Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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In the footsteps of others
Coast between Lyme Regis and Seaton, Dorset Photo, Peter Thomson
The coast between Lyme Regis and Seaton is renowned for the landslips that have shifted vast chunks of land during the last few centuries and now the under cliffs, above the shoreline, form a rugged and wooded landscape that is a National Nature Reserve. We walked the 7 miles of it yesterday, with all of its muscle-wearying ups and downs; its feel is more like a jungle than we've ever come across in this country; the tangle of hanging creepers and ivy, towering trees enclose the canopy in some parts so only small patches of sunlight penetrate through. It must be one of the most beautiful woodland walks in England. See a few pictures.
This area is just along the shore from the Jurassic Coast made famous by Mary Anning who discovered and sold fossils from the Jurassic Period in the early 1800's. Jane Austen the novelist also stayed in Lyme during 1804 and the visit inspired her novel 'Persuasion'. She walked the Lyme to Seaton path and commented on how beautiful it was then, but there have been more landslips which have changed its shape since. Photographs taken at different times over the last 100 years of this section part way along the shore show how dramatically the woodland has developed. Ruins of a few buildings in a woodland clearing give evidence of previous habitation, one of which was a apparently a tearoom for Victorians visiting the landslips in mid 1800's! There are no such facilities now; we were glad of our salad sandwiches we'd brought for lunch.
Walking in the footsteps of others gives one the feeling or connection of being with another; we can get a sense of their interest; a glimpse of their life. They probably laughed along here and marvelled at the sights as we do now. But our footsteps are not theirs; their footsteps are probably much deeper down in the soil; years of autumn leaves fall and make a new woodland floor, bedding down, disintegrating to dust and making new soil. We're standing probably a few feet higher than they may have then. Indeed Roman 'footsteps' can be more than 10 feet down. But putting this aside, we are witness to constant change in nature; growth and change; Mary Anning's fossils were once living creatures on this earth where we stood yesterday. Nothing stays the same.
We came home tired from our 'ups and downs', happy in our physical exercise, exhilarated by the experience, bronzed by the sun and content not to be a fossil ourselves for future millennia on this wild and historic coast.
“The only thing constant in life is change”
François de la Rochefoucauld (French classical author, leading exponent of the Maxime, 1613-1680)
