Cathedrals -- England; England -- Description and travel
From Pyecombe there is a delightful road winding in and out under the
Downs about Newtimber Hill to Poynings. Poynings is, or should I say
was, one of the loveliest, loneliest and most unspoiled villages to be
found here under the Downs, but of late it has been accessible by
railway from the Devil's Dyke and Brighton. Nothing, however, can spoil
the beauty and interest of its church which is, I suppose, one of the
earliest Perpendicular works in the county, built before 1368 by the
third Baron de Poynings, some remains of whose old manor-house may
still be found east of the churchyard. The church is a Greek cross with
central tower, and is dedicated in honour of the Holy Trinity.
Everything in it is charming, especially the beautiful eastern window,
the triple sedilia and the piscina; but the pulpit and altar rails are
of the seventeenth century as is the great south window which once
stood in Chichester Cathedral. The Poynings lie in the south transept,
but their tombs have been defaced. The north transept is the Montagu
Chapel; here in the window is some old glass in which we may see the
Annunciation.
The Devil's Dyke, which stands right above Poynings, is a great trench
in the Downs, dug according to the legend by the devil, whose genial
intention it was to drown holy Sussex by letting in the sea. He was
allowed from sunset to sunrise to work his will, but owing to the
vigilance of those above who had Sussex particularly in their keeping,
the cocks all began to crow long before the dawn, and the devil,
thinking his time was spent, went off in a rage before he had
completed his work. This would seem to prove what I have often
suspected that the devil is as great a fool as he looks.
The camp above the Devil's Dyke is of the usual design of a hill-top
fortress, the defence following the natural line of the hill, the
look-out having been apparently upon the north-west, whence a
remarkably extensive view is to be had both over the Weald and the
Downs. But as no water would seem to have been conserved here it is
difficult to believe that this camp was ever a permanent fortress
which only a very large number of people could have defended.
Nevertheless a great number of neolithic implements have been found
there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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