We had a look through the old church, and saw a stained-glass window
which had been placed there in 1847 to the memory of Mary Anning, for
the services rendered by her to science through her remarkable discovery
of fossils in the cliffs of Lyme. There were also some chained books in
the church, one of which was a copy of the Breeches Bible, published in
1579, and so called because the seventh verse in the third chapter of
Genesis was rendered, "The eyes of them bothe were opened ... and they
sowed figge-tree leaves together, and made themselves breeches."
We passed from Dorsetshire into Devonshire as we walked up the hill
loading from Lyme Regis, and we had a fine view when we reached the
summit of the road at Hunter's Cross, where four roads meet. Here we saw
a flat stone supposed to have been the quoin of a fallen cromlech, and
to have been used for sacrificial purposes. From that point a sharp walk
soon brought us to the River Axe and the town of Axminster.
In the time of the Civil War the district between Lyme Regis and
Axminster appears to have been a regular battle-field for the contending
parties, as Lyme Regis had been fortified in 1643 and taken possession
of by Sir Walter Erie and Sir Thomas Trenchard in the name of the
Parliament, while Axminster was in the possession of the Royalists, who
looked upon the capture of Lyme as a matter of the highest importance.
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