228 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



is abundantly evident from her published letters. Her 

 novels, on the other hand, are remarkable for the 

 almost entire absence of any description of beautiful 

 country. Here and there, scattered throughout her 

 writings, there may be some slight reference to the 

 natural features of the neighbourhood, as to the 

 coombes and downs near Exeter in Sense and Sensi- 

 bility ', to Spithead and the Isle of Wight in Mansfield 

 Park, and to Beechen Cliff in Northanger Abbey ; but 

 the allusions are always of the slightest description. 

 There is, however, one notable exception. We refer 

 to the faithful and graphic picture of Lyme Regis and 

 its neighbourhood in Persuasion. The passage is not 

 too long for quotation : 



"After securing accommodations and ordering a 

 dinner at one of the inns, the next thing to be done 

 was unquestionably to walk directly down to the sea. 

 They were come too late in the year for any amuse- 

 ment or variety which Lyme as a public place might 

 offer. The rooms were shut up, the lodgers almost 

 all gone, scarcely any family but of residents left ; and 

 as there is nothing to admire in the buildings them- 

 selves, the remarkable situation of the town, the prin- 

 cipal street almost hurrying into the water, the walk 

 to the Cobb, skirting round the pleasant little bay> 

 which in the season is animated with bathing-machines 

 and company; the Cobb itself, its old wonders and 

 new improvements, with the very beautiful line of 

 cliffs stretching out to the east of the town, are what 

 the stranger's eye will seek; and a very strange 

 stranger it must be who does not see charms in the 

 immediate environs of Lyme to make him wish to 

 know it better. The scenes in the neighbourhood, 

 Charmouth, with its high grounds and extensive 



