2-888-058 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Watering-Places of Devon - Exmouth, from Starcross, 1850. 'Exmouth...is the oldest watering- place in the country, and was one of the principal ports of Devonshire in the reign of King John...An embankment was commenced early in the present century ; and a number of houses in the neighbourhood of the Parade and Beacon first gave to Exmouth the name of watering-place, and led to the buildings on the face or brow of the hill, called the Beacon-hill, which now forms the centre of its attractions..."The climate here," says Dr. Shapter, "partakes of the same character as that of the district, modified by the sea only; an inhabitant to whose opinion I would defer, thinks it more equable than any upon the coast, and that this may in some measure be owing to its exemption from the damp vapours so often experienced in the valley towns."' From "Illustrated London News", 1850.