The spectacle called Candles on the Cobb happens on a Sunday evening toward the end of August, though not every year. (It was done for the third time in 2005, then in 2008, next will be in 2012.)
        At the 2005 occasion, five thousand candles sprang into flame along the Cobb. Each was set in a glass half full of tamped-down sand. All “belonged” to people who had bought them for a pound at post office counters and the like, receiving not a candle but a certificate. We — like, perhaps, others — thought our certificate meant we got a candle to hold, but we'd misunderstood: that was the way of raising money for the candles (and for charity). We just had to join the crowd watching, which we did on the grassy slope of the Lister Garden. A team did the igniting ignited (slight breeze apparently prevented the lighting of a few). The little flames traced lines all along three levels of the Cobb, out to its ends, alao the North Wall of the harbout, and also formed on the beach the letters “CANDLES ON THE COBB.”
        Exceeding perhaps the thousands of candles were the thousands of people, on this hot Sunday evening of a Bank Holiday weekend toward the end of the summer holidays. They swarmed on this slope, the Parade, the Cobb, the town. There were also (according to the newspaper) crowds of watchers at more distant viewpoints: Gun Cliff, places up the hillside such as the football field and the allotments, and the top of Timber Hill. The population of Lyme was perhaps the largest ever.