ailors retaliated with equal zest, and many of our
southern towns have suffered from fire and sword during those
adventurous days.

[Illustration: Old Houses formerly standing in Spon Street Coventry]

Rye was strongly fortified by a wall with gates and towers and a
fosse, but the defences suffered grievously from the attacks of the
French, and the folk of Rye were obliged to send a moving petition to
King Richard II, praying him "to have consideration of the poor town
of Rye, inasmuch as it had been several times taken, and is unable
further to repair the walls, wherefore the town is, on the sea-side,
open to enemies." I am afraid that the King did not at once grant
their petition, as two years later, in 1380, the French came again and
set fire to the town. With the departure of the sea and the
diminishing of the harbour, the population decreased and the
prosperity of Rye declined. Refugees from France have on two notable
occasions added to the number of its inhabitants. After the Massacre
of St. Bartholomew seven hundred scared and frightened Protestants
arrived at Rye and brought with them their industry, and later on,
after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, many Huguenots settled
here and made it almost a French town. We need not record all the
royal visits, the alarms of attack, the plagues, and other incidents
that have diversified the life of Rye. We will glance at the relics
that remain. The walls seem never to have recovered from the attack of
the French, but one gate is standing--the Landgate on the north-east
of the town, built in 1360, and consisting of a broad arch flanked by
two massive towers with chambers above for archers and defenders.
Formerly there were two other gates, but these have vanished save only
the sculptured arms of the Cinque Ports that once adorned the Strand
Gate. The Ypres tower is a memorial of the ancient strength of the
town, and was originally built by William de Ypres, Earl of Kent, in
the twelfth century, but has received later additions. It has a stern,
gaunt appearance, and until recent times was used as a jail. The
church possesses many points of unique interest. The builders began in
the twelfth century to build the tower and transepts, which are
Norman; then they proceeded with the nave, which is Transitional; and
when they reached the choir, which is very large and fine, the style
had merged into the Early English. Later windows were inserted in the
fourteenth and fif