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Christianity. Their kings, in order to shew their piety and sense of religion, were induced to found and endow religious houses. A monastery was established at Sherborne, when a constant intercourse began to be maintained between the two places. The Abbey of Sherborne, from the earliest period of its establishment, appears to have been endowed with grants of land in Lyme, as was also the more distant and powerful Abbey of Glastonbury. It is worthy of remark, that men in that age of comparative ignorance or barbarism were acquainted with the unusual saltness of the sea-water at Lyme,-a peculiarity which, a writer observes, the present inhabitants fail of turning to their advantage. The Saxons boiled the water in pans, for the manufacture of which the men of Lyme were particularly famous. There was made all the salt, that indispensable article, for the Abbeys of Sherborne and Glastonbury.

A. D. 774, Cynewulf, King of the West Saxons, by charter, gave to the Church of Sherborne the land of one mansion on the west bank of the river commonly called the Lim, that salt might be there made to supply the necessities of the said Church.*

Coker having observed that this is the first mention any where made of Lyme, a pretty general supposition prevails that the town was first built on the western side of

* MS. in the Cotton Library, of Kings who were founders of the Church of Sherborne, copied by Dugdale and Hutchins.

in the Chorography of Britain by the anonymous Ravennas-and probably with accuracy, since the stations in this part of the country are detailed with an appearance of order. Dr. Gale, in his edition of this work, observes that the MS. of the King of France reads Landinis and Londinis, while Lindinis also occurs in the MS. of the Vatican Library. The difference is of trifling import, the word being, as Baxter observes, derived from the British, meaning " a naval harbour." The nearest Roman camp, according to Hutchins, is Lambart's Castle; and at Musbury, Polwhele says, there are the remains of an extensive work thrown up by that people a short time previously to their departure, in order to check the progress of the Saxons.

Baxter calls the river Limia, restoring it from Ravennas' corrupted Cimia, and derives it from Limi i ii, which means a torrent of water. The Saxons, who rejected every British term but the names of rivers, called it from the little stream Lim,-occasionally, for distinction, Estlim. The Normans, who spelt in unison with their pronunciation, wrote Lym, and Lime.-The river takes its rise among the hills three miles north of the town. After receiving another brook, it falls into the sea at the Cobbgate. Hollingshed notices that in its course, by the side of Sleech-wood, it sinks under ground, and rises again at some distance, a circumstance particularly observable every summer.

Mention is first made of Lyme, by its Saxon appellation, about the time the West Saxons were converted to

Christianity. Their kings, in order to shew their piety and sense of religion, were induced to found and endow religious houses. A monastery was established at Sherborne, when a constant intercourse began to be maintained between the two places. The Abbey of Sherborne, from the earliest period of its establishment, appears to have been endowed with grants of land in Lyme, as was also the more distant and powerful Abbey of Glastonbury. It is worthy of remark, that men in that age of comparative ignorance or barbarism were acquainted with the unusual saltness of the sea-water at Lyme,-a peculiarity which, a writer observes, the present inhabitants fail of turning to their advantage. The Saxons boiled the water in pans, for the manufacture of which the men of Lyme were particularly famous. There was made all the salt, that indispensable article, for the Abbeys of Sherborne and Glastonbury.

A. D. 774, Cynewulf, King of the West Saxons, by charter, gave to the Church of Sherborne the land of one mansion on the west bank of the river commonly called the Lim, that salt might be there made to supply the necessities of the said Church.*

Coker having observed that this is the first mention any where made of Lyme, a pretty general supposition prevails that the town was first built on the western side of

* MS. in the Cotton Library, of Kings who were founders of the Church of Sherborne, copied by Dugdale and Hutchins.

the river, which will be probably in a measure removed when it is known that the church was always situated on the opposite side of the stream, and may with probability be supposed to have existed prior to the grant of the land to the Church of Sherborne.

The neighbouring coast was particularly subjected to the invasions of the Danes, who committed dreadful ravages in every direction. In 787 they landed at Portland, to observe the country, from three ships, which they did without interruption, as the Saxons had neglected their marine. A. D. 833, according to the Saxon Chronicle, though some of our historians place it 831 or 832, a dreadful battle was fought between Charmouth and Lyme. The Danes, having met with repulses in other parts of the kingdom, sailed to Charmouth, where, having landed, Speed says "they made cruel ravage and slaughter." Their fleet consisted of thirty-five ships, containing a powerful army: their whole force, Huntingdon remarks, must have amounted to 17,500 men; other writers have estimated their numbers at about 15,000. Egbert collected the whole force of the county, and marched to attack them, after they had continued their ravages, according to Matthew of Westminster, about a twelvemonth. The king had nearly succeeded in cutting them off as they were forming: he threw them into great confusion, but continual supplies of men from the ships turned the scale in their favour. The Saxons were routed: the night alone prevented their destruction by the infuriated invaders, by the favour of which, Speed says, the king hardly escaped. Among the number of the slain were two earls, his prin

cipal officers, Dudda and Osmond, Wigen, Bishop of Sherborne, and Hereferth, Bishop of Winton. The Danes, finding a settlement would be liable to the attacks of the brave Egbert, retired to their ships with precipitation, and set sail. They continued to hover about the coast. In 840 they effected a landing on the same spot, from the same number of ships. Ethelwulf's army, which he headed in person, advanced to encounter them: a bloody battle ensued, which, after a desperate struggle, terminated in the Danes remaining masters of the field, though they shortly after retired without any spoil. A successive series of invasions followed. Alfred, considered as the founder of the English navy, organised a marine on the coast of Dorset. His fleet of small ships was provided with warlike engines and expert seamen, who, commanded by their brave king, engaged with the Danes in innu~ merable sea-fights, and obliged them to desist from their piratical incursions on the coast. Tradition preserves an account of their attempts to make a harbour at Charmouth: that not succeeding, they secured their vessels at Lyme, which, in the opinion of many persons, sufficiently proves the first establishment of a harbour to have begun with that people. It would be improper to dwell here on a subject purely hypothetical, having treated of it in the sequel.

Nothing is recorded from this period till after the Norman conquest, when Domesday Book was compiled. A translation of the passages relating to Lyme will display by no means an uninteresting or imperfect view of the state of the town. In that celebrated record the different

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