Dr. Trevelyan's Da Vinci Conversation

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

The Priory of Finchelsea XXVI

'This is Llandaff,' Sir Richard Arcos waved his arms about, scaring off the attendant who had been meaning to show them around.

'Genuine Early English spendour...' Sir Teabag drooled over the nave.

'Nope,' Sir Richard laughed. 'Most of it's a fake. Remember that big tower with the spire outside?'

'The new one?' Dr. Barton volunteered.

'It fell on the nave back in the eighteenth century. Most of what you see here is no earlier than the 1870s.' Sir Richard strode up the centre aisle, between modern chairs, replacements for pews that got a bit bent after the Germans bombed the cathedral in the war. it was probably a mistake, as the cathedral can barely be seen from the ground, let alone the air. In common with all the Welsh cathedrals apart from St. David's, it could be mistaken for a large parish Church (on second thoughts, St. Asaph could be mistaken for an ordinary Parish Church).