Beaminster all round, Wi' hedges, reachèn up between A thousand vields o' zummer green. </poem> It is a location for part of the story for the post-apocalyptic novel The Day of the Triffids. Samuel Hearne explorer, naturalist and writer grew up in Beaminster. Beaminster is the adopted hometown of actor Martin Clunes, and was where singer PJ Harvey went to school. Mat Follas had his first restaurant The Wild Garlic in the town square, though in 2013 it was moved to larger premises elsewhere. Beaminster is also home of Lynne Reid Banks, author of "The L-Shaped Room" and "The Indian in
Thomas Mayne Reid to teach school. In December 1839 he boarded the "Dumfriesshire" bound for New Orleans, Louisiana, arriving in January 1840. Shortly afterward he found a job as a clerk for a corn factor, or trader in the corn market. He stayed in New Orleans for six months. It is said that he left his position for refusing to whip slaves. (Reid later used Louisiana as the setting of one of his best-selling books, an anti-slavery novel entitled "The Quadroon".) From New Orleans, Reid traveled to Tennessee. On a plantation near Nashville, he tutored the children of Dr. Peyton Robertson, who some