This shrine, which is, and always has been, one of the most important in the country, occupies a very modest position in the presbytery, viz., the third bay from the east on the north side. It is, however, rather a base and a frame for a _movable_ feretrum, for we know it was carried to battle. Although the shrine of Edward the Confessor at Westminster and St. Thomas à Beckett at Canterbury--to mention two great instances--were placed behind the high altar with much dignity and with plenty of room for pilgrims to circulate, yet it seems most likely that the somewhat extraordinary position of the shrine of the patron Saint of Wales is due to a retention of an ancient British custom.[36] The tombs of St. Trilo and St. Dubricius rest in similar places in Llandaff Cathedral, and that of St. Ninian at Whitherne, in Galloway, occupies an identical position. On the other hand, Dr. Rock[37] writes: “I cannot bring myself to think that the shrine stood anywhere but _behind_ the high altar, in its full dignity and splendour;” which, however, has not been the case, certainly since the fifteenth century, as the stone altar stood against the east wall of the presbytery. We are inclined to think that the monks divided these relics, which were so infinitely precious that kings came to venerate, and that some were kept in a movable shrine or feretory, and that the remainder were shown in a recently [Illustration: _Photo, J. Valentine._ THE SHRINE OF ST. DAVID.] discovered recess behind the high altar.[38] Probably these are the same relics which were found in the lower part of the recess run with mortar and formed into a solid mass, evidently to prevent desecration. The relics have been extracted and are carefully preserved in the cathedral. St. David, whom Walcott[39] gives as Bishop from 519-542 (when he presumably died), was canonised by Pope Calixtus II. (Guido of Vienne)[40] 1119-1124, and judging by the numerous Edwardian coins found in the neighbourhood the shrine attained the height of its celebrity during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Bishop Gower was thus able to build his magnificent palace as a hostelry for the many distinguished pilgrims. Amongst the kings who paid homage to St. David were William I. in 1081,[41] when he subdued Wales, and this shrine doubtless formed in some sense a common bond between conquerors and conquered; Henry II., on his way to and from Ireland (1171-1172) when he gave _inter alia_ two velvet copes “for the singers in serving God and St. David,”[42] and it was while waiting here for a fair wind that Henry is reported to have learnt from a bard that King Arthur was buried in the Isle of Avalon; whilst the last royal visit recorded is that of Edward I. and Queen Eleanor in 1284.[43]