now properly deserving the name of a village, was rather more captivating than our walk before breakfast: it was occasionally enlivened by the prospect of the wide ocean, boundless to our view on one side, whilst before us the fantastic shapes of the rocks off St. David’s Head exhibited Nature in her most awful and striking attitudes. Above the rest, Caern Thydy lifted its bold promontory, as if to give effect to the true landscape. About half way between Newgin and St. David’s, the beautiful little village of Solva unexpectedly burst upon our view, studded with neat white-washed cottages, and enclosed on each side with lofty rocks, which here form a picturesque and interesting chasm. These rocks, indeed, I could almost imagine were torn asunder by some convulsive rent of the earth. The cathedral, and dilapidated ruins of the episcopal palace, are situated at the bottom of a steep hill, and scarcely visible in the town: these, and the prebendal houses, were formerly enclosed by a strong stone wall, with four gates, computed at eleven hundred yards in circuit. David, {90} the national saint of Wales, with the consent of King Arthur, is said to have removed the metropolitan see from Caerleon to Menevia, which has ever since been called Ty Dewi by the Welsh, and St. David by the English. What were the condition and extent of this town formerly it is difficult to say, having been so frequently destroyed. At present it is a very small city, and has nothing to boast but its ruined palace and old cathedral, dedicated to St. Andrew and St. David, which has often been demolished; but rebuilt, in its present form, by Bishop Peter, according to Giraldus, in the reign of King Henry II.; or, as Willis, in the year 1110, in Rhos Vale, below the town. It is still esteemed a noble pile, consisting of two transepts, measuring in length, from east to west, three hundred feet; and the body, with the aisles, seventy-six feet broad.