JANE AUSTEN AT LYME 231 



Lyme — Mary Anning, the fossilist. In the month of 

 August, 1800, four years before the visit of Jane 

 Austen, a party of equestrians were performing in a 

 meadow, since icnown as " wreck-field," situated at 

 the back of Church Street, when a terrific thunder- 

 storm burst over the town. The spectators fled for 

 the nearest shelter. Three women, one of them carry- 

 ing a baby, took refuge under an elm-tree. A flash of 

 lightning spHt the tree, and laid the three women dead 

 upon the sward. Strange to say, the infant was un- 

 injured, and from having been a dull and heavy child 

 she became from that moment, we are told, light and 

 intelligent. That infant was Mary Anning. Her 

 father was a mechanic — a stonemason or carpenter 

 — one Richard Anning, who was also a vendor of 

 curiosities. 



His little shop, with shells and ammonites in the 

 window, was situated in Broad Street, and Jane 

 Austen must have often passed that way. In search- 

 ing for fossils he seems to have fallen down the chffs, 

 and to have badly injured himself. He died in 1810, 

 leaving his family in a state bordering on destitution. 

 One Sunday morning, shortly after the funeral, Mary 

 strolled along the shore seeking for " curiosities." She 

 picked up an ammonite, which the night's storm had 

 washed out of the cliff, and this she afterwards sold to 

 a lady for half-a-crown. Delighted with her success 

 Mary spent most of her time hunting for fossils be- 

 neath the weather-beaten cliffs. Four months later — 

 she was now of the mature age of eleven — she dis- 

 covered the first remains of the great Saurian reptiles. 

 This splendid skeleton, which may now be seen in the 

 British Museum, was sold for ;{^23, and Mary's career 

 in life was finally determined. 



