I'm looking at town names on Google Maps as we make our way to our yurt campsite (wouldn't you like to visit Puddletown?) when I notice how close we are to Lyme Regis. We decide to make an unplanned stop. Jane Austen wrote about this seaside town in Persuasion,
and I find her descriptions online and read them aloud as we near the roundabout for our detour.
The first
thing I notice from The Cobb car park is a bright pink building, first in line
of the long row above the bay. The beach
is made up of small brown, white, and gray stones, but there is a small
strip of sand running into the sea as well.
The expanse of sand is probably much bigger when the tide is completely
out.
Three
children are laughing and squealing as they swim in the sea, one last swim
before summer vacation is over perhaps.
It’s not too windy in this protected bay. Big boulders are piled along one side, and I can see tall rolling hills of green and brown in the
distance. They disappear slowly into the
mist.
I spy a
promising looking corner bookshop on the main road. It is filled to the brim with stacks and
shelves of books--so many books! But there aren’t just books in the shop; it
is filled with all kind of things.
Random things. There are lava
lamps, old paintings, and a trombone leans against a bookshelf in the corner. Rickety wooden steps invite you to go
downstairs, but I’m afraid the shop is about to close, and I don’t go
down. Ella finds an ordinance survey map
of Scotland K.J. is looking for, and I give the preoccupied shopkeeper a two pound coin before stepping back onto the main
street.
Red, white, and blue bunting hangs across the street joining the two rows of shops and
restaurants. It’s a low uphill climb to
the top of the street. When I look back
I can just see a rectangle of blue sea and sky beyond. It starts to rain
lightly. It lasts just long enough for me to
put my camera in its bag to keep it dry. We turn around to walk back down the
street, and shining through the rectangle is a rainbow curving gently
toward the water. I’ve almost forgotten
what a land of rainbows England
Suddenly a man steps
quickly out of a bakery on the opposite side of the street with a big bell in his
hand. I'm just beginning to wonder what he's up to when he raises his arm and rings the bell loudly, calling out
in a deep voice: “World-class quiches
one pound fifty!” Clang! Clang!
Clang! World-class quiches
one pound fifty!” and walks back into the shop in two long strides. Ella and I look at each other and burst out laughing. She supposes that it’s closing time, and everything is marked
down. I love the idea of a small town
crier coming out into the street every night to let everyone know the price of bread is now reduced.
The rainbow
lingers over the sea as we meet back up with K.J. and James at the public
toilets and get back into the car. It’s
just a quick stop, but I'll always remember it.
"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."
- Jane Austen -
