Some may have taken the saint and his day as a way to establish their Welsh credentials; to stand for Wales it helped to stand by the saint. But for others, it was important to differentiate the ‘real’ or ‘true’ St. David from the one of legend. As one commentator put it, to ‘repeat all the fabulous legends invented respecting him, would be to heap together a mass of absurdity and profaneness’.[11] There were those who were inclined to simply dismiss the saint, especially as there were more recent, authentic figures who better encapsulated the nation’s values.[12] By cleansing polluted water in Bath and conjuring mounds and Llanddewi Brefi, St David had made it very difficult for the more rational-minded Victorians to believe anything about him. There may have been a historical figure there, but the legends had overshadowed the man. Even those who spoke at dinners on St David’s Day felt the need to brush aside the fantastical elements of the saint’s story before speaking of his more down-to-earth qualities, such as piety and love of learning.[13] Caveats often preceded praise. The age of miracles was well and truly over. A recent description of the main source of information about St David, Rhygyfarch ap Sulien’s Life of David (c. 1090), as being something similar to ‘very early magic realism’, goes some way to explain why so many Victorians felt uncomfortable around the legendary St David.[14]