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ROUND ABOUT RYE 79
round into High Street, on the north side of which we face the charming red brick frontage of Pocock's School, where Thackeray's Denis Duval went to school.
In past years shipbuilding flourished at Rye, Sussex oak, the best in the kingdom, being close at hand. But this industry has to a large extent declined, though smacks are still built at the Rock Channel Shipyard—a yard which has a reputation among fishermen. In " Simple Simon " (" Rewards and Fairies ") we read of a forty-foot oak going down to Rye to make a keel for a Lowestoft fishing boat, and the last time I was in the town I heard the shipbuilders of this indomitable port cheerfully hammering away at their work in a manner that plainly said, "If the sea will not come to Rye, we will go down to the sea." An indomitable temper and a readiness to believe that to-morrow will be brighter than to-day is the prevailing spirit of her people, and as Mr. Hueffer has remarked, the town " has an incredible hold upon life and its beloved rock." It was this spirit that cheerfully rebuilt Rye from its frequent ashes and raised up the great church that now crowns the rock, and deserves, not less than in Jeake's time, his praise as being " the goodliest edifice of the kind in Kent and Sussex, the cathedrals ex- |
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