Spring sale for Poet's honeymoon hideaway

The country hotel where the poet Shelley spent his honeymoon - and then did a runner without paying his bill - is to be sold at auction in April.

Shelley's Cottage Hotel in Lynmouth, Devon, is where the poet and his 16-year-old bride, Harriet, stayed in 1812. At the time it was known as Mrs Hooper's lodgings.

While there, Shelley hit on a novel way of distributing his anti-government pamphlet Declaration of Rights - rowing into the Bristol Channel and putting copies afloat in bottles.

The hotel is to be auctioned by Barnstaple estate agent Webbers Commercial.