Historic Hotels of America

I've been given a link to a site that seems to indicate that the market for historic hotels is recognised on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Let's hope that this commercial concept appears over here before too long.

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Tolkien wrote in the hotel

There is an article in Saturday's Daily Telegraph about a proposal for the National Trust to rent out Thomas Hardy's cottage in Dorset.

The Trust is concerned that it has a "responsibility to ensure its financial sustainability" and sees renting the cottage as a way of generating income. Presumably, they believe that many of the 15,000 people who visit the cottage from around the world would want to savour more of the atmosphere of building by staying there. A caption to a photograph of Hardy in the newspaper (which does not appear on the internet version) reads "Hardy: wrote in the cottage". I would like to suggest that a good way of summing up the attraction of staying in the Three Cups Hotel to potential visitors from around the world would be a "Tolkien wrote in the hotel". To this could be added that he enjoyed walking in the surrounding countryside and one could surmise that he appreciated the hospitality of the bar. Sadly, it would be best not to mention that he would probably have sat smoking his pipe in the lounge.

Note: Hardy's Cottage is at Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, which according to the AA Route Planner is 29 miles or 40 minutes drive from Lyme Regis. If you look at the National Trust's web site for details of Hardy's cottage, you will see that one of the Trust's nearby properties is Clouds Hill, the rural retreat of another famous Englishman and writer of the 20th century, T.E. Lawrence. Such a concentration of sites of cultural interest must indicate a market for visitors wanting to stay in accommodation with links to the history of the area.

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Interest from across the world

An article in The Daily Telegraph today describes how some of the architectural heritage of Lyme Regis is being reproduced in China. This suggests to me that there is some potential for increasing the number of visitors who might pay to come and stay in Lyme Regis from other parts of the world. It may therefore be possible with some appropriate publicity about the town's heritage to increase the market for the ailing hotel trade in the area. Such action could well result in paying guests returning to the Three Cups Hotel.

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1902 Mates Guide

The images below (on full posting) were provided by the Lyme Regis Museum for Mrs Garrod's great niece. They provide an insight into popular design styles at the time of Tolkien's youth. In these days of brochure design using computer generated images, word processing and desk top publishing, it is fascinating to look back to a time when the original artwork for such publications was produced by hand. Students of Tolkien's work might be interested in the way the designer has used motifs from the natural world and flora in particular.

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