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The History and Antiquities of the Borough of Lyme Regis and Charmouth
The History and Antiquities of the Borough of Lyme Regis and Charmouth Author:George Roberts Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE COBB. Adjacet undis Faeta manu moles : qutE primas ffquoris iras Frangit; et incursus quiz prcedelassat aquarian. Ovid, Ceyx and Halcyone. The m... more »ost prominent feature in Lyme is the Cobb, which from its singular construction, utility, and great antiquity, possesses no small degree of interest. None of the great antiquaries have ever directed their individual attention to this structure. Laurels were to be acquired in the pursuit of other more promising subjects. A committee of the House of Commons called for returns in 1825, when directed to examine particulars touching the grants of public money for the support of the Cobb. The scent lay not beyond 1634 : three centuries furnished nothing. The precise year of the first erection of the Cobb does not appear. Referring the reader to the annals for Lhuyd's Lhonborth, or city of ships, we must not suppose that anything but trade created such a structure, whenever that took place. In Edward I.'s reign, when the town was made a free borough, belonged to the king, and was visited by the sovereign, the townsmen, with others of the neighbouring country, to which Lyme was an outlet, most probably built the Cobb—a name that no where occurs as applied to a pier except at Swanage, in this county. The neighbouring country is an indefinite expression; we may include Axminster, Chard, Crewkerne, Ilminster, and Taunton. In the year 1313, the Cobb appears to have been destroyed ; and Edward III. granted a keyage ofone penny in the pound, equivalent to 8s. 4rf. per cent., towards restoring it. What its form was, is not mentioned, neither its extent; but in the document it is stated, that the work was built of wood and rocks (maeremio et petris). Limited in extent it must have been : its distance from the shore and depth of wate...« less