One of the arches on the southern side has a figure lying down doing duty for a corbel which was designed to carry the vaulting; it is, however, more curious than beautiful. A segmental relieving arch in rough ashlar embraces both arches. In this chapel was found the “Abraham” stone now placed in the south transept (see p. 79).

This chapel is roofed with a neat Perpendicular vault and lit with a poor Perpendicular window, and a couple of depressed arches (_i.e._, with their springing below the capitals) open into the =Lady Chapel=. An enormous buttress, however, is an unsightly necessity to prevent the wall above these arches falling eastwards. Our view (page 67) is taken from the east, looking west, and shows one of these arches and, on the south side, the fine Decorated tomb of Bishop Martyn. The composition was that of a five-foiled arch, with open foliations between crocketed pinnacles rising from octagonal attached shafts with floriated capitals, all beneath a lofty straight-sided canopy. The detail seems to point to Bishop Gower as the author. The canopy blocks an Early Decorated window and cuts through a string, but its finial was evidently utilised as a corbel by Bishop Vaughan for his vaulted roof, traces of which are clearly discernible in the view at the south-west corner.

The sedilia, of three seats, is a fine design by Gower, the finials of the crocketed ogee arches forming bosses in the cornice as in some of his other designs.

The cross lying on the ground is one which once stood on the east end of the presbytery, probably designed by Sir G. Scott from an old example.

Nearly opposite is a recess for a tomb which seems to have been similar to that of Bishop Martyn. This was wrongly supposed to be that of Bishop Houghton, who founded and was buried in his own chapel of St. Mary’s College, not St. Mary’s Chapel, hence confusion. Archdeacon Yardley conjectures with plausibility that Gower erected these two tombs to his immediate predecessors, Martyn and Beck[66] (1280-1328). Externally, and to some extent even now internally, the Lady Chapel has assumed the appearance of a Perpendicular building, but as a matter of fact it is, in the main, a blend of Early English and Early Decorated.

=The North Chapel Aisle.=--At the east end of this aisle stood the altar to St. Nicholas, and in the south-east corner is a trefoil-headed piscina with a quatrefoil drain. The changes which took place in the Early Decorated period in this aisle are not so extensive as those of the same date in its sister, where the whole of the southern and eastern walls were rebuilt, but the result is even more of a patchwork in appearance. The walls were raised, windows inserted and preparations made for vaulting, but, nevertheless, the round Early English vaulting shafts (c. 1248) appear below the octagonal ones of the Decorated period. On reference to the plan it will be noticed that the Lady Chapel is not on the central axis of the choir, and that between it and the north aisle is a space, which, we cannot but think, was occasioned by the timidity which we find throughout the cathedral in dealing with vaults. The north wall of the Lady Chapel was thus moved inwards to reduce the span and obtain--as they undoubtedly did, from whatever cause--a much better proportioned building. The monuments in both aisles are much decayed owing to their long exposure to the weather. East of the screen opening to Bishop Vaughan’s Chapel is a small piece of a Decorated tomb canopy, but the chapel arch has cut through the remainder. “Its existence seems to prove that the ‘waste place’ now occupied by the chapel must have been closed at the sides by walls; although there must surely have been some door or entrance, however narrow.”[67] Just beneath[68] this crocketed fragment of a canopy is a small stone with a finely-conceived representation of a crucifixion in relief with the figures of SS. Mary and John, obviously placed here for preservation; and low down under this is an altar-tomb with a panelled arcade, which once bore the figure of a priest in eucharistic vestments, and above the panelling the inscription, “Orate pro Anima Johannis [Hiot] nuper Archi....” which indicates that it was the monument of John Hiot, Archdeacon of St. David’s, who died in 1419.

In this aisle a chantry was founded early in the fourteenth century by Sir John Wogan, of Picton, Chief Justiciary of Ireland under Edward the First, and it is conjectured that the two monuments opposite (_i.e._, in the north wall) were erected by and to members of this family. The one to the west (No. 2) is a mutilated figure of a knight in chain armour about the date of Henry III.; the other (No. 1) is an exceedingly fine example of a recumbent, eucharistically vested priest having

his feet resting on a dog and his hands clasped. The head rests on a canopy of a spherical triangle crocketed. Freeman (p. 120) notes that a similar canopy occurs elsewhere in the cathedral, also in a small tomb in the chancel of Carew Church, and in an external tomb at Nangle in Pembrokeshire. But it is the main arch or canopy of the tomb that is its chief glory, and, strangely enough, the part least noticed by previous writers. The subtlety and delicacy of the mouldings is worth careful examination. The under side of the arch has been elaborately cusped, and might easily be restored. The top member is curved back to admit of a very unusual form of crocket, viz., two ivy leaves point to point, well conventionalised and most effective. At the west end this springs from the head of a greyhound, the other is defective. On the whole we are inclined to think that the priest’s effigy has been placed here as a convenient spot for its preservation and is a later insertion. Beneath is some panelling consisting of triangles trefoiled, but it is very flat and tame and in great contrast to the skilful treatment of the upper part. The material is Caerfai stone. Browne Willis shows on his plan[69] two monuments under the third and fourth windows of this aisle from the east, and calls them “Knights Templars”--possibly also Wogans--but they no longer remain.

MONUMENTS IN THE CHURCH OTHER THAN IN THE EASTERN CHAPELS.

Beginning with the remarkable rood-screen, we find three ecclesiastical effigies. During the excavations for the new foundations of the tower-piers and shoring it was necessary to disturb the tombs in the rood-screen, but the remains were carefully and severally restored to their original resting-places, and such rings, chalices, crosiers, and other valuables as were found were removed by the Chapter. The most interesting of these objects are in the Chapter House under glass. They comprise a Decorated gilt bronze pastoral staff (probably Gower’s) with a fragment of its standard, two chalices, and a quantity of cere cloth.

Two of the effigies cannot be with certainty identified, and we have only the tradition handed down by Browne Willis: “I should guess them to have been erected for Bishops of S. David’s, tho’ they have a Tradition here, that one belongs to a Chancellor, or, as some say, a Chantor; and the other to a Treasurer of this Church.”

However, we know that =Bishop Gower’s Tomb= occupies (No. 25) the southern compartment of the screen. He died in 1347, and is represented as vested eucharistically with a mitre and pastoral staff veiled in his left hand, and at his feet is a lion. The right hand is broken and was originally in the act of benediction. Before the rebellion Browne Willis[70] stated that this tomb was “inclos’d to the South and West with a Brass Pallisade: Upon the Facio of which, was this Inscription:[71]

‘=Hic jacet= Henricus Gower, =Structor Palatii & hujus Ecclesiae.
Menevensis Archiepiscopus qui obiit, &c.=’”

But on pp. 19 and 71 he corrects himself, on the authority apparently of an eye-witness, and gives the following as being more correct:

“Henricus Gower, =Episcopalis Palatii constructor=.”

“The Rebels took that, and all the Brass upon the other Tombs of the Church, quite away; and now there are Wooden[72] Rails in Lieu of the Brass Pallisade. His body lies at length in his Episcopal Robes.” On the south side of the altar-tomb are eight figures of the Apostles in relief.

The altar-tomb in the second bay from the east on the south side of the nave is to Bishop John Morgan (1496-1564). The whole is in Bath stone. The mitred bishop is sculptured at full length in his chasuble, dalmatic, stole, alb, and maniple, and holds his veiled pastoral staff. He wears somewhat unusual gloves. Two kneeling angels support the cushioned head. Freeman[73] is very hard on the architecture of this tomb: “The head, foot, and north side of the tomb are

adorned with rectangular panels having their upper angles rounded off without any kind of foliation, and exhibiting cases of interpenetration in its worst form. Altogether the architectural ornaments are extremely poor, and nearly resemble much of the German work of that period.” This unnecessarily severe censure is, however, tempered with discriminating praise of the sculpture: “The sculpture, on the other hand, is extremely spirited and graceful, as well that of the principal figure, as those of the smaller images which adorn the sides. In the two panels on the north side there are six images of Apostles; six more evidently decorated the south side, but these have been cut away to make room for a pew. At the foot there is a group representing the resurrection of our Saviour, sculptured in alto-relievo with remarkable grace and freedom. At the head there is a griffin, Bishop Morgan’s bearing, supporting a shield with the letters W and I, or J, in a cypher. Whose initials they may be, we are at a loss to say; the heraldic bearing taken in connection with authority almost contemporaneous leaves us in doubt to whom we are to attribute the monument. This tomb, with its very advanced sculpture, and very debased architecture, is a striking commentary on the state of the arts at that important period of transition; and it is extremely curious to observe the corruptions of the latter art manifesting themselves in tombs in the first instance. The monument of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey, is of course a remarkable case of the same kind.”

Opposite Morgan’s tomb, under the eastern window of the south aisle, is a Decorated recess containing the tomb of an unknown priest (No. 27), all in Caerfai stone. The canopy is very fine.[74] It is part of a concave-sided octagon, at the points of which are radial finials. This form is to be found in Bristol Cathedral, and “is clearly a development of the idea which produced the semi-octagonal doorways in the rood-screen and the palace.”[75] Gower’s characteristic ornaments--the pellet, four-leaved flower and wave-moulding--spring from octagonal shafts with a big projection. On each side is a pinnacle having an odd and ugly decoration at the offsets, but it is on the whole preferable to Gower’s customary flat quatrefoil. The altar-tomb is of plain ashlar, and on it lies a priest in eucharistic vestments, his head on a double cushion carried by angels, and at his feet a dog.

There are some slabs with crosses near here and some shells before the daïs, which once contained matrices of the brasses, with figures about half full size to William Wilcock (1502) and Richard Ragader[76] (1530), prebendaries of St. Nicholas and masters of St. Mary’s College Chapel, which will probably account for several unidentifiable slabs in the choir and elsewhere.

The monument occupying the most important position in the presbytery is that (No. 6)[77] to Edmond Tudor, Earl of Richmond, son of Owen Tudor and Queen Catherine of Valois (widow of Henry V.) and father of Henry VII., who died in 1456, and was buried in the church of the Grey Friars at Caermarthen.[78] But at the dissolution the remains and the tomb were together brought to St. David’s. The position is close to the shrine of St. David, and, as it was unusual to permit any interment in the immediate vicinity of a great shrine, it may be well to note that this tomb was not placed here till after the probable shrine of St. David had been removed. The altar-tomb is in Purbeck marble, and is ornamented with shallow Perpendicular quatrefoils reticulated. Each panel has a shield in the centre, and a brass occupied the leger-stone. These inscriptions were restored by Jones and Freeman[79] from some drawings bound up with a MS. in the possession of the Earl of Cawdor. On the verge:

_“Under this Marble Stone here enclos’d, resteth the Bones of that noble Lord_ Edmond, _Earl of_ Richmond, _Father and Brother to Kings, the which departed out of this World in the Year of our Lord God, a thousand four hundred fifty and six, the first Day of the Month of_ November; _on whose Soul, Almighty_ Jesu _have Mercy. Amen.”_

On the tomb (at its foot probably) was:

_“Heu! Regum Genitor, & Frater splendidus Heros,_
_Omnis quo micuit Regia Virtus, obit._
_Herculeus Comes Ille tuus_, Richmondia _Duxque_
_Conditur_ Edmundus _his modo Marmoribus._
_Qui Regni Clypeus, Comitum Flos, Malleus Hostis,_
_Vitæ Dexteritas, Pacis Amator erat._
_Hic meditare Vians Te semper vivere posse!_
_Non morieris Homo? Nonne miselle vides_
Cæsar _quem Tremeret Armis, nec vinceret_ Hector
_Ipsa devictum Morte ruisse Virum?_
_Cede Metrum Precibus: Dat Regum Conditor Almus_
_Ejus Spiritui Lucida Regna Poli_.”[80]

The length and sentiments of the inscription, however, hardly atone for the fact that this is a mean ornament to so important a person, and one cannot help contrasting it with that of his illustrious son--King Henry VII.’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey.

With St. David’s shrine we have already dealt (see _ante_, p. 50).

Turning to the corresponding arch on the south side of the presbytery, we find two tombs (Nos. 17 and 18). One (18) in Purbeck marble supports the figure of a bishop eucharistically vested and mitred, with a veiled pastoral staff in his left hand. The right hand is raised in benediction. Browne Willis conjectures[81] that this was the tomb of Bishop Gervase or Jorwerth (1215-1229), but later[82] he definitely states that it was unknown, but “_was unanimously assur’d to me to be the Monument of_ Bishop Jerworth.” It is possible that the figure (which is later than 1229) was placed over the remains of Gervase, during whose episcopate the present presbytery was largely erected. A pastoral staff (copper gilt) and part of its wooden stave, of a rich design, were found near here in 1844, and, Freeman notes[83] “is at present in the possession of the Bishop of S. David’s.”

The other (No. 17) is to Bishop Anselm le Gras (1231-47), according to the inscription on the trefoiled canopy supported by angels and adorned with foliage:

PETRA PRECOR DIC SIC ANSELMUS EPISCOPUS EST HIC.

The Bishop is in relief and wears eucharistic vestments, with a rich mitre and pastoral staff unveiled but turned outwards, and the right hand is in the act of benediction. There is a kind of nimbus to the head and at the feet are two dogs, one of whom is pierced by the staff.

Proceeding to the next arch further east immediately behind

the sedilia, there is a recumbent figure in the armour of the late fourteenth century. This is attributed to Rhys ap Tewdwr, Prince of South Wales.[84] “The head, which has the conical basanet and camaille, is reclining upon a casque surmounted by the crest, _On a chapeau a lion sejant_. The body armour is covered by a jupon, on the breast and back of which are embroidered the wearer’s arms _[Gules,] within a bordure engrailed [or,] a lion rampant [of the second]_. It is not quite clear whether the jupon, which falls in a fringe round the hips, is meant to have sleeves, or whether the figure has a hauberk with short sleeves, those of the tunic appearing beneath them. The hands are clasped; there is a richly decorated belt and sword; the legs have complete plate armour, with genouillères; the feet have spurs, and rest on a lion.”

In a corresponding position in the north choir aisle is another very similar tomb (No. 11), evidently of a member of the same family, probably by the same designer. The head lies on a double cushion, and the heraldic bearings on the jupon have a label of three points.[85] The general conclusion seems to be that these monuments are to Lord Rhys ap Tewdwr and his son Rhys Gryg. Before the restoration they stood under the same arches in the presbytery, not, as now, in the aisles.

Under the easternmost arch of the presbytery on the south side is a mutilated figure of a priest (No. 20) in the eucharistic vestments of Bishop Gower’s time, which is commonly attributed to Giraldus Cambriensis,[86] but on slight authority. The head rests on a double cushion supported by angels, the hands are clasped (holding the Host) and the feet lie on a dog. Opposite in the south choir aisle is a fine slab (No. 22), with a cross floriated with branches in relief. The chamfered edge bears the following inscription in Lombardic letters:

SILVESTER: MEDICUS: IACET: HIC: EIVS[que] RUINA:
MONSTRAT: QVOD MORTI: [non]: OBSISTIT: MEDICINA:

[Silvester the physician lies here, and his dissolution proves that
medicine withstands not Death.]

Under the easternmost window in this aisle is the effigy of a vested priest with raised hands. The recess is Decorated, and has a foliated canopy which is remarkable as being the only instance of ball-flower in the church except that in the Decorated stage of the tower. In the westernmost bay (No. 21) is a much worn tomb of an ecclesiastic holding a book in his right hand.

The easternmost bay of the north side of the presbytery (No. 13) is occupied by the monument to Thomas Lloyd, Treasurer (d. 1613). The inscription states that it was here placed by his son Marmaduke: Counsel-at-law of the Middle Temple. It is shown on page 45. At its back is a Decorated recess, but the effigy has gone. The inscription is:[87]

MARMADUCUS LLOYDE ARMIGER JURISCONSULTUS ET MEDII TEMPLI SOCIUS HOC
FECIT IN PERPETUAM PATRIS SUI CHARISSIMI THOMÆ LLOYD HUJUS ECCLESIÆ
CATHEDRALIS THESAURARII MEMORIAM QUI OCTAVO DIE MENSIS MARTII AÑO
REGNI SERENISSIMI REGIS JACOBI DECIMO OBIIT ET HIC JACET.

In the north transept are the tomb of St. Caradoc (see p. 55), and the effigy of a priest beneath a Decorated canopy.

In the south transept, near the nave, is an incised slab with a floriated cross having the head of a priest appearing above it through an opening in the stone.

In the east wall of this transept are two fragments of very ancient Celtic slabs. The more important of the two is to Bishop Abraham, and was found in 1891 in the east wall of the ante-chapel.[88] It is inscribed with curious characters:

PONTIFICIS ABRAHAM FILII HIC HED[OM] T ISAC QUIESCUNT.

A very fine interlacing Celtic cross springing from a root is the principal attraction of the stone. The uncarven outer circle terminates at the head with a neat little Maltese cross having an incised border and a slight depression at the end of each arm. The Greek alpha and omega appear in the corners, and below are the sacred monograms. Bishop Abraham (1076-78) was killed when the Northmen pillaged St. David’s in 1078, but it is not known in what way his sons were especially gifted that so fine a memorial should have been erected to their memory.

Near by is another stone of a similar character of which nothing is known. In the new Chapter House the back can be seen, but the large Latin cross with which it is ornamented seems later.

_From an engraving after H. Gastineau._]