Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis, a seaport and watering-place of Dorsetshire, at the mouth of the Lyme rivulet, 5 miles SE. of Axminster and 23 W. of Dorchester. The Cobb breakwater, dating from the 14th century, was reconstructed by government in 1825-26. Chartered by Edward I., and incorporated by Elizabeth, Lyme returned two members till 1832, and then one till 1868. It beat off Prince Maurice (1644), and was Monmouth's landing-place (1685). Natives have been Sir George Somers, Captain Coram, and Miss Mary Anning, the discoverer of the Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus in the Lias rocks here, which are largely quarried. Pop. (1851) 2661; (1881) 2047; (1891) 2365. See Roberts' History of Lyme Regis (1834).