Westward of Portland Isle, on the southern coast near Abbotsbury, are
the ruins of a monastery built by Canute, and St. Catharine's Chapel,
perched on a steep hill overlooking the sea, while in the neighborhood
is the Earl of Ilchester's castle, surrounded by attractive gardens.
Beyond this the little river Lym flows into the sea from among grand yet
broken crags mantled with woods, and in a deep valley at the foot of the
hills is the romantic town of Lyme Regis, with a pleasant beach and good
bathing, the force of the waves being broken by a pier called the Cobb,
frequently washed away and as often restored, sometimes at great cost.
This is a semicircular breakwater eleven hundred and seventy-nine feet
long, protecting the harbor. There are grand cliffs around this little
harbor, the Golden Cap and the Rhodehorn rearing their heads on high,
the summit of the latter being cut by a passage called the Devil's
Bellows. It was near Lyme Regis that on Christmas, 1839, the Dowlands
landslip took place, an area of forty acres sliding down the cliff to a
lower level, roughly removing two cottages and an orchard in the
descent. Five miles farther west the pretty river Axe, which flows down
from the Mendips, enters the sea, and on an eminence overlooking the
stream is the town of Axminster, formerly a Saxon stronghold, and
afterwards famous for the carpet manufacture, which some time ago was
removed to Wilton. Its minster was founded in the days of AEthelstan, but
the remains are Norman work. Still farther west the little river Sid
flows down past Sidbury and Sidford, and enters the sea through a valley
in which nestles the charming watering-place of Sidmouth, celebrated for
its pebbles found among the green sand. Salcombe Hill and High Peak,
towering five hundred feet, guard the valley-entrance on either hand,
and in the church of St. Nicholas is a memorial window erected by Queen
Victoria in memory of her father, the Duke of Kent, who died here in
1820. The esplanade in front of the town is protected by a sea-wall
seventeen hundred feet long. Near here, at Hayes Barton, now an
Elizabethan farm-house, Sir Walter Raleigh was born, the room in which
he first saw the light being still shown. Beyond this, to the westward,
the river Exe falls into the sea through a broad estuary at Exmouth,
also a favorite watering-place, over which the lofty Haldon Hills keep
guard at a height of eight hundred feet, the Beacon Walks being cut on
their sloping face and tastefully planted with trees, while a broad
esplanade protected by a sea-wall fronts the town. The shores all along
are dotted with villas, and this coast is a popular resort, the villages
gradually expanding into towns as their populations increase.