The Worth of Lyme

“…The rooms were shut up, the lodgers almost all gone, scarcely any family but of the residents left; and, as there is nothing to admire in the buildings themselves, the remarkable situation of the town, the principal street almost hurrying into the water, the walk to the Cobb, skirting round the pleasant little bay, which, in the season, is animated with bathing machines and company; the Cobb itself, its old wonders and new improvements, with the very beautiful line of cliffs stretching out of the east of the town, are what stranger's eye will seek; and a very strange stranger it must be, who does not see charms in the immediate environs of Lyme, to make him wish to know it better. The scenes in its neighborhood, Charmouth, with its high grounds and extensive sweeps of country, and still more, 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; the woody varieties of the cheerful village of Up Lyme; and, above, Pinny, with its green chasms between romantic rocks, where the scattered forest trees and orchards of luxuriant growth, declare that many a generation must have passed away since the first partial falling of the cliff prepared the ground for such a state, where a scene so wonderful and so lovely is exhibited, as many more than equal any of the resembling scenes of the far-famed Isle of Wight; these places must be visited, and visited again, to make the worth of Lyme understood.” Persuasion, Jane Austen


I love Jane Austen’s description of Lyme and the surrounding area. Next time I go to England I will have to visit Lyme. The party that has traveled to Lyme has gone in November—out of season. I think traveling out of season it the best time. I enjoy places that are less crowded because I don’t feel rushed or distracted from what there is to see and feel.

“…these places must be visited, and visited again,…” a good book is well worth reading again, just like visiting a place that draws you to its beauty. You can get more out of it every time you read/see it.