But from
this blow Rye recovered to play a part, if a small one, in the defeat
of the Armada, and though the retreat of the sea, which seems to have
begun in the sixteenth century, undoubtedly damaged her, it did not
kill her outright as it did Winchelsea, for she had the Rother to help
her, and we find her prosperous not only in the time of the
Commonwealth, but even to-day, when, with the help of a new harbour
at the mouth of the river, she is still able to carry on her trade.
[Illustration: RYE]
Nothing in fact strikes the visitor to Rye more than the bustle and
life of a place obviously so old. All the streets are steep and narrow
and the chief of them, the High Street, seems always to be gay and
full of business, and is as truly characteristic of Rye as those still
and grass-grown ways cobbled and half deserted, which lead up to the
noble great church in its curious _place_.
It is of course to this great sanctuary dedicated in honour of the
Blessed Virgin, that everyone will go first in Rye. It has been called
the largest parish church in England, and though this claim cannot be
made good, it is in all probability the largest in Sussex, is in fact
known as the Cathedral of East Sussex, and if a church became a
cathedral by reason of its beauty and size it might rightly claim the
title.
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