HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF ST. DAVID' S. 5 THE episcopal see
of St. David's is connected with many matters of interest. It has not, indeed, the artistical importance or the many historical associations of some of the English- caihedrals —as Canterbury and Winchester ; but it has striking peculiar- ities of its own. Its position is the farthest seaward of any cathedral in England and Wales, lying within a short distance of the Land's-end. Its vicinity, consisting of alternate vale anti mountain, and swept continually by the salt sea-winds, is denu- ded of vegetation, bleak, and grand. The see itself was founded by the patron Saint of Wales, in the seventh century, when the district was perhaps more important and more populous than it is now; the social and economical circumstances which created the difference being a question of archaeological dispute. At all events, vestiges of a remote antiquity, and remains of British, Roman, and Norman works, are still numerous in the district ; the brighter past contrasting strongly with the decayed present— decayed, that is, in comparison with other places. For there is no reason to suppose that the present village of St. David's was worse than any metropolitan city in the days of Norman still more of Saxon rulers, when the private house was unknown. So that, in addition to its other peculiarities, St. David's may help the curious to an idea of a town during the early part of the mid- dle ages, when there was nothing between the hovel and the pala- tial structure of the feudal, ecclesiastical, or mercantile magnates ; an idea which it is now almost impossible to realize from the
actual.
"After having advanced nearly four miles from the place last mentioned, the traveller finds: himself descending a gentle declivity into something like a-town, consisting chiefly of mean houses, a few of them thatched, and all of course whitewashed, and built so irregularly as scarcely to deserve the appellation of a street. Some of them advance to the road, others recede from it, many turn half away from it ; some, have court-yards in front, a few have gardens, but by far the majority have pigsties. On descending further, the street widens out into an open space, the centre of which is oc- cupied by a mutilated cross. And then the upper part of a weather-beaten tower close at hand attracts the attention : the pinnacles hardly reach above the level of the eye, and the church to which it belongs is buried in a deep dell imm i ediately n front of the spectator.
"A steep and narrow lane, formerly bearing the name of Pit Street, but in these days ordinarily known as the Poppies,' leads to the principal gate of the Close, flanked on the left hand by a semicircular bastion, and on the right by an extremely beautiful tower of an octagonal form, which will be described in its proper place. Upon passing the archway, and gaining a small wicket-gate on the right hand, a wonderful prospect bursts upon the spectator, who comes suddenly in sight of the whole Close, the Cathedral lying immediately in front of him, the ruined Palace with its exquisite open parapet to the left, backed by a steep rising bank, and the sharp tops of Cern Llidi and Penbery in the distance. A more minute description of the vari- ous views of the Cathedral and its precincts may be deferred until we have occasion to describe the architecture of the Cathedral itself, which, so far as the exterior is concerned, depends considerably on the surrounding objects for its goners' effect.
"In the mean time, we will pursue our general description of the district; and in the first place we must devote a few words to the town itself. This has consisted for a considerable space of time of exactly the same number of streets, known severally as High Street, Pit Street, New Street, Nun Street, and Ship Street. The first is the approach from Haverfordwest, the position of the second has been already described. Nun Street and New Street both run at right angles to High Street, the former meeting it at the Cross, the latter somewhat more to the East: Ship Street also meets High Street at the Cross, from whence it runs in a South-westerly direction. Besides these, there are several alleys and passages which it is hopeless and needless to describe. The general appearance of the houses has been al- ready indicated. But, not to mention the prebendal manses in the Close, there are in the town itself several comfortable houses, though none of any size. And within the last few years the number of these has been consider- ably increased, while gutters have been opened, and pigsties levelled, and the whole place has made a respectable advance in the direction of civiliza- tion. Our satisfaction at these changes is not altogether unmixed, as they occasionally involve the sacrifice of interesting domestic remains ; a class of
* The History and Antiquities of Si. David's. By William Basil Jones, M.A., Fellow of University College; and Edward Augustus Freeman, M.A., late Fellow of 2'rinity College, Oxford. Published by J. H. and J. Parker, Russell Smith, and Peterham, London ; Mason, Tenby. antiquities rather large in proportion to the size of the place, the mora minute description of which is reserved for another chapter."
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Nor are natural and historical eircumstances the only features of St. David's. Its Cathedral, if not of the highest class, is re- markable as a Work of axt; and, besides other buildings, it con- tains in .good preservation the remains of the mediaeval Bishop's Palace, dating from about the middle of the fourteenth century. Besides the legends connected with the life of the national saint, there is the story of one bishop or would-be bishop, Giral- dus Cambrensis. This story, as told under his own hand forms. asstriking a picture of the age as any of the biographies of A'Becket, and in point of display of natural character as remark.. • able an exhibition as anything in early mediaeval literature. There. were long contests with the Archbishop of Canterbury as to the independence of the see,—a favourite proof of the independence of the British Church ; and the Chapter has preserved in its business archives curious particulars of the condition of the clergy and the Manners of the times. The ruin of the College and the Palace, and the injuries done to the Cathedral, would seem more owing to friends than enemies. Various authorities charge some of the Bishops with the crime of " dilapidation "—convey- ing the lead from the roof and leaving the structure to decay being a favourite practice. Alienations and other corruptions were perpetrated ; as the more accessible and fertile parts of the country became cultivated and towns sprang up, the wild remote district of St. David's became relatively of less consequence ; and. the regular amalgamation of Wales with England removed the motives that at an earlier period might have given a political im- jrtanee to the see. These circumstances injured the ecclesi- astical buildings, and reduced the prelatical consideration and material value of the bishopric ; episcopal nonresidence became a custom ; the contempt of the clergy, to use Echard's words, spread over the country ; and not long after the Reformation, the ecclesiastical staff of St. David's sank very low, though not lower perhaps than the "Welsh parson " of a generation or two back.
"Many of these entries are well worthy of preservation, on higher grounds than those of any mere local or antiquarian interest. They often throw light upon the manners and state of society at the period; and not a few have the still more universal and durable claim of being thoroughly good stories. Some of these are recited in full in the notes; and to others it will be sufficient to make a brief allusion. We have had occasion to point out the intellectual condition which characterized the inferior mem- bers of the Cathedral body at this period ; we shall now collect the traces of their moral and social state, which, indeed, can hardly be separated from the former. On the very same day that William Owen_, one of the vicar* choral, is found insufficient, specially in reading the Old Testament,' an- other, David Lloyd by name stands charged with the more positive offence of keeping a tavern' within the Cathedral precincts' an accusation which he retorts in a ludicrous manner on the head of his rebuker, Mr. Chancellor Powell. In 1572, Richard Argas or Hargest, another vicar choral, is cen- sured for a somewhat similar offence. In 1663, we are sorry to find John Harries and Evan Ellis entering unlawfully and in a suspicious manner the Precentor's orchard; and two years later, the said Evan Ellis, together with William Owen (whose Biblical scholarship has been already alluded to) and Hugh Walter, receive the final punishment of expulsion on being found guilty of playing at cards for eandells ' in the house of the Archdeacon of Cardigan. They probably discovered too late that le jeu ne vaut pas Is chandelle.'
"Some of the records are extremely curious, as showing the gradual breaking-up of the collegiate life among the vicars, and also that the in- junction put forth by the Queen ten years earlier (an entry of which is !found duly made lathe Chapter records) forbidding the admission into the Cathedral Closes of any of the wives of the clergy or other officers of the 1Church, was not very strictly observed. In 1571, .Thomas Tomkins, vicar choral, is admonished by the Precentor to procure and get home his wedded wife, as is supposed, betwixt this day and one fortnight after Lammas Day next' and m the same year, the Chapter pass a formal decree that no mastiff or ban-dog' be kept within the Close. We are not to suppose that the prohibition originated in the abstract love of good order, which induce& our College authorities at the present day to fulminate their edicts, occa- sional or periodical, against Skye terriers and Pomeranian puppies ; as it is evident from the context that a specimen of the larger and more formidable variety had occasioned a serious collision between two of the vicars. Simi- lar entries, sometimes of quarrels and other misdemeanours among the vicars themselves, sometimes of acts of insubordination towards the superior officers of the Church, and always of rebukes and 'godly admonitions' on the part of the latter, continue to deface its annals throughout the whole reign of Elizabeth."
The subject-matter of the goodly quarto before us is of a three- fold kind. 1, There is topography : a description of the natural features and archaeological remains of the district, and of St. Da- vid's itself as regards the general features of the Cathedral and its adjacent buildings. 2, There is art : an historical account of the Cathedral, the College, the Palace, and other ecclesiastical edifices, with a detailed. and critical description of the buildings them- selves, illustrated by plates. 3, T.he history of the Bishopric, Chapter, and. more eminent Prelates • a few leading Points of which hale been briefly indicated. In dealing with all these to- pics, there is much that must be more or less dry save to a professed antiquary, or to a man personally connected with the diocese or district. There are also many things posseased with a living spirit, or bearing upon life ; and wherever this is the ease, the authors have not allowed it to escape them whether in the pictures of nature, the account of the past, or the existence of the present. The volume is very handsomely printed and illustrated by views and architectural details,—sometimes, if we judge by the text, leaving a better impression upon the reader's mind than the ori- ginals themselves would convey : but architectural draughtsmen and engravers like to make the hest of things. The volume would be improved by a general map, and indeed by one or two local maps. The atlas will show the positions of leading places, but it is useless for topographical purposes, or for the features of a =all district.
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