146 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



The inns in Bridport proper used to be, in the coach- 

 ing days, the Bull and the Golden Lion ; but half a 

 mile distant, on the quay, there is a house called the 

 George, where Charles II. was nearly seized in 165 1, by 

 reason of an ostler recognising his face — a compliment 

 at the moment not appreciated by our future king, who 

 made the best of his way to Salisbury via Broad- 

 windsor — a very out-of-the-way route surely. But 

 main roads at the time were not Charles's fancy. He 

 would have preferred tunnels had they been in vogue. 

 Meanwhile we must go on to Exeter, past Chidiock, 

 where there used to be ruins of an old manor house 

 belonging to a family of the same name, but which now 

 is not, thanks to Time and Colonel Ceely, Governor of 

 Lyme in 1645. At Charmouth, which is one of the 

 most charming places on the Southern coast, Charles II. 

 was nearly caught, before he was nearly caught at 

 Bridport in the manner already described ; but while at 

 Bridport the fatality almost occurred through an ostler's 

 recognising the fugitive's face, here at Charmouth a 

 village blacksmith got upon the scent by observing with 

 much curiosity that the horse's three shoes had been 

 set in three different counties, and one of them in 

 Worcestershire ; which, considering that the Battle of 

 Worcester was in everybody's mouth, was too near the 

 mark to be pleasant, and caused the much hunted 

 Charles to get instantly to horse. 



At Hunters' Lodge Inn, about four miles on, the 

 road enters the pleasant county of Devon, and then 

 passing through Axminster (occupied by Athelstan in 

 938, after the battle of Branesdown, and by Monmouth 

 in 1685, a few days after his landing at Lyme) runs 

 through Iloniton (visited by Charles I. in 1644), and 

 thence by Fenny Bridges, Fair Mile Inn, Iloniton 

 Clyst, into the town of Exeter, which by this route is 

 172 miles 6 furlongs from Hyde I^irk Corner. 



Much might be written about I^'.xcter, its history, its 

 site, its castle, its promenade on Northernhay, its beau- 



