You're on a roll if you like rocks

NOT much has changed in Lyme Regis over the past couple of hundred years.

- JASON BEATTIE

When Jane Austen visited in 1803, she wrote of a main street “hurrying down to the water” where there was a “pleasant little bay” dotted with bathing machines.

The bathing machines have been replaced by colourful beach huts but otherwise, this Dorset town is more or less as Austen found it.

A bustling high street still leads down to the sea. There you can walk along the beach towards the Cobb – the solid-stone harbour wall made famous by the French Lieutenant’s Woman (a book it took me so long to read she was the French Admiral’s Woman by the end).

Much of the beach is shingle but at the far end, near the small harbor, there is a sandy stretch. If you wish to venture a bit further there are fantastic walks along the coast.