The stone from the famous quarries at Portland, though easily worked, is
of a very durable nature, and has been employed in the great public
buildings in London for hundreds of years. Inigo Jones used most of it
in the building of the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall, and Sir Christopher
Wren in the reconstruction of St. Paul's Cathedral after the Great Fire,
while it had also been used in the building of many churches and
bridges.
We had expected to find a path along the cliffs from Bridport Quay to
Lyme Regis, but two big rocks, "Thorncombe Beacon" and "Golden Cap," had
evidently prevented one from being made, for though the Golden Cap was
only about 600 feet above sea-level it formed the highest elevation on
the south coast. We therefore made the best of our way across the
country to the village of Chideoak, and from there descended into
Charmouth, crossing the river Char at the entrance to that village or
town by a bridge. On the battlement of this bridge we found a similar
inscription to that we had seen at Sturminster, warning us that whoever
damaged the bridge would be liable to be "transported for life," by
order of King George the Fourth."
Charmouth had been one of the Roman stations and the scene of the
fiercest battles between the Saxons and the Danes in 833 and 841, in the
reigns of Egbert and Ethelwolf, in which the Danes appeared to have been
victorious, as they were constantly being reinforced by
fellow-countrymen arriving by sea.
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