Take the coast path west from Porlock Weir and you enter the fantastical ruins of a mathematician’s dream. Past the whimsical thatched gatehouse that guards entry to the Worthy toll road, you soon encounter an odd, semicircular stone bridge with an ivied turret clinging to its side. It is part of a wider system of curving walls, towers and tunnels, built on the orders of Ada Lovelace, the early computer programmer known as “the enchantress of numbers”.
During the 1830s and 40s, Ada and her husband embarked on extensive landscaping, creating a crenellated Italianate villa with parterres, walkways and carriage drives. Here, she strolled with her friend, the inventor and philosopher Charles Babbage, discussing calculations for his “analytical engine”, a proposed computer.
