Bell's Cathedrals: St. David'sRobson, Philip A. (Philip Appleby)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: St. David's
Robson, Philip A. (Philip Appleby)
St. Davids Cathedral
[Illustration: SEDILIA AND TOMB, S. SIDE OF LADY CHAPEL.]
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.
[Illustration: THE NORTH CHAPEL AISLE.]
=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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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