Page:Sussex Archaeological Collections, volume 6.djvu/96

On the battlements of the castle, on the portals of the church, on the walls of the abbey and the priory, they are sculptured as appeals to reverence and time-honoured feelings. In the apprehension of the admirer of the heroic actions of the past, in the mind of the descendant of an ancient and honourable race, these speaking emblems of history have an eloquent significancy : their presence may be traced from age to age, and from clime to clime ; in the tournament, and on the battlefield, on banner and shield, in the castle, the hall, and the sanctuary. Fix upon the escutcheon of any knightly family, and enumerate the scenes and places it has visited, among what glories it has shone, and on what expeditions it has been displayed ! Take the achievement of Poynings, Barry of six gold and green, with a crimson bend, and track its presence. It is not improbable that their banner waved on the ramparts of Acre, and witnessed feats of valour against the Saracen ; it was certainly seen in the ranks of the rebellious barons under Simon de Montfort ; its bearer was conspicuous in the retinue of Earl Warren, in Scotland : Sir Nicholas Poynings, at the head of eight knights, twenty esquires, and thirty-five archers on horse, bore these arms on his shield, in company with his sovereign, at the siege of Calais, in the twentieth year of Edward the Third's reign ; another of the family, Sir Michael de Poynings, is recorded, in 1277, as a knight banneret with the above bearings, whilst his brother, Sir Thomas, bore, for difference, three silver martlets on his bend ; and these escutcheons were, with their wearers, at Cressy and Poictiers. Richard de Poynings, in the reign of Richard the Second, accompanied John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster into Spain to claim the crown of Castile ; there he died, and wished, as a memorial, "a stone of marble to be provided, with an escutcheon of his arms, and a helmet under his head." This now time-honoured coat was borne by Robert de Poynings, fifth and last Baron of Poynings, in the wars of Henry V and VI, and he himself was slain at the siege of Orleans. The splendour of this once powerful and distinguished house did not survive the personal use of coat armour, though there lived subsequently, one eminent and the last individual of his race, an historical personage. Sir Edward Poynings, Henry the Seventh's viceroy in Ireland ; his banner is mar-