Rye Castle Museum

Sussex has  been a Mecca for artists coming in search of seaside subjects since the early nineteenth century and Rye has always been a particular favourite with those who paint and draw.    Why did they come?  What drew them to this corner of England?  There is no Rye School of Painting and no typical Rye painting.  The artists who have come to Rye have all practised their own style and been very individual.  This is still  true of the many contemporary artists living in and around Rye to-day.

Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that Rye has always been a subversive town, wanting to do its own thing, disregardi ng laws and convention.  This may be because the town is perched in an eerie, holding out against the forces of the sea and the land.  Artists, often by their very nature stand against the forces of Society.  They try to stand apart in order to see the reality of things before offering their version through their chosen medium.

To the artists who live in it or about it Rye has always offered freedom, companionship, and conviviality in a  place where their art can be seen and appreciated by the many visitors drawn to Rye by its reputation as a centre of excellence in the fine arts.

Listed below are some of the artists who have contributed to Rye’s fame.

BAYNES, Keith (1887 – 1977) Lived in Rye for many years and was a friend of Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Raoul Dufy, the latter having a lasting influence on him.  He exhibited regularly with the London Group from 1919.

BURRA, Edward (1905 – 1976) Not all artists who lived and worked in Rye loved the town, and Burra, though he was born and raised in Rye and spent much of his life here, called it ‘Tinseltown’.  His home was at Springfield House on Rye Hill.  In later life he painted scenes of Rye which exposed a dark, hard side, rather than the pretty tourist version.  As a student Burra revealed a talent for popular illustration and the bizarre aspects of everyday existence.  Cinema, dance and music halls and low-life bars were constant sources of inspiration.  He and his good friend John Banting (1902 – 1972) often trailed the bars of Hastings in search of a good time.

CHING, Raymond (1939) has lived and worked for many years in Rye.  His wildlife studies, particularly of birds are world renowned.

FRENCH, Kitty (1924 – 1989) was Head of Art at Thomas Peacocke School.  Her paintings and collages are wonderfully witty and often cutting.  Although she did not produce a vast quantity of work she has a fervent following of collectors.  Her influence on the next generation of artists who were educated in Rye has been enormous.  Many of the over three hundred artists living and working in the environs of Rye to-day came under her influence both as a teacher and as a flamboyant bohemian about Rye.

MACKECHNIE, Robert Sang (1894 – 1975) and BARNARD, Margaret Helen (1892 – 1990), both came to live in Rye in 1925 and their home was at  4 Watchbell Street.  This husband and wife team was highly influential in the art scene of their day.  Robert Mackecknie being the enfant terrible of his day.  He also established the 7 & 5 Society in 1919.  Many of the finest twentieth century British artists were involved in this society.  Mackechnie had a breakdown and was never able to produce work that lived up to his early promise, but his friends, Ivon Hitchens, Christopher Wood, Ben Nicholson and Cedric Morris are well known names in the history of British art.  However, Mackechnie has been largely forgotten.  His wife, Margaret Barnard was a fine painter but it was as a designer and lino-cut printer that she made her name.  Some fine examples of her work are held in the Rye Art Gallery Collection.

NASH, Paul (1889 – 1946) Came to Rye after having a breakdown brought on by the horrors he had witnessed as a War Artist during the First World War and lived at the top of East Street where there is now a plaque.  The bleakness of the paintings during his time in Rye reflects the mental bleakness which afflicted him.  His views of the Marsh and of the sea seawall are wonderful paintings, yet with an overriding sadness about them.

STORMONT, Howard Gull (1859 – 1935) and SAPWORTH, Mary Elizabeth (1871 – 1962) In 1898 Howard Stormont and Mary Sapworth eloped to Rye and were married in St Mary’s Church.  They settled in Rye in an old candle-makers loft which they converted into a studio, where they spent the rest of their lives painting.  Any visiting artist of note would visit the Stormonts, who were well respected artists and who regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy.  Henry James was a good friend and came to tea as was Beatrix Potter who stayed with the Stormonts during her holidays in Rye.  The Stormonts were also collectors of art and it was this collection which formed the basis of the Permanent Collection left in Trust for the people of Rye.  This went with an endowment fund and their home, to provide an Art Gallery where the people of Rye and the surrounding area could experience fine art at first hand.  After Mary Stormont died the Rye Art Gallery was established and flourishes to this day.

There have been some very fine artists who have lived on Rye Hill and these include Charles Lewis Powels who produced large numbers of watercolours of the Romney Marsh and Rye.  Elsie Druce produced woodcuts and Dinah Low (1911 -1975) painted beautiful, evocative paintings of the sea and children.  She used the people of Rye to populate her paintings.

The numbers of artists who have visited Rye and painted it are legion.  This includes Turner who painted many views of Rye and Winchelsea, Van Dyck who drew some of the earliest views of Rye, Albert Godwin (1845 -1932) who painted it many times and also Herbert Menzies Marshall (1841 -1913). 

Lucian Pissaro, Christopher Wood and J. B. Mason spent a very productive summer holiday painting Rye.  William Christopher Symons, who lived outside Rye and who was one of the designers who decorated the interior of Westminster Cathedral produced wonderful, vibrant oil paintings of Rye and its environs.  Sir Frank Short R.A., who lived at Seaford, produced some fine etchings and watercolours of Rye. 

Evacatus Phipson, a jobbing painter, visited Rye and painted many houses and important sites in the early twentieth century.  Some of these are in the Museum.  A large collection of his work can be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  John Millais lived and worked in Winchelsea.  Hercules Brabazon, one of Britain’s finest watercolourists lived in Sedlescombe, some miles away but was a regular visitor to Rye.  John Piper drew many of the churches on the Marsh for the Pilgrim Trust project of recording Britain.

Pots and Clay have been an integral part of Rye since early time and that tradition continues to-day with Wally Cole living and working in Rye, together with the many other potters, some of whom were trained by him.  Wally Cole is one of a small number of highly influential figures in the art of potting in Britain to-day.

There have been many writers in Rye over the centuries but it was from the late nineteenth century onwards that writers came to live in the town. By then it was more accessible because of the railway and it was seen as an unspoilt place of great charm. Henry James’ decision to live in Rye enhanced its already fashionable status amongst those wanting a rural retreat,

All the writers listed below lived in Rye and the immediate area.  Still more who visited or lived slightly further afield will be the subject of a future article.

AITKEN, Conrad (1889 – 1973)     American poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, and editor, regarded as important influence on modern poetry. Lived at Jeake’s’House, Mermaid Street between 1923 and 1939. Works include Great Circle and King Coffin.  His children also became well-regarded authors, e.g. Joan Aitken wrote  a number of successful novels for children and teenagers such as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and  Black Hearts in Battersea.

ATTWELL, Mabel Lucie (1879 – 1964)   Illustrator for books and magazines. Lived at Robin Hill, Mermaid Street, in the 1920’s.  Developed a trademark style of sentimentalized rotund cuddly infants, which became ubiquitous across a wide range of markets: cards, calendars, dolls….

BATSFORD, Sir Brian Cook (1910-1991)  Publisher, illustrator, painter and politician.  Lived at 10 Watchbell Street, then Lamb House, 1980 – 1987.  Best known as Brian Cook, the illustrator/designer of the dust jackets of the highly-collectable Batsford books from the 1930s to the 1950s.

BENSON, A.C. (1862 – 1925)  Biographer and one of the most prolific and popular essayists of the Edwardian period. Son of an archbishop of Canterbury, editor of the selected letters of Queen Victoria, and author of “Land of Hope and Glory”  Lived at Lamb House 1919-1925. Works include  The Trefoil, Maggie Benson, From a College Window and Rossetti.  He sometimes shared Lamb House with his brother E.F. Benson.

BENSON, E.F. (1867 – 1940) Prolific novelist, autobiographer and biographer and now more famous brother of A.C.Benson. Best remembered for his Tilling novels, social comedies set in Rye in the 1920’s and 30’s and featuring the rivalry between Mapp and Lucia. Mayor of Rye 1935 – 7.  Lived at Lamb House 1917 -1940.  Other works include Do Do, Our Family Affairs, Charlotte Bronte, Secret Lives and Final Edition.

BRADLEY, Arthur G (1850 – 1943).   Biographer and travel writer. Lived at West Watch, Traders Passage. His books include Canada, Life of Wolfe, the Highways and Byways series and The Story of the Kentish Cinque Ports.

CLARK, Dr. Edmund (1790 – 1836) Mountaineer who wrote The Ascent of Mont Blanc in 1825n

CHRISTOPHER, John (b 1922) , chief pseuudonym of Samual Youd, of Whitefriars, Conduit Hill.  An award-winning writer of science fiction, much of it for teenagers, he has written some 50 books, the  best known of which are The Death of Grass , The Guardians and  The Tripods  trilogy (The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, and The Pool of Fire) whch was dramatized on TV.

DARWIN, Bernard (1876-1961).  Writer, authority on Dickens and golfer.   Grandson of Charles and Emma Darwin, and mostly  raised by his grandparents   Lived at the Dormy House by the Landgate in the 1950’s.    Wrote for The Times for 45 years, also for Country Life.   Twice  Captain of Rye Golf Club, in 1906 and 1956, a gap of 50 years! Of his book of essays On Golf It has been said that “Nobody ever knew more about golf than Darwin or wrote about it so intuitively.”

DICKINSON, Patric (1914 – 1994) Poet, playwright and broadcaster. Lived at 38 Church Square. Edited several anthologies and collections of his own poetry.  Works include This Cold Universe, Rift in Time, Not Hereafter, Durable Fire and The Good Minute.

FABES, Gilbert (1894 – 1973)  Antiquarian Bookseller in Rye and writer.  Works include Autobiography of a Book and Romance of a Bookshop.

GODDEN, Rumer (1907 – 1998)  One of the foremost English language authors of the 20th century, writing novels, biographies, children’s books and poetry–some 60 works altogether including an autobiography, A  House with Four Rooms.  Lived at Lamb House 1967 -1974 and also at Hartshorn House in Mermaid Street. Her books include The River, This House of Brede, An Episode of Sparrows, Black Narcissus, Greengage Summer, Time to Dance,  No Time to Weep and several booiks for children and teenagers, e.g. A Kindle of Kittens, The Diddakoi, Thursday’s Children and A Peacock Spring.   Several of her books were made into films.

 HALL, Radclyffe (1880 – 1943).  Novelist who lived in Rye with her great friend,  Lady Una Troubridge between1928 and 1943.    She lived in various houses including   Santa Maria in West Street, 8 Watchbell Street,  The Forecastle in Hucksteps Row, off Church Square, and Black Boy (later Charles II Guest House) in the High Street . Her best-known book is the lesbian-themed The Well of Loneliness . Other critically acclaimed works include Adam’s Breed, The Unlit Lamp, The Well of Loneliness  and The Sixth Beatitude (about life on Hucksteps Row).

HYDE, H. Montgomery (1907 – 1990) Biographer and historian, specialising in the 1890’s as well as a barrister and politician. Lived at Lamb House 1963 – 196; he was a distant cousin of Henry James. His books include  Famous Trials: Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas,  Henry James at Home, Mexican Empire, Lord Castlereagh and Princess Lieven,

IRWIN, Margaret ( d. 967) Historical novelist and noted authority on Elizabethan and early Stuart England.  She lived at Fir Crest (now Arling House) in Hilly Fields, Rye Hill in the 1940’s.  Her fifteen novels were esteemed for the accuracy of their historial research and the first in a trilogy on Queen Elizabeth, Young Bess, was made into a film.  Other works include The Bride, Royal Flush, That Great Lucifer: a portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh and Gay  Galliard (the story of Mary Queen of Scots).

JAMES, Henry (1843 – 1916)  American born prodigious writer of fiction as well as travel, biography, plays and criticism , regarded as a key figure of literary realism. He  lived in Britain for the last 40 years of  his life and  at Lamb House 1898- 1916 , where he wrote several of his major works.   Books include The Turn of the Screw, Daisy Miller, What Maisie Knew, Washington Square, Portriat of a Lady, The Wings of a Dove, The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl, the last three written in Rye.

JEAKE, Samuel (1623 – 1690).  Writer, astrologer, polymath.   Lived on Mermaid Street.  Wrote on the Cinque Ports and  also wrote the first history of Rye.  Lived in what is now Hartshorn House, his wool store is now Jeake’s House.

MERYON, Charles (1783 – 1877)  Doctor who  accompanied Lady Hester Stanhope on her travels in the Middle East. He published  The Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope in 1846.  The Meryon family lived in what is now known as The White Vine. 

Dr. MERYON, Edward  (1807 – 1880). Natural son of John Meryon (one time mayor)  and nephew of Charles Meryon (above).    Became a distinguished and respected doctor, a Vice President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society and a Council member of the Royal College of Physicians.  He did extensive research on muscular dystrophy in the early 1850’s .   It has been argued that the disease should be known as Meryon’s Disease rather than Duchenne’s Disease as his was the earlier work and more significant; the reason given for the lack of recognition is that   Duchenne’s work was  published in a more prominent journal and more widely.  Other works included The Constitution of Man and History of Medicine (1862).

RYAN, John (1922-2009)  Author, illustrator and animator, creator of Captain Pugwash and other well-loved characters of book and TV.  Lived at Gungarden Cottage near the Ypres Tower with artist wife Priscilla Blomfield Ryan, a staunch Rye Museum supporter.  Captain Pugwash animated shorts became a long-running BBC series and the Captain Pugwash books are still popular.   There is a Captain Pugwash display in the  Rye Museum.   More  background to the man and his work is available here.   

TODHUNTER, Isaac (1820 – 1884)  Son of the first minister of Rye’s  non-conformist church (now The Studio) on Watchbell Street.  A Cambridge mathematics don, he was also a Latin and Greek scholar,  familiar with at least 8 other  languages,  and knowledgeable in other fields.   He was a prolific writer of textbooks on mathematical subjects which were widely translated (e.g. into Urdu) and thought to be the most widely used in the world.  He is considered one of the great mathematicians of the 19th century because of his many works on the history of mathematics.

VIDLER, Alec (1899 – 1990).  Born in Rye, son of Leopold Vidler (below), he became a clergyman, later Dean of King’s College Cambridge and after retirement,  Mayor of Rye.    A writer of many books on aspects of religion, including Marriage and Religion, God’s Judgement of Europe, A Variety of Catholic Modernists and the autobiographical Scenes from a Clerical Life.

VIDLER, Leopold (1870 – 1954) born in Rye and father of Alec. Mayor of Rye and a Freeman, also founder and first Curator of Rye Museum. Lived at The Friars of the Sack in Church Square, owned by the family since 1801. He wrote A New History of Rye, still the most thorough history of the town.

WARRENDER, Lady Maud (1870 – 1945) Socialite who lived at Leasam on Rye Hill and entertained Edward VII, Edward Elgar, Henry James and E.F.Benson. She wrote an autobiography, My First Sixty Years

WHELPTON, Eric (1894 – 1981) Writer of nearly 30 travel books and guides popular in the 1950’s and ’60’s.   He lived at West Watch in Traders Passage.   At Oxford he had became a close friend of Dorothy Sayers who based her character of Lord Peter Whimsey on him and who later became his literary secretary.  During WWII he was a BBC news correspondent in Europe.  His last two books, The Making of a European (1974) and The Making of an Englishman (1977), are largely autobiographical.

by Brian Purdey

 Napoleonic Threat

An example of a very rare species arrived in the military district of Hastings and Rye in the early Spring of 1806 – a successful British General! In fact it is fair to say that at the time Sir Arthur Wellesley was the only really successful general officer that his country possessed and the posting to the coast of eastern Sussex of this phenomenon needs to be explained. Following the collapse of the Treaty of Amiens and resumption of hostilities with France, the southeast counties of England, and particularly Kent and Sussex, were once more in the front line facing a threatened invasion.

Coastal Defences around Rye and Hastings

In 1803 that great martial genius, Napoleon Bonaparte, soon to crown himself Emperor, had gathered a massive force ofd 130,000 men at Boulogne, together with 2,000 boats andthis Grand Army continued to grow throughout 1804. In Britain there waas some apprehension, though not the flight in panic of the population of the two counties described with such delight in the contemorary French press. Preparations for defence were undertaken, of course, and Bonaparte’s most implacable foe in Europe, William Pitt, Prime Minister and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, was personally involved in much of the detail, often from his official residence at Walmer Castle. The Royal Military Canal, “Mr. Pitt’s Ditch”, was dug, stretching eventually from Hythe to Cliff End, Pett, and Martello Towers were erected – but not withquite the speed that the situation seemed to demand, and naval and military volunteers were raised to support the regular forces of the Crown.

The Commander in Chief, the “Grand old Duke of York” , visited Hastings in August 1804 accompanied by Sir John Moore, officer commanding the troops based from Shorncliffe to Dungeness and they saw the main threat to be a landing between Dungerness and Beachy Head. An interesting change in the pattern of military deplymentstook place as a result of this view. Earlier invasion scares in the 1790’s had found the full time professional soldiery quartered further east andto the west of this area, around Canterbury and Brighton, but now the rapidly raised and less well trained militia that had previously guarded Rye and Hastings were replaced by regiments of regulars who had some knowledge of the business of war.

Wellesley’s Brigade

It is not surprising, therefore, that, even after Nelson’s comprehensive destruction of the bulk of the sea power of France and her allies at Trafalgar in October 1805, the government should dispatch a general with a proven record of vixtory in India to this crucial section of the coastline. Wellesley’s force, to which he was appointed on the 25th of February 1806, was a mere brigade, however, and many friends questioned how the general, having led “armies of 40,000 men in the field, having received the thanks of Parliament for his victories and having been made a Knight of the Bath, could submit to be reduced to the command of a brigade if infantry?” Sir Arthur’s answer was typical of the man. “For this plain reason, I am a nimmukwallah as we say in the east, that is have ate the King’s salt and therefore I conceive it to be my duty to serve with unhesitating zeal and cheerfulness, when and wherever, the King or his government may think proper to employ me”

 A monthly Army List from 1806 indicates that Wellesley’s brigade was a strong one consisting of well over 5,000 men and since it was neither sound generalship, nor indeed good common sense to place such a body of troops engaged upon coastal defence in one small town, the regiments were based at various locations throughout the area. 1,000 men were in purpose built barracks at Bexhill, another 1,100 were in temporary buildings in Battle, 2,000 were camped at Silverhill, Robertsbridge, 900 occupied newly erected barracks at Halton in Hastings and 350 were stationed at Rye and Playden. These figures changed as their commander redeployed his soldiers for training and other purposesand the late Kenneth Clarke recorded thattwo barracks sited on Rye Hill at one point housed 800 infantry with 168 cavalry and 80 infantry respectively.

It is interesting to note that Sir Arthur’s troops at Halton were fortunate to be stationed in brand new accommodation. The ancient and decayed barracks at Bopeep had obligingly burtn down due to a chimney fire in 1804 and replacements were provided at a cost of £8,541-10-2 in October 1805.

Marriage

Wellesley established his headquarters in a lodging house in the High Street, Hastings, opposite the fine old Swan Hotel. His time actually living there must have been brief, since crossing to Dublin, he married on the 10th April at St George’s church in that city, Catherine Sarah Dorothea, third daughter of the 2nd Baron Longford. On their return, he and his bride set up home at Hastings House, a grand Palladian mansion adjacent to All Saints Church – later demolished by developers in the 1860’s to be replaced by Old Humphrey Avenue.

While “Kitty” , the new Lady Wellesley, busied herself in making a comfortable domestic environment for her beloved Arthur, the general himself exercised his mind with the problems fo effective counter measures to possible invasion andfurther found time to read papers on “Rye inundations and the military virtues of Winchelsea ( Camber ) Castle”.

MP for Rye

Other matters occupied him too. Early in the month of his marriage, he had been returned as Borough Member of Parliament for Rye, not becuasehe felt a desire for prolonged triumphs in that arena, but in order that he might defend his elder brother Richard, Marquis Wellesley, recently returned from India and facing the possibility of impeachment for his management of the post of Governor General. Philp Guedalla, in The Duke, (1931) describes Wellesley’s election in some detail: “The campaign was not exacting, since the Rye electors listened more closely to their proprietor than to any candidate. Their simple appetites appear in Wellesay’s accounts and totalled £367/17/6 (in food, wine and other expenses),

Light Relief

brigade had more than just a military effect upon the neighbourhood of Rye and Hastings. It will be recalled what influence the presence of the dashing had on the Bennet girls, in Pride and Prejudice especially Lydia. Balls were organised by the Hastings garrison, sometimes only concluding at 5am “when the company retired highly delighted with the elegance of the entertainment and the extreme politeness of the officers”, and special performances were requested at the local theatres. In July 1806, one of Sir Arthur’s colonels, Houghton of the 8th Foot, and the officers of the regiment asked that the “celebrated tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”, be presented at the Theatre, Hastings, together – to afford light releif, no doubt, “the comic opera of the Poor Soldier”. This combined performance was for one night only, the theatre, adjoining the Hare and Hounds at Ore, reverting to what was, one imagines, the more popular fare of “Laugh when you can” and “Love laughs at Locksmiths”.

Royal Approval

The high point, in military terms of Wellesley’s service in Suissex was reached on the 10th of August 1806, when the Duke of York came to review the young major general’s command. He and his brother, the Duke of Cambridge, arrived from Hythe, towed along the Military Canal in a boat drawn by three horses. They were welcomed with a royal salute from the East battery of Captain Gill’s Cinque Port Artillary sited in the Gungarden. After spending two hours at the George, the royal Dukes inspected the forces, consisting of infantry, two troops of the 17th Light Dragoons and the 1st Somerset Militia. The Duke, pleased with the performance  of his troops, thanked Sir Arthur and proceeded via Cliff End to Hastings. There, according to some unsubstantiated sources, a banquet was held in honour of Wellesley. Be that as it may there seems little doubt the York and Cambridge took refreshment at the Swan Hotel and that Sir Arthur entertained them at Hastings House. The following day the royal pair departed to meet their elder brother at his favourite resort of Brighton.

Warden of the Cinque Ports

The general’s time at Rye and Hastings ended in December 1806, when he was posted to Deal, but his connections with the area were top be renewed when, in 1829, as Duke of Wellington, he was installed as Lord Warden of the CinquePorts. Even after his death in 1852, the force of his personality was still felt by the tow towns. The Mayor of Hastings, Thomas Hickes, on the announcement of the old soldier’s demise, journeyed to Rye, whose own Mayor, E.S.Banks, held the post of Speaker of the Cinque Ports that year, to suggest that a meeting should be convened to see that “every possible respect to the memory of the illustrious deceased ” be paid. Much to Mr. Hickes’ surprise, Mr. Banks declined to “give himself, any trouble in the matter”. “The Duke was a very good man, I dare say”, he added, “he is dead now, so why make any fuss? Let them bury him”.

Acting independently of the unconcerned Speaker, the Mayors of Hastings, Sandwich and New Romney waited on the Prime Minister, Lord Derby,and the eventual result was that a carriage for four persons, representing the Cinque Ports, was to be included in the funeral procession on November 18th. A meeting was held in Rye on October 28th to decide who should represent the Confederation and the shameless Mayor of Rye claimed the right to be one of the privileged four as the current Speaker. Perhaps, not surprisingly, the other Ports rejected this claim and the carriage that followed the great Duke on his final march contained the first citizens of Dover, Sandwich, New Romney and Hastings.