Jane and Cassandra Austen in Dorset; Genteel "Grockles" in Lyme Regis and Weymouth

 Thomas Girtin, Lyme Regis, c. 1797

Apart from descriptions of Lyme, the Dorset watering-place (and its social life) in the novel Persuasion, we have Jane Austen's letter to her elder sister Cassandra, written at Lyme, Friday, September 14, 1804.

Jane gives some hints of her private (and somewhat snobbish) impressions of Lyme, and has this to say about Weymouth (referring to Cassandra's account):

"Weymouth is altogether a shocking place, I perceive, without recommendation of any kind, and worthy only of being frequented by the inhabitants of Gloucester. I am really very glad that we did not go there, and that Henry and Eliza saw nothing in it to make them feel differently".

Thomas Girtin, The Harbour, Weymouth, c 1798

Lyme Regis, 1844

Hydromania (detail), George Cruickshank, 1819
 (after Captain Frederick Marryat's sketch):

Jane Austen, about Lyme:

"I continue quite well; in proof of which I have bathed again this morning....The bathing was so delightful this morning and Molly so pressing with me to enjoy myself that I believe I staid in rather too long..."

*******

"We are quite settled in our Lodgings...The servants behave very well, and make no difficulties, tho' nothing can exceed the inconvenience of the offices, except the general dirtiness of the house and furniture and all its inhabitants."

Of some other people she writes that they are "bold queer-looking people, just fit to be quality at Lyme".

She walks with a Miss Armstrong for an hour on the Cobb: "she is very converseable in a common way; I do not perceive wit or genius, but she has sense and some degree of taste, and her manners are very engaging".

From Jane Austen and Lyme Regis, 1944

See also, Memoir of Jane Austen, by James Edward Austen-Leigh

Images of Jane Austen (including two by Cassandra Austen)

Jane Austen and the Seaside

See also (not Dorset), Sanditon- Creating a Seaside Resort

John Fowles on Grockles:

Update, The Times, November 7, 2014. Gabriella Swerling is trying to give a new definition for the word "grockle":

"A derogatory term for outsiders who buy up property and increase house prices". I think not.

" Granny's Teeth"