LLANDAFF  , a

city of Glamorganshire, Wales, on the Taff Vale railway, 149 M. from London . Pop . (1901) 5777 . It is almost entirely within the parliamentary borough of Cardiff . It is nobly situated on the heights which slope towards the southern bank of the Taff . Formerly the see of Llandaff was looked upon as the oldest in the kingdom; but its origin is obscure, although the first two bishops, St Dubricius and St Teilo, certainly flourished during the latter half of the 6th century . By the 12th century, when Urban was bishop, the see had acquired great wealth (as may be seen from the Book of Llandaff, a collection of its records and land-grants compiled probably by Geoffrey of Monmouth), but after the reign of Henry VIII . Llandaff, largely through the alienations of its bishops and the depredations of the canons, became impoverished, and its cathedral was left for more than a century to decay . In the 18th century a new church, in debased Italian style, was planted amid the ruins . This was demolished and replaced (1844–1869) by the present restored cathedral, due chiefly to the energy of Dean Williams . The oldest remaining portion is the chancel arch, belonging to the Norman cathedral built by Bishop Urban and opened in 112o . Jasper Tudor, uncle of Henry VII., was the architect of the north-west tower, portions of which remain .

The cathedral is also the

parish church . The palace or castle built by Urban was destroyed, according to tradition, by Owen Glendower in 1404, and only a gateway with flanking towers and some fragments of wall remain . After this, Mathern near Chepstow became the episcopal residence until about 169o, when it fell into decay, leaving the diocese without a residence until Llandaff Court was acquired during Bishop 011ivant's tenure of the see 1849–1882) . For over 120 years the bishops had been non-resident . The ancient stone cross on the green (restored in 1897) is said to mark the spot on which Archbishop Baldwin, and his chaplain Giraldus Cambrensis, preached the Crusade in 1187 . Money bequeathed by Thomas Howell, a merchant, who died in Spain in 1540, maintains an intermediate school for girls, managed by the Drapers' Company, Howell's trustees . There is an Anglican theological college, removed to Llandaff from Aberdare in 19o7 . The city is almost joined to Cardiff, owing to the expansion of that town . Llandaff Court, already mentioned, was the ancient mansion of the Mathew family, from which Henry Matthews, 1st Viscount Llandaff (b . 1826), was descended . Another branch of this family formerly held the earldom of Llandaff in the Irish peerage . Henry Matthews, a barrister and Conservative M.P., whose father was a judge in Ceylon, was home secretary 1886–1892, and was created viscount in 1895 .