BELL’S CATHEDRAL SERIES SAINT DAVID’S [Illustration: _Photo. F. Frith & Co._ ST. DAVID’S CATHEDRAL, FROM THE N.E.] THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SAINT DAVID’S A SHORT HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE FABRIC AND EPISCOPAL BUILDINGS BY PHILIP A. ROBSON, A.R.I.B.A. WITH FIFTY [Illustration] ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1901 Dedication. TO THE MEMORY OF THE VERY REVEREND JAMES ALLEN, M.A., DEAN OF ST. DAVID’S, OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, THIS SHORT HISTORY IS DEDICATED IN THE HOPE THAT ST. DAVID’S MAY EVER FIND SUCCESSORS TO BENEFIT BY THE EXAMPLE OF THIS HER MOST SELF-SACRIFICING AND CAREFUL OF CUSTODIANS. AUTHOR’S PREFACE This treatise is little more than a careful digest of numerous works, of the more important of which a list is given. A sincere note of obligation is due to Messrs. Jones and Freeman’s scholarly and accurate _History of St. David’s_ and to Mr. John Murray’s _Handbook to the Welsh Cathedrals_; but the list is given quite as much to assist future students as to emphasise those writers to whom the author has been under special obligations. Those who may wish to visit St. David’s will find it remarkably inaccessible, and they will be well advised to travel to Haverfordwest by train, sleep there, and drive on, over the sixteen miles and seventeen hills, to St. David’s on the next day. For cyclists there is a much better road from Letterston station, but the other is preferable from the picturesque point of view. The illustrations are mostly from the author’s own photographs, but his special thanks are due to Mr. A. David and Mr. Morgan, to whose hearty co-operation on the spot a large meed of whatever success they may attain is unhesitatingly given. The general views are from photographs by Valentine, Frith and Co., and Poulton; the general measured drawings are reduced from the elaborate plans of J. Taylor Scott, F.R.I.B.A., which won the silver medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1882; a few illustrations are taken from old prints in the author’s collection, and for some reproductions we have been indebted to the excellent plates in Messrs. Jones and Freeman’s _History of St. David’s_. PHILIP A. ROBSON. PALACE CHAMBERS, 9, BRIDGE STREET, WESTMINSTER. LIST OF PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED