Charmouth, Dorsetshire


A Guide to all the Watering and Sea-bathing Places with a Description of the Lakes, a Tour in Wales and Itineraries, illustrated with Maps and Views, by Richard Phillips. (1803):

This delightful village lies between Bridport and Axminster, on one of the roads leading to Exeter, and is thirty-one miles from that city. It occupies an elevated situation and consequently commands many vast and beautiful prospects both of the sea and land. It has likewise the advantage of being a considerable thoroughfare, and lying so near Lyme , it is much resorted to by bathers. The beach here is pebbly and in all its advantages and disadvantages partakes of the qualities of its neighbour and rival. It cannot be expected that fashionable amusements are to be found here: but the lower nature will be sure to find gratification in his rambles of the environs; and he who is in search of health, a still superior good, will be as likely to find it on the coast of Dorset than on the coast of Sussex. The fisheries here and at Lyme present a constant scene of useful activity, no less advantageous to the individuals concerned than amusing to spectators.The rides and walks are sufficiently varied and numerous. Bridport , Axminster , Axmouth etc will be included amongst the former. Sailing too, which whether regarded as a pleasant or a healthful exercise ,cannot be excelled by any in the circle of the occupation of the idle, may here be enjoyed to the full, with facilities that render it still more inviting.

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Quotations
 Chapter 11 
The scenes in its neighbourhood , 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
 Chapter 14 
Mary had had her evils; but upon the whole, as was evident by her staying so long, she had found more to enjoy than to suffer. Charles Hayter had been at Lyme oftener than suited her; and when they dined with the Harvilles there had been only a maid-servant to wait, and at first Mrs. Harville had always given Mrs. Musgrove precedence; but then she had received so very handsome an apology from her on finding out whose daughter she was, and there had been so much going on every day, there had been so many walks between their lodgings and the Harvilles, and she had got books from the library, and changed them so often, that the balance had certainly been much in favour of Lyme. She had been taken to Charmouth too, and she had bathed, and she had gone to church, and there were a great many more people to look at in the church at Lyme than at Uppercross; and all this, joined to the sense of being so very useful, had made really an agreeable fortnight.
 

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