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136 KIPLING'S SUSSEX
high arts. Congreve has alluded to their rapacity in bitter lines :
" The Sussex men that dwell upon the shore Look out when storms arise and billows roar, Devoutly praying with uplifted hands, That some well-laden ships may strike the sands, To whose rich cargo they may make pretence, And fatten on the spoils of Providence."
The D'Aquilas of Chyngton, an adjoining manor, were a power in the county in Norman times. Several of Kipling's stories in " Puck of Pook's Hill" are concerned with the father and son— Engerrard of the Eagle and Gilbert, who became Lord of Pevensey and Warden of the King. The local influence of this family is distinctly suggested in the device of an eagle, their badge, upon the Seaford Borough Seal, which evidently belongs to the thirteenth century. The legend, in Roman and Gothic characters mixed, upon the seal reads :
" SlGILLVM BVRGENSIVM DE SAFFORDIA,"
while that of the counter-seal of a much later date possibly cut in the days of Henry VIII. exhibits a three-masted vessel in allusion to Cinque Porte privileges, and the inscription meant to be read continuously with the other, is :
" With Svttonii et Chyngton." |
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