Part 22

The earliest work belongs to the episcopate of Peter de Leia (1176-1198), and comprises parts of the presbytery, the western walls of the transept, the western piers of the tower, and the whole of the nave except the outer portion of the west front (Sir G. G. Scott), and the south porch and the exterior of the south aisle (1328-1347). Though built quite late in the twelfth century, when Gothic architecture had got good hold in Ripon, Canterbury, and Wells, St. David’s—partly perhaps from its remote situation—is still sternly Romanesque. The pier-arcade is low, the piers massive and squat; their arches are semicircular, as also the windows of the clerestory; there is a profusion of Norman zigzag ornament. On the other hand, pointed arches appear in the triforium, the bases have the water-holding hollow, and there are all sorts of beautiful varieties of Transitional capitals—from the early cushion-capitals, much subdivided, in the pier-arcade of the choir, to the later foliated capitals, of great beauty and diversity of design, which abound in the nave. The triforium and clerestory, formed into a single member by a containing-arch of zigzag, are a charming anticipation of the design of Southwell choir.

Early in the thirteenth century, _c._ 1220, the central tower collapsed, as at Winchester, Ely, Lincoln, etc. It fell towards the east, and seems to have broken down the arches of the presbytery. The Transitional piers were retained, more or less altered; but new pointed arches were built, and lancet windows were inserted in the new clerestory and east wall. In the aisles may be seen the low shafts of a Norman vault, and the corbels of a higher Lancet vault; it is uncertain whether either was ever executed. To this period belongs the very remarkable shrine of St. David: a very plain structure, designed for use—for very strange uses. Down below in each side are three openings, allowing three sick people at a time to lie beneath. (Perhaps they lay there all night, waiting for the Saint to come and touch them, as was the case in some shrines of Pagan Greece.) On the side next to the aisle are two large and shallow upright openings, and three small circular openings—the latter, perhaps, as in St. Alban’s shrine, to allow the patient to insert a diseased arm. A parallel to the lower openings may be found in the remains of the shrine now inserted under the effigy of Lord Stourton at Salisbury. When the restoration of the choir was completed (_c._ 1248), the next task seems to have been to build a processional aisle. The eastern walk of this was built fifteen feet east of the eastern wall of the cathedral, thus leaving a little open courtyard between the back of the east wall and the east walk of the new processional aisle. In the east wall there was a lower range of three tall lancets, which gave much light to the high altar beneath them. The authorities may then have left the little open courtyard to preserve the light of these three windows. But at Winchester and elsewhere the lower lights were sacrificed without demur; and the space between the east wall of the presbytery and the processional aisle, instead of being wasted, was utilised as a saint’s chapel or feretory, where—in the most honoured position in the church, close to the high altar—the shrine of the patron saint of the church was placed: shrines of St. Swithun and St. Birinus at Winchester, that of St. Werburgh at Chester, of St. Ethelreda at Ely, of St. Wulfstan at Worcester, of St. Cuthbert at Durham, of St. Chad at Lichfield. Now the shrine of St. David is artistically rude and uncouth, and occupies a by no means specially honourable position. May one conjecture that the original intention was to open arches in the east wall of the presbytery, and to build a new shrine for St. David, placing it above and behind the high altar, where it would be conspicuous to the very farthest end of the nave,—and that Welsh conservatism refused either to have a new shrine or to change the position of the old one? Before commencing the south walk of the processional aisle, the Lady chapel was erected (1290-1328). Its buttresses are late Gothic.

Then came the great building-prelate of St. David’s, Bishop Gower (1328-1347). (1) He completed the processional aisle, building the whole of the south walk and completing the north walk. (2) Like Abbot Thokey, at Gloucester, he transformed the Norman south aisle of the nave into the style of his day (Curvilinear), and built a south porch. (3) East of the north transept he built a three-storied building, the lower part as a chapel to St. Thomas of Canterbury, the upper part as a chapter-house. (4) He raised the tower one stage above the roofs. (5) He raised the walls of the aisles, and inserted Curvilinear windows. (6) He separated the presbytery from the choir, which as at Gloucester is beneath the central tower, by a parclose screen—a very rare feature. (7) He built the wood throne of the bishop; it seems, however, to have been reconstructed in the fifteenth century. (8) He built for himself the magnificent palace, and another at Lamphey, besides Swansea castle and church. (9) His most beautiful work is the magnificent choir-screen, one of the grandest examples of mediæval art. It consists of three compartments of stone, surmounted by a coved cornice of wood. The southern compartment has two pointed arches, with compound cusping and rich crockets; and within, the tomb and effigy of the bishop. The central compartment is occupied by the doorway and vaulted vestibule leading from the nave to the choir; on either side of the vestibule are effigies of priests. The northern compartment seems to consist of thirteenth century arcading, which has been worked up to serve as a reredos to an altar.

To the Perpendicular period belong the stalls, which have good misereres (1460-1480); the elaborate wooden roof of the nave (1472-1509) and that of the presbytery, which is a little earlier.

Early in the Tudor period Bishop Vaughan (1509) added another story to the tower, and built himself a chapel in the empty space between the east wall of the presbytery and the east walk of the processional aisle, vaulting it with fan-tracery.

Externally, the cathedral is simple and plain, in harmony with its bleak and wild surroundings. Internally, like Canterbury and Winchester, it gains dignity from the greater height of the choir. The whole floor of the nave slopes upwards from west to east, and the choir is elevated eight steps above the level of the nave.

GLOSSARY.

_Abacus_ The flat slab on the top of a capital.

_Ambulatory_ The processional aisle at the back of the high altar.

_Apse_ The eastern termination—semicircular or polygonal—of a choir or its aisles, or of a transept.

_Arcade_ A series of arches.

_Pier-arcade_ The piers and arches separating the side-aisles from the central aisle or nave.

_Battlement_ A notched or indented parapet.

_Bay_ The space between two piers from the floor to the roof.

_Bosses_ The ornamented keystones of a vault.

_Buttress_ A projecting support to a wall.

_Cathedral_ Any church, large or small, which contains the seat (_cathedra_) of a bishop.

_Chantry-chapels_ Private chapels; in which were chanted masses for the repose of the soul of the founder of the chapel.

_Chevet_ The ring of chapels round the east end of a choir or its aisles: _e.g._ Westminster.

_Choir_ (1) That part of the church where the clergy or monks sat. (2) The whole eastern limb of the church.

_Clerestory_ The upper story of a church. Also the row of windows in the upper story.

_Corbel_ A bracket of stone or wood.

_Corbel-table_ A row of corbels supporting a parapet or a projecting roof.

_Crockets_ Tufts of leaves arranged in bands.

_Crossing_ The space where nave and transepts intersect. Above it is often a central tower.

_Crypt_ The underground portion of a church.

_Cusps_ Spikes in the tracery of a window.

_Dripstone_ A projection running round the head of a window to throw off the rain.

_Eaves_ That part of a roof which overhangs the wall.

_Elevation_ (1) A geometrical drawing (_i.e._ not in perspective) of a vertical portion of a building. (2) The portion so drawn.

_Façade_ The principal external elevation of a building.

_Feretory_ (1) A portable shrine. (2) That part of the church which contained the pedestal of the shrine: _e.g._ Winchester; also called Saint’s Chapel.

_Fillet_ A narrow projecting stone band, like a piece of tape; square in section.

_Flying buttresses_ Tilted arches rising from the buttresses of the aisles to the clerestory wall to resist the thrusts of the high vault.

_Gargoyle_ A projecting water-spout.

_Groined vault_ A vault which, instead of ribs, has sharp edges or arrises.

_Hood-moulding_ An ornamental dripstone employed in interiors; especially over pier-arches.

_Jambs_ The sides of a window or doorway.

_Label_ A dripstone over the exterior of a doorway.

_Lancets_ Sharp, pointed windows; in the shape of a surgeon’s lancet.

_Lierne-vault_ Any vault which contains liernes: _i.e._, tie-ribs on the surface, which do not spring from an abacus, nor rise to the central boss.

_Miserere_ A carved bracket beneath the movable seat of a stall.

_Moulding_ Any architectural member is said to be moulded when its edge or surface presents continuous lines of alternate projections and recesses.

_Mullions_ Vertical bars in a window.

_Nave_ The western limb of a church, (1) including or (2) excluding its aisles.

_Ogee arch_ An arch, each side of which has a double curve; the upper part concave, the lower part convex.

_Order_ A compound arch is one which is built up of two or more Orders, or sub-arches, usually recessed.

_Parapet_ A low wall, not embattled, but with a horizontal upper surface, at the foot of a roof.

_Piers_ The supports of arches; sometimes cylindrical, sometimes polygonal; sometimes clusters of columns; sometimes masses of masonry ornamented with shafts.

_Pilaster_ A flattened column.

_Pinnacles_ Small spires employed to weight buttresses, etc.

_Plinth_ The pedestal of the base of a pier or shaft or wall.

_Piscina_ A water-drain, appertaining to the high altar. (1) A niche. (2) A shaft. (3) An opening in the pavement.

_Presbytery_ (1) The sanctuary only. (2) The whole of the space between the ritual choir and the east end: _e.g._, York and Lincoln and Ely—_i.e._, sanctuary plus retro-choir.

_Quadripartite One in which each compartment is divided into four vault_ cells by diagonal ribs.

_Quatrefoil_ An ornament with four lobes.

_Refectory_ The dining-hall or frater of a monastery.

_Reredos_ The screen at the back of a high altar: _e.g._, Winchester.

_Ribs_ The arcs which intersect to support the filling-in of a vault.

_Romanesque_ The style of Northern architecture intermediate between that of the Early Christian Basilican churches and that of the Gothic cathedrals. Anglo-Norman or Norman is one of its geographical subdivisions.

_Roll_ A rounded projecting moulding.

_Rood_ The crucifix.

_Rood-loft_ A beam, carrying the rood, placed above the rood-screen. The place of the rood-screen was at the west end of the ritual choir.

_Sanctuary_ The space between the ritual choir and the high altar.

_Sedilia_ Seats for the priest and his assistants on the south side of the sanctuary.

_Sexpartite vault_ One in which each compartment is divided into six cells by four diagonal and two intermediate ribs.

_Shaft_ A slender column. VAULTING-SHAFTS supported a vault or ceiling.

_Spandrils_ The triangular spaces on either side of an arch.

_Splay_ A window-jamb which slants outwardly or inwardly from the glass.

_Springers_ The lower stones of the ribs of a vault.

_Stilted arch_ An arch elevated above the abacus by vertical masonry.

_String-course A projecting moulding, usually horizontal, running or String_ along a wall.

_Thrust_ The pressure exerted laterally and downward by an arch or vault.

_Tracery_ The straight or curved bars of stone which separate the lights in the arched part of a window.

_Transept_ A cross-arm of a church.

_Transoms_ Horizontal cross-bars of stone in a window.

_Trefoil_ An ornament with three lobes.

_Triforium_ (1) The space between the vault and the lean-to roof of an aisle. (2) The arcade in front of it. The triforium-space often forms a BLIND STORY.

_Tympanum_ (1) The space between the lintel and arch of a doorway. (2) The space enclosed by the triangular outline of a gable.

_Vault_ An inner roof of stone.

_Voussoir_ Each stone in an arch or rib is a voussoir. The principal voussoir is the keystone, which may be enlarged so as to form a boss, or still further enlarged so as to form a pendant.

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