Tags
adventure, beautiful, madness, Malcolm Saville, photos, Rye, Saucers over the Moor, The Elusive Grasshopper, The Gay Dolphin Adventure, winter sunshine
Rye is on the way home from my parents house, so on Sunday, I decided to stop there and have a bit of walk. When I posted back in December, I was annoyed that I’d not quite seen all the right bits of Rye to link up with the Malcolm Saville. I did some research, particularly using this page: http://www.lonepineclub.co.uk/LonePineRye/Gay_Dolphin_Adventure/gaydolphinadventure.html which was written by a lady called Heather, who taught at the same school as me during my NQT year. (She is now known widely in knitting circles as ‘Niftyknits’ – the creator of many wonderful knitted meerkats.
I’ll apologise now for the length of this post. I’ve been typing up book references for the last who knows how long so pull up a comfy chair and grab a cuppa! (Oh and apologies for having totally forgotten how to reference books properly. I left university 9 years ago and it shows! The date in brackets is the original publishing date, followed by the publisher and year of the edition I own and have referenced from.)
‘The evening light was touching her red roofs with a warm finger as Vasson drove across the bridge over the muddy Rother, swung right and then left under a battlemented gateway into a narrow street.”
The Elusive Grasshopper by Malcolm Saville (1951). GGBP Edition 2008.
Looking back through the gateway.
‘The streets were narrow, and some that led steeply upwards were cobbled, with houses leaning precariously over pavements. Neither Jon nor Penny had ever seen a little town like this before. Fred was concentrating on his driving and did not even attempt to answer their questions as he twisted and turned and finally crawled up a street which led to the great church which they had seen crowning Rye from the Winchelsea look-out.
Then, “Nearly home now,” he grunted and turning two more sharp corners pulled up suddenly at the end of a wider street in which grass tinged the cobble stones.
“Maybe you’d like to walk home from here,” he grinned. “There she is! Swinging up for you in the sunshine,” and he pointed ahead to the end of the road.
Right location, wrong style of hotel. See my previous Rye post for pictures of The Mermaid (right style building, wrong location!)
Down below in the streets of the town all had been noise and bustle, but here Jon and Penny were in a strange world. The houses on each side were crowded together , but all were different – littlee white houses with black doors were squeezed between bigger houses whose fronts were criss-crossed with beams. ‘
‘Here we are at the very edge of the cliff, and from Jon’s window, as I think I said, you can look out to sea.
Not quite the Mermaid (she’s further up the hill) but definitely the right sort of windows in my opnion!
Across the river and away to the east is Romney Marsh, and to the right a little behind us is Winchelsea on her hill…’
A bit of photofail here. Cameraphone not so happy if it thinks I’m pointing it at the sun! (This is just one reason why I need a new camera!)
‘“There’s a way down here,” Jon said, pointing to some shallow steps that led down by the side of the houses on their right.
“It’s called Trader’s Passage – after the Freetraders or smugglers, I expect – and you can get down to the road and river that way, but it’s hard work coming up…”’ P52
There are actually two ways down from the Hope Anchor. I went down the steps then back up this path. The path is certainly easier going than the very steep steps!
The Gay Dolphin Adventure by Malcolm Saville. (1945) This Edition GGBP 2007.p50-51
‘The scene is the narrow, cobbled street named after the ancient Landgate in the town of Rye in Sussex. Crowning the hill to which the town clings is a noble church with an unusual sixteenth-century clock set in the north tower. During the tourist season there are invariably a few people watching this clock because it is flanked by two gilded figures five feet high and carved from Sussex oak. At each quarter of each hour, except the hour itself, these “quarter boys” strike their bells as they have been doing for nearly four hundred years.’ p11.
Not the best picture of the church, very hard to get a clear view of the quarter boys without a better zoom!
Photo from:englishbuildings.blogspot.com
‘As the last notes died, a man stepped from the shadows of the narrow doorway of a half-timbered house in Landgate Street, not far away. Above the leaded window of the shop behind him was inscribed in old English lettering:
Rye Royal for Books and Prints
And beneath, even more discreetly:
Proprietor Roy Royal.
Rye Royal by Malcolm Saville. (1969) Armada Paperback 1973.
This is not a bookshop in Landgate Street but in Lion Lane instead. Having reread the description from the book just now, I realise it’s not at all right, but I’d always imagined that this is Roy Royal’s shop.
‘Half an hour later, when they have finished their coffee, Penny persuaded Jon to go and sit with her on the wall at the end of the street only a few yards from the hotel. The Dolphin was the last building in Trader’s Street, and although pedestrians could reach the town by going down Trader’s Passage on the right, the road itself was too narrow for a car to turn easily.
The red brick wall, which was a favourite spot of Penny’s, faced south with a view over the Marsh, the tidal river and beyond that to the shingle waste of Dungeness where the lighthouse was just visible. This wall, she claimed, the best and most exclusive position in Rye, even if it wasn’t the most comfortable.’ p27
No, definitely not the most comfortable looking wall and as I was on my own, I did not want to hoist myself up here!
‘Arm in arm they walked up Trader’s Street. […]
Ahead of them loomed the bulk of the great church – most of it in shadow but with one side of the tower glistening cold and pale in the silvery light of the moon. They passed the curch on their left and then turned south into a short street of half timbered houses jutting over the pavement. […]
Not quite the right street here… this one runs north to the church but the right sort of houses!
All was quiet and Jon stopped for a moment before the great bulk of Ypres Tower at the end of the street. This ancient castle with its four towers had been built to protect the town from the marauding French. […]
Penny glanced again into the shadows on the other side of the road and then followed the other two down a few steps into the Gungarden. This was now a pleasant little lawn with seats built on the very edge of the cliff and facing south with a wide view across the marsh to the south. ‘ p33 
Saucers over the Moor by Malcolm Saville (1967) Hamlyn Paperback 1968.
Oh and before you ask – yes my dad did ask “Do you realise it’s only a story?” Good to keep me in the real world don’t you think?!
Dancing through the shadows 