Jane Austen in Lyme Regis

 

 

Lyme Regis, a small seaside town along the southern coast of England, is a popular seaside town. My wife and I enjoyed visiting it during our trip to the UK back in 2015. We only had a morning there, and it wasn't enough. 

Perhaps one day can return we can return. It would be nice to spend a few days there, wandering along the beach, and exploring the town. It'd also be nice to search for fossils there, which is a popular pasttime of locals and holidaymakers on what Brits call the Jurassic Coast.

 

From a book in the Lyme Regis Museum

According to the website janeausten.co.uk, Jane Austen visited the seaside resort three times between 1803 and 1804. Walking along the cobb--the manmade promontory that juts out into the sea--inspired her to include a visit to the town in her novel Persuasion. I certainly felt that sense of history when my wife and I walked the cobb two centuries later. 

I wonder how many other writers have been inspired to set their stories in Lyme Regis over the centuries since this awesome seawall was built?

 

According to the museum in Lyme Regis, Jane Austen complained in letters about the dirty rooms they rented when they visited. While I'm far from an authority on Jane Austen, I understand that she also disliked Bath, a city where she lived and featured in her novels. I've begun to wonder if she preferred the simpler (and less expensive) life in the country to the busy and crowded life of the city.

 

 

As she lived in an age when vaccines and antibiotics and all kinds of medical treatments we take for granted simply weren't available, I also wonder at her death at the age of 41. During these pandemic times, when we've become more concerned about cleanliness, I also take her complaints about dirty lodgings more seriously. And yet, the average life expectancy in the UK was 40 in 1800, so perhaps Jane Austen did not in fact die tragically young, as readers and fans tend to think today.

In any case, the fact that Jane Austen featured Lyme Regis in her novel Persuasion has led to many people visiting the town over the centuries. I'm glad I visited the scenic and lively town. If you visit there, I think you'll be glad too.

Dragon Dave