Title: ‘View of the Great Chasm from its Western end at Bindon, looking Eastward to the Coast of Dorset and Portland’

Creator: Lithographed by George Scharf after drawing by William Dawson

Description: The Axmouth-Lyme Regis stretch of the south coast of England comprises one of the best known areas of landslipping in Great Britain. It includes the site of the first large-scale landslide ever to have been the subject of detailed scientific description by geologists: the Great Bindon Landslide which happened on Christmas Day, 1839.

Fortuitously William Buckland (1784-1856) and his scientific artist wife Mary née Morland (1797-1857) were quickly on the spot as they had been visiting fellow geologist Wiliam Daniel Conybeare (1787-1857) in nearby Axminster. The three, along with Mary Anning (1799-1847), investigated the incident.

From: W D Conybeare’s and William Buckland’s work ‘Ten plates comprising a plan, sections, and views, representing the changes produced on the coast of East Devon, between Axmouth and Lyme Regis by the subsidence of the land and elevation of the bottom of the sea, on the 26th December, 1839, and 3rd of February, 1840’, London: John Murray (1840), plate 6.

Date: 1840

Format: Coloured lithograph

Image reference: 27-26

Recommended print size: Up to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40cm)