Since I moved near my family four months ago, my sister-in-law has read three Jane Austen novels – Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion. She took a longer time warming up to Persuasion, but came around in the end, enjoying the experience.
As a Jane Austen devotee, I associate the seaside resort of Lyme Regis with Persuasion. Imagine my delight to find that the book Lyme Regis: A Retrospect had been digitized by the Internet Archive. I digitally “flipped” through the book and was delighted to view a number of illustrations of Lyme Regis in the era of Austen.
Click here to enter the Internet Archive’s digitized book of Lyme Regis: A Retrospect.
The fronticepiece of the aquatint of Lyme Regis by William Daniell, R.A. This aquatint first appeared in Daniell’s well-known Voyage round Great Britain, published in 1814. The Charmouth end of the lane, which once ran along the edge of the cliffs for the whole distance between Lyme and Charmouth is here shown.
This picture of the Cobb…is taken from the 1724 edition of Stukeley’s Itinerarium Curiosum. The original plate is subscribed ‘Lyme, 21 Aug. 1723.’
Excerpt from the book (it is copy right free!):
The Cobb shared in the changes that were taking place at Lyme after 1750. In 1756 the causeway from the western arm of the Cobb, which joins it to the land, was made. As a result of this construction, and the action of sea and tide, a huge bank of sand and shingle began to form in the angle between the new causeway and the mainland. For te first time in its history, Lyme was recovering some land from the sea…At what date exactly the houses were build is not certain, but they are on the drawing of the sea-front which is dated 1796, and they consequently were there when Jane Austen came to Lyme in 1804. In fact the one in which she placed the Harville family was build on this reclaimed land. Close to the warehouses on the Cobb had once been the ‘King’s Pipe,’ the place, that is to say, where spoilt contraband tobacco seized from smugglers by revenue officials was burnt. The palmy days of smuggling were during the period of high duties forced on us by the French Revolutionary Wars. Cargoes of contraband to the Dorset coast were generally run from the Channel Islands or the Northern Coast of France. If the George Inn still maintained its stables, its pack-horses may frequently have been employed at this time to carry smuggled goods inland. The smugglers were good employers and paid well.” – pp. 123-124
This Cruikshank-Marryat series shows the end of the Walk at Lyme Regis, so far as it went in 1819, i.e., to what is now No. 8 Marine Parade. – p.121.
Detail left side
Detail right side
The front of the Cliff House property…has suffered from continual falls…and the cottage where Jane Austen lodged (no longer standing alone) shows a greater variation from the perpendicular every year. – p. 122
Image of the Cobb in rough weather, copyright Tony Grant. Shipwrecks were not uncommon on Dorset’s shores. One can see the slanted top of the stone Cobb.
This view of the Bay of Lyme Regis is taken from the 1823 edition of Roberts’ History of Lyme Regis, Dorset.-p. 4.
This view of Lyme Regis is dated 1796. It was drawn by ‘J.Nixon, Esq.’ and engraved by John Walker…It was also utilized by W.G. Maton in his Guide to All the Watering and Sea-Side Bathing Places, a work which had a great vogue and was first published in 1803. Nixon was a clever amateur artist who exhibited at the Royal Academy. – p. 135.
Jane Austen makes Mary Musgrove, in Persuasion, bathe at Lyme in November. This is not a mistake; it is rather evidence that Miss Austen was a realist. The year was 1814, and in the autumn of 1814, Princess Charlotte of Wales was staying at Weymouth. Now The Western Flying Post for October, November, and December records that the Princess was bathing on some days of all three months until severe storms from and after December 12th brought the season to an end. Now what Princess Charlotte could do at Weymouth, the aristocratic Mary Musgrove both could and would do at Lme off the beach near Bay Cottage. (p. 140)
And so, in the course of the eighteenth century, Lyme Regis completely changed its character. From being a busy industrial and trading town it became a place of resort for visitors in search of health, amusement, and change. All early writers of Lyme as a seaside place insist on its superior ‘gentility’–a word once redounding in qualities to which all should aspire, but now greatly debased in meaning. ‘The residents are mostly persons of genteel, not large, fortune,’ says one. ‘At lyme,’ says another, ‘there arises no necessity for making any inconvenient sacrifices to the support of style or to the extravagance of outward show.’ -p.141.”
Jane Austen's World 
the link is broken Anna Marie Kadish Chan 4 Mist Hill Drive Brookfield CT 06804 917-770-5481
Help! I can’t read this article. When I clicked on “Read more of this post” I got a 404 Not Found error.
I hope the link is live now. So sorry for the inconvenience.
I was able to get to you via my bookmark but the link in our email still isn’t working, Vic – as of 8:40 PST. Just thought you’d like to know.
Great article and I always enjoy old prints and drawings. I’m visual and as I’ve read Jane’s books I’ve always tried to picture locations in my head. Your offerings make it that much easier!
I also got an error message but was able to read the article via the “recent posts” on right side of page (Lyme Regis is the top entry). Entertaining and informative as always, Vic.
Recently saw a very funny film adaptation of Lady Susan with Kate Beckinsdale. However, Johnny on the Spot as usual, just now finally saw the 2005 version of P&P and was SO shocked and appalled. Great panoramic scenery, otherwise just ghastly. Wickham barely appears. As he is essential to drive the plot, I missed him almost as much as Elizabeth did at Bingley’s ball, and looked for him as vainly as she did. As the contrast between Darcy and Wickham reveals Darcy’s true noble character to Elizabeth, without Wickham, the plot makes little sense. To paraphrase Elizabeth, “one has all the appearance of goodness, while the other has all the essence of it.”
I have recently read a couple novels by Frederick Marryat (1792-1848), Mr. Midshipman Easy and The Naval Officer, both very enjoyable. Because Austen’s heroes and brothers served in the British Navy these novels (which are both thought to have autobiographical elements) helped me imagine what, for example, Captain Wentworth does when he isn’t visiting in Somersetshire……..
Several of the illustrations of Lyme Regis environs featured in this article are from Marryat’s and Cruickshank’s collaboration.
Couldn’t access article by clicking on the Read More link – got a 404 error msg. In the end, I used the bitly URL link instead. That worked.
Thanks, as always, for such informative posts! The images of Lyme from Austen’s time period are lovely and useful.
Thanks for gathering these beautiful images – they really bring the time and the place to life.
Hi Vic. An interesting article. I take it that it is a 1927 guide book to Lyme? Lyme is a lovely place, more lovely in the Summer. Very quaint. Over the years I have been there a couple of times. The photograph you feature, Vic, shows two of my friends braving the strong winds and sea spray as they wend their way along the Cobb.We were determined to all get to the end and do our French Lieutenants Woman bit!! We were successful and then retired to the Inn, mentioned in Persuasion, located near the Cobb, for a couple of pints.
The link on this post doesn’t work.
Ha! Ha! … infact I can’t quite stop laughing. I have just read Mr Wanklyn’s introduction. I have never read anything so strange. His opening sentence shows a certain weirdness. Why shouldn’t Lyme be in Dorset rather than Devon? It is a good seven or eight miles from Lyme Regis to Devon. A very strange opening. Then it gets worse. He is scathing about all those Georgian seaside resorts with their piers and fun fare rides. Weymouth, Worthing ( think Sanditon) Bogner Regis, and other resorts are fantastic places. Mr Wanklyn is extremely subjective and , to be honest and rather vulgar, lives up to his name. A right Wank..
His beef was with wooden piers as opposed to the wonderful stone Cobb at Lyme Regis, Tony. I wonder if a contemporary guide wrongly confused the Devon location?
I love reading travel guides of yore – they tell one so much about the author. I found this book in search of Daniel Defoe’s descriptions of England’s resorts, which also exist online…somewhere.
your link did not work
On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 6:12 PM Jane Austen’s World wrote:
> Vic posted: “Since I moved near my family four months ago, my > sister-in-law has read three Jane Austen novels – Pride and Prejudice, > Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion. She took a longer time warming up to > Persuasion, but came around in the end, enjoying the experi” >