nto the brain,
perhaps never to be answered. Why is it there is such an attraction
about Rye? Why will men and women travel half across the world to see
these crooked streets once more? Why should the very mention of the
name conjure up such haunting memories of the past? There is very
little in the place that is actually old--a gateway, one or two houses,
a small tower, a church--yet the impression is one of remotest
antiquity.

BODIAM

When in 1377, following on other successful raids, the French descended
on Rye and sacked and fired the town, it became evident that Hastings
could no longer afford sufficient protection to that stretch of the
coast, or to the important river valley leading thence inwards; and the
necessity for another stronghold was immediately realized. Thus did
Bodiam come into existence.

It so happened that, at the moment when the defenceless condition of
the Rother became apparent, there had come into the district a knight
well skilled in all the military arts, one Edward Dalyngrigge, a member
of an old Sussex family and brother to the sheriff of the county.
Dalyngrigge had spent many years in France, and taken part in numerous
expeditions, some of them scarcely creditable. Following a fierce but
capable warrior, one ready for almost any emergency, he had learned not
only the art of the soldier but also the science of the castellan.
Now, Sir Edward was married to Elizabeth Wardeux, the heiress of the
manor of Bodiam, and therefore possessed of the old moated manor-house
some distance from the river. Consequently, in virtue of the necessity
of the times, Sir Edward had little difficulty in extracting the
licence to build a suitable castle.

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[Illustration: BODIAM CASTLE]

The castle is a ruin--a mere empty shell--but outwardly its towers and
walls rise sheer from the lily-covered waters of the moat in a fine
state of preservation.

(_See page 59_)

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The site selected was the left bank of the Rother, at a spot some
thirty feet above the level of the water. Partly by excavation, partly
by damming up, a great reservoir was constructed, 525 feet from north
to south and 330 feet from east to west; and in the centre an island
was left, a little over an acre in extent. On this island the castle
was erected; and the basin was flooded from a