The South Presbytery Aisle Windows.

197

providing for its safety, and so happily surmounted by him (see § VIII.).

The windows of the South Presbytery Aisle are, as we have scen (§ XIII.), entirely modern, and date from the present restoration. The buttresses and their pinnacles have also been restored with purple Caerfai stone. The beautiful parapet is also modern. At the east end of the presbytery the ancient arrangement of the upper tier of windows has been most carefully and ingeniously restored. "The design," says Mr. Scott, "is very beautiful and interesting. windows form a continuous arcade,

Internally the

while

externally the lights being narrow and the piers between them wide-the latter are occupied each by a double niche, a fellow to which flanks either jamb; so that while the arcade within consists of four arches, that without is formed of four groups of arches, making twelve in all, four being windows and eight niches. The details of all are excellent; unfortunately, however, the roof of Bishop Vaughan's Chapel prevents the external group from being seen with any effect, though within we have now, so far as the forms of the windows go, the ancient arrangement complete, and a most effective and beautiful one it is."

h

The roof of the Presbytery was lowered when the Perpendicular window, now removed, was inserted in the eastern wall. The weather moulding of the original roof is visible against the east wall of the tower, and indicates that "the excess of height in the choir, G. G. Scott. Report of 1869, p. 16.

which is now very conspicuous, must have been designed, in a smaller degree, from the time when the present clerestory was built. It may probably have been occasioned by the rise of the ground toward the east." i

The eastern Chapels and aisles call for little further description. It may well be hoped that, like the rest of the church, they will at no very distant time be thoroughly and judiciously restored. Mr. Scott's remarks on this subject are added below.*

i Jones and Freeman, p. 67.

"The problem to be solved" (respecting these eastern chapels) "is how to recover their original forms and features, and how to bring them into a state of reasonable, seemly, and permanent reparation, with the least possible interference with the interest which attaches to them as relics of antiquity

The first step would be to repair those walls which seem to retain a fair amount of strength, to examine and open out the blocked-up windows, to search for remnants of their tracery ; and, having recovered their design, to restore them, bringing in such portions of old work as are capable of being retained. The next parts to be dealt with are those of more doubtful substantiality, and with these the object to be aimed at will be to recover their strength without reconstruction. A remainder will probably be found to exist, of parts whose condition demands their renovation; and here the object will be to reconstruct them exactly according to their original forms, and in such a manner as best to accord with the old work around them . . . . The roof must then be added. . . . Happily, in two instances the vaulting remains, and there can be no doubt that it has once existed over the Lady Chapel itself. It may be doubtful how far, with all our reparation, the old walls could be trusted to bear the weight and thrust of stone vaulting; and I should incline to the expedient of forming the vaulting in oak upon the old stone springers." In dealing with the minor details, and with the "interesting and most valuable series" of tombs, continues Mr. Scott, "I would urge the most conservative course.

Opposite the east end of the Lady Chapel, and at no great distance from it, is the spring of water which St. David, according to the legend of his life, and to a local tradition, caused to break forth for the service of his disciples, and which, after the erection of the Lady Chapel, seems to have been known as "St. Mary's Well." It was this spring which, according to Giraldus, sometimes changed its water into wine, and sometimes into milk.' It is now (1871) covered with earth and refuse thrown on it during the draining of the hill behind it (see § III.); but it is supposed to be uninjured, although an enormous volume of water has been carried off by the drainage. It should be properly cleared and protected.

XXII. The North side of the Cathedral has a very unusual appearance, owing first, to the great mass of St. Thomas's Chapel, with the Chapter-house above it

If in any degree renewed, their interest would be lost; they must be preserved as shattered and time-worn relics of the past and little more done to them than is necessary to secure them against further mutilation and decay. For the latter purpose, the course followed in dealing with the royal monuments in Westminster Abbey would probably be applicable to them. I mean the saturation of the pulverizing stone with an indurating solution."- First Report,' pp. 24, 25.

"Quo Pater audito, ad locum Coemeterii, ubi frequentius Angelicis frui consueverat alloquiis, statim accessit. Cumque ibidem aliquamdiu devotis ad Dominum orationibus institisset, limpidissimæ fons aquæ eodem in loco prorupit. Qui sacramentalibus plenum usibus idoneus et officiis, usque in hodiernum ibidem emanat; antiquis aliquando vinum temporibus, nostris autem aliquotiens lac stillare diebus, indubitata veritate compertus."-Giraldus, Vita S. Dav. ap. Wharton, Ang. Sac.

ii. 634.

(§ XIV.) which projects from the east side of the transept, and rises to a somewhat greater elevation; and next to the walls and tower, still massive though in ruin, of St. Mary's College, which is connected by the east wall of the cloister with the north face of the transept. From the east, or north-east, therefore, the north side of the nave is almost completely hidden. It was not, even before the erection of St. Mary's College, of so much architectural importance as the south side, and there is no reason to suppose that a cloister existed here before the foundation of St. Mary's College.

The view above this side of the church, however, (Plate XIII.) from the broken ground on the north-east, combining, as it does, the Cathedral, St. Mary's College, the ruined palace beyond the Alan rivulet, and a grand rocky background, is perhaps the finest and most varied at St. David's; and nearer the church the fragments of ruin group very picturesquely with the transeptal building, producing beautiful effects of light and of colour. In the eastern Chapel aisle, Gower's Decorated windows remain, though blocked up; and the buttresses, with their pinnacles, are nearly perfect. The tall mass, including the Chapel and Chapter-house above it (for their history see § XIV.) has been much altered, chiefly by the blocking and mutilating of the windows. "The roof, itself modern, is ready to fall in; the parapets, pinnacles, &c., are in a state of absolute ruin; indeed, the whole building may be almost correctly described in the same terms." The restoration of this portion of the Cathedral will no