It is not surprising that, over the years, creative people have been drawn to Lyme. In 1725 Henry Fielding caused a scandal when he tried to abduct local heiress Sarah Andrews. The attempt was unsuccessful but Sarah was immortalised as ’Sophie’ in the famous novel, ‘Tom Jones’. One of the country’s finest novelists, Jane Austen, first visited the town in 1803 when she was twenty-nine years of age. She set part of her novel ‘Persuasion’ in Lyme and it was thought that she based the fall of her fictional character, Louisa Musgrove, on the steep, irregular stone steps outside the Cobb, now known as ‘Grannie’s Teeth’.

During the autumn of 1994the BBC filmed the drama ‘Persuasion’ on location in Lyme for release in spring 1995. James Whistler, the famous American artist also had connections with the town. When he visited Lyme in the summer of 1895, at the age of 61 years, he painted two of his finest portraits, ‘TheMaster-Smith of Lyme Regis’ and ‘The Little Rose of Lyme Regis’ (both paintings now reside in the Boston Museum of Fine Art). Another famous literary figure, Beatrix Potter also stayed in Lyme, some of her water colour illustrations for ‘Little Pig Robinson’ were based on views in the town.