Lyme's Literary Links

"Politely drew back and stopped to give them way." Persuasion illustration. Brock illustrates the moment Anne Elliot meets William Elliot on the Cobb in Lyme Regis.  Image @Wikimedia Commons

The Lyme Regis Museum now has a blog! One of its announcements might interest our friends across the Pond:

Thursday 26 May 2.30pm - LYME’S LITERARY LINKS: David Coates will talk about great literary figures who have been inspired by and lived and worked in Lyme. Jane Austen, who wrote about Lyme in Persuasion, and John Fowles in French Lieutenant’s Woman are the most notable, but also children’s author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, who came to Lyme in 1904 and wrote about the town in Little Pig Robinson; J R R Tolkein, author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, who regularly visited Lyme for his summer holidays between 1905 and 1910; Henry Fielding, novelist and playwright, who visited Lyme as a young man and tried to elope with a 15-year-old heiress; Francis Palgrave, poet and editor of the poetry anthology Golden Treasury; P G Wodehouse, G K Chesterton and Ivy Compton-Burnett.

Lyme Regis Museum

Visit Jane Austen's England Vicariously Through Flickr

If you missed the Jane Austen Festival in Bath this year, now is your opportunity to catch up and enjoy it. This Flickr page holds 80 photos in two sets.

Then visit Chawton on Flickr, where you can choose from many sets of photos, like the one of Jane Austen's quilt above.

The photo set of Bradford on Avon was filmed through the eyes of a truly talented photographer.

Additional photo sets:

• Jermyn Street, where shoppes Jane Austen might have seen still exist
• St. James's Park, London
• Jane Austen's Bath
• Lyme Regis
• Box Hill, Surrey, England
  

Jane Austen Character Throwdown: Favorite Resort

The Crofts and the Gardiners ran a tight race last week, but the Gardiners graciously bowed before the Crofts' superior numbers. Always slightly ahead, the Crofts would have gallantly ceded the top spot had voters desired such an outcome.

We now turn to our favorite Jane Austen resort destination. Which is your preference? Town or country? Seaside or riverside? Coastal or inland? Here are your choices:

Favorite Jane Austen Resort

Bath

Are you into shopping, dancing, and taking the waters? Then this ancient city founded in Roman times will strike your fancy. Jane might not have personally liked living in Bath, but Catherine Morland was charmed and did not want to leave as long as Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor remained in town.




Lyme Regis

If you prefer the seaside and the smell of salt air, long walks along the Cobb and beach, and fossil hunting, for which this area's cliffs are famous, then Lyme Regis is the resort for you. This Dorset coastal town recently became a World Heritage Site, just like Bath.





Let your votes begin!

pollcode.com free polls

Jane Austen Character Throwdown: Favorite Resort

Bath Lyme Regis

Jane Austen's Lyme Regis (Think Persuasion)

"[Jane] delighted in the scenery around Charmouth with 'its sweet retired bay backed by dark cliffs, where fragments of low rock among the sands make it the happiest spot for watching the flow of the tide, for sitting in unwearied contemplation.'" A Portrait of Jane Austen, David Cecil, p. 104

"In the Autumn of 1804 Miss Jane Austen, together with her father and mother, spent some weeks at Lyme Regis. As they drove to that place from Bath, they would probably go by way of Shepton Mallet, Somerton and Crewkerne, and, leaving Axminster a couple of miles to their right, would join the Lyme Road where an old inn called "The Hunter's Lodge" stands. Then passing through the "cheerful village of Uplyme" they would descend the long hill towards Lyme itself, and pass down its quaint main street, which seems to be "almost hurrying into the water" as Miss Austen says. Half way down the street the chaise would turn into a lane, which, running westward, finally makes a precipitous descent to the harbour. At the end of the little parade or "walk" nearest to the harbour on a grassy hillside there stands a long, rambling, white cottage, [Page 134] and it is in this cottage that tradition declares the Austens to have stayed." From:
Jane Austen: Her Home and Her Friends

Also read: Jane Austen in Lyme Regis


Lyme Regis Assembly Ball Room during Jane Austen's time.

The Cobb as described in Persuasion.

Lyme Regis Today:

Photos of Lyme Regis, Dorset Coast (Click here)
Photos of Lyme Regis (Click here)







Click here to see costumes from the movie, Persuasion.

House in which Jane Austen lodged (see drawing above.) And a Lyme Regis holiday cottage today.