Bermuda and Lyme Regis -- the home of Bermuda's founder Sir George Somers -- which recently became a twinned town with St. George's.

Just as Bermuda's high tourist season used to be in winter, so Lyme's was also later in the year, the peak months being September to November. Visitors were of the richer "well-bred'' kind. It was not until the 1900s that the genteel nature of Lyme's tourism industry changed. The opening of the railway meant the town was accessible to thousands of holiday makers in search of a suntan and cheap fun during the summer months. Some locals were horrified that their liking for ice-cream, outdoor bands and entertainers would lower the "tone''.

Tourists who indulged in "spooning'' and stripping weren't very popular either.

Today tourism is as vital to Lyme as it is to St. George's. The sea, the Cobb and the beaches are still major attractions and tourists will brave even a cold day to sit in brightly striped deck chairs outside their beach huts that line part of the Parade. The beaches attract children, of course, who come armed with buckets, spades and beach paraphernalia. They also come armed with hammers, since there's always a chance they will find an ammonite or a trilobite inside a pebble on the shingle of Monmouth beach or on Black Ven, the spectacular cliff formation between Lyme and Charmouth. It was on Black Ven that Mary Anning went on fossil hunting expeditions.

Food and Drink Dorset was known for its abundance of food, at least for the rich. They would enjoy mutton, beef, all kinds of birds, shell fish and fish, vegetables and fruits of all descriptions. However, the poor very often lived on a diet of bread (often made partially with barley flour), dough cake and ale. During the 19th Century, ale was replaced by tea which was actually less nutritious.

Bermuda's first settlers gathered palmetto berries and sea kale. Similarly in Dorset the poor would gather berries, sea kale and any plant or root that was edible. Sea holly, a prickly plant was candied to make eringue, a sweetmeat that was supposed to act as an aphrodisiac. Poor people living on the coast were luckier since they could depend on fresh fish. For centuries, Lyme's most plentiful fish was mackerel which was salted -- Lyme's answer to Bermudian codfish. Unfortunately, the mackerel supply became seriously depleted by the end of the 19th Century.

Lyme's special foods include Blue Vinney cheese and Dorset Knobs, dry biscuits. "Vinney'' means "mouldy'' and the knobs were named after the pointed Dorset buttons that local women made by hand for men's coats during the eighteenth century.

Because of the town's trading connections, the rich could always buy spices, tea chocolate, coffee and of course European wines. However, as revealed in 1750s magazine, "Dorset's fine Beer & Ale are universally admired & by some preferred before the Wines of France.'' Beer is still very popular but cider, or scrumpy, is Lyme's answer to our rum swizzle and is just as delicious and just as lethal. As one visitor put it: "A Dorset cider is a quarrelsome drink, its consumption leads to rough language and rougher behaviour.'' Famous People Connected with Lyme From our point of view, Sir George Somers is the most famous person from Lyme since the wreck of the Sea Venture led to the first settlement in Bermuda. He is the main reason that St. George's and Lyme Regis have become officially related. Another sailor on the ship was also from Lyme; Silvester Jourdain who wrote the first pamphlet called Silvanus Jourdan's Narrative. His cousin, Ignatious Jourdain, was well-known for his fanatical Puritanism. He was responsible for a bill (named after him) that wanted adultery punishable by death. Other famous people include the Duke of Monmouth who unwittingly caused tragedy to the people of Lyme by engaging their support in his attempt to oust his uncle from the throne. Judge Jeffreys "visited'' soon after to execute supporters, one of whom was just 19-years-old. Mary Anning may be known to Bermudian children who have been given Mary Anning's Treasures to read as a set book. She was a highly respected fossilist. And Joseph Lister, a famous surgeon, often stayed with his brother Arthur who owned a house in the town.

Lyme also appealed to writers, Jane Austen being the most obvious example.

F.T.Palgrove, compiler of The Golden Treasury, lived there and often hosted Lord Tennyson. Today, Lyme's best known writer is John Fowles who featured the Cobb in his novel The French Lieutenant's Woman and who wrote A Short History of Lyme Regis.

DRAGON'S VIEW -- Lyme Regis from the top of sightseeing spot Dragon Hill.