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  CLIMBING IN THE BRITISH ISLES

  _ENGLAND_




  CLIMBING
  IN THE BRITISH ISLES

  _3 vols. 16mo. Sold separately._

  I. ENGLAND.
  II. WALES.     _In preparation._
  III. SCOTLAND. _In preparation._

  LONDON AND NEW YORK:
  LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.




  CLIMBING
  IN
  THE BRITISH ISLES

  _I.--ENGLAND_

  BY
  W.P. HASKETT SMITH, M.A.
  MEMBER OF THE ALPINE CLUB

  WITH TWENTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS
  BY
  ELLIS CARR
  MEMBER OF THE ALPINE CLUB

  AND FIVE PLANS

  LONDON
  LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
  AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET
  1894

  _All rights reserved_




CONTENTS


Introduction

The headings, for convenience of reference, are arranged in
one continuous alphabetical series, comprising the following
classes of subject:

  I. COUNTIES AND DISTRICTS WHICH ARE OF INTEREST TO THE
    MOUNTAINEER
      (_e.g._ Cumberland, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Ennerdale)

  II. PLACES WHICH ARE CONVENIENT AS CLIMBING CENTRES
      (_e.g._ Keswick, Patterdale, Wastdale Head)

  III. MOUNTAINS AND ROCKS WHICH AFFORD CLIMBS
      (_e.g._ Dow Crag, Pillar, Scafell)

  IV. CLIMBS OF REPUTATION, WITH DIRECTIONS FOR FINDING AND
    ACCOMPLISHING THEM
      (_e.g._ Deep Gill, Mickledoor, Napes Needle)

  V. TECHNICAL TERMS AND EXPRESSIONS
      (_e.g._ back-and-knee, chimney, toe-scrape)

  VI. LOCAL NAMES FOUND AMONG THE HILLS, WITH OCCASIONAL
    NOTES ON THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING
      (_e.g._ bink, clough, gill, hause, hope)




INTRODUCTION


For some years past there has been a remarkably rapid increase in the
number of men who climb for climbing's sake within the bounds of the
British Isles.

When any young and active Englishman sees a rock and is told that the
ascent of it is regarded as a kind of feat, there is no doubt what he
will want to do. He will obey what has been the instinct of the race at
any time this forty years. But lately there has been a change. What was
formerly done casually and instinctively has for the last dozen years or
so been done systematically and of set purpose, for it is now recognised
that hill-climbing in these islands may form part of a real
mountaineering education. Many might-be mountaineers have missed their
vocation because they were in the position of the prudent individual who
would not go into the water until after he should have learned to swim:
they did not become Alpine because they were afraid that they should
make fools of themselves if they went on the Alps. Yet, had they only
known it, they might have found without crossing the sea many a place
which might have been to their undeveloped instincts what the little
pond at the end of the garden has been to many a would-be skater--a
quiet spot where early flounderings would be safe from the contemptuous
glances of unsympathetic experts.

Icemanship can only be acquired through a long apprenticeship, by
tramping many a weary mile helplessly tied to the tail of a guide. But
one principal charm of hill-climbing lies in the fact that it may be
picked up by self-directed practice and does not demand the same
preliminary subjection. The course of Alpine instruction can only be
considered complete when Mr. Girdlestone's ideal of 'The High Alps
without Guides' is realised (an ideal, be it clearly understood, which
for fully ninety-nine out of every hundred climbers it would be
downright madness to attempt to carry into practice); whereas, while
rock-climbing may be enjoyed by amateurs without incurring the reproach
of recklessness, they at the same time experience the exquisite pleasure
of forming their own plans of attack, of varying the execution of them
according to their own judgment, and finally of meeting obstacles, as
they arise, with their own skill and with their own strength, and
overcoming them without the assistance of a hired professional.

Nowhere can the mere manual dexterity of climbing be better acquired
than among the fells of Cumberland; excellent practising-ground presents
itself on nearly every hill. Compared with real mountains the crags of
Cumberland are but toys, but small as they are, they have made many and
many a fine climber; and the man who has gone through a course of
training among them, who has learnt to know the exact length of his own
stride and reach, and to wriggle up a 'chimney' in approved style with
shoulder, hip and knee, may boldly fly at higher game, and when he
proceeds to tackle the giants of the Alps or Caucasus has no cause to be
afraid of the result.

As if with the express object of increasing their educational value to
the mountaineer, the hilly parts of Great Britain are peculiarly subject
to atmospheric changes. No one who has not experienced their effects
would believe the extent to which mist, snow, and even rain can change
the appearance of landmarks among the mountains; and, where landmarks
are less abundant or less striking, even the buffeting of violent wind
may cause an inexperienced man to change his direction unconsciously.
Valuable experience in things of this kind may be gained even in summer,
but in winter the conditions become more Alpine, and splendid practice
may be had in the use of the axe and rope.

Not that the latter should be neglected on difficult rocks at any time
of the year. Even in places where it gives the leader no security and to
some extent actually impedes him, the moral effect of it is good. It
wonderfully increases those feelings of united and ordered effort, of
mutual dependence and mutual confidence, and finally of cheery
subordination of self, which are not the least of the virtues or the
joys of mountaineering. How these opportunities may be used the novice
will readily learn from Mr. Charles Pilkington's admirable chapters in
the Badminton 'Mountaineering,' and from Dr. Claude Wilson's excellent
little handbook on the same subject. It is the aim of the present work
to enable him to find suitable places where the principles so admirably
laid down by those authorities may be tested and applied, and to
understand the descriptions--often involving difficult technical and
local terms--which have been published of them. When anyone with
climbing instincts finds himself in a strange place his first desire is
to discover a climb, his second to learn what its associations are; what
is it called, and why? has anyone climbed it, and what did he think of
it? To such questions as these this book endeavours to provide an
answer. It offers, in short, to the would-be climber a link, with the
guidebook on the one hand and the local specialist on the other.

It must always be remembered that a very fine rock may be a very poor
climb. It may be impossible or it may be too easy, or, again, the
material maybe dangerously rotten; and thus, though there are many
places where men can and do obtain useful climbing practice, there is
only one part of England to which resort is made simply for the sake of
its climbing. In consequence of this fact the greater part of the book
is devoted to the English Lakes, and especially to the south-west
portion of them, where the best climbs of all are to be found. But in
that district the art has been highly elaborated, and the standard of
difficulty and dexterity is even dangerously high. If men would be
content to serve an apprenticeship and to feel their way gradually from
the easier climbs onward, they would excite less apprehension in the
minds of those who know what these climbs are. If, on the other hand,
they rush, as too many do, straight from the desk in a crowded city,
with unseasoned lungs and muscles, in the cold and the wet, to attack
alone or with chance companions whatever climb enjoys for the moment
the greatest notoriety, frightful accidents are certain to occur.

The books, too, which are kept specially for climbing records at some
places in the Lakes, such as Dungeon Gill, Buttermere, and, notably,
Wastdale Head, are misleading, owing to the widely different standards
of difficulty among the various writers. Printed accounts are so few
that this objection hardly applies to them. The most noteworthy beyond
all doubt are the two articles written for _All the Year Round_, in
November 1884, by Mr. C.N. Williamson, the late editor of _Black and
White_. It would be hard to exaggerate the effect which these articles
had in making the Lake climbs known. The same writer had previously
contributed articles of less permanent value to the _Graphic_ and the
_Daily News_. In 1837 two articles had appeared in the _Penny Magazine_
(see _Lord's Rake_); in 1859 the late Professor Tyndall had written of
_Mickledoor_ in the _Saturday Review_, and more recently articles have
appeared in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, by Mr. W. Brunskill and by Mr. H.
A. Gwynne. The present writer contributed an article to the _Alpine
Journal_ of August 1892, and one containing very clear illustrations of
'back-and-knee' work and of an episode in the long climb on the Pillar
Rock to the pages of _Black and White_, in June 1892, while numerous
articles have appeared from time to time in such local papers as the
_Whitehaven News_ and the _West Cumberland Times_, and in the
Manchester, Leeds, and Bradford press. Of guidebooks the only one of any
value to climbers is Mr. Herman Prior's 'Pedestrian Guide.'

Any value which the present book may have is largely due to the
excellent drawings of Mr. Ellis Carr, who most kindly came forward to
fill the place left by the lamented death of Professor A.M. Marshall.
Much assistance has been derived from sketches and photographs kindly
lent, those of Mr. Abraham, of Keswick, being especially useful. For the
valuable article on 'Chalk' I am indebted to Mr. A.F. Mummery, whose
knowledge of the subject is unrivalled; while Mr. J.W. Robinson, of
Lorton, has zealously assisted in all matters connected with Cumberland;
and I must gratefully acknowledge help given in other ways by Mr. J.E.
Morris and the Rev. C.J. Buckmaster.




CLIMBING
IN
THE BRITISH ISLES

ENGLAND


=Alum Pot=, the name of which is also found in such forms as _Allen_ and
_Hellan_, lies just west of the Midland Railway, about halfway between
Horton and Ribblehead stations, and on the north-east side of
Ingleborough. It is one of the most striking and most famous of the
Yorkshire potholes, being an elliptical opening in the limestone, 120
ft. long and 40 ft. wide, with a perpendicular depth of 200 ft. The
exploration of it was begun by Mr. Birkbeck of Anley in 1847, who,
assisted by Prof. Boyd Dawkins and a large party including three ladies,
made a complete examination in 1870.


=Angler's Crag=, on the south side of Ennerdale Water. The steep portion
is about 300 ft. There are also some similar crags on _Grike_ and
_Revelin_, close by; but none of them are worth a long walk, and the
only resting-place near is the Angler's Inn, at the foot of Ennerdale
Water.


=Apron-strings.=--Throughout Scotland and the North of England the
traditional explanation of large heaps of stones is that while some one
(generally the Devil or Samson) was carrying the stones in his apron the
strings broke and the stones fell in a heap. Many such heaps are to be
found, bearing the name of 'apronful' or 'bratful,' which means the same
thing. A good instance of the latter form is _Samson's Bratful_, in
Cumberland, between the rivers Bleng and Calder. For another good
instance see what is said about Wade's Causeway in _Murray's Handbook
for Yorkshire_, at p. 206.


=Aron.=--So Wilkinson (in his 'Select Views') calls _Great End_. It may
be that he misunderstood his guide, who was, perhaps, speaking at the
time of _Aaron Crags_, which are on _Sprinkling Fell_, and would be in
the line of sight to any one coming up from _Borrowdale_. In fact, the
path to _Sty Head_ passes not only _Aaron Crags_ on the left, but also
_Aaron Slack_ on the right. It is, of course, tempting to suggest that
Aron was the original Keltic name of Great End; but in Wales the name
Aran is generally applied to mountains of very different appearance to
_Great End_.


=Arrowhead=, a prominent rock in the _Napes_ of _Great Gable_, being
part of the ridge immediately west of _Eagle's Nest_. It was climbed on
April 17, 1892, by a large party, including Messrs. Horace Walker,
Baker, Slingsby, and others. In the following year, on the last day of
March, this climb was repeated by Messrs. Solly, Schintz, Brant, and
Bowen, who continued it right on to the top of the ridge. They kept
rather more on the ridge itself than the former party had done on the
way to the _Arrowhead_, and from that point the climb is along the
crest of the ridge. It is not a difficult climb for an experienced
party. The ridge has been called the _Arrowhead Ridge_.

[Illustration: THE ARROWHEAD
(South side of Great Gable)]


=Ash Crag=, a rock in _Ennerdale_, near the _Black Sail_ end of the
_Pillar Fell_. It is the writer's belief that this is the rock which the
poet Wordsworth, in 'The Brothers,' has confused with the _Pillar Rock_.
At least a lad belonging to an old Ennerdale family, the Bowmans of
Mireside, was killed by falling from this rock at a date closely
corresponding to that indicated in the poem.


=Attermire=, one of the most picturesque limestone scars in Yorkshire.
It is reached from Settle on the Midland Railway, and may be seen on the
way to Malham Cove.


=Back-and-knee=: the process of supporting or raising the body in a
'chimney' by pressure against opposite sides with back and knees, or,
more usually, back and feet.


=Band.=--This word forms part of many hill names in the North of
England, and is also found in Scotland. Dr. Murray deals with it in the
'New English Dictionary,' but not in a satisfactory manner. He defines
it as 'a long ridge-like hill of minor height or a long narrow sloping
offshoot from a hill or mountain,' but it would be easy to adduce
instances where this could have no application. The word is used by
Douglas in his translation of Virgil to represent the Latin word
'jugum':

     Himself ascendis the hie _band_ of the hill;

and from this Jamieson concluded that the word meant simply 'top of a
hill'--a definition almost as unsuitable as the last. The late Mr.
Dickinson, the leading authority on the Cumberland dialect, gave to the
word the meaning of 'a boundary on high uninclosed land,' and indeed the
frequent association of the word with personal names (often of clearly
Scandinavian character) seems to indicate some territorial significance.


=Bannerdale Crag= (C. sh. 57) may be taken on the way up _Saddleback_
from Troutbeck station on the line between Keswick and Penrith. About
three miles up the stream is _Mungrisdale_, and still farther up along
the course of the stream one fork leads to _Scales Tarn_ and another to
_Bannerdale_, where there is a lead mine just north of the crags. There
is a rocky face some 600 ft. to 800 ft. high, offering climbing, which
is steep, but by no means first-rate.


=Barf.=--From the southern shore of Bassenthwaite Water there is a fine
steep scramble up this hill. On a bright winter's day it is rather
inspiriting, and the views are good.

The name is more frequent in Yorkshire, where, according to Phillips, it
has the meaning of 'a detached low ridge or hill.'


=Beachy Head=, close to Eastbourne, in Sussex, is a very fine bold chalk
cliff, the first ascent of which is made about once in every two years,
if we may believe all that we see in the papers. The truth is that there
is a treacherous incline of some 600 ft., formed of chalk and grass,
both very steep and often dangerously slippery; and during the
Eastbourne season the coastguards at the top find their principal
occupation in supplying mechanical assistance to exhausted clamberers;
but for difficulty these cliffs will not for a moment compare with those
of half the height which carry on the line westward to _Birling Gap_.
The tops of these in many places literally overhang the sea, and there
are few points where a climber could make the slightest impression upon
them. On Beachy Head there is a dangerous-looking pinnacle, which was
climbed (by dint of cutting a step or two) in April 1894, by Mr. E.A.
Crowley.


=Bear Rock=, a queerly-shaped rock on _Great Napes_, which in the middle
of March 1889 was gravely attacked by a large party comprising some five
or six of the strongest climbers in England. It is a little difficult to
find, especially in seasons when the grass is at all long.


=Beck.=--In the North of England (except in Northumberland and Durham,
where 'burn' prevails) this is the usual word for a brook. It differs
from a 'gill' in being more open, and having banks less rocky and a
stream somewhat more copious. A gill may contain only a few drops of
water, or none at all, and still preserve its self-respect, but not so a
beck. Camden speaks of 'Beakes and Brookes.'


=Bell= enters into many North Country hill-names. It is commonly said to
indicate spots which were specially devoted to the worship of Baal, and
many arguments have been based upon its occurrence and distribution. If
there is anything in this assertion, the 'high places' for the worship
of Baal must have been most capriciously selected. My own belief is that
the term is purely descriptive and is applied to a convexity in the
<DW72> of a hill. In Lowland Scotch the phrase 'bell of the brae' is not
uncommon and has the same significance.


=Bell Rib End=, a short drop on the narrow south ridge of _Yewbarrow_.
Though on a very small scale, it is not without interest, and was a
favourite with Mr. Maitland, one of the early explorers of Wastdale.


=Bield.=--This word not only occurs frequently in place names, but is
still part of living speech in North England and South Scotland. It
means shelter of any kind for man or beast, and in the latter case
especially a fox or a sheep. It is also used as a verb; in fox hunting,
for instance, the animal when run to earth is said to be 'bielded.'


=Bink=: a long narrow grassy ledge. (N. of Eng.)


=Black Sail.=--It has been suggested that this name, now borne by the
pass from Wastdale to Ennerdale between Pillarfell and Kirkfell, may
have originally been named from the mountain it crossed, and so may
possibly now preserve an older name of one of those two mountains. Dr.
Murray, writing to a local paper some years ago, did not hesitate to
affirm positively that Pillar Fell is entirely due to the Ordnance
surveyors, and that the original name was Black Sail, a fact which he
said could be proved by historical evidence. It would be extremely
interesting to see this evidence, but the name 'Pillar' certainly
appears in maps published long before that of the Ordnance. (See
_Sail_.) The pass (1,750 ft.) is very familiar to all climbing folk,
being the ordinary way of reaching the Pillar Rock from Wastdale Head.
It is generally preferred to _Wind Gap_ on account of greater variety
of view and better 'going,' and some make use of it even for the purpose
of reaching the Ennerdale side of _Great Gable_.

The route, however, has one disadvantage. It is hot. It is no uncommon
thing to hear enthusiastic frequenters of the Lakes complaining of the
popular misapprehension that the sun never shines there, and urging that
people are so unreasonable as to notice the wet but to disregard the
warmth. Among these traducers of the Cumberland climate the frequenters
of the Black Sail route are not found. Argue not with such; but some
fair morning, when the reviler is most rampant, lead him gently into
Mosedale and watch with calm delight while he pants painfully up the
pass, trying his utmost to look cool, with the sun, which he has
maligned, beating down squarely upon his back and exacting a merciless
revenge. Many a time will he turn about and feign rapture at the taper
cone of Yewbarrow and the bold outline of Scafell; often will his
bootlace strangely come untied before his reverted glance catches the
welcome gleam of Burnmoor Tarn; but long before that time his heart
within him will have melted even as wax, and he will have registered a
vow that, when next the Cumberland sunshine is discussed, the seat of
the scornful shall know him no more. Mr. James Payn, having occasion to
allude to 'dry weather' in the Lakes, adds demurely, 'which is said to
have occurred about the year 1824'; but, from his own description of
Black Sail, it is clear that he deeply rued the sarcasm: 'You will begin
to find your pass quite sufficiently steep. Indeed, this is the severest
pull of any of the cols in the District, and has proved the friend of
many a gallant with his ladylove. To offer a young woman your hand when
you are going up Black Sail is in my mind one of the greatest proofs of
attachment that can be given, and, if she accepts it, it is tantamount
to the everlasting "Yes!"' We may be sure that, before he reached the
top, the witty novelist experienced remarkably 'dry weather,' and also
some of those symptoms which elsewhere he has himself described with
such scientific accuracy: 'Inordinate perspiration and a desperate
desire for liquids; if the ascent be persisted in, the speech becomes
affected to the extent of a total suspension of conversation. The temper
then breaks down; an unseemly craving to leave our companion behind, and
a fiendish resolution not to wait for him if his bootlace comes undone,
distinguish the next stage of the climbing fever; all admiration of the
picturesque has long since vanished, exuded, I fancy, through the pores
of the skin: nothing remains but Selfishness, Fatigue, and the hideous
reflection that the higher we go the longer will be our journey down
again. The notion of malignant spirits occupying elevated
regions--Fiends of the Fell--doubtless arose from the immoral
experiences of the Early Climbers.'

Green's _Guide_ (1819) records a touching instance of a husband's
attentions surviving a test which we saw above, that even lovers find
severe: 'This is a steep and craggy ascent, and so laborious to man that
it might be imagined horses could not travel it; yet Mr. Thomas Tyson,
of Wasdale Head, has conducted Mrs. Tyson over this stony ground while
sitting on the back of her horse.'

In Switzerland one might look back after a day's work, and fairly
forget ups and downs so slight as Black Sail; but many of the guide
books speak of it in terms which might apply to the Adler or the Felik
Joch. For instance, _Black's Picturesque Guide_ (ed. 1872) says: 'The
_hardy_ pedestrian with _very minute_ instructions _might_ succeed in
finding his way over the mountains, yet every one who has crossed them
will beware of the danger of the attempt and of the _occasional fatal
consequences_ attending a diversion from the proper path.' This is
highly encouraging; and the enterprising traveller who only breaks his
neck two or three times in the course of the journey will be of good
cheer, for he is making rather a prosperous expedition than otherwise.


=Blea Crag=, an isolated square stone on the left of the path to the
_Stake_, a long mile up _Longstrath_. It is climbed on the side which
looks down the valley. Messrs. Jones and Robinson recorded their ascent
of it in September 1893, but it seems that four or five years ago there
were traces on it of a previous ascent.

'Crag' is not very commonly used of a single stone, as it is here and in
the case of _Carl Crag_.


=Borrowdale.=--'Divers Springes,' says old Leland in his 'Itinerary,'
'cummeth owt of Borodale, and so make a great _Lowgh that we cawle a
Poole_.'

The 'Lowgh' is, of course, Derwentwater, and Borrowdale is the heart of
the finest scenery and the best climbing in England. It may be said to
stretch from _Scafell_ to _Skiddaw_, and excellent headquarters for
climbers may be found in it at _Lowdore_, _Grange_, _Rosthwaite_, and
_Seatoller_. With the aid of its wad mines and its _Bowder Stone_, it
probably did more during last century than anything else to arouse
public interest in the Lake country. The natives were not famed for
their intelligence, and many stories are told in support of their
nickname of 'Borrowdale gowks.'

There is another _Borrowdale_ in Westmorland, and _Boredale_ is perhaps
the same name.


=Bowder Stone= in _Borrowdale_ was already a curiosity about a century
and a half ago, when it was visited by Mr. George Smith, the
correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_. Clarke, writing some years
later, says it bore the alternative names of _Powderstone_ and
_Bounderstone_; and being 'thirty-one yards long by eight yards high,
must therefore weigh over 600 tons, and is said to be the largest
self-stone in England.' It is not really a 'boulder' at all, but the
word is rather loosely used in Cumberland.


=Bow Fell= (2,960 ft.).--The name is probably the same as that of _Baugh
Fell_, also called _Bow Fell_, in Yorkshire. This graceful peak,
standing as it does at the head of several important valleys--_Eskdale_,
_Langdale_, _Dunnerdale_, and _Borrowdale_--is a great feature in Lake
scenery. There is not much rock-work on it, but a good deal of rough
walking and scrambling. From _Borrowdale_ or _Wastdale_ it is approached
by way of _Esk Hause_. On this side there is no climbing, except that
_Hanging Knot_, as the N. end of Bow Fell is called, descends to _Angle
Tarn_ in a long, steep, rocky <DW72> which offers a pleasant scramble.

On the _Eskdale_ side there is a gully or two which might be worth
exploring.

By inclining to the right hand on emerging at the top of _Hell Gill_, or
to the left hand from the pony-track at the foot of _Rossett Gill_ we
reach _Flat Crags_, huge glacier-planed <DW72>s of rock, overlooked by
what in winter is a fine _couloir_ of most alpine appearance. When
Messrs. J. & A.R. Stogdon ascended it (_Alpine Journal_, v. p. 35) the
inclination of the snow increased from 30 deg. at the foot to 63 deg. after 350
ft. or more, and there was a large cornice at the top. In the account
which the same party inserted at the time in the Wastdale Head Book
steeper angles are given.

In summer it is merely an open scree-gully; but the
insignificant-looking chimney just N. of it, and only separated from it
by a narrow ridge, is quite worthy of attention, though it has but one
pitch in it after the one at the foot. The descent is harder than the
ascent, and takes about twenty minutes.

There is a fine rocky walk along the S. ridge, called _Shelter Crags_
and _Crinkle Crags_, which descends towards the head of Dunnerdale, but
it is extremely unfrequented.


=Bram Crag= and _Wanthwaite Crag_ flank the coach road between
_Threlkeld_ and _Grasmere_ on the east. The best part is rather more
than two miles south of Threlkeld station. The climbing is somewhat
similar to that about _Swarthbeck_ on Ullswater, but on better and
sounder rock, and there is more of it. A good day's work will be found
among these crags, and a fine specimen of a 'sledgate' is deserving of
notice.


=Brandreth= is between _Borrowdale_ and the head of _Ennerdale_. The
name, which occurs elsewhere in the neighbourhood, denotes a tripod
(literally a 'grate,' usually made with three legs). The meeting-point
of three boundaries of counties, parishes, &c. is often so named.
Brandreth has only one short bit of bold rock--one of the many _Raven
Crags_. It is hardly worth a special journey, but may very easily be
taken by any one who attacks _Great Gable_ from _Borrowdale_.


=Brimham Rocks=, in Yorkshire, are very easily visited from Harrogate or
from Pateley Bridge. From the latter they are only four miles to the
eastward. The station for those who come from Harrogate is Dacre Banks,
from which the Rocks may be reached in an hour's walking. They are of
millstone grit and well deserve a visit, for nowhere are the grotesque
forms which that material delights to assume more remarkable. Some
resemble the sandstone forms common about Tunbridge Wells, and many
might very well stand for Dartmoor Tors; but others at first sight seem
so evidently and unmistakably to suggest human handiwork that one can
feel no surprise at the common notion that they were fashioned by the
ingenuity of the Druids. Several of them, though very small, can only be
climbed with considerable difficulty.


=Broad Stand=--a term commonly but, in my opinion, incorrectly used to
denote a particular route by which the crags of _Scafell_ may be
ascended direct from _Mickledoor_. There are numerous other places
within a few miles of this into the names of which this word 'stand'
enters, and a consideration of them leads me to the belief that it
signifies 'a large grassy plot of ground awkward of access.' This is
exactly what we find here. A break in the cliffs produces a large open
space which is the key to the ascent by the _Mickledoor Chimney_, to
that by the _North Climb_, and to that which, being the oldest, easiest,
and most frequented, has arrogated to itself as distinctive the name of
a feature which it should only share with the other two. Really all
three routes are merely different ways of reaching the Broad Stand.

One of the earliest recorded ascents is that of Mr. C.A.O. Baumgartner
in September 1850, an account of which was sent by one of the people of
the dale to the local paper in these terms: 'The Broad Stand, _a rocky
and dangerous precipice_, situated between _Scaw Fell_ and the _Pikes_,
an ascent which is perhaps more difficult than even that of the _Pillar
Stone_.' The late Professor Tyndall climbed it in 1859, and described it
in the _Saturday Review_ of that year. It evidently had a great
reputation then, which was not, in his opinion, entirely deserved. It
seems to have been known in 1837 (see the _Penny Magazine_) to the
shepherds; and even in Green's time, at the beginning of the century,
one or two daring spirits had accomplished the feat.


=Buckbarrow= (C. sh. 79).--_Broadcrag_ (more north-east) is really part
of it, and about 400 ft. high. Buckbarrow rises near the foot of
Wastwater, opposite the best part of the Screes. When approached from
the head of the lake it appears as two huge rocky steps; but, as in the
case of _Eagle Crag_ in _Greenup_, the steps are not really in the same
plane. Seen from the <DW72>s of _Lingmell_, it forms the boundary between
the mountains and the plain, to which it sinks in one very graceful
concave curve. It is not lofty--there are perhaps some 400 ft. of
rock--but by the shepherds it is reputed inaccessible. This is only true
in the sense that there are stiff bits on it which have to be evaded. It
is haunted by both the fox and the buzzard--connoisseurs on whose taste
in rocks the climber can generally rely. There is also climbing in the
whole line of rock (Broad Crag) which stretches away towards
_Greendale_. Since 1884, when the writer first became acquainted with
it, Buckbarrow has become rather popular, considering its remoteness
from _Wastdale Head_.--At Christmas 1891 a strong party, led by Messrs.
Robinson, Hastings, and Collie, ascended it 'from the fox's earth to the
hawk's nest,' and on April 15, 1892, a party containing several of the
same members climbed 'the first main gully on this [the north] side.
There are two short chimneys at the end of this little gill--one in each
corner, about ten to twelve yards apart.' The left one, up which Mr.
Brunskill led, was considered the harder. Afterwards Dr. Collie led two
of the party up the face of the cliff to the right of the next gully on
the west, which is marked by a pitch of about fifty feet low down. To a
house near the foot of Buckbarrow old Will Ritson and his wife retired,
after giving up the inn which they had kept for so many years and made
so famous at _Wastdale Head_.


=Buresdale=, the proper name of the valley between Thirlmere and
Threlkeld. Hutchinson, for instance, says: 'At the foot of _Wythburn_ is
_Brackmere_ [i.e. Thirlmere], a lake one mile in length ... from the N.
end of this mere issues the river Bure, which falls into Derwent below
Keswick.' He also mentions Buresdale in connection with _Layswater_, yet
another equivalent for Thirlmere. Guidebook writers seem to have
conspired together to obliterate this name from the map, and to
substitute for it the name _Vale of St. John_, which Sir Walter Scott
made famous. To revive the name of the river would be an act of only
posthumous justice, now that the Manchester waterworks have taken away
all its water; but the valley is still there, and ought to be called by
its genuine old name, which is of Scandinavian origin; compare with it
the Bure river in Norfolk, and fishermen will recall similar names in
Norway.


=Burn=: the Scotch word for a brook is hardly found south of the river
Wear. In Wythburn, Greenburn, and other cases it probably represents
_borran_ (stone heap).


=Buttermere=, a pleasant stopping-place from which many of the
Cumberland fells can be explored. It is a good centre for _Grassmoor_,
_Melbreak_ and the _Red Pike_ range, while _Borrowdale_ and _Ennerdale_
are quite within reach. Once a day the Keswick waggonettes swoop upon
the place, bringing trippers by the score, but at other times it is a
quiet and enjoyable spot.


=Calf (The)= (2,220 ft.), in Yorkshire, near _Sedbergh_. _Cautley Crag_,
on the E. side of it, is very steep. In this corner of the county the
Yorkshire climber experiences the intense relief of seeing rocks which
are neither chalk, limestone, nor millstone grit.


=Camping.=--Camping out by rivers has always been more popular in
England than the same form of airy entertainment among the mountains.
The labour of carrying tents or sleeping-bags acts as the chief
deterrent. It is true that some thirty years ago a distinguished member
of the Alpine Club applied to Scafell Pike, and one or two other spots
where England is loftiest, the practice, which he has carried out on
many of the higher peaks of the Alps and Pyrenees, of watching sunset
and sunrise from the loftiest possible _gite_ which the mountain can
afford. Mr. Payn, too, has given us a most humorous narrative of how he
and his friends encamped on Fairfield. Also, about twenty years ago,
four stalwart climbers from Penrith made a regular camping tour of the
Lakes. Their tent was pitched on these spots: Penrith Beacon, Red Tarn
on Helvellyn, in Langdale under Pike o' Stickle, Sty Head, in Ennerdale
under Gable Crag, and on Honister. It weighed only 5-1/2 lbs., and yet
had a floor space of 8 ft. by 8 ft.

It may be that, just as bicyclists suffered by the scathing definition
'cads on casters,' so the enthusiasm of the camper may have received a
check when he heard himself described with cruel terseness as 'a fool in
a bag.' Perhaps, again, our climate is not one which offers much
encouragement to any but the hardiest of campers. In the Lakes by far
the most popular (and probably, therefore, the most convenient) place
is the shore of Ullswater, where tents have been seen even in the depth
of winter.


=Carl Crag= lies on the sea-shore in Drigg parish. Mr. Jefferson says
that it is of syenite, and measures in feet twelve by nine by five and a
half, but it is deep in the sand. The legend is that while Satan was
carrying it in his apron to make a bridge over to the Isle of Man, his
_apron strings (q. vid.)_ broke and let it fall. It is probably an
erratic. With the name compare _Carlhow_, _Carlwark_, &c.


=Carrs=, in Lancashire, in the _Coniston_ range, north of the _Old Man_.
It is craggy on the east side. In _Far Easdale_ there is a line of crag
which bears the same name. Clearly neither can have anything to do with
'carrs' in its usual sense in the north, viz. 'low marshy ground.'


=Castle Rock= (C. sh. 64).--This rock in _Borrowdale_ is said to have
been crowned by a Roman fort. The west side is craggy for a couple of
hundred feet. It may serve to occupy a few odd hours for any one
stopping at _Grange_, _Rosthwaite_, or _Seatoller_.


=Caw Fell= (C. sh. 73).--The name is possibly the same as _Calf_,
_Calva_; compare also _Caudale_, _Codale_, &c. On the north side there
is a craggy bit about 200 ft. high.


=Chalk.=--Though this can hardly be regarded as a good rock for
climbing, much excellent practice can be gained on it. As a general
rule, it is only sufficiently solid for real climbing for the first
twenty feet above high-water mark, though here and there forty feet of
fairly trustworthy rock may be found. These sections of hard chalk are
invariably those which at their base are washed by the sea at high tide;
all others are soft and crumbly.

[Illustration: CHALK CLIFFS NEAR DOVER]

Whilst any considerable ascent, other than up the extremely steep <DW72>s
of grass which sometimes clothes the gullies and faces, is out of the
question, traverses of great interest and no slight difficulty are
frequently possible for considerable distances. A good _objectif_ may be
found in the endeavour to work out a route to the various small beaches
that are cut off from the outer world by the high tide and cliffs.

The best instances of this sort of work are to be found along the coast
to the eastward of Dover (between that town and St. Margaret's). Between
the ledges by which these traverses are in the main effected, and the
beach below, scrambles of every variety of difficulty may be found, some
being amongst the hardest _mauvais pas_ with which I am acquainted.
Owing to the proximity of the ground, they afford the climber an
excellent opportunity of ascertaining the upper limit of his powers.
Such knowledge is a possession of extreme value, yet in most other
places it is undesirable to ascertain it too closely. Chalk, it must be
remembered, is extremely rotten and treacherous, very considerable
masses coming away occasionally with a comparatively slight pull. In any
place where a slip is not desirable, it is unwise to depend exclusively
on a single hold, as even the hardest and firmest knobs, that have stood
the test of years, give way suddenly without any apparent reason. The
flints imbedded in the chalk are similarly untrustworthy; in fact, if
they project more than an inch or so, they are, as a rule, insecure.
The surface of the chalk is smooth and slimy if wet, dusty if dry, and
does not afford the excellent hold obtained on granite. As a whole it
may be regarded as a treacherous and difficult medium, and one which is
likely to lead those practising on it to be very careful climbers.

To the westward of Dover (between it and Folkestone) a great amount of
climbing on grass and crumbly chalk <DW72>s can be obtained; almost every
gully and face can be ascended from the sea, or the S.E. Railway, to
the top. It is desirable to remember that in dry weather the grass and
the earth which underlies it is of the consistency of sand, and great
care is requisite; after rain the grass is of course slippery; but the
underlying material adheres more firmly to the cliff. It is unnecessary
to add that a slip on any of these <DW72>s would almost certainly prove
fatal. On the face of _Abbot's Cliff_, and to the westward (about
halfway between Dover and Folkestone), some traverses may be effected at
a height of 200 ft. or more above the base; they do not, however,
compare for climbing with the traverses on the other side of Dover.

As one goes westwards, the angle of the cliffs becomes less, and from
_Abbot's Cliff_ towards Folkestone it is rarely necessary to use one's
hands, though very nice 'balance' is essential, as the results of a slip
would usually be serious. Above the _Warren_, still nearer Folkestone,
the <DW72>s become easy, and after heavy snow afford excellent
_glissades_.

The cliffs between Dover and St. Margaret's vary from 200 to 350 ft.,
whilst those between Dover and Folkestone vary from 250 to 500 ft. in
height.

In Sussex the chalk is well developed at and near _Beachy Head_, where
it attains a height of some 600 ft. Just west of this come several miles
of cliffs, lower indeed (about 300 ft.), but amazingly vertical.

About _Flamborough Head_, in Yorkshire, this formation attains fine
proportions, while as far west as Devonshire _Beer Head_ is upwards of
400 ft. high.


=Chimney=: a recess among rocks resembling the interior of a chimney
open on one side. (See _Back-and-knee_.)


=Chockstone=: a northern word for a stone wedged between the sides of a
gully. A short word for this is greatly needed, and I would suggest that
it might be called a 'chock,' simply.


=Clapham=, a station on the Midland Railway, is an excellent centre for
_Ingleborough_ and the _Potholes_.


=Clark's Leap=, near _Swirl's Gap_ on Thirlmere, is a jutting rock, so
called from a suicide which took place there over 100 years ago. It is
one of many local absurdities of the novel called 'The Shadow of a
Crime' that this name is brought in as an antiquity in the eyes of
characters supposed to be living two centuries ago.


=Clough= (_Cleugh_, _Cloof_, _Cluff_, _Clowe_) is a North of England
word for a kind of valley formed in the <DW72> of a hill. The first cut
in carving a shoulder of mutton produces a typical 'clough.' There is
seldom any climbing about a genuine clough, because it implies soil
rather than rock. Dr. Murray tells us that the word has no connection
with the Icelandic 'klofi,' yet assigns to the latter word the origin of
'cloof,' in the sense of the fork of a tree, or of the human body. To a
layman in such matters the two words bear a singular resemblance, both
in sound and in sense.


=Collier's Climb= on _Scafell_ was made by Messrs. Collier and Winser on
April 2, 1893, and a very severe climb it is. It begins from the _Rake's
Progress_ at a point 105 ft. west from the _North Climb_. After a direct
ascent of about 40 ft., a grassy platform on the right (facing the wall)
is reached. From here a narrow and somewhat awkward traverse leads back
to above the first part of the climb. This traverse could probably be
avoided by climbing directly upwards. There follows an easy ascent for
30 ft. still directly upwards. By traversing broad grassy ledges to the
right--i.e. towards _Moss Gill_--one of the inclined cracks so plainly
seen on the face of the cliff is reached, and the rest of the ascent
made in it. The only severe difficulties in the climb are: 1. at the
beginning, in leaving _Rake's Progress_; 2. at one point in the crack
where there is not much handhold for 10 or 15 ft.


=Combe Gill=, a fine gill in the north end of _Glaramara_. The climb is
a little over two miles from _Rosthwaite_, and about a mile less from
_Seatoller_. A very fine mass of rock (one of the many _Eagle Crags_)
stands at the head of the little valley, and up the centre of this crag
lies the way. It was climbed on September 1, 1893, by Messrs. J.W.
Robinson and W.A. Wilson, whose account of it is as follows: 'This very
fine gorge has three good-sized pitches in the lower part. These were
passed by climbing the right-hand edge of the gill--interesting work. A
return on to the floor of the gill was made near the top of the third
pitch, when a little scrambling led to a very fine waterfall more than
100 ft. high. Here climb in the water as little as you can; then diverge
slightly on to the right-hand wall of the gill just where the water
spouts over a small recess; next traverse across a rather difficult slab
into the cave under the final boulder, which is climbed on the left-hand
and is the last difficulty.'


=Coniston=, having the advantage of both railway and steamboat, is very
accessible, and, notwithstanding this, it is agreeably free from the
rush of excursionists. Practically it has one fine mountain--the _Old
Man_--and no more, though _Bow Fell_ and the _Langdale Pikes_ are not
entirely out of reach. There is much good scrambling in the rocks which
fringe the _Old Man_ and _Wetherlam_, and superb climbing in _Dow Crag_.


=Coniston Old Man.=--Quarrymen and miners have between them done an
immense deal towards spoiling a very fine mountain. They have converted
to base industrial uses the whole east side of the mountain, which
Nature intended for climbers. They have not yet invaded _Doe Crag_
(q.v.), which is really part of it, but practically no one goes up the
_Old Man_ proper, except for the sake of the view, which is magnificent,
and no one ascends except from Coniston, varied in a few cases by
working north along the summit ridge and descending via _Grey Friars_ on
to the pass of _Wrynose_.


=Copeland.=--Camden says of Cumberland: 'The south part of this shire is
called _Copeland_ and _Coupland_, for that it beareth up the head aloft
with sharpedged and pointed hilles, which the Britans tearme _Copa_.'
Leland alludes to this when he makes a ludicrously pedantic suggestion:
'Capelande, part of Cumbrelande, may be elegantly caullid Cephalenia.'
_Cop_ is found in Derbyshire also, as a hill-name, and hunting men will
not need to be reminded of the Coplow in Leicestershire.

[Illustration: CONISTON AND DOE CRAG]


=Cornwall.=--To the true-souled climber, who can enjoy a tough bit of
rock, even if it is only fifty, aye, or twenty feet high, the coast of
Cornwall with its worn granite cliffs and bays has much to offer. It is
interesting almost the whole way round the coast. Granite prevails, but
at _Polperro_ we have cliffs belonging to the Lower Devonian period, and
for some ten or twelve miles going west from _Chapel Point_ we find
rocks of the Silurian order. At many points round the _Lizard
Promontory_ there are remarkable rocks; but some of the finest cliff
scenery in England is to be found between the _Logan Rock_ and the
_Land's End_. These are on the regular tourist tracks, and conveniently
reached from good hotels; but the north coast of Cornwall is here easy
of access. There are fine cliffs about _Gurnard's Head_ and _Bosigran_,
which are well worth a visit, from St. Ives or Penzance (7 or 8 miles).
There is a small inn at _Gurnard's Head_. _Bedruthan Steps_ are
well-known, and _Trevose Head_, _Pentire_ (Padstow), _Tintagel_ and
_Penkenner Point_ are only a few of the many grand rock-scenes on this
coast.


=Coterine Hill.=--Leland, in his 'Itinerary,' says that Ure, Sawle, and
Edon rise in this hill, and that 'the Hedde of Lune River by al
Aestimation must be in _Coterine Hill_, or not far fro the Root of it,'
adding that, in the opinion of Mr. Moore of Cambridge, the river Lune
'risith yn a hill cawlled _Crosho_, the which is yn the egge of
Richemontshire.'

There is _Cotter-dale_ on the Yorkshire <DW72> of the hill in which these
rivers rise, and the celebrated Countess of Pembroke, in 1663, when she
crossed from _Wensleydale_ to _Pendragon Castle_, calls her journey
'going over _Cotter_, which I lately repaired,' the last words showing
that it was a recognised pass.

In all probability Leland's form represents '_Cotter End_,' by which
name, though not given in most of the maps, part of the hill is still
known.


=Cove=: often means 'cave' in Yorkshire and Scotland, but as a rule it
is a large recess in a hill-side.


=Craven=--_Camden_ remarks that the country lying about the head of the
river Aire is called in our tongue _Craven_, 'perchance of the British
word _Crage_, that is a _Stone_. For the whole tract there is rough all
over, and unpleasant to see to; which [with?] craggie stones, hanging
rockes, and rugged waies.'

Modern climbers, however, find it hardly rocky enough for them, at least
above ground, and have been driven to invent a new variety of
climbing--the subterranean. Exploration of the numerous _potholes_ which
honeycomb the limestone hills has of late years become a favourite
pastime, and, in truth, it combines science with adventure to a marked
degree.

Any one who tarries for any length of time among these Yorkshire dales
should read Mr. H. Speight's handsome volume, which gives a very
complete account of the beauties and the curiosities which they have to
show.


=Cross Fell=, in Cumberland, long enjoyed the reputation being one of
the highest mountains in England, and as late as 1770 its height was
calculated at 3,390 ft., which is some 500 ft. more than it is entitled
to. It was earlier than most English mountains in becoming the object of
scientific curiosity, and an account of it will be found in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1747. It is chiefly celebrated for the Helm
Wind originating from it.


=Cumberland= is the premier climbing county. The best centres are
_Wastdale Head_, _Rosthwaite_ or _Seatoller_, _Buttermere_, _Keswick_
and _Eskdale_. The cream of the climbing is on those fells which are
composed of rocks belonging to what is called 'the Borrowdale Series,'
such as _Scafell Pillar_, _Gable_, _Bowfell_, and as a rule the finest
climbs are found on the sides which face the north and east. _Cross
Fell_ does not belong to the same mountain-system as those just
mentioned, and offers little climbing. The best cliffs on the coast are
about _St. Bees_ Head.


=Cust's Gully=, on Great End.--To the large and increasing number of men
who visit the Lakes in winter, perhaps no climb is better known than
this. In the spring of 1880, a party, including one of the greatest of
lady mountaineers, and over twenty members of the Alpine Club, ascended
this 'very interesting chimney or couloir, which, being filled with ice
and snow, gave unexpected satisfaction. There is a very remarkable
natural arch in this couloir, which Mr. Cust claims to have been the
first to discover, and he was therefore entrusted with the guidance of
the party.' The orthodox approach is by way of Skew Gill, which is
conspicuous at the right hand on nearing Sty Head from Wastdale. A short
distance beyond the head of this gill our gully is seen rising on the
right, marked by the conspicuous block of stone. Being, as the Scotch
say, 'back of the sun,' this gully often holds snow till comparatively
late in the season. Indeed, in winter, it is sometimes so much choked
with snow that the arch disappears, and it is even said that
self-respecting climbers, who recognise that a gully ought to be
followed with strictness, have felt bound to reach the block by
tunnelling, instead of walking over the top. In the spring of 1890 there
was a tremendous fall of stones, by which the gully was nearly filled.
Except in snow time, loose stones are an objection, and many find it
more interesting to ascend by a small gully, almost a branch of
'Cust's,' on the right hand. As climbs neither of them will compare with
the more eastern gullies.


=Dale=: curiously used in Derbyshire for each separate section of a
river valley, which elsewhere would form only one dale.


=Dalegarth Force=, in Cumberland, near Boot, in Eskdale. The wall on the
north side of this extremely pretty little fall is very low; but, being
granite, offers one or two problems to the climber. _Stanley Gill_ is
another name for the same place.


=Dartmoor=, a high upland moor, forming a vast reservoir, from which
most of the Devonshire rivers are fed. It is curious rather than
beautiful, and more interesting to the geologist, the antiquary, and the
fisherman than it is to the mountaineer. Yet it is instructive even to
him, for the frequency of rain and mist and the paucity of landmarks
which can be seen more than a few yards off, coupled with the necessity
of constantly watching the ground, render it one of the easiest places
in the world in which to lose one's way in any but the finest weather.
There are no true hills, but here and there a gradual rise of the ground
is seen, with a lump or two of granite grotesquely planted on the top of
it. These are the _Tors_. As a rule they are very small, but often
present problems to the climber, and are seldom without interest of some
sort.

A great many may be reached from Tavistock or the little inn at
_Merivale Bridge_.


=Dead Crags= (C. sh. 56) are lofty but disappointing rocks on the north
side of Skiddaw. There is perhaps 500 ft. of steep crumbly rock,
something like _Hobcarton_.


=Deep Gill.=--The name is not infrequent; for example, there is one on
the south side of _Great Gable_, east of the _Napes_, but now it is
always called _Hell Gate_. The Deep Gill is on _Scafell_, and falls into
the _Lord's Rake_. The first mention of it was made in August 1869 by
Mr. T.L. Murray Browne, who wrote in the Visitors' Book at Wastdale
Head: 'The attention of mountaineers is called to a rock on Scafell on
the right (looking down) of a remarkable gill which cleaves the rocks of
Scafell and descends into Lingmell Gill. It looks stiff.' The rock
alluded to is the _Scafell Pillar_ and the gill is _Deep Gill_. It is
well described by Mr. Slingsby in the _Alpine Journal_, vol. xiii. p.
93: 'After a couple of hundred steps had been cut in the snow in Lord's
Rake and at the bottom of Deep Gill, which joins the former at right
angles, we reached the first block--a large rock perhaps 15 ft.
square--which overhangs the gill, and so forms a cave. Below the rock
the snow was moulded into most fantastic shapes by occasional
water-drips from above. At the right hand of the big rock a few small
stones are jammed fast between it and the side of the ravine, and they
afford the only route up above the rock. These stones can be reached
from the back of the little cave, and occasionally from the snow direct.
Hastings--who is a very powerful fellow and a brilliant climber--and I
got on the stones, as we did last year. He then stood on my shoulder,
and, by the aid of long arms and being steadied by me, he reached a tiny
ledge and drew himself up. Mason and I found it no child's play to
follow him with the rope. Some two hundred more steps in hard snow
brought us to the only place where we could attack the second block.
Here three fallen rocks stop the way, and on the left hand is the
well-nigh ledgeless cliff which terminates far away overhead in the Sca
Fell Pinnacle, or Sca Fell Pillar. On the right a high perpendicular
wall effectually cuts off the gill from the terraces of Lord's Rake. On
the left hand of the gill a small tongue of rock, very steep, juts out
perhaps 40 ft. down the gully from the fallen block nearest to the
Pinnacle wall, and forms a small crack, and this crack is the only way
upward. From a mountaineer's point of view the stratification of the
rocks here is all wrong. The crack ends in a chimney about 20 ft. high,
between the wall and a smoothly polished boss of rock. Hastings, still
leading, found the crack to be difficult, but climbed it in a most
masterly way. All loose stones, tufts of grass and moss, had to be
thrown down, and, in the absence of hand and foot hold, the knees,
elbows, thighs, and other parts of the body had to do the holding on,
whilst, caterpillar-like, we drew ourselves upward bit by bit. The
chimney is best climbed by leaning against the Pinnacle wall with one's
back and elbows, and, at the same time, by walking with the feet
fly-like up the boss opposite. From the top of the boss a narrow sloping
traverse, perhaps 12 ft. long, leads into the trough of the gill. With a
rope this is an easy run; without one it would not be nice. A stone
thrown down from here falls over both blocks and rolls down the snow out
of the mouth of Lord's Rake on to the screes far away below. The crack,
chimney, and traverse, short distance though it is, took us about an
hour to pass. The climb from Deep Gill to the gap from which the
Pinnacle is ascended is a very good one, which two men can do much
better than one. The Pinnacle itself from the gap is perhaps 25 ft.
high, and is really a first-rate little climb, where the hands and the
body have to do the bulk of the work.'

[Illustration: DEEP GILL, SCAFELL
(The Lower Pitch)]

The date of Mr. Slingsby's attempt was March 2, 1885, and that of his
successful ascent March 28, 1886: but as early as 1882 this climb had
been made, piecemeal, by the present writer, who, however, never, so far
as he can remember, blended the different items into a continuous climb
until the summer of 1884, when he descended the whole length of the
gill in company with Mr. Chr. Cookson, of C.C.C., Oxford. A yet
earlier descent of the gill had been made at Easter 1882 by Messrs.
Arnold Mumm and J.E. King, of the same college, who found such a
phenomenal depth of snow that the obstacles were buried, and they were
able to walk from end to end without using their hands. The same thing
happened again in January 1887, when Messrs. Creak and Robinson were
able to walk up over both pitches without having even to cut a step.

The lower pitch may also be passed by using a recess resembling one half
of a funnel in the red rock of the vertical south wall of the gill. The
worst part of this is where you leave the funnel and begin to coast
round in order to re-enter the gill. The space comprised between the two
pitches can be entered very easily by passing round the foot of the
_Scafell Pillar_, or with much more difficulty down the vertical south
wall. The upper pitch may be passed in two ways, besides the incline.
One is by means of a narrow side gully, the upper stage of which is most
easily passed by following the ridge which divides it from the main
gill. The third way is the most direct and the most difficult, lying
between the incline and the great block. Mr. Owen Jones seems to have
invented it in the year 1892, and took up a party by it on that occasion
with the assistance of a good deal of snow, and another party in the
month of August 1893, when there was no snow at all. There is no more
fashionable winter climb than _Deep Gill_, and about Christmas time the
clink of the axe echoes among its crags from dawn to dusk.

It is reached from Wastdale Head in about an hour and a half. The
shoulder of _Lingmell_ has first to be rounded, and it makes little
difference either in time or fatigue whether this be done comparatively
high up or by taking the high road to the bridge near the head of the
lake or by an intermediate course. At any rate, a long grind up _Brown
Tongue_, in the hollow between _Lingmell_ and _Scafell_, cannot be
avoided, and when the chaos called _Hollow Stones_ is reached a vast
outburst of scree high up on the right hand indicates the mouth of
_Lord's Rake_. After a laborious scramble up this scree the rake is
entered, and only a few yards further the lower pitch of Deep Gill is
seen on the left hand.


=Deep Gill Pillar.=--See _Deep Gill_ and _Scafell Pillar_.


=Derbyshire= is well endowed in point of rock scenery, but it is not
really a climber's country. The rocks are of two kinds--the Limestone,
of which Dovedale may be taken as a type, and the Millstone Grit, which
prevails further north. The former shows many a sharp pinnacle and many
a sheer cliff, but is often dangerously rotten, while the latter assumes
strange, grotesque forms, and, when it does offer a climb, ends it off
abruptly, just as one thinks the enjoyment is about to begin. It is,
nevertheless, much more satisfactory than the limestone, and many
pleasing problems may be found on it, especially in the neighbourhood of
the _Downfall_ on _Kinder Scout_. For this Buxton or Chapel-en-le-Frith
is of course a better centre than Matlock.


=Devonshire.=--The inland climbing in this county is very limited. Of
granite there are the _Tors_ of Dartmoor and the Dewerstone near
Plymouth, and there is a remarkably fine limestone ravine at Chudleigh,
but there is little else worthy of mention. But the coast of Devonshire
is exceptionally fine, and perhaps no other county can show such a
variety of fine cliffs. At _Beer Head_ we have chalk; at _Anstis Cove_,
_Torbay_, and _Berry Head_ limestone; at _Start Point_ and _Stoke Point_
slate. For bold cliff scenery few parts of the Channel can rival the
piece between _Start Point_ and _Bolt Tail_.

On the north coast of Devon there are many striking cliffs. Among them
may be noticed _Heddon's Mouth_, _Castle Rock_ (at Lynton), some rocks
about Ilfracombe, the granite cliffs of _Lundy_, _Hartland Point_; in
fact much of the coast from Clovelly right away to Bude in Cornwall is
remarkably fine.


=Dixon's Three Jumps=, on Blea Water Crag (High Street, Westmorland), so
called from the famous fall here of a fox-hunter about the year 1762.

Perhaps no one ever fell so far and yet sustained so little permanent
injury. As an instance of 'the ruling passion strong in death,' or at
least in appalling proximity to death, it may be mentioned that, on
arriving at the bottom, he got on his knees and cried out, 'Lads, t' fox
is gane oot at t' hee eend. Lig t' dogs on an' aa'l cum syun.' He then
fell back unconscious, but recovered, and lived many years after.

Another Dixon fell while fox-hunting on Helvellyn in 1858, but was
killed. There is a monument to him on Striding Edge.


=Dodd=: a round-topped hill. The word is common in the Lowlands and in
the North of England. It is often said to mean a limb of a larger
mountain, but Dodd Fell in Yorkshire would alone refute this, being the
highest hill in its neighbourhood.


=Doe Crag=, in Eskdale (C. sh. 74), is a bold rock, long reputed
inaccessible, low down on the north side of the approach to _Mickledoor_
from the east. The Woolpack in Eskdale is the nearest inn. The rock, as
a climb, is very inferior to its namesake at Coniston (see _Dow Crag_).


=Door Head=, the _col_ between _Yewbarrow_ and _Red Pike_. There is
capital scree here, and a very rapid descent into Mosedale may be made
by it. Men who have spent the day on the Pillar sometimes return to
Wastdale Head round the head of Mosedale, and wind up by racing down
these screes from the _col_ to the stream below. The distance is about
650 yards, and the perpendicular drop about 1,200 ft. Anything less than
five minutes is considered very 'good time.'


=Doup=: any semicircular cavity resembling half an egg-shell (N. of
Eng.).


=Dow= (or =Doe=) =Crag=, in Lancashire, lies just west of _Coniston Old
Man_, being only divided from it by _Goat's Water_. The climbing here is
second to none. There are three or four superb gullies. Perhaps the best
is in a line with the head of the tarn and the cairn on the _Old Man_,
and another scarcely, if at all, inferior is nearly opposite a very
large stone in the tarn. The first ascent of one was made by Mr.
Robinson and the writer in the year 1886; that of the other by a party
including Messrs. Slingsby, Hastings, E. Hopkinson, and the writer in
July 1888. The last-mentioned (with indispensable aid from the rope)
afterwards descended an intermediate gully of terrific aspect.

[Illustration: DOE CRAG, CONISTON
The lowest pitch of the central gully. The top of the wedged block is
reached by mounting the shallow scoop on the left of the picture, and
then coasting round into the gully again.]

Towards the foot of the tarn the gullies are much less severe.

Above is an illustration of the first pitch of the gully climbed in
1888. Mr. Hastings led up the shallow crevice seen on the left of the
picture, and on reaching the level of the top of the pitch contoured the
intervening buttress into the chimney again. This is no easy matter and
required great care.


=Dunald Mill Hole.=--One of the earliest descriptions of a '_Pothole_'
will be found in the 'Annual Register' for 1760, where this curiosity is
treated of at some length. It is a good specimen of a common type, and
lies between Lancaster and Carnforth.


=Dungeon Gill=, in Langdale, deserves mention in any treatise on British
climbing, inasmuch as the poet Wordsworth has made it the scene of an
early deed of daring performed by an idle shepherd boy--

     Into a chasm a mighty block
     Hath fallen and made a bridge of rock,
                   The gulf is deep below.

The gulf and the mighty block are both there still; but there is more
pleasure in seeing the former than there is excitement in crossing by
the latter.


=Eagle Crag.=--Rocks of this name are pretty numerous in the North of
England, and, like the 'Raven Crags,' are, as might be expected, always
bold and precipitous.

_On Helvellyn._--Canon Butler, in his article on the Lakes in 1844,
which appeared in _Longman's Magazine_, describes in an amusing manner
an adventure which he had on this rock. It is on the right-hand side of
the track from Patterdale to Grisedale Hause.

_In Easdale_ (W. sh. 17).--This is easily found by following up the
stream which runs into Easdale Tarn. There is not more than 200-300 ft.
of crag, and much of it is very rotten, but with pretty bits of climbing
here and there. Grasmere is the only place from which it is conveniently
reached.

_In Greenup_ (C. sh. 75) is as noble a rock as can be found in England.
As seen from Borrowdale near Rosthwaite it has the appearance of two
huge steps of rock, but the steps are really separate rocks, one behind
the other--Eagle Crag and Pounsey Crag. Large portions of each of them
are quite unclimbable, and much of them is too easy to be worth doing,
so that the amount of interesting climbing to be met with is less than
might be expected. Close by is Longstrath, where there is a little work
which may be combined with this (see _Blea Crag_ and _Serjeant Crag_).
The foot of Eagle Crag is reached from Rosthwaite or Seatoller in less
than an hour.


=Eagle's Nest=--one of the ridges of the _Napes_ lying between the
_Needle_ and the _Arrowhead_. On April 15, 1892, Messrs. Slingsby,
Baker, Solly, and Brigg ascended it and found it extremely difficult for
150 ft. At one point, about on a level with the top of the _Needle_,
there is room for one person to sit down, and here the second man on the
rope joined the leader and gave him a shoulder up. To this place they
gave the name of the _Eagle's Nest_, and it is almost the only point at
which any material help can be given to the leader.

The part just above this they considered the stiffest part of the climb;
but when they reached a patch of grass just below a slanting chimney the
difficulties moderated. From the bottom to where the ridge joins the
_Needle Ridge_ they took two hours and ten minutes.


=Eel Crag.=--The word 'Eel,' we are told, is identical with 'Ill,' which
is seen in _Ill Bell_ and the numerous _Ill Gills_, and means 'steep.'
If so the name ought to be more frequent in the Lake country than it is,
and it might be suggested that in some cases 'eagle' may have been worn
down to 'eel.' There are two crags of the name in Cumberland, not very
far apart.

_In Coledale._--These rocks are steep, but too much broken up to be
really worth a visit on their own account. However, after _Force Crag_
has been tried, these are conveniently near.

_In Newlands_ (C. sh. 70).--Among the rocks which flank Newlands on the
east much good material may be found. One is reminded a little of the
Wastwater Screes, but of course these are not on anything approaching
that scale. The greatest height of the craggy part is only about 400 ft.


=Eight-foot Drop.=--On the Pillar Rock is the passage from the ridge of
the _Curtain_ down onto the lower part of the _Steep Grass_. It figures
in some of the earlier accounts as a formidable feature of the ascent.
Nowadays it is known how much easier it is to keep on the flank of the
curtain, and only leave it when at the top of the chimney which runs up
from the head of _Steep Grass_. No 'drop' is, in fact, necessary; but
the climb, though not in any sense difficult, is generally regarded as a
good test of neatness of style.


=Ennerdale.=--For a valley which not only is one of the largest and most
impressive in the Lake country, but contains moreover a share of the
most perfect mountain in broad England--Great Gable--and all of the most
famous rock--the Pillar--singularly little is popularly known of
Ennerdale. But, when we consider that the place is one which is, or
should be, hallowed to all devout Wordsworthians as the scene of one of
the finest productions of their poet, the thing becomes
incomprehensible. To begin with, the guide-books have never done it
justice. In area of paper covered with descriptions of it English
Lakeland is probably many square miles ahead of any equal portion of the
earth's surface. But guide-book writers love to stand upon the ancient
ways; and any one who takes the trouble to compare West or Otley with
the works of to-day must admit that, except in matters of detail, the
advance has been incredibly small. The public are better judges of
accuracy than of enterprise, and what pleases the public pays. These
gentlemen, therefore, worthy and painstaking as they are, share to some
extent in the narrow aspirations of the hireling, and, indeed, we are
tempted to believe that their motives in shunning Ennerdale were not
wholly foreign to the character of him who 'fleeth because he is
afraid,' for they have brought up a terrible report of the dale. If,
however, this has been a wise precaution on their part, a means of
deterring any inquirer from exposing their want of energy, it has been
rewarded with a large measure of success. Here is an inviting prospect
for a timid traveller: 'Ennerdale Lake ... is so wild in the character
of its shores and in its position among the mountains as to have caused
more terrors and disasters to strangers than any other spot in the
district. At every house from Wastdale Head to Ennerdale Bridge stories
may be heard of adventures and escapes of pedestrians and horsemen in
Mosedale and the passes of Black Sail and Scarf Gap' (Whellan's 'History
of Cumberland,' 1860). Can it be wondered at that, in the face of such
terrors as this, very few people find their way into Ennerdale, except
those who with fear and trembling cross the head of it on their way
between Buttermere and Wastdale Head? Every guide-book, indeed, mentions
Ennerdale and the Pillar by name, because it gives an opportunity for
quoting the well-worn lines from 'The Brothers,' after which a few
meagre remarks may be expected to follow on the 'Pillar Mountain,' the
'Pillar Rock,' and 'Ennerdale Lake,' expressions of which not one,
strictly speaking, is correct, for the proper name of the first is
beyond all doubt 'Pillar _Fell_,' 'mountain' being an innovation of
tourists and guide-book writers, who between them have made 'Pillar
_Rock_' sound more familiar than the genuine name 'Pillar _Stone_,' and
have almost ousted 'Broadwater' in favour of 'Ennerdale Lake.'

Printed authorities are scanty, because Ennerdale is of very recent
discovery. The early guide-books simply know nothing about it. West
(1778) does not mention it, and the gifted authoress of that touching
poem 'Edwina' did not even know how to spell its name:

     But chiefly, Ennersdale, to thee I turn,
     And o'er thy healthful vales heartrended mourn,
     Vain do thy riv'lets spread their curving sides
     While o'er thy glens the summer zephyr glides.

And yet Mrs. Cowley was by no means indifferent to such points. Indeed,
we owe the origin of this exquisite poem to her etymological zeal and to
her desire to immortalise the brilliant suggestion that the name
'Wotobank' was derived from some one having once said, 'Woe to this
bank!' It may even be that the spelling is a symbolical subtlety--a kind
of refinement on 'word-painting' intended to shadow forth to less poetic
minds, by the sinuosity of the superfluous 's,' the unique manner in
which the rivulets of this happy valley are wont to 'spread their
curving sides.' One of the earliest visitors to Ennerdale appears to
have been the artist Smith, of Derby (1767), who sketched the lake, as
did also Wilkinson in 1810. Wordsworth had been there before 1800, and
Green's description shows that he was much struck by the scenery of
upper Ennerdale. But, though visitors to Ennerdale have been and still
are few, most of these few speak highly of its beauties, 'partly
perhaps,' says Mr. Payn, 'in consequence of their having endured certain
inconveniences (with which they are anxious that you should also become
acquainted) when belated in that lovely spot.' The dale is not without
its associations. Formerly it was a deer forest, the property of the
Crown by forfeiture from the father of the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey. The
Sandford manuscript speaks enthusiastically of 'the montaines and
fforest of Innerdale, wher ther is reed dear and as great Hartts and
Staggs as in any part of England. The bow-bearer is a brave gentleman.'
But it is now many years since the last of the herd was destroyed, and
no one living can remember the days when Ennerdale could show--what in
almost any landscape is a crowning beauty--the stately figure of a great
red stag. Certainly an element of romance has here been lost; but how
can that be felt so long as here and there some aged man survives to
keep green among the dalesmen the memory of 't' girt wild dog'? The
stories told of this remarkable animal would fill volumes and form a
highly interesting study in contemporary mythology; and yet, when we
consider the state of unparalleled excitement into which the whole
countryside was thrown at the time, and the assiduity with which it has
ever since been talking over the events of that stirring period, we
shall find cause to wonder, not that the story in some of its details
should have acquired a slight legendary flavour, but rather that the
great bulk of the incidents narrated should be so thoroughly well
authenticated. Certainly it is a lesson in faith, and makes it easier to
credit stories such as that which Ovid tells with so much spirit of the
Calydonian boar; for if in the days of modern firearms a dog can defy a
large district and kill a couple of sheep a day for nearly half a year
together, there is less reason for doubting that in old days an amount
of destruction and devastation which would not discredit a modern
minister could be wrought by the unaided exertions of one malevolent
pig. For months the dog was hunted and shot at, but seemed to lead a
charmed life; in the excitement farming operations were terribly
neglected, until at last, in the person of John Steel of Asby, arose the
modern Meleager.

Many a story is told of that exciting time, and one especially has hit
the fancy of the dale. Until recently the custom was that fox-hunts
should take place on one particular day of the week--a day the selection
of which for a Southern meet would, however convenient, be regarded with
considerable surprise. Possibly this custom was held to govern
dog-hunting also; for one Sunday, as the Rev. Mr. Ponsonby (probably the
identical 'homely priest' who is mentioned in 'The Brothers') was
conducting Divine Service, the attentive cars of the congregation caught
the sound of some commotion without, followed by the rush of hounds and
the panting of human lungs. There could be no mistaking these signs. A
faint murmur passed round the sacred building, 'T' girt dog!' and in an
instant the reverend gentleman was the only male within the walls. A
moment's pause, and then female sympathy and female curiosity triumphed,
and the other and better half of the congregation disappeared. The story
goes in Ennerdale (but for this we decline to vouch) that the aged
pastor, casting a sorrowful glance upon the empty benches, hastily
adjusted the robes of his office, and ere the last petticoat had
fluttered from the porch was in full career to join the headlong hunt.

For five months Ennerdale had been in a state of convulsive excitement,
for the first and last time, it is said, 'syn t' Flud'; the honour of
having enlivened the dale is fairly divided between the Deluge and the
Dog.

To see Ennerdale as it should be seen, and to get a clear idea of the
surrounding district, there is no better plan than to mount from
Buttermere to Red Pike--the Rigi of Cumberland--and from there follow
with eye and, if necessary, map the following account of a 'run,'
telling how 'oald Jobby o' Smeathat tallyho't a fox ya Sunday mworning,
just as day brak, oot ov a borran o' steeans, abeunn Flootern Tarn, i'
Herdas end; an' hoo it teukk ower be t' Cleugh gill an' t' hoonds viewt
him sa hard 'at he teuk t' Broadwater an' swam 'cross t' hee end on't,
an t' dogs went roond an' oop t' Side Wood ... an' they whisselt him oop
be t' Iron Crag, an' be t' Silver Cwove an then throo t' Pillar, an' a
gay rough bit o' grund it is. Hoo he shakt 'em off a bit theer, an' they
at him agean an' meadd o' ring amang t' rocks. Hoo they ran him roond be
Black Sail, an' Lizza hee faulds an' clam oot be t' Scarf Gap an' on to
t' Wo' heead an' they beeldit 'am onder t' Brock Steeans an' he was
seaff aneugh theer.'

With or without the fox-hunt this view from Red Pike is magnificent, yet
there are several others which run it very close. What, for instance,
can be better, just at the clearing of a shower, than the look-out from
the Pillar Fell on the opposite side of the valley? From the gloom and
grandeur around it the eye travels right along to the smiling green of
the open country beyond the lake bordered by a line of glittering sea.
This view has one drawback in that you cannot at one time be looking
both from the Pillar and at it; but then it is hardly possible to enter
Ennerdale at all without seeing this rock, the real glory of the valley,
from many effective points; and, moreover, no day there is complete
without a quiet half-hour spent in floating on the lake about sunset;
for, whether it be due to the westerly lie of the dale or to some other
cause, the fact remains that the Ennerdale sunsets are not to be beaten
among the Lakes. By the early morning light the upper part of the valley
should be explored, and the marvellous view enjoyed from Haystacks: from
the 'bulky red bluff of Grasmoor' on the right to the dark recess of
Mosedale half seen upon the left all is beautiful; separated from
Crummock and Buttermere, which are both well seen, by the steep Red Pike
range, Broadwater throws in a dash of life to relieve the desolation of
upper Ennerdale, while the richly  screes of Red Pike sweep down
in striking contrast to the forbidding frown of the Pillar Fell. We have
seen a fine water-colour sketch which renders this view with great
fidelity. It has additional interest as the work of the first amateur
who ever scaled the Pillar Stone--Lieut. Wilson, R.N.

The scenery of Ennerdale, however, would not long have remained
beautiful if the Ennerdale Railway Bill, promoted in 1883 and 1884, had
been suffered to pass into law. That scheme was happily defeated, and
the only modern touches added to the dale have been the galvanised wire
railings recently erected along the sky-line, and the blue indicators
set up on the Black Sail and Scarf Gap track.


=Eskdale.=--There are two dales of the name in Cumberland, but the only
one which is of interest to mountaineers is reached by the little
railway from Ravenglass. Lodgings, largely used by Whitehaven people,
are to be had, but the most convenient inn is the Woolpack, about a mile
up the valley from the terminus of the line. From no place can
_Scafell_, _The Pikes_, or _Bow Fell_ be more easily explored, while the
Coniston range is quite within reach, and the Wastwater _Screes_ are
more accessible than they are from Wastdale Head. The valley itself is
only second to Borrowdale, and there are grand falls and deep pools in
the Esk. There are also some good rocks, though not quite equal to the
description of Hutchinson, who says that 'Doe Cragg and Earn Cragg are
remarkable precipices, whose fronts are polished as marble, the one 160
perpendicular yards in height, the other 120 yards.' Both of these will
be seen on the way up to _Mickledoor_, the former standing on the
right-hand side at the foot of the steep ascent. It is strange that so
few climbers ever go to this valley.


=Esk Pike=, a name given by the shepherds to a peak of 2,903 ft., which
stands at the head of the Esk valley. Being left nameless by the
Ordnance six-inch map, it has attracted to itself the nearest name it
could find, and is very commonly called _Hanging Knot_, which, in
strictness, applies only to the north shoulder of Bow Fell, where it
hangs over Angle Tarn. It would save some confusion if this name had a
wider currency than it has. At the head of Eskdale there is a rather
good gully, which was climbed at the end of September 1892 by Messrs.
Brunskill and Gibbs, whose account of it is that 'its direction is
W.N.W., and it consists first of a short pitch of about 10 ft.; then a
<DW72> of 20 ft. at an angle of 60 deg.-65 deg., the holds in which are fairly
good; and, last, another pitch at a somewhat similar angle, with an
awkward corner of rock to round. Above this to the top is an easy
scramble.'


=Fairfield= (2,863 ft.), in Westmorland, sometimes called Rydal Head in
old books, stretches down to Grasmere and Ambleside; but it is from
Patterdale that it should be seen and climbed. One of the best things on
it is _Greenhow End_, which stands at the head of Deepdale. The steep
part, which is not wholly crag, is 400 or 500 ft. high, and faces N.E.

This is the mountain which Miss Martineau so greatly longed to ascend,
and every one knows Mr. Payn's account of how he encamped upon it.

There is another _Fairfield_ in the Coniston Fells.


=Falcon Crag=, a couple of miles from Keswick, beside the road to
Borrowdale, is not more than 150 or 200 ft. high, but at many points so
vertical as to be quite unclimbable. The steepest side is also the most
exposed to the public gaze. On the south side there is a deep gully in
which excellent scrambling is to be had.


=Fellpole= is a much better word than its foreign equivalent,
'alpenstock'. Except in the depth of winter on the highest fells it is
of much more use than an axe, which is, of course, indispensable when
there is much snow or ice. On difficult rocks either axe or pole is a
great incumbrance; but where there is much scree, or steep grass, or
broken ground, all three of which abound on the Fells, a pole is a very
great comfort on the descent. Of course, while being used for this
purpose, it must be kept behind the body. On the steep nose of
_Fleetwith_ a fatal accident occurred to a young woman solely in
consequence of her attempting to descend with her stick held improperly
in front of her. This is a fault which nearly all beginners commit.
Nevertheless, it is perfectly legitimate to use the pole in that way if
it is to break the force of an abrupt drop from rest to rest--as, for
instance, when a <DW72> is broken into binks separated by drops of from
three to six feet. In such cases a jump is often dangerous, and the life
of Mr. Pope, lost on _Great Gable_ in 1882, is only one of many which
have been similarly sacrificed.


=Force Crag= is reached from Keswick by way of Braithwaite station and
the long _Coledale_ valley. Here the track of the disused mining tram is
a well-engineered road direct to the foot of the crag, where the
fragments of the baryta mine are littered about. The best climb is up to
the basin, into which pours the force, and then, leaving the force on
the right, ascend a steep, dry gully. The rock is very treacherous,
being not only loose, but covered with long fringes of rotten heather.
It is very difficult to get out, as the top part steepens rapidly. The
force is very fatal to sheep. On one occasion the writer counted no less
than six of their carcasses in the basin.


=Froswick.=--It is most easily reached from Staveley or Windermere by
following up the valley of the Kent, or from Ambleside by crossing the
Garbourn Pass into the same valley. This hill resembles _Ill Bell_ and
_Rainsborrow Crag_ in character, and has a very steep face towards the
north-east, 300 or 400 ft. high. It is on sheet 20 of the Ordnance map
of Westmorland.


=Gaping Gill Hole=, in Yorkshire, on the south side of _Ingleborough_,
is most easily got at from Clapham, on the Midland Railway. It lies
higher up than the well-known _Clapham_ or _Ingleborough Cave_, and both
should be visited in the same expedition. The actual funnel is about 8
ft. by 20 ft., and Mr. Birkbeck, of Settle, partly descended it many
years ago. There is a ledge of rock about 190 ft. down, from which a
plumb-line drops a further distance of 166 ft. Strangers often pass
close to the place without finding it.


=Gash Rock.=--We are indebted to Colonel Barrow for this name, which he
bestowed on _Blea Crag_ in Langstrath apparently for no better reason
than that he knew a man called Gash, who did not know the name of the
rock, or how to climb it.

This rock is the 'spy fortalice' spoken of in Prior's Guide. It is an
upstanding block of squarish outline, conspicuous on the left hand as
one ascends Langstrath from Borrowdale. It is climbed from the side
which faces down the valley, and is rather a stiff little rock of its
inches.

It was climbed by Mr. Owen Jones and Mr. Robinson on September 6, 1893,
but there is some doubt whether it had not been done before (see _Blea
Crag_).


=Gavel=--apparently the local form in the North of England of the
Southern 'Gable.' In the older maps 'Great Gable' is usually spelt in
this way, and for part of that mountain the name _Gavel Neese_ (i.e.
nose) still lingers among the shepherds. Generally speaking, in the less
frequented parts, where the names are used only by the shepherds, we
find this form. Thus we have _Gavel Fell_ between Loweswater and
Ennerdale, _Gavel-pike_ on St. Sunday Crag, _Gavelcrag_ on the south end
of _High Street_, and again on _Seat Sandal_, and this form is used in
the Lowlands of Scotland, while on the more frequented _Skiddaw_ we get
_Gablegill_. In Icelandic, 'gafl' is said to mean 'the end of a house or
of a ship.'


=Gill= (or _Ghyll_).--In a large part of the North of England this is
the regular word for a stream flowing between walls of rock. It is by
many regarded as a test-word for Scandinavian settlements, and it is
certainly more abundant in such districts, but notice should be taken of
the fact that in Kent it is applied to the steep wooded <DW72>s of a
brook-valley. There is good authority for both spellings, but the less
romantic of the two is to be preferred.


=Gimmer Crag=, just behind the inns at _Dungeon Gill_ in _Langdale_, has
good scrambling on it. Mr. Gwynne says of it: 'Between _Harrison
Stickle_ and the _Pike O' Stickle_, commonly called the _Sugarloaf_,
there is a splendid crag that is full of opportunities. This fine piece
of rock, although it has the appearance of being easy, has the
disadvantage of being wet, and therefore more or less dangerous.
However, there are times even in the Lake District when the rain ceases
and the sun shines, and it is then that the climber should gambol upon
this crag.'


=Glaramara=--a long broken hill stretching from Stonethwaite along the
east side of Borrowdale to Esk Hause. Its name is only less disguised
than its nature in the description given of it in the 'Beauties of
England,' p. 65: 'Glamarara is a perpendicular rock of immense height.'
Sir W. Scott has confused it with _Blencathra_. It contains very little
climbing, but _Combe Gill_ and _Pinnacle Bield_ may be mentioned.


=Gordale Scar=--a magnificent limestone ravine near _Malham Cove_, in
Yorkshire, on the line of the great Craven Fault. Bell Busk is the
nearest station, but Settle (6 miles) is generally more convenient. It
has been prosaically compared to a winding street between enormously
high houses, with a river falling out of the first-floor window of one
of them. It is easy to pass out at the head, leaving the water on the
right hand; but on the other side of the water there is quite a little
climb, which, however, the writer has seen a lady do without assistance.


=Goyal.=--This west-country word for a gully will not require
explanation for readers of Mr. Blackmore's 'Lorna Doone.'


=Grain=: the northern word for a prong, and hence the usual name for the
branches of a stream.


=Grassmoor= (2,791 ft.) in the older maps and guide-books (such as
Robinson's) is often called Grasmere or Grasmire. The only climbs which
it presents are on the side which drops steeply down towards the foot of
Crummock Water, and the only inns within a convenient distance are at
Scale Hill (1 mile) and Buttermere (3 miles). There are two gullies
which furrow the mountain side nearly from top to bottom. The more
southerly of these has two pitches in it close to the foot, and the
upper of the two is generally thought as hard as anything on the
mountain. The approved method of doing it is to keep the back to the
rock until the top of the pitch is nearly reached, and then to break out
on the south side. Above this pitch the gully is of little interest. The
north gully is of more sustained merit, but, as seen from below, less
prominent, and therefore easily overlooked. It may, however, be
recognised by its liberal output of scree. It has three pitches near the
foot, and in all three the hold is somewhat scanty. The first forms a
narrow gully rising from left to right, and is the highest and hardest.
Higher up than these a broad wall of rock some 40 ft. high cuts across
the gully and gives a pretty climb. Above the wall there is a branch to
the left containing one little pitch, but the main channel continues.
Loose stones are now the only source of excitement, and climbers are
recommended to get out to the right and finish the ascent along the
rocky ridge of the bank. It is very safe climbing on this face, yet full
of interest and instruction, and for the initiation of a 'young hand'
nothing could be better.


=Great End= (2,984 ft.) has not received justice at the hands of the
Government map-makers, who have scamped their work most shockingly. The
six-inch map would lead the innocent, stranger to imagine that he could
ascend from Sprinkling Tarn by a smooth and gradual <DW72>. The cliffs
are on the right-hand side on the way from Sty Head to Esk Hause, and
are reached from Wastdale or Borrowdale by way of Sty Head, and from
Langdale by Rossett Gill. The best general view is from Sprinkling Tarn.
Col. Barrow, when citing Great End in his book as an instance of a
mountain with one impossible side, no doubt refers to these cliffs,
which, however, long before he wrote, had been climbed in every
direction. He might reasonably object to _Cust's Gully_, invented in
1880, as being quite at the end of the cliff; but from a point some way
below the foot of that gully there is an easy passage, sloping up the
face of the cliff very much like Jack's Rake on _Pavey Ark_, and this
passage was descended by Mr. Cust in the same year that he discovered
the gully. A little later a couple of ardent fox-hunters got into
difficulties in one of the main gullies, and so drew more attention to
these rocks. The whole face was pretty thoroughly explored by the
present writer in the summer of 1882. Two very fine gullies face
Sprinkling Tarn. _Great or Central Gully_, the nearer of the two to
_Cust's_, is also the wider, but not quite so long as the other. It has
a copious scree at the foot, and more than half-way up it divides into
three. The central fork is grassy, that to the right is more abrupt,
while the left-hand way lies for several yards up a wet slide of smooth
and very steep rock. On the slide itself there is hold enough for
comfort; but on getting off it at the head to the left hand there comes
a bit on a disgustingly rotten buttress which even good climbers have
often found very unpleasant. Above this the gully is more open and
very easy, but splendid climbing may be had on either side of it.

[Illustration: GREAT END FROM SPRINKLING TARN
A, Position of _Brigg's climb_ (not seen); B, The east gully; C, The
great central gully; D, _Cust's gully_.]

_The South-East Gully_, as it is usually called, has its mouth only some
20 yards east from that of the last. Being much narrower, it is bridged
by numerous 'choke-stones,' and, while less fine than the other in snow
time, offers in summer a better and rather longer climb. Half-way up or
less there is a fork, the dividing ridge forming quite a sharp _arete_.
Above it the forks coalesce, and as it nears the top the climb can be
varied a good deal.

_Brigg's_ (or _Holmes'_) _Pitch_, of which a photograph will be found in
the Climbers' Book at Wastdale Head, is still nearer to Esk Hause, which
it faces. Mr. Holmes and the Messrs. Brigg, who climbed it on Easter
Monday 1893, describe the difficulty as consisting in a cave formed
quite at the foot of the cliff by a jammed stone, the top of which is
reached by way of the rocks on the north side of it.


=Great Gable= (2,949 ft.) may be ascended with equal ease from Wastdale
or the head of Borrowdale, and is within easy reach of Buttermere. The
simplest way up is by Sty Head, from which half an hour's rough walking
lands one on to the top. The only alternative for Wastdale is 'Moses
Sledgate,' alias _Gavel Neese_, a ridge of rather steep grass, which
offers a very direct way. There is a bit of scrambling on White Napes, a
rocky mass which tops the Neese. Beyond this _Westmorland's Cairn_ is
left on the right hand and the summit cairn comes into sight. People
coming from Buttermere usually go round the head of Ennerdale over
Green Gable, and this is the way generally taken by Borrowdale visitors
for the return journey. The climbing on this mountain is quite
first-class. The _Napes_, _Napes Needle_, and _Kern Knotts_ are
separately described, but in addition to these there are grand crags
overlooking Ennerdale. These are referred to in Col. Barrow's book in
the passage where he defies the Alpine Club to ascend the most difficult
side of certain Lake mountains.

[Illustration: PLAN OF GREAT GABLE
A, _Westmorland's Cairn_; B, _White Napes_; C, E, _Little and Great Hell
Gate_; D, _Great Napes_; F, _Napes Needle_.]

[Illustration: GREAT GABLE FROM THE SOUTH-EAST
A, _Kirkfell_; B, _Beckhead_; C, _White Napes_; D, _Great Napes_;
E, _Westmorland's Cairn_; F, Summit; G, _Tom Blue_; H, _Kern Knotts_.
The path to _Sty Head_ is seen mounting from left to right.]

No one seems even to have looked at these crags till in 1882 Mr. Pope
met his death on this side of the mountain. In that year the writer
found that it was an easy matter to coast along the face of the cliff at
about two-thirds of the height of it, and a year or two later that for
all the ferocious appearance of these rocks there is a natural passage
by which a mountain sheep of ordinary powers might ascend them. Close to
this are the remains of a sort of hut of loose stones, evidently the
refuge of some desperate fugitive of half a century or more ago. Local
tradition speaks of a notorious distiller of illicit whisky, who was
known to have a 'hide' somewhere in this wild neighbourhood. The top of
the easy passage bears by prismatic compass 23 deg. from the highest cairn,
and is marked by a large stone.

To the east of this spot there is fine climbing, the rocks being on a
grand scale and difficult on that account. At intervals large masses are
detached by such agencies as frost, and heavy falls result. One of these
carried with it a slab pinnacle which, though only about 15 ft. high,
was remarkably difficult. The writer, and Messrs. Hastings and Robinson
gave themselves the trouble of climbing it, and consequently heard of
its untimely departure with deep regret.

In April 1890 Mr. J.W. Robinson greatly assisted subsequent climbers by
inserting a sketch in the Wastdale Head book, and this sketch has been
the usual basis of later work.

Gable has the threefold excellence of being splendid to look at,
splendid to look from, and splendid to climb; and one can easily
understand the enthusiasm of Mr. F.H. Bowring, who has ascended it over
one hundred times.


=Green Crag.=--A good piece of rock, though not as sound as it might be,
at the head of _Warnscale_, the recess between _Fleetwith_ and _Scarf
Gap_. It is reached from Buttermere by way of Gatesgarth, and then by
the quarry track which goes up on the south side of Fleetwith to _Dubs_.
There is a fine gully in the crag which is unmistakable. A note of the
ascent of it was made by Messrs. J.W. Robinson and W.A. Wilson in
August 1889.


=Griff=--a valley-name in east Yorkshire, probably connected with
'greave,' which is common in Derbyshire. Phillips says that the
Yorkshire word means 'a narrow, rugged valley.'


=Gurnard's Head=, in Cornwall, not far from St. Ives, is a fine
promontory on which there is good climbing. It is here that the
greenstone ends and the granite begins, prevailing from this point
practically right on to the Land's End.


=Hanging Knot.=--See also _Esk Pike_. The steep breast above Angle Tarn
contains no continuous climb, but there are several good bits in the
rocks and gullies which connect the terraces.


=Hard Knot.=--'Eske,' says Camden, 'springeth up at the foote of
_Hardknot_, an high steepe mountaine, in the top whereof were discovered
of late huge stones and foundations of a castle not without great
wonder, considering it is so steepe and upright that one can hardly
ascend up to it.'

This refers of course to the Roman camp, which is nowhere near the top.
The 'mountaine' scarcely deserves the name; it is not high, and though
rugged offers no climbing. Writers much later than Camden refer to it as
if it were one of the highest hills in England. Even Gray, in his
_Journal_, says 'Wrynose and Hardknot, two great mountains, rise above
the rest.'

[Illustration: HANGING KNOT FROM ANGLE TARN]

The usually accurate West introduces in the funniest way both 'the
broken ridge of Wrynose' and 'the overhanging cliff of Hardknot' into
his description of the view from Belle Isle on Windermere, and says that
they, with others,'form as magnificent an amphitheatre, and as grand an
assemblage of mountains, as ever the genius of Poussin,' &c.; and then
adds a note to say that they 'are named as being in the environs, and
are in reality not seen from the island.'


=Harrison Stickle=, 'the next neighbour of _Pavey Ark_, is another happy
hunting-ground for beginners. There are at least four good routes up.
There is one to the north-east which is fairly difficult. Due south
there are two or three rather steep gills, that may be climbed with a
certain amount of ease. But in no case should the climber, even on the
easiest of these routes, omit to use the rope and take every precaution
against preventable accidents.' Thus speaks Mr. Gwynne in the _Pall Mall
Gazette_, and to his remarks little need be added, except that it must
be borne in mind nothing on this group is quite in the same class as
_Pavey Ark_. The obvious starting-point for either is Dungeon Gill at
the very foot, where there are two inns, but Grasmere is within easy
reach, being only about an hour further off.


=Hause= (_hass_, _horse_, _-ourse_, _-ose_): used in the North for a
pass. The word means 'neck' or 'throat,' the latter being the sense most
felt in local names, where it refers more to lateral contraction than to
vertical depression, being thus parallel to _gorge_ rather than to
_col_.


=Haystacks=, just east of Scarf Gap, has one craggy bit on it where, as
appears from the curious map published in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for
1751, eagles then built. The name is often quoted as an instance of the
Norse word which occurs in _Stack Polly_, and frequently on the Scotch
coast, but West says it was called _Hayrick_ (_sic_) on account of its
shape.


=Hell Gate.=--A channel on _Great Gable_, just by the east end of the
_Napes_. It is the outlet for immense quantities of scree. The older
name, _Deep Gill_, has during the last twenty years being quite
supplanted. The present name, if less pretty, is more precise, and saves
confusion with the better known _Deep Gill_ on _Scafell_.


=Hell Gill.=--There are many gills and becks bearing this name. Speaking
of one in Yorkshire, Leland says it is 'a Bek called Hell Gill because
it runnithe in such a deadely place. This Gill commithe to Ure.' The
idea is amplified by Camden: 'Where Richmondshire bordereth upon
Lancashire amongst the mountaines it is in most places so vast,
solitary, unpleasant and unsightly, so mute and still also that the
borderers dwelling thereby have called certaine riverets creeping this
waie "Hellbecks." But especially that about the head of the river Ure,
which having a bridge over it of one entier stone falleth downe such a
depth, that it striketh in a certaine horror to as many as looke downe.'
The best known Hell Gill, which at one time had considerable reputation
as a climb, is quite near the foot of _Bowfell_ on the Langdale side.
Though on a small scale, it is highly picturesque. The south fork is
hardly passable in ordinary weather owing to a small waterfall, below
which is a deep pool flanked by perpendicular walls of rock, and except
in very dry seasons it is necessary to crawl up the red rotten slabs,
steep, slimy, and wet, which form the north fork. The gill should be
visited more often than it is, as it is directly on one of the best ways
up the mountain from Dungeon Gill and Langdale generally.


=Helm Crag.=--Colonel Barrow, speaking of this hill, observes that
climbing among these rocks requires care. There are places quite as
dangerous and as difficult as on any rock-work on the Alps. He was
deterred from climbing the rock which is supposed to resemble a mortar,
by a slab of rock slanting sideways, but in his opinion there was no
great difficulty, except that arising from the absence of hold for hand
and foot--an exception of some importance.


=Helvellyn.=--A mountain which belongs equally to Grasmere and to
Patterdale, though the latter has by far the finest side of it.
_Striding Edge_ on this side was at one time considered to present
terrors such as the hardy mountaineer was not likely to encounter
elsewhere. This side is cut up into deep coves, which are exceedingly
steep and afford many opportunities for scrambling, and near the path in
Grisedale there is one of the numerous _Eagle Crags_.

On the west side there is no climbing on the mountain itself, but on the
range of _Dodds_, which runs away to the north, there is capital work to
be found; see _Bram Crag_ and _Wanthwaite Crags_. It was in connection
with Helvellyn that Colonel Barrow issued his famous challenge to the
Alpine Club. After stating that he had ascended the mountain by every
possible way of getting up it, and that it is the easiest of mountains
to ascend from any direction that is possible, he continues: 'No one, I
think, will venture the impossible, which may be found on all the
highest mountains in the Lake District. They have their precipitous
sides for adventurous climbers, who, I promise, will never get up them
even if they have a mind to try--viz., these, _Great Gable_, _Great
End_, _Helvellyn_, _Fairfield_, &c. Most of the difficult things in the
Alps have been accomplished. Here is a new field for any of the
adventurous climbers of our club: let them try these precipitous sides!'
Helvellyn was long regarded as the loftiest of the Lake mountains, the
height assigned to it by West being 3,324 ft., and even its tame grassy
<DW72>s towards _Wythburn_ were thought very terrible indeed. In the
'Beauties of England' Thirlmere is described as 'a scene of desolation
which is much heightened by the appearance of the immense craggy masses,
that seem to hang on the sides of Helvellyn, from whose <DW72>s they have
apparently been severed, but arrested in their tremendous progress down
the mountain by the impulse of gravitation. Huge and innumerable
fragments of rocks hang pendant from its sides, and appear ready to fall
and overwhelm the curious traveller who dares to ascend its wild and
fantastic heights.'


=Heron Crag=, Eskdale.--A rock in _Eskdale_ (q.v.) which was long
reputed inaccessible. It was supposed to be 120 yards high, and to have
a front like polished marble. It will be found north of the Esk river,
not far from _Throstlegarth_ (Cumberland, sheet 79).


=High Level.=--This name was bestowed about the year 1880 on a
particular route, by means of which the north-east foot of the _Pillar
Rock_ may be reached from _Black Sail_ along the face of the mountain,
thus avoiding the descent into Ennerdale and the subsequent laborious
ascent to the rock. The saving in time is very considerable, but the way
is so easily missed in thick weather that a stranger who attempted it
would probably gain nothing but an exciting walk.

After reaching the slight hollow between _Lookingstead_ and _Pillar
Fell_, _Green Cove_ is seen below. Here a descent may be made at once,
but it is better to proceed westward till about two dozen uprights of
the iron railing are passed, and then to descend, keeping as much to the
left as the cliffs will allow. The whole art of choosing a line along
this face is to cross each successive cove as high up as may be done
without getting impeded by rocky ground. The ridges which separate the
coves mostly form small headlands, and just above each headland a strip
of smooth grass crosses the ridge. Economy in time is usually of more
importance at the end than at the beginning of a day, and it is well to
know that, whereas from the foot of the rock to _Black Sail_ by way of
the valley would take up the greater part of an hour, Mr. Hastings and
the writer once timed themselves on the _High Level_, and found that
they reached _Lookingstead_ in 18 minutes and the ford in Mosedale in
seven minutes more.


=High Stile=, in Cumberland, between Ennerdale and Buttermere, has a
height of 2,643 ft., and on its north-west side a few good crags. It is
best reached by following up the course of _Sour Milk Gill_ from the
foot of Buttermere to _Bleaberry Tarn_, which can be reached from any of
the inns in an hour's walking. In a note made in the Wastdale Head book
in August 1887, Mr. Robinson called attention to these rocks, and he it
is who has done most of the exploration here.

The principal climbing is in and about a gully in the centre. A course
may be taken up very steep grassy binks with the gully on the right
hand. The gully itself was climbed direct in September 1893 by Messrs.
Jones, Robinson and Wilson, and they found the second pitch very
difficult. The same party also ascended 'a short, black-looking chimney
away round on the left of the great crag, and nearer the top of the
mountain.' The very hard upper pitch was passed on the right hand, and
the final pull was by the arms alone. Both climbs are in full view from
Rigg's Buttermere Hotel.

The mountain is called _High Steel_ in some early maps, and in that of
the Ordnance it comes on sheet 69.


=High Street=, with the Roman road running all along its ridge, lies
between Patterdale and Mardale Green, in Westmorland. It has a fine
precipitous side towards the latter place at Blea Water (see _Dixon's
Three Jumps_), and at the south end of it, about Gavel Crag and
Bleathwaite Crag, there are some good rocky faces, which can be readily
found by following up the course of the beck from Kentmere.


=Hobcarton Crags= have a considerable repute, which they have only
retained by reason of their not being very easily got at. The simplest
way of reaching them from Keswick is to take the train to Braithwaite,
then go up the straight Coledale until Force Crag is passed, then trace
the stream which comes down the hill on the right. Hobcarton is just
over the ridge, and the crags are on the left-hand side of the valley. A
descent may be made of a ridge which forms the right bank of a gill,
which runs from near the col where you are now standing; the gill itself
is too rotten.

The _Crags_ are very steep and very rotten; but there is one curiosity
about them, in the shape of a continuous sloping ledge, growing very
narrow indeed towards the top. It rises gradually in the direction of
_Hopegillhead_. The crags are picturesque, but can be traversed in any
direction without difficulty, and present no definite climb. Another way
of reaching them from Keswick is by crossing Whinlatter Pass, and on the
far side turning up the first valley to the left hand.


=Honister=, one of the grandest crags in Cumberland, is reached from
either Buttermere or Borrowdale. It is one of the chief attractions of
the 'Buttermere Round' made by the breaks from Keswick. If quarrymen
could only have been persuaded to let it alone, it would have been a
delightful climbing ground; as things are, we can only look and long.
Apart from the great crag there is a fine view of the lakes below from
the summit (called _Fleetwith Pike_). Owing to its position near the
black-lead mines, this was one of the earliest Lake mountains of which
we have a recorded ascent. It was made before the middle of last
century, and, so far as can be made out, these early mountaineers
ascended from Seathwaite and passed to the northward of _Grey Knotts_,
and so to the top of Fleetwith. 'The precipices were surprisingly
variegated with apices, prominencies, spouting jets of water, cataracts
and rivers that were precipitated from the cliffs with an alarming
noise' [Sourmilkgill]. On reaching the apparent top, they were
astonished to perceive a large plain to the west, and from thence
another craggy ascent, which they reckoned at 500 yards. 'The whole
mountain is called _Unnisterre_ or, as I suppose, Finisterre, for such
it appears to be.' In about another hour two of the party gained this
summit--'the scene was terrifying--the horrid projection of vast
promontories, the vicinity of the clouds, the thunder of the explosions
in the slate quarries, the dreadful solitude, the distance of the plain
below, and the mountains heaped on mountains that were lying around us
desolate and waste, like the ruins of a world which we only had survived
excited such ideas of horror as are not to be expressed. We turned from
this fearful prospect, afraid even of ourselves, and bidding an
everlasting farewell to so perilous an elevation. We descended to our
companions, repassed the mines, got to Seathwayte, were cheerfully
regaled by an honest farmer in his _puris naturalibus_, and returned to
Keswic about nine at night.'


=Hope= (_-hop_, _-up_): used by Leland as equivalent to 'brook,' but
usually taken to mean a retired upland valley. The Icelandic 'hop' is
applied to landlocked bays.


=Hough=--a hill name in east Yorkshire. Phillips says that it is
equivalent to 'barf,' and means 'a detached hill.' It is pronounced
'hauf.' If this be the exact sense, it can hardly be the same word as
'heugh,' which is used further north for 'crag' or 'precipice,' and it
is perhaps merely another form of 'how' or 'haugh.'


=How= (_-oe_, _-ah_, _-a_, _-haw_): a Norse word for a burial mound,
found all over the North of England.


=Ice-axe.=--On the high Fells in time of snow an axe is a safeguard of
vital importance. Quite apart, too, from the comfort and security which
it alone can give, it is an implement which can only be properly
manipulated after long practice, and consequently a beginner should
eagerly avail himself of every opportunity of acquiring dexterity in the
use of it. From Christmas to Easter there is nearly always snow enough
on the fells of Cumberland to give excellent practice in step-cutting.


=Ill Bell.=--A Westmorland hill forming a series of three with
_Froswick_ and _Rainsborrow Crag_. Its north or north-easterly face is
very steep for a height of about 300 ft. Staveley is perhaps the best
starting-point for these three; but they can be managed quite easily
from Ambleside or Mardale Green. _Ill Bell_ is on sheet 20 of the
Ordnance map of Westmorland.


=Ingleborough=, 2,361 ft., one of the most striking of the Yorkshire
mountains, of which the poet Gray spoke as 'that huge creature of God.'
Readers of the 'Heart of Midlothian' will remember how it reminded
Jeannie Deans of her 'ain countrie.' The most exaggerated ideas of its
height formerly prevailed. Even in 1770 it was commonly reckoned at
3,987 ft., and Hurtley actually gives 5,280 ft.

Its top is only about four miles from Clapham, and ponies can go all the
way. It is ascended far and away more frequently than any other
Yorkshire hill, and consists mainly of limestone cliffs and <DW72>s of
shale, with a certain amount of millstone grit.

Here are some very remarkable caves (see _Alum Pot_ and _Gaping Gill
Hole_), and of some of these there is an early description by Mr. Adam
Walker in the _Evening General Post_ for September 25, 1779, which is
quoted by West, and an account of an ascent of it made in the year 1761
is also extant.


=Jack's Rake= is a natural passage across the face of _Pavey Ark_ in
Langdale. The first notice ever taken of it by any but shepherds was a
note in the visitors' book belonging to the inn at Dungeon Gill by Mr.
R. Pendlebury, who spoke highly of it, considering it to be a striking
yet simple excursion among magnificent rock scenery. After a time the
world came to look at _Pavey Ark_, and seeing an impossible-looking
combination of ravine and precipice, concluded, not unnaturally, that it
must be what Mr. Pendlebury had found a pleasant yet simple stroll.
Under this delusion, they began to try to climb what is now known as the
Great Gully in _Pavey Ark_, and did not expect to find a place anything
like the real _Jack's Rake_.

Mr. Gwynne, in 1892, says of it: 'Along the face of the cliff there runs
a ledge that looks from below hardly wide enough for a cat to stand
upon. However, if an attempt is made to climb it, it will be found wide
enough for two fat men walking abreast. Towards the top it tapers off
again, and the climber will have to do a bit of scrambling to get on to
the summit of the precipice. This is a climb which offers no difficulty
whatever, unless the climber is given to attacks of giddiness, and if
that is the case there will hardly be any need to tell him that he has
no business there at all. This ledge, however, offers a multitude of
good opportunities to the climber. It runs obliquely across the face of
the precipice, but it need not necessarily be followed throughout its
length by the mountaineer who wishes for something a little more
exciting.

'About halfway up there runs on to the ledge a chimney which, when it is
not a small waterfall, forms a pleasant climb to some broken rock above,
whence the summit is easily reached. If, however, the water in the
chimney makes it uncomfortable and unpleasant for the climber, he may
still arrive at the top of it by choosing a long bit of steep smooth
rock to the left. There are two cliffs which afford fairly good hand and
foot holds, and from there the top of the chimney is attained.'

It is remarkable that a gallery more or less resembling this is found on
many of the chief precipices in the Lakes. There is a steeper one on the
Ennerdale Crags of _Great Gable_; there are two on the Ennerdale face of
the _Pillar Rock_, and on _Scafell_ the _Rake's Progress_ and _Lord's
Rake_ in their mutual relation closely resemble this rake and the wide
gully at the north end of it.

[Illustration: PAVEY ARK AND STICKLE TARN
A, Narrow gully; B, Big gully; C, D, Smaller gullies; E, Wide scree
gully. From the foot of E to A runs _Jack's Rake_.]


=Kern Knotts= are on the south side of _Gable_, close to the _Sty Head_.
There is a short but difficult gully here on the side facing Wastdale,
which was climbed by Messrs. Owen Jones and Robinson in 1893, but
described by them under the name of _Tom Blue_, a rock much higher up
the mountain.


=Keswick.=--Though rather too distant from the very best climbing, this
is an excellent centre in point of variety.

Of _Skiddaw_ and _Saddleback_ it enjoys a monopoly, while _Helvellyn_,
_Gable_ and _Scafell Pikes_ are all within the compass of a day's work.
The railway is a convenience, of course, but not as useful as one might
expect in extending the field of operations, because most of the places
to which it goes are of little interest. The town is very well supplied
with driving facilities, such as coaches, breaks and omnibuses.

The clay-slate of which the Skiddaw and Grassmoor groups are composed
provides climbing of smaller quantity and inferior quality to that found
among the harder rocks of what is called the 'Borrowdale Series,' but
there are a few good scrambles west of Derwentwater, such as _Eel_ (or
_Ill_) _Crag_, _Force Crag_, and _Hobcarton_. The nearest good rocks are
in the neighbourhood of _Wallow Crag_, but there is no pleasure in
climbing with a crowd of gaping excursionists below. A much pleasanter
day may be spent in a visit to _Wanthwaite_. Of Keswick itself an early
writer says that the poorer inhabitants subsist chiefly by stealing or
clandestinely buying of those who steal the black-lead, which they sell
to Jews and other hawkers; but whatever changes the character of the
people has or has not undergone, it is not easy to believe that the
scenery is the same as that which the early writers describe.

Camden's tone is neutral: 'Compassed about with deawy hilles and fensed
on the North side with that high mountaine _Skiddaw_ lieth _Keswike_;'
but two centuries later, when the place began to be fashionable, this
description would not have satisfied any one. The great characteristic
of the scenery was considered to be its power of inspiring terror. Dr.
Brown in his famous 'Letter' dwells upon the 'rocks and cliffs of
stupendous height hanging broken over the lake in horrible grandeur,
some of them a thousand feet high, the woods climbing up their steep and
shaggy sides, where mortal foot never yet approached. On these dreadful
heights the eagles build their nests, ... while on all sides of this
immense amphitheatre the lofty mountains rise round, piercing the clouds
in shapes as spiry and fantastic as the very rocks of Dovedale.... The
full perfection of Keswick consists of three circumstances, _beauty_,
_horror_ and _immensity_ united.'


=Kirkfell= has two fine buttresses of rock at the back, facing
Ennerdale, but they are broken up and so only fit for practice climbs.
They are, however, not unfrequently assailed by climbers who imagine
themselves to be scaling the crags of Great Gable. The direct ascent
from Wastdale is one of the steepest lengths of grass <DW72> to be found
among these hills. The only gully on this fell is _Illgill_, which faces
_Lingmell_ and contains two or three severe pitches. It is rather seldom
visited, and is exposed to falling stones.


=Lancashire.=--Though some of the rough country which borders on
Yorkshire contains a rocky bit here and there, Lancashire climbing has
no real interest except in that part of it which belongs to the Lake
country. The climax of this part is reached in the neighbourhood of
_Coniston_. South of the Lakes there are some limestone crags of
striking form. The impression produced on Defoe by what we consider the
exceptionally beautiful scenery of the Lune valley is curious. 'This
part of the country seemed very strange and dismal to us (nothing but
mountains in view and stone walls for hedges; sour oatcakes for bread,
or clapat-bread as it is called). As these hills were lofty, so they had
an aspect of terror. Here were no rich pleasant valleys between them as
among the Alps; no lead mines and veins of rich ore as in the Peak; no
coal-pits as in the hills about Halifax, but all barren and wild and of
no use either to man or beast.'


=Langdale.=--(See _Bowfell_, _Pavey Ark_ and _Pike o'Stickle_, _Gimmer
Crag_, _Harrison Stickle_, _Oak How_.) By many thought the finest valley
in Westmorland; the name is often written Langden or Langdon by old
authorities.

Dungeon Gill has always been a favourite haunt of climbing folk, and
from this base strong walkers can easily manage to reach _Scafell_,
_Gable_, _Coniston_, _Old Man_, or _Helvellyn_ in the day.


=Limestone= is abundant in Derbyshire and Yorkshire, and forms the fine
cliffs of Cheddar in Somerset, Berry Head in Devon, Anstis Cove and
others; indeed most of the south coast of Devon and Cornwall east of
Penzance is of this material. Chudleigh Rock and Morwell Rocks on the
river Tamar are very striking. West, speaking of this rock in
Lancashire, says, 'The whiteness and neatness of these rocks take off
every idea of _horror_ that might be suggested by their bulk or form.'
In England it is very rare to find limestone which is a satisfactory
material on which to climb.


=Lingmell=, called _Lingmoor_ by Wilkinson, is a mere shoulder of
Scafell Pike. It has, however, some fine cliffs facing those of _Great
Napes_ on Gable; between these two Housman thought a collision imminent.
These used to be thought inaccessible, but were climbed by Mr. Bowring
about 1880. There is a striking view of them from near Sty Head. The eye
looks right along the dark ravine of Piers Gill, which is apparently
overhung by the long line of these crags, rising from tongues of rock
divided by huge fan-shaped banks of scree. There is a good deal of
chance about the climbing here. It may be exciting, or you may just
happen to avoid what difficulties there are. It is a very treacherous
rock, especially low down, where curious long stone pegs are lightly
stuck in the ground and come away at the first touch. A few feet below
the top stands a curious pinnacle of forbidding appearance, of which a
sensational photograph has been taken; but Mr. Robinson found one side
from which the top is reached with ridiculous ease. Further west there
are gullies facing Kirkfell which are worth climbing, though there is
much unsound rock. (See also _Piers Gill_.)

[Illustration: LINGMELL AND PIERS GILL]


=Lingmoor=, rather over a mile south-east of Millbeck Inn, and near Oak
How, is a little pinnacle of which a photograph and a description by Mr.
H.A. Gwynne will be found in the Climbers' book at that place. In old
maps the name is sometimes found applied to _Lingmell_.

[Illustration: LORD'S RAKE AND RAKE'S PROGRESS
A, The foot of _Moss Gill_; B, The foot of _Steep Gill_;
C-D, _Lord's Rake_; C-A, Part of _Rake's Progress_.]


=Lord's Rake.=--A well-known scree-shoot in the north face of Scafell,
for the ascent of which from Mickledoor it offers an easy route without
climbing. The earliest account of its being used for this purpose is in
the _Penny Magazine_ for 1837 at p. 293: 'It is very laborious and looks
dangerous, but in fact there is no risk except that of a sprained
ankle. It is through the Lord's Rake, a shaft between two vertical walls
of rock about five yards across all the way up, and twenty or
twenty-five minutes' hard climbing on all fours up a <DW72> of about 45 deg..
The place must have been cut out by a watercourse, but is now dry and
covered with light shingle. It looks right down into Hollow Stones (the
deep vale between the Pikes and Scafell), and most fearful it does look,
but it is not dangerous. When we reached the inn at Eskdale over Scafell
my shepherd was very proud of having brought me through the Lord's Rake,
and the people were much surprised. It seems to be rather a feat in the
country. It is the strangest place I ever saw. It may be recommended to
all who can bear hard labour and enjoy the appearance of danger without
the reality.' 'Prior's Guide' contained the first good description of
this rake.


=Luxulion=, in Cornwall, is of interest to the mineralogist and the
travelled mountaineer on account of its enormous block.

According to Mr. Baddeley, this is the largest block in Europe, larger
than any of the famous boulders at the head of the Italian lakes, and it
may take rank with the largest known, the Agassiz blocks in the Tijuca
mountains near Rio Janeiro. He gives the dimensions as 49 feet by 27
feet with 72 feet girth, yet makes no allusion to the _Bowder Stone_ in
_Borrowdale_, which in another work he describes as being 60 feet long,
30 feet high, and weighing 1,900 tons. It would appear, therefore, that
the _Bowder Stone_ is considerably larger than the largest stone in
Europe without being so remarkable for size as another stone in England.


=Malham Cove.=--A fine example of the limestone scenery of the Craven
Fault. The river Aire gushes forth from the base of the cove, which can
easily be seen in the same excursion as _Gordale Scar_. The nearest town
is Skipton-in-Craven and the nearest station Bell Busk, but Settle is
very little farther and will generally be found the most convenient
starting-point.


=Mardale Green=, at the head of Hawes Water, is a delightful and little
visited spot. In the way of climbing it commands _High Street_, _Harter
Fell_, _Froswick_, _Ill Bell_, and _Rainsborrow Crag_. The best near
climbs are about _Bleawater_ and _Riggindale_.


=Mellbreak.=--One of the few Cumberland fells which the indefatigable
Colonel Barrow seems to have left unvisited; yet no one who stops at
Scale Hill or Buttermere will consider wasted a day spent upon it. The
proper course is to begin at the end which faces Loweswater village and
ascend by _Frier's Gill_, a nice little climb. Having reached the top of
the gill and then the summit plateau, proceed to the hollow about the
middle of the mountain, and from there descend the highly curious
_Pillar Rake_, which gradually <DW72>s down towards the foot of Crummock
Water. It is not a climb, but any one who is not content with the study
of mountain form can find climbing in the little gullies which ascend
the rocks above the rake. Sheet 63 of the Ordnance map of Cumberland
contains it.


=Mickledoor Chimney=, in the cliffs of Scafell, is not the easiest, but
the most obvious point at which to attack them. It is conspicuous from
the _Pikes_, and would probably be selected by any experienced stranger
as the most vulnerable point. It was visited about the year 1869 by Mr.
C.W. Dymond, who contributed to 'Prior's Guide' the earliest and best
description of it. He says that, 'leaving _Mickledoor_ Ridge, you pass
the fissure leading to _Broad Stand_, and continue descending steeply
for two minutes, which brings you to a narrow gully in the rock, with a
thread of water trickling down it over moss. This is the _cheminee_ to
be ascended, and there is no special difficulty in it until you are near
the top. Here the gully, of which the 'chimney' forms the lower section,
is effectually blocked for some distance, and the only alternative is to
climb out of it by the rock which forms the right wall, and which is
about 12 ft. high, the lower six vertical and the upper a steep slant.
This, which can only be scaled _a la_ chimney-sweep, is exceedingly
difficult, as is also the gymnastic feat of escaping to _terra firma_
from the narrow shelf on which the shoulder-and-hip work lands you.'
This is very clear and in the main correct, but there is another and
easier exit much lower down called 'the Corner,' and there is a third
exit only a few feet from the mouth of the chimney. All these are on the
right hand, for the opposite bank is not only much higher and much
smoother, but would lead to nothing if it were surmounted. It is not
really necessary to enter the chimney at all, for the edge presented
where the bank cuts the wall bounding the screes is quite assailable,
and just right of it there is a point which may even be called easy;
but two terrible accidents which have occurred at this spot prove the
necessity of care.

Until the extraordinarily dry season of 1893 the moss-grown block at the
very head of the chimney had never been climbed. It was accomplished on
the 12th of September by Mr. W.H. Fowler. By standing on the shoulders
of a tall man he was able to reach a slight hold and to establish
himself on a rough rectangular block forming the floor of a recess big
enough to hold one man. The block above it was holdless, and overhanging
and loose stones were a great nuisance.


=Micklefell.=--The highest mountain in Yorkshire, but except on that
account it possesses no special attraction. The best starting-point is
the High Force Inn in Teesdale, 5 miles from Middleton. By making the
round of the mountain from High Force to Appleby some very fine
rock-scenery may be enjoyed.


=Millstone grit.=--A material which is very abundant in Yorkshire and
Derbyshire. It is fairly firm, but seldom affords a climb of any
sustained interest. Few kinds of rock weather into such eccentric forms,
and of this propensity _Brimham Rocks_ are a good example. It forms most
of the 'Edges' in Derbyshire, and generally speaking a precipice at the
top of a hill is of this material, while those at the foot are of
limestone.


=Moses' Sledgate= is a curious track, which has evidently been
engineered with considerable care, running from near Seatoller in
Borrowdale at the back of _Brandreth_, round the head of Ennerdale below
_Green_ and _Great Gable_, and then over Beck Head and down Gavel Neese
into Wastdale. The question is, who made it and for what purpose was it
used? A few years ago, the writer, while climbing with two friends among
the crags on the Ennerdale side of _Great Gable_, stumbled quite by
chance on something which seemed to throw a side-light on the question.
This was a ruined hut thickly overgrown with moss, and showing no trace
of any wood having been employed in its construction. The spot had
evidently been chosen primarily with a view to concealment, and the
result of enquiries kindly made since then by one of my friends has been
to elicit proof of certain traditions still lingering among the older
inhabitants of these dales concerning a noted distiller of illicit
spirits, who flourished and defied the law among these wild retreats. At
the same time it is not easy to believe that a smuggler would have
undertaken the construction of such a path as this. In the South of
England, it is true that the smugglers were considerable roadmakers; but
that was at a time when smuggling was a great and well-organised
institution, and it seems much more probable in this case that Moses
made use of an old path constructed for some purpose which had at that
time been abandoned.

The terms 'Moses' Path' and 'Moses' Trod' are also used to describe this
track. It is not noticed in the guide-books, but something is said about
it by Mrs. Lynn Linton.


=Moss Gill=, on Scafell, is the next gully on the east or _Mickledoor_
side of _Steep Gill_. The name _Sweep Gill_ ('from the probable
profession of the future first climber of its extraordinary vertical
chimneys') was suggested for it by Mr. Gilson shortly after its
discovery, but that name has been entirely superseded. The first mention
of it in the Wastdale Head book is a note by the present writer in June
1889, recommending it to any one in search of a new and difficult
climb. His party on that occasion was repulsed after reaching the great
blocks, which have only been passed since by the aid of the artificial
step subsequently cut in the rock. It was tried again a fortnight later
by a party under Mr. R.C. Gilson, which got very nearly, but not quite
as far. Two days later the same party explored the gill from above and
descended in it for a considerable distance. It was not, however, till
three and a half years later, at Christmas, 1892, that the climb was
accomplished by Dr. J.N. Collie, G. Hastings, and J.W. Robinson, and
their account of it is:

[Illustration: MOSS GILL AND STEEP GILL
A, _Moss Gill_ (Collie's exit); B, _Moss Gill_ (Collier's exit):
C, Top of _Steep Gill_. Just below the point to which A and B converge
is the artificial step.]

'The chief points in this climb are, First--to begin on the rock wall to
the right of the foot of the gill and not in the very foot of the
chimney itself, then enter the gill just below the first great pitch,
which may be turned by climbing the wall on the right hand on to a grass
ledge of considerable size, called the "_Tennis Court_"; enter the gill
from here again, and pass into the cavern under the great boulder.'

'We found,' says Dr. Collie, 'that below the great slab which formed the
roof, another smaller one was jammed in the gully, which, stretching
across from side to side, formed the top of a great doorway. Under this
we passed and clambered up on to the top of it. Over our heads the great
rock roof stretched some distance over the gill. Our only chance was to
traverse straight out along the side of the gill, till one was no longer
overshadowed by the roof above, and then, if possible, climb up the face
of rock and traverse back again above the obstacle into the gill once
more. This was easier to plan than to carry out; absolutely no
hand-hold, and only one little projecting ledge jutting out about a
quarter of an inch and about two inches long to stand on, and six or
eight feet of the rock wall to be traversed. I was asked to try it.
Accordingly, with great deliberation, I stretched out my foot and placed
the edge of my toe on the ledge. Just as I was going to put my weight on
to it, off slipped my toe, and if Hastings had not quickly jerked me
back, I should instantly have been dangling on the end of the rope. But
we were determined not to be beaten. Hastings' ice-axe was next brought
into requisition, and what followed I have no doubt will be severely
criticised by more orthodox mountaineers than ourselves. As it was my
suggestion I must take the blame. _Peccavi! I hacked a step in the
rock_--and it was very hard work. But I should not advise any one to try
and do the same thing with an ordinary axe. Hastings' axe is an
extraordinary one, and was none the worse for the experiment. I then
stepped across the _mauvais pas_, clambered up the rock till I had
reached a spot where a capital hitch could be got over a jutting piece
of rock, and the rest of the party followed. We then climbed out of the
gill on the left, up some interesting slabs of rock. A few days later
the gill was again ascended by a party led by Mr. J. Collier. They did
not follow our track to the left after the overhanging rock had been
passed, but climbed straight up, using a crack which looks impossible
from down below, thus adding an extra piece of splendid climbing to the
expedition.'

Only four days after Dr. Collie, a party of five climbers, led by Dr. J.
Collier, made the second ascent of Moss Gill. The description given by
their precursors was of great assistance, and except that the gill was
entered much lower, the same line was followed up to the traverse from
the great boulder. Here, instead of climbing out to the sky line on the
left side, the ascent of the gill itself was completed by climbing the
vertical moss-grown wall on the right. This part was entirely new, and
Dr. Collier's note of his variation, or we may say correction, for his
climb is the more direct of the two, is that the ascent of the wall was
made by using the cleft of the gill for about 15 ft., when a resting
place was reached. Above this point they climbed about 15 ft., and then
traversed out on the face of the wall for about 8 ft. by some ledges
which afforded just sufficient hold. They then ascended vertically about
6 or 8 ft., re-entering the cleft above a small platform of jammed
stones ('Sentry Box'). This gave a starting-point for the completion of
the ascent, which was made by climbing out on to the face of the wall to
enable the jammed stones at the top of the pitch to be turned. These
last stones did not appear to be secure and were avoided. From this
point the gill continues upward at an easy <DW72>, with one pitch of
about 15 ft. to the back of the small summit on the left of _Deep Gill_.
Two days later the ascent was repeated by Dr. Collier in company with
Professor H.B. Dixon and the late Professor A.M. Marshall, the latter
of whom inserted in the Climbers' book a remarkably bold and effective
outline sketch of the gill, with explanatory notes. Speaking of the
climb, he said that Mr. Collier led throughout, and that the success of
the climb was due entirely to him. The climb is a very fine one, and,
except for the leader, is entirely free from danger. At the very awkward
return from Tennis Court Ledge into the gully, the leader can by a short
traverse fix himself directly above the rest of the party. During the
traverse from the 'window' the leader can fix the rope over the
'belaying-pin.' In the great chimney the _Sentry Box_ is a place of
absolute safety. The climb is difficult, but no part of the chimney is
harder than the short rock face leading up to Tennis Court Ledge, and
the most awkward traverse (if covered with snow) is the one from Tennis
Court Ledge back into the gully. For a party of three 80 ft. of rope
would be enough; 100 ft. perhaps better. On January 9, 1893, Mr. O.G.
Jones attacked this formidable climb entirely by himself, following Mr.
Collier's route up to the foot of the Great Chimney, and then Mr.
Hastings' exit to the left. Heavy snow had fallen since the previous
ascents and the climb appeared to be exceedingly difficult. Almost every
hold had to be cleared of snow; essential precautions rendered the climb
of five hours' duration, and it was not completed till after dark (5.45
p.m.). While clearing snow from the more remote portions of the _Collie
traverse_ from the _window_, in search of the third step, the difficulty
of balancing proved too great, and he fell into the gully below. A rope
had been secured round the _window_ and thus prevented his passing
beyond the snow patch on which he fell. The _window_ 'sill,' already
loose, was on the verge of falling, and was therefore pushed over into
the gully. Returning two days later, he found that the two lowest
chimneys in the gill could be taken straight up, and that the simplest
way of reaching Tennis Court Ledge is by 'backing up' the chimney till
the level of the recess in the right-hand face is reached. 'The recess
is near enough to be taken with a stride. It would seem that the Tennis
Court Ledge and traverse back into the gully may be entirely dispensed
with by continuing up the chimney, the small jammed stones being firm
enough to render the necessary assistance. While making these
suggestions concerning small details in the climb, it may be mentioned
that at the _Collie traverse_, which the writer's experience leads him
to think is the most dangerous piece in the gill, an axe may be of much
help to a party. A man fixed on the _window sill_ may press the point of
the axe into a conveniently placed notch in the slab facing him, so that
the lower end of the handle shall supply a firm hand-hold for any one
stretching round the third step.

        _Heights calculated by Mr. Jones._

     Foot of Gill on Rake's Progress        2,625 ft.
     Snow Patch below Tennis Court Ledge    2,805  "
     Tennis Court Ledge                     2,840  "
     Foot of jammed stone pitch             2,870  "
     Window in jammed stones                2,895  "
     Snow patch above                       2,920  "
     Top of left-hand exit                  3,140  "
     Top of Moss Gill proper                3,170  "

It must, however, be borne in mind that these measurements, though
useful for the purposes of comparison, cannot be absolutely correct,
seeing that Scafell itself is only 3,162 ft. high. On February 11
Messrs. Slingsby, Woolley, and R. Williams found the gully very
difficult owing to ice, and recorded an emphatic protest against any
one following their example by attempting it, 'except when the rocks are
dry and quite free from ice.'

On the last day of March Messrs. Brunskill and Gibbs followed, with a
slight improvement, Dr. Collier's route, and made the subjoined
observations, taken apparently with greater care than those by Mr.
Jones:

     Foot of Gill at Rake's Progress                   2,570 ft.
     Snow Patch above jammed stones                    2,865  "
     Top of Great Chimney or Moss wall                 2,965  "
     Top of Gill (neck leading to Deep Gill Pisgah)    3,065  "

It will be seen that while the points are all made lower than Mr.
Jones's table, the height between the commencement of the climb and the
snow patch above the jammed stones is exactly the same--295 ft. In this
case an observation was taken at the cairn on the top of Scafell, and
the aneroid stood at almost exactly the correct figure, which somewhat
confirms the figures now given.


=Napes.=--A collection of fine rocks, starting up like a stack of organ
pipes on the south side of _Great Gable_. The extremity of them nearest
to _Kirkfell_ is called _White Napes_, and sometimes Gable Horn. East of
this is a gap known as _Little Hell Gate_. East of this comes _Great
Napes_, and east of them again is _Great Hell Gate_, which is called
Deep Gill in the Ordnance map.

In September, 1884, a note by the present writer in the book at Wastdale
Head drew attention to these excellent rocks. They are now one of the
most favourite climbs in Wastdale, and contain the well-known _Needle_,
the _Bear Rock_, and the _Arrowhead_, with their respective gullies and
_aretes_.

Just west of _Hell Gate_ there is a considerable width of very large and
steep rock, which continues nearly to the _Needle Ridge_, with only a
few steep and shallow gullies, in which the grass is very rotten. West
of this ridge there is a deep gully, grassy, but exceedingly steep. The
ridge beyond this was ascended in April, 1892, by Messrs. Slingsby,
Baker, Solly, and Brigg, who called it the _Eagle's Nest_ (q.v.). The
narrow gully west of this ridge is apparently that which was climbed on
December 29, 1890, by Mr. R.C. Gilson. He describes it as 'the gully on
the left as you face the mountain of the gully coming down left of the
_Needle_.' He proceeds to say that it presented no special difficulty,
except at a point about one-third of the way up, where there was a large
boulder and a smooth slab thinly glazed with ice. It was claimed as a
first ascent when climbed on April 17, 1892, by Messrs. Solly and
Schintz. West again of this is the ridge of the _Arrowhead_ (q.v.). We
are here getting near the end of _Great Napes_, which are separated on
the west from _White Napes_ by the scree gully which is called _Little
Hell Gate_.


=Napes Needle.=--A rock of very striking form, which, by an eminent
mountaineer, has been compared to a violon-cello.

It stands at the foot of the _Needle Ridge_ in the _Napes_, and was
first climbed by the writer about the end of June, 1886. The second
ascent was made on March 17, 1889, by Mr. G. Hastings, and the third
by Mr. F. Wellford on June 22, Mr. J.W. Robinson following on August 12
in the same year.

[Illustration: NAPES NEEDLE FROM THE WEST
A, _Needle Ridge_; B is reached from below by means of a deep crack
which goes right through the rock. In order to get to C from B it is
necessary to pass round behind to the crack seen at D, along which one
may pass to C, and thence direct to the top.]

Miss Koecher (March 31, 1890) was apparently the first lady to ascend.

It was first climbed from the west; the way on the opposite side is
perhaps less severe, but longer and more varied.

The rock is frequently photographed, and an illustrated article on it
appeared in the _Pall Mall Budget_ of June 5, 1890.


=Needle Ridge= is that ridge of the _Napes_ on _Great Gable_ which is
immediately behind the _Napes Needle_. It was discovered in 1884 by the
writer and Mr. Robinson, and ascended by them in a somewhat desultory
fashion; that is to say, they cut in from the east side nearly at the
top of the difficult face which forms its lower extremity, and also
avoided the topmost piece by passing over on to the easy terrace on the
west side of the ridge. The _arete_ was climbed in a strict and
conscientious manner for the first time by the writer in 1886. This was
a descent, and apparently the first strict ascent was made by Messrs.
Slingsby, Hastings Hopkinson, and a brother of the writer.


=North Climb.=--The first to describe this climb on Scafell was Mr.
Seatree, who says:

'From the ridge we traversed a ledge of grass-covered rock [the Rake's
Progress] to the right, until we reached a detached boulder, stepping
upon which we were enabled to get hand-hold of a crevice 6 or 7 ft.
from where we stood. To draw ourselves up so as to get our feet upon
this was the difficulty; there is only one small foot-hold in that
distance, and to have slipped here would have precipitated the climber
many feet below. Having succeeded in gaining this foot-hold, we found
ourselves in a small rectangular recess, with barely room to turn round.
From here it was necessary to draw ourselves carefully over two other
ledges into a small rift in the rocks, and then traverse on our hands
and knees another narrow ledge of about 8 ft. to the left, which brought
us nearly in a line with Mickledoor Ridge. From here all was
comparatively smooth sailing.'

This climb had been made many years before (1869) by Major Ponsonby
Cundill, R.E., who left his stick in the deep crack behind the ledge
which Mr. Seatree traversed on his hands and knees. The stick was found
in 1884 by Mr. Chas. Cookson. This ledge, by the way, should certainly
be walked or at least sidled in an upright attitude, otherwise ungainly
gambollings are necessary when the time comes for stepping off at the
other end. The descent of the _North Climb_ is decidedly difficult,
unless the ascent has been made just previously, and the climb whether
up or down is an excellent test of style.

A couple of yards to the left there is an alternative to the
'rectangular recess,' and it is known as the 'Rift.' It is to be done by
a wild struggle. It was at one time the wetter and harder of the two
ways, but the conditions are now reversed.


=Old Wall.=--On the east side of the Pillar Rock a natural line of rock
runs down to the head of _Walker's Gully_, having, however, a narrow
passage by means of which sheep may reach the Low Man. A hundred years
ago or more, the shepherds built a wall of loose stones to stop the
sheep, and though little of the wall remains, the name clings to the
spot. At one time the _North-east Route_ was usually spoken of as the
_Old Wall Way_.


=Patriarch.=--By this name the Rev. James Jackson, of Sandwith in
Cumberland, was very widely known. It is an abbreviation of one which he
himself invented and assumed--'Patriarch of the Pillarites.' Some
considerable mention of him is made by Mr. Williamson, but his readers
will be glad to have further particulars, for this was a man of no
ordinary stamp. Born at Millom just before the series of naval victories
which closed the eighteenth century, he passed his boyhood in the thick
of the Buonaparte struggle and shared in it personally when a mere lad.
However, he soon changed the colour of his coat and entered the Church;
but long before his connection with the Pillar he had ceased to take any
active part in his profession. Thenceforward he lived at his ease,
amusing himself by rambles and scrambles far and near among the fells.
'I have knocked about,' he said himself, 'among the mountains ever
since, till I may almost say "I knaw iv'ry craag."' That he was somewhat
of an egotist cannot be denied. In his letters as in his poems his own
feats form the burden of his song. To this point all topics converged
with the same certainty that all roads are said to lead to Rome. He was
never tired of relating how, for instance, in his sixty-ninth year he
had one day walked 46 miles in 14-1/2 hours, on the third day following
56 miles in 18 hours, and after a similar interval 60 miles in less than
20 hours, thus accomplishing within one week three walks, any one of
which might well knock up many a man of half his age; how, on another
occasion, he had found two brethren of his own cloth struggling feebly
to surmount the difficulties of Rossett Gill; how, taking pity upon
their tender years, he had transferred their knapsacks to his own
venerable shoulders and, striding on before, encouraged them to complete
their weary task. A man aged between sixty and seventy might fairly
plume himself on such an exploit. He also rejoiced greatly in the fact
that he had been the first student of St. Bees College--a distinction of
which, as he justly said, no one could ever deprive him. But the feat on
which he especially prided himself was one of bodily activity. During
the third part of a century he held the living of Rivington, near
Bolton-le-Moors. It chanced that the weathercock of his church had
become loose, and the masons rather shrank from the risk of going up to
secure it. Here was an opportunity which our friend could not forego;
and Rivington witnessed the unwonted spectacle of a beneficed clergyman
of the Church of England solemnly swarming up his own steeple and making
fast the vane 'under circumstances of terror which made the workmen
recoil from the task, and the gazing rustics turn sick with horror at
the sight!' While walking proudly back to his parsonage he composed a
commemorative epigram which will bear quotation:

     Who has not heard of Steeple Jack,
       That lion-hearted Saxon?
     Though I'm not he, he was my sire,
       For I am 'Steeple Jackson'!

Indeed, his fancy was as lively as his limbs were supple. He was ever on
the watch for some analogy or antithesis; ever producing some new
alliteration or epigram expressive of such contrasts as that between his
age and his activity. His favourite description of himself was 'senex
juvenilis'--an idea which he frequently put into English, e.g.:

     If this in your mind you will fix
       When I make the Pillar my toy,
     I was born in 1, 7, 9, 6,
       And you'll think me a nimble old boy.

On the late Mr. Maitland, a well-known climber, as only second to
himself in age and ardour, he bestowed the title 'Maitland of Many
Mounts' and 'Patriarch Presumptive of the Pillarites.' There is nothing
strange in his thus designating a successor and bestowing titles of
honour; for these are matter of royal privilege, and he looked upon
himself as the Mountain Monarch and always expected climbers to attend
his mimic court and pay him homage. But he had many a high-flown alias
besides. When Mr. Pendlebury came under his notice he contrasted himself
with the Senior Wrangler, rather neatly, as the 'Senior Scrambler';
after his ascent of the Pillar he dubbed himself 'St. Jacobus Stylites';
and many other titles are introduced into the occasional poems on which
he expended much of his ingenuity.

His bodily powers were not allowed to rust away. 'My adopted motto,' he
said, 'is "Stare nescio,"' and some idea of his boundless love of
enterprise may be formed from one of his letters: 'I have been twelve
months afloat on the wide, wide sea. I have been beneath the falls of
Niagara. I have sung "God save the King" in the hall of St. Peter's; I
have ascended Vesuvius in the eruption of 1828; I have capped Snowdon in
Wales and Slieve Donard in Ireland, and nearly all the hills in this
district.... It only remains for me to mount the Pillar Rock!' Before
the end of the following May this hope was gratified, and a proud moment
it was for this veteran climber when, seated serenely on the summit, he
was able to record in a Greek inscription (written, as he carefully
notes, 'without specs') his ascent of the famous rock. Think of the
life, the energy, the determination that must have been in him! Years
seemed to be powerless to check the current of his blood. Where are we
to look for another of his age--he was now in his eightieth
year--showing any approach to the same combination of enterprise, pluck
and bodily vigour? It cannot be wondered at that his success filled him
with the keenest delight. He wrote off at once in high glee to his
friends and felt quite injured if, in their reply or their delay in
replying, he detected any sign of indifference to his exploit. But true
to his motto 'Stare nescio,' he was not content with this. Within a
month we find him expressing a fear that his title 'Patriarch of the
Pillarites' might not be acknowledged by 'the Western division of the
Order,' and announcing his intention of climbing the Pillar from the
west also in order to secure his claim. He playfully proposes, moreover,
that while he, 'the aged errant knight,' with his faithful squire
toiled up from the west, a certain fair Pillarite should arrive at the
summit from the east and crown his success on the spot by the bestowal
on him of her hand and heart. According to all approved precedent the
'aged errant knight' ought to have bound his lady's favour around his
clerical hat and ranged the mountains extorting from the passing tourist
at the point of his alpenstock a confession of her peerless beauty; or
for her sake betaken himself to the Rock and there passed nights of
vigil and days of toil assisting distressed damsels in the terrible
passage of the 'Slab.' Whatever he did, he made no attempt on the west
route. Perhaps despair of the reward had cooled his zeal--zeal
conditional like that of the Hindoo teacher who, when asked whether he
professed the creed which he was anxious to teach, naively replied, 'I
am not a Christian; but I expect to be one shortly--if sufficient
inducement offers.'

There is a sad and sharp contrast in turning from his high spirits and
playful fancy to his sudden death. It has been described elsewhere.
Though fourscore and two was (as he himself expressed it on the very day
of his death) the 'howdah' on his back, it cannot be said that the
ever-growing howdah had crushed its bearer. His vigour was unimpaired.
Like Walter Ewbank,

             To the very last,
     He had the lightest foot in Ennerdale.

Indeed, the same thing might have happened to a boy. It was an accident;
but it might be rash to say that it was a misfortune, or that he would
himself have regarded any other death as preferable. His life had
already been longer and more varied than falls to ordinary men; but the
change could not long have been delayed. A few months would have seen
his faculties failing and his powers decayed. To a man of his habits and
temperament inaction would have been the most terrible affliction, and
though he might have dragged on for years, his strength would truly have
been labour and sorrow.

Two years before he had stood close to this very spot. 'Almost all the
mountains,' he said, 'which I had known in youth, in manhood, and in old
age were visible, and seemed to give me a kindly greeting "for auld lang
syne." In the fervour of admiration I might have chanted, "Nunc
dimittis, Domine, servum tuum in pace."' We may well believe that, had
the old man foreseen his fate, he would have gladly welcomed it, and
have found for it no fitter place among all his beloved mountains than
this quiet cove almost within the shadow of the majestic rock.


=Patterdale= is a place where a climber may spend a week or two with
much enjoyment, though the quality of the rocks is by no means
first-rate. It is the best centre for _Helvellyn_, _Fairfield_, and _St.
Sunday Crag_, and convenient for _Swarthbeck_ and the whole _High
Street_ range. On _Place Fell_, fine as it looks, there is not much
worth climbing. _Deepdale_ and _Dovedale_ are both worth exploring.


=Pavey Ark=, one of the Langdale Pikes, is easily reached in
three-quarters of an hour from Dungeon Gill. On it will be found some
splendid climbing, including the _Big Gully_, the _Little Gully_,
_Jack's Rake_ (q.v.), and many minor points of interest. The two chief
gullies stand on either side of a buttress of rock, the top of which
forms a tooth on the sky line. The _Little Gully_ is on the south side
of it, and is V-shaped, giving a very straightforward but pleasant
climb. But the _Great Gully_ has two considerable difficulties, one low
down and the other near the top. The lower is caused by a huge block
covering a considerable cavern. The way is either right through the
cavern and out again through a narrow hole, or up a high grassy bank on
the right hand. In either case a narrow place is reached, walled in
between the big block and a smaller one on the right hand. Here the
difficulty is that the walls nearly meet towards the top, so that it is
necessary, in order to get room for the head, to go rather 'outside.'
However, a second man with a rope can hold the leader very securely, and
a piece of rock having come away, the headroom is much more commodious
than it used to be. Just below the level of _Jack's Rake_ there are some
very 'brant and slape' inclines of wet or muddy rock, which most people
consider the worst part of the climb. There is very little hold, and
what there is was on the occasion of the first ascent lubricated by a
film of fine mud. On reaching _Jack's Rake_ several variations may be
made, and straight ahead there is a very neat little chimney. These
upper rocks are of splendid gripping quality; rough as a cow's tongue,
it would be quite difficult to make a slip on them. The Big Gully was
climbed by the writer in the summer of 1882, and the small one in June
1886. In March 1887 Mr. Slingsby made a note about the former in the
Wastdale Head book. He says that it took his party two hours and forty
minutes, but his estimate of the height of the gully at 1,300 ft. is
more than double of the truth, and must be due to a slip of the pen.

[Illustration: PAVEY ARK (NEAR VIEW)
A, Narrow gully; B, Big gully; C, D, Smaller gullies; E, Wide scree
gully. From the foot of E to A runs _Jack's Rake_.]

In the book at Millbeck there is a note by the same distinguished
climber, dated May 30, 1887, in which he records an ascent of this gully
made by Miss Mabel Hastings, and gives the height of it as 600 or 650
ft.


=Penyghent.=--The sixth in height of the Yorkshire hills, but long
supposed, on account of its finer shape, to be the highest of them all.
As late as 1770 it was reckoned at 3,930 ft. It can be ascended from
Horton station in little over an hour. Celtic scholars revel in the
name; they practically agree that it means 'head of something,' but
cannot accept each other's views as to what that something is. When
Defoe was in this neighbourhood he saw 'nothing but high mountains,
which had a terrible aspect, and more frightful than any in
Monmouthshire or Derbyshire, especially _Pengent Hill_.'


=Piers Gill=, in Wastdale, on the north front of _Lingmell_, has a vast
literature of its own. As a rock ravine, not in limestone, it is only
second to _Deep Gill_ on _Scafell_ and the great gully in the Wastwater
_Screes_, both of which are far less easy of access than this, which can
be reached from Wastdale Head in half an hour. The difficulties depend
entirely on the quantity of water. One, the 'cave pitch,' may be passed
at the cost of a wetting almost at any time; but above it is another,
known as the 'Bridge Fall,' from a vast column of fallen rock which
spans the stream a few yards above it, which is at all times difficult,
and in nineteen seasons out of twenty wholly impossible.

Until the unprecedented drought of 1893 it had never been climbed. Even
then a less brilliant climber than Dr. Collier would scarcely have
succeeded. His ascent was made on April 29, 1893, and his companions
were Messrs. Winser, W. Jones, and Fairbairn. The big pitch was found to
be 40 or 50 ft. high, the lowest part of it apparently overhanging. The
first few feet were climbed about three feet to the right of the falling
water, after which the leader was able to reach the other side of the
gill by stretching his left foot across it just outside the water. By
this means this great and hitherto insuperable difficulty was overcome.
Unless we are entering on a cycle of dry seasons, the exploit is one
which will not be repeated for some time.

Various accidents and minor mishaps have taken place in Piers Gill. One
is described by Mr. Payn, and the injured man was, I believe, a shepherd
called Tom Hale. Mr. W.O. Burrows had a bad fall above the bridge, and
people descending from the _Pikes_ are often pounded about the same
spot. Some years ago a tourist had to pass the night in the gill without
food, but protested that he was 'quite consoled by the beautiful
scenery.' The discovery of the route up the east side of the _Pillar
Rock_ was within an ace of being delayed for years, owing to the band of
bold explorers who were to work it out becoming entangled in _Piers
Gill_ while on their way to _Wastdale Head_.

The name is spelt 'Pease' by Mr. Payn and by most of the early
authorities, and judging by the analogy of other places in the North of
England this would appear to be more correct.


=Pike o' Stickle=, also known as _Steel Pike_ and sometimes as the
_Sugarloaf_, drops into Langdale from the north in one continuous <DW72>,
which for length and steepness has not many rivals in England. The top
piece of the hill is curiously symmetrical, and resembles a haycock or a
thimble. It is not easy to find satisfactory climbs on it. Mr. Gwynne
says of it: 'A very fine peak, that, viewed from the valley, has very
much the appearance of the Moench. It runs down towards the _Stake_ Pass
in a spur, which must be the starting-point of most of the climbs on
this mountain. There is a curious gully here, too, which is worthy of
the climber's attention. It does not run from top to bottom, but
suddenly begins about the middle of the crag. The difficulty is to get
at this gully, and some pretty climbing can be obtained in the attempt.'


=Pillar Rock.=--There are but three directions from which the _Pillar_
is commonly approached--namely, Ennerdale (Gillerthwaite), Buttermere,
and Wastdale Head. In each case the guide-books (except Baddeley's)
exhibit a suspicious shyness of specifying any time for the walk.
Wherever the present writer gives times, they must be understood to be
the quickest of which he happens to have made any note; for the best
test of times is a 'reductio ad minima.' A journey may be indefinitely
prolonged, but it cannot be shortened beyond a certain limit; thus,
_Scafell Pike_ cannot be reached from Wastdale Head in much less than 60
minutes of hard going, while the walk up the Pillar Fell cannot be cut
down much below 75 minutes. This supplies us with a trustworthy
comparison, although for a hot day that pace is not to be recommended;
in each case double the time is not more than a fair allowance. Never
let yourself be hurried at starting, come home as hard as ever you like;
it is the chamois-hunter's system, and by far the best. Baddeley seems
to reverse the principle, for he allows 2 to 2-1/2 hours for the ascent
via Black Sail, and says that it is shorter by Wind Gap; yet for the
_descent_ from Wind Gap (which is, say, 20 minutes short of the summit)
he gives as a fair allowance 2 to 3 hours. Perhaps he preferred
conforming to what is apparently the approved fox-hunting style:

[Illustration: PILLAR ROCK
A, B, Summits of Shamrock; C, Shamrock gully; D, Pisgah; E, High Man;
G, Curtain; H, Steep Grass; I, Foot of Great Chimney; I, K, Walker's
gully; J, Low Man; L, J, West route; M, Waterfall; N, I, East Scree.]

     Harkaway! See, she's off! O'er hill and through whol
       We spank till we're gaily nar done,
     Than, hingan a lip like a motherless fwol,
       _Sledder heammward, but nit in a run_.

[Illustration: PILLAR ROCK FROM THE NORTH
A, _High Man_; B, _Low Man_; C, _Shamrock_; D, _Walker's gully_;
E, Below this is the _waterfall_. The _terrace_ runs past the foot of
Walker's gully to the foot of the _waterfall_.]

[Illustration: PILLAR ROCK FROM THE SOUTH
A, Top of rock and of _West Jordan climb_; B, Top of _Central Jordan
climb_; C, Top of _East Jordan climb_; D, G, The _Curtain_;
E, The _Notch_; F, The _Ledge_. The mass of rock in the foreground is
_Pisgah_.]

_From Ennerdale_: From Gillerthwaite, a farmhouse nearly a mile and a
half above the lake, the Pillar is not far distant; but the direct way
is exceedingly rough, and it will be found best to make use of the path
up _Wingate Cove_, skirting round the mountain, when by that means a
considerable height has been gained. The way is so rough that many
people think it an economy of labour to go right on up the gap, and then
left over the summit of the mountain.

One of the best ways of approaching the Pillar is to sleep at the little
inn at the foot of the lake and row up from there to the water head. For
walking the whole way from the inn to the fell-top Baddeley allows 3 to
3-1/2 hours.

_From Buttermere_: After crossing _Scarf Gap_ some keep to the track as
far as the summit of the Black Sail Pass, and then turn to the right up
the ridge of the Pillar Fell, while others adopt the more laborious plan
of working upwards after descending the valley until nearly opposite the
Rock, which in this way is certainly seen to much greater advantage. If
the return be made by way of the mountain ridge, some little time may be
saved by descending into Ennerdale down _Green Cove_, nearly half a mile
short of Black Sail and 250 ft. higher; for Black Sail, being much
nearer the head of the valley than either Scarf Gap or the Pillar, can
only be used for going from one to the other at the expense of making a
considerable _detour_. For the ascent, however, Green Cove is not so
decidedly recommended, as many will prefer to make the round by the
regular pass for the sake of the more gradual rise.

_From Wastdale_: The vast majority of visitors come from this direction,
and almost all follow the same track, plodding up from Mosedale to the
top of _Black Sail_ and then turning left along the ridge of the
mountain. Mosedale, by the way, must not be confused with any of the
numerous other valleys of the same name: it sometimes appears in the
form 'Moresdale' or 'Mossdale' (Moos-thal, near Laibach in Austria, is
exactly parallel), and generally indicates scenery of a dreary
character; for such valleys are often, as in this case, the half-drained
beds of ancient lakes, by the loss of which the scenery has seriously
suffered.

[Illustration: PILLAR FELL]

Ladies who ascend by Black Sail will find it best to keep to the path as
long as possible, i.e. as far as the top of the pass, but others may
save something by breasting the hill on the left soon after reaching
_Gatherstone Head_, apparently a glacier mound, which rises just beyond
where the track crosses the stream (Gatherstone Beck) which comes down
from the pass.

On reaching the ridge it is no doubt safer, especially if there be mist
about, for those who are not familiar with the way to go right on to the
flat top of the mountain; the proper point from which to commence the
descent is easily found, in all weathers, by following the
compass-needle from the cairn to the edge of the mountain; a rough and
steep descent of 400 ft. follows, which in winter demands considerable
care. At first the course is to the right, but it soon strikes a small
ridge which curves down to the Rock. It is, however, a waste of labour
to ascend to the summit of the mountain at all. The ridge of the
mountain is divided into steps, and at the foot of the uppermost of
these a deep cove called _Great Doup_ is seen on the right. It may be
recognised even in a mist, as it is just beyond a curious rock running
out with a narrow edged top many feet from the hill-side. Less than 100
yards down the Doup the falling scree has nearly buried the cairn and
iron cross erected to the memory of the Rev. James Jackson. Beyond this,
as soon as the big rocks on the left permit, the track skirts round, and
after one or two ups and downs comes into full view of the famous Rock.
If, however, the object be to reach the north or lowest side of the
Rock, it is not necessary to descend into Ennerdale from Black Sail; for
there is the _High Level_, a fine scramble all along the breast of the
mountain from _Green Cove_--the first large hollow on the right, just
beyond _Lookingsteads_; but the way is rather intricate, and unless
properly hit off involves considerable fatigue and loss of time. At the
very least half an hour will be required in either direction, and a
stranger will certainly take much longer.

Those who are anxious to pursue 't' bainest rwoad' may save ten minutes
or more in the walk from Wastdale by making use of _Wind Gap_ at the
head of Mosedale. Hard work it undeniably is, but more shady than Black
Sail, and--when the way is familiar, though no one can go very far
wrong, unless he clings to the main valley too long and goes up to
_Blackem_ (Black Combe) _Head_--quicker also, occupying about ninety
minutes. Mr. James Payn calls it (poetically) 'a sort of perpendicular
shaft--a chimney such as no sweep would adventure, but would use the
machine--which is said to be the dalesman's pass into Ennerdale; you may
thank your stars that it is not _your_ pass.'

It really adds little to the labour of this way and affords a far finer
walk if the complete circuit of Mosedale be made along the hill-tops.
Ascending behind the inn and keeping round just under _Stirrup
Crag_--the north end of _Yewbarrow_, _Dore Head_ is soon reached, and it
is easy walking by the _Chair_, _Red Pike_, _Black Crag_ and _Wind Gap_
on to the _Pillar Fell_.

For the return to Wastdale _Wind Gap_ is very rough and hardly to be
recommended. Mr. Baddeley is not very consistent about it, for he says,
'the best descent is by _Windy Gap_'; but again, 'the descent from
_Windy Gap_ to Wastdale is, for reasons stated before, unsatisfactory';
and thereupon he recommends Black Sail. The latter gives a rapid
descent--the inn may be reached in twenty-five minutes from the top of
the pass; but a quicker return may be made by crossing the ridge after
emerging from Great Doup, and shooting down _Wistow Crags_ into
Mosedale by a large gully filled with deliciously fine scree.

Should it be preferred to make the circuit of Mosedale on the return
journey, an equally fine glissade may be enjoyed from _Dore Head_; but
the screes require judicious selection and dexterity on the part of the
slider.

[Illustration: PILLAR ROCK FROM THE WEST
A, Summit of _High Man_; B, _Pisgah_; C, _Low Man_; D, _Jordan Gap_.
The _West route_ ascends from this side to the depression between
A and C.]

It may here be said that stout walkers may visit all the mountains of
Wastdale Head in one day comfortably, and in few places is a finer walk
to be found. Start, say, at 10 A.M. for Scafell; then, by Mickledoor,
the Pike, Great End, Sty Head, Great Gable and Kirkfell to the Pillar,
returning in the manner described above in time for dinner. In June
1864, as Ritson's Visitors' Book records, J.M. Elliott, of Trin. Coll.
Camb., made this round, including Steeple and Yewbarrow, and found that
it took eight and a half hours; probably, however, he came over Stirrup
Crag and not Yewbarrow _top_, which would entail something like three
miles extra walking. He approached Scafell by way of Mickledoor,
returning from it to the same point, and those who do not know the Broad
Stand well had better follow his example; for it is a bit of a climb,
and the descent especially is not easy to find. By going to Mickledoor
first (and there is no shorter way to Scafell) each man can see what he
has before him, and decide for himself whether it would not be better to
leave Scafell out of his programme.

Before entering into the history of the Pillar it is almost
indispensable to give a short general description of its main features
in order to assist the comprehension of the facts narrated. Difficult as
it must always be to find an image which shall supply a stranger with
any clear idea of a mass so irregular and unsymmetrical as this, yet its
general appearance and the arrangement of its parts may be roughly
apprehended in the following manner:--Imagine a large two-gabled church
planted on the side of a steep hill. From the western and loftier gable
let there rise, at the end nearest the mountain, a stunted tower.
Finally let the building be shattered and all but overwhelmed under an
avalanche of _debris_. What will be the effect? Naturally the stream of
stones will be much deeper above than below, and, while nearly burying
the tower and upper ends of the roof, will flow along between the two
gables and run off, as rainwater would do, at the far end. Angular
fragments, however, remain at rest unless the <DW72> is very steep, and
consequently a long talus will be formed sloping down to the brink of
the sudden drop at an angle of something like 45 degrees. Here we have a
fair representation of the Pillar mass: the tower will be the High Man,
and the gable from which it rises the Low Man. It will be readily
understood that the second gable may be a source of some confusion to
those who are ignorant that there is more than one, and from some points
may disguise or altogether conceal the tower. This is why it is called
the _Sham Rock_; but it is only from below that it would be recognised
as part of the Pillar mass, for from above it is wholly insignificant.
When viewed from immediately below, the tower is concealed behind the
gable from which it rises, and the whole mass of rock bears a rough
resemblance to the letter =M=; but from above, the High Man, with which
alone the climber from the east side has to reckon, is also the only
part of the rock which he is likely to observe. The result is that, when
the Low Man is mentioned to anyone who knows only the Easy Way, the
reply is usually on the model of the poet Wordsworth's only joke: 'Why,
my good man, till this moment I was not even aware that there _was_ a
Low Man!' Yet the Low Man is by far the finer object of the two, and its
cliffs are at least six times as high as those of what is called the
High Man. The only side from which the latter shows a respectable
elevation is the west, where the scree lies much lower, because it has a
free escape, instead of being pent up between the two gables like the
east scree.

In winter-time, when the inequalities are all smoothed over with a sheet
of hard snow, both sides of the rock are rather dangerous, but
especially the eastern, where a man who slipped would have the greatest
difficulty in stopping himself before he shot over the precipitous gully
at the end. This gully (occupying, as it were, the place of the
water-pipe) is known, in allusion to an accident which occurred there in
1883, as _Walker's Gully_.

When the question arises of how to climb the _High Man_, it is obvious
that the scree just above it will be the nearest point to the summit;
but equally obvious that the climb, though short, would be nearly
vertical. The plan which at once suggests itself for getting to the top
is to work round to the back of the rock and climb it from the top of
the ridge behind. The ridge may be reached from either side, and in this
fact we have the secret of two of the most important climbs.

So much for the general appearance of the Pillar; but the part which
admits of the easiest and most varied attack is the east wall of the
_High Man_, and of this side it is necessary to give a more detailed
description. This part of the rock is the only one which is at all well
known to the general public, and its chief features, being well marked,
have for the most part received, by common consent of climbers,
distinctive names. In order to see the formation of the rock properly it
is well worth the climber's while to descend for a few yards and mount
the _Sham Rock_ on the other side of the east scree. The peculiar
structure of the opposite wall may now be clearly seen.

[Illustration: PILLAR ROCK FROM THE SOUTH-EAST
A, _Pisgah_; B, _Jordan_; C, Summit; D, Top of _Curtain_;
E, Corner between the _Curtain_ and the main rock.]

On our left hand, between the mountain and the rock, is seen an outlying
mass severed from the High Man by a deep square-cut gap. When the Pillar
is looked at from the direction of the mountain-top, this gap is
entirely concealed by the outlying piece, which then appears to present
a fairly easy way direct to the summit. 'The climber (says Mr.
Williamson) mounts gaily and with confidence, only to find himself cut
off from the High Man by an impassable cleft.' He sees it indeed with
his eyes, but he cannot go up thither. Hence the names--_Pisgah_ for the
false rock, and _Jordan_ for the chasm. A very well-known Pillarite once
proposed to bridge the cleft with a plank or ladder and hold a tea-party
on the top. This very original idea was not carried into execution, but
certainly, without some such application, the passage of _Jordan Gap_ is
a formidable undertaking; for the north wall is only less vertical than
the other, and though barely 60 ft. high--not much more, that is, than
half as much as must be climbed by any other route--this is decidedly
one of those cases in which the longer way round will prove to be the
shorter way up.

On the extreme right--and rather below us--is the nearly level top of
the Low Man; while not far from where broken cliffs lead up to the
higher rock a curious natural post standing on the ridge marks the point
from which a small deep channel is seen to come down towards _Walker's
Gully_. This channel is of small importance, except that high up on the
southern bank of it the glacier markings are most distinctly to be seen.
The channel itself soon curves more towards the north and plunges over
the fearful cliff which faces the Liza, forming the key to the great
climb on that face. From the foot of _Jordan Gap_ a broad smooth <DW72>
of rock runs horizontally along the face of the High Man, giving to it
somewhat the formation of the 'pent-house wall' of a tennis court. The
steepness of the scree, which runs down from left to right before our
feet, makes the drop from this <DW72> much greater at the Low Man end;
but it will give no false idea of this side to say that, roughly
speaking, the cliff is broken into three fairly equal portions, of about
60 ft. each, namely, a vertical wall above, connected with a steep and
rugged part below by a smooth stretch sloping at an angle not far short
of 40 degrees. The importance of this 'pent-house' is very great; for,
as it gives an easy passage right across this face of the rock, every
climb which is possible from below may be cut into from the side, and
thus more than half the labour of the ascent is saved. Indeed, any
mountain which allows its entire front to be traversed in this way by a
passable ledge exposes every weak point in so reckless a manner that the
attack becomes marvellously simplified.

Lastly should be noticed two rough curtains of rock which run down from
the top of the Stone near the centre, and enclose between them what is
called the _Great Chimney_. This chimney is the key to the climb on this
side. The curtain on the south of it is the only one which is at all
complete, and as it forms a kind of _arete_ running up to the summit, it
is known indifferently by either name--the _Curtain_ or the _Arete_.

The easiest way to picture to oneself the features of the Great Chimney
is to imagine a huge armchair, the 'seat' of which measures 20 yards
from back to front and is tipped uncomfortably forward and downward at
an angle of nearly 45 degrees. The _Curtain_ forms the right 'arm,' and
from a level with the top of the 'back,' which is 50 ft. high, runs down
very nearly but not quite as far as the front edge of the 'seat.' In
the narrow space thus left lies the _Ledge_, which makes it possible to
pass round under the end of the arm and gain the 'seat,' which is called
the _Steep Grass_. The same point may also be reached by climbing, as an
alternative to the _Ledge_, over the lower part of the 'arm' through a
deep nick--the _Notch_; and in either case the joint between 'arm' and
'back,' being badly cracked, offers an easy way (the 'small chimney' or
'jammed-stone chimney') of reaching the top of the back, which is the
edge of a small plateau forming the summit of the High Man. Lastly, it
should be noticed that the _Steep Grass_ can only be reached from below
by a severe climb of 70 ft.--the _Great Chimney_ climb.

The side from which the Pillar is commonly climbed is not that by which
the summit was first attained. The first successful attempt was made
from the West, and it is doubtful whether for a quarter of a century any
other route was known. But on the discovery of the Easy Way the older
route was forgotten, and now enjoys a reputation for difficulty which is
not deserved: it is looked upon as some little distinction to have
accomplished it. In the preface to one of Wordsworth's poems the year
1826 is mentioned as the date of the first ascent. This is confirmed by
a comparison of the second and third editions of Otley's 'Guide' (1825
and 1827), in the former of which the rock is declared unclimbable,
while the latter mentions the victory of 'an adventurous shepherd.' The
successful climber was not, however, a shepherd, but a cooper, named
Atkinson, and living at Croftfoot, in Ennerdale. It is likely that his
adventurous soul may have been fired by Otley's declaration that the
rock was inaccessible. The perseverance of a friend has hunted out a
contemporary notice of the ascent in the county paper, which remarks
that, 'though the undertaking has been attempted by _thousands_, it was
always relinquished as hopeless.' This proves, at all events, that even
then the rock had a reputation. Subjoined is a list of those who have
followed on Atkinson's track, so far as is known, up to 1873:

     J. Colebank (shepherd);
     W. Tyson (shepherd), and J. Braithwaite (shepherd);
     Lieut. Wilson, R.N.;
     C.A.O. Baumgartner;
     M. Beachcroft and C. Tucker.

Summarising the various methods of ascending the rock, we may say that
the west side first yielded in 1826; the east side probably about 1860;
the south side in 1882, and the north side in 1891. The _Easy Way_ (as
it is generally called) on the east side was discovered in 1863 by a
party of Cambridge men led by Mr. Conybeare, and Mr. A.J. Butler, the
late editor of the _Alpine Journal_. Mr. Leslie Stephen had visited the
rock earlier in that year without finding a way up it, but in 1865 he
was more successful, and wrote an account of it in Ritson's book; the
account, as usual, was first defaced and afterwards stolen. The
_Northeast_, or _Old Wall_, _way_ was discovered by Matthew Barnes, the
Keswick guide, while with Mr. Graves, of Manchester. The central and
western climbs from _Jordan_ were done by the writer in 1882, as was the
eastern one in 1884, the last being scarcely justifiable under any
circumstances, and especially without a rope. The direct climb of the
_Great Chimney_ (starting on the south wall of it) was done about the
same time, and curiously enough--for it is safe and comparatively
easy--does not appear to have been done since. The long climb on the
north face was accomplished by Messrs. Hastings, Slingsby, and the
writer in 1891. It has been described in an illustrated article in
_Black and White_ (June 4, 1892), and by Mr. Gwynne in the _Pall Mall
Budget_. It should not be touched except by experienced climbers.


=Pinnacle Bield=, on the east side of _Glaramara_, is a rocky part of
the mountain and a famous stronghold for foxes. On the way up from
_Langstrath_ there is a very steep bit for about 500 ft.


=Pisgah.=--A name given in 1882 to the outlying rock on the south side
of the Pillar Rock, from which it is severed by an all but impassable
chasm, not seen until it bars the way. The term has in subsequent years
been applied almost generically.


=Pitch=: any sudden drop in the course of a rock gully, usually caused
by some large stone choking the channel and penning back the loose
stones behind it. Such a stone is then said to be 'jammed,' 'wedged,' or
'pitched,' and is sometimes called a 'chockstone' (q.v.).


=Pot-holes= are frequent in the Yorkshire limestone. The rivers for
considerable distances have underground courses. At each spot where the
roof of one of these tunnels happens to fall in a 'pot-hole' is
produced. They are very numerous about Settle and Clapham. Some are of
very great depth and can only be explored with the aid of much cordage
and many lights. The explorer of pot-holes has to face all the perils of
severe rock climbing, and, moreover, to face them for the most part in
the dark. It would be hard to imagine anything more weird than one of
these darksome journeys, rendered doubly impressive by the roar of
unseen waters and the knowledge that abrupt pitches of vast depth are
apt to occur in the course of the channel without the slightest warning.
(See _Alum Pot_, _Dunald Mill Hole_, _Gaping Gill Hole_.)


=Pow=: a sluggish rivulet.


=Professor's Chimney.=--A name bestowed by Messrs. Hopkinson on the exit
most towards the left hand as one comes up _Deep Gill_ on _Scafell_. Out
of this chimney, again to the left, diverges that which leads up to the
neck between the _Scafell Pillar_ and its Pisgah. To this latter chimney
the name is erroneously applied by many, though, indeed, they might urge
with some reason that if it comes to a scramble for one name between two
gullies the more frequented ought to get it.


=Rainsborrow Crag.=--A noble rock in Kentdale, Westmorland. It is,
perhaps, most easily got at from Staveley, but from Ambleside it is only
necessary to cross the Garbourne Pass, and the crag is at once
conspicuous. It is of the same type as _Froswick_ and _Ill Bell_, but
finer and more sheer than either of them.


=Rake=: a word common in Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and the Lakes, which has
been much misunderstood. It usually happens to be a scree-gully, but the
fundamental idea is straightness.


=Rake's Progress.=--This is a natural gallery on the face of the
Mickledoor crags of _Scafell_. It has been best described by Mr.
Williamson, who says: '_Mickledoor_ may be reached by scrambling up the
steeply sloping screes which form its Wastdale <DW72>; but the easier and
more romantic approach is by the grassy ledge, which will be seen
projecting from the face of the Scafell precipice. This ledge or shelf
is in but few places less than four feet wide. In places it is composed
of shattered heaps of rock, which seem barely to keep their equilibrium;
but though there is a precipice of considerable height on the left hand,
the passage along the ledge is free from risk so long as the rock wall
on the right is closely hugged. By one who watched from below the
passage along the ledge of some of the early pioneers of lake climbing
it was christened the _Rake's Progress_, and the name appears apt when
it is remembered that the ledge leads from the lower limb of the _Lord's
Rake_ to the _Mickledoor Ridge_.' The first published description of the
_Rake's Progress_ is contained in a letter by the late Mr. Maitland to
one of the local papers in October 1881. He there states that he had
recently traversed it for the fifth time, but had not previously to that
occasion visited Deep Gill. Several grand climbs start from the
_Progress_, including _North Climb_, _Collier's Climb_, _Moss Gill_,
_Steep Gill_, and the _Scafell Pillar_.


=Raven Crag.=--This name is generally the sign of a hard, if not of a
good, climb. One of the finest stands on the west side of Thirlmere,
near the foot, or what used to be the foot of it before Manchester took
it in hand; a second is on the _Pillar Fell_ just east of the rock; a
third and fourth on _Brandreth_ and _Gable_, and indeed there is one on
almost every fell.


=Red Pike=, in Cumberland, overlooking Buttermere, is a syenite hill,
and commands a glorious view, especially strong in lakes, but there is
next to no climbing to be had on it. The best way up it is to follow the
course of Ruddy Beck from the southernmost corner of Crummock Water, but
the rocky amphitheatre in which Bleaberry Tarn lies is better seen if
the somewhat rougher route by Sourmilkgill and its east bank be
followed.


=Red Pike=, also in Cumberland, is a Wastdale fell, and lies between
_Yewbarrow_ and the _Steeple_. The north side of it has abundance of
small climbs, which, with the exception of _Yewbarrow_, are, perhaps,
more easily reached than any others from the inn at Wastdale Head; but
they are little visited, because everyone wants to fly at the highest
game and do the climbs which are most talked about. This fell is
sometimes called _Chair_, from the fact of there being a curious stone
seat on it near the ridge, and not far from _Door Head_.


=Red Screes=, in Westmorland (2,541 ft.), are very steep in the
direction of the Kirkstone (after which the pass of that name is said
to be called), falling about 1,000 ft. in a horizontal distance of a
quarter of a mile; but the ascent is not more than an exhilarating
scramble. There is a well-known view from the top.


=Rope.=--Some remarks on the use of the rope as a safeguard in climbing
will be found in the Introduction.


=Rossett Gill.=--A rough pass just over 2,000 ft. in height, which is
the only approach from Langdale to Scafell, Gable, and the Wastdale
fells generally. On the Langdale side you cannot go far wrong, but it is
very rugged, so rugged that Mr. Payn has caustically observed that all
expeditions in this region admit of being made by driving, by riding, or
by walking, 'except Rossett Gill, which must be done on all fours.' On
the Eskhause side the walking is perfectly easy, but mistakes are very
liable to occur. On this high ground mists are extremely frequent, and
blinding rain is abundant. The result is that people making for Langdale
are surprised at having to mount again after the long descent to Angle
Tarn, and often end by going away to the left down Langstrath, and find
themselves to their great surprise in Borrowdale. The only safeguard is,
of course, to bear clearly in mind that the ups and downs hereabout are
considerable, and to arm oneself with map and compass.


=Saddleback= (2,847 ft.) was at one time thought to be higher than its
neighbour Skiddaw. To Mrs. Radcliffe, on the summit of the latter in
1795, the former was 'now preeminent over Skiddaw.' 'The Beauties of
England' informs us that 'the views from the summit are exceedingly
extensive, but those immediately under the eye on the mountain itself so
tremendous and appalling that few persons have sufficient resolution to
experience the emotions which those awful scenes inspire.' We have a
very full account of an ascent made in 1793. The narrator says: 'When we
had ascended about a mile, one of the party, on looking round, was so
astonished with the different appearance of objects in the valley so far
beneath us that he declined proceeding. We had not gone much further
till the other companion (of the relator) was suddenly taken ill and
wished to loose blood and return.'

The great feature of the mountain is its southern front, which is cut
away to form enormous cloughs, divided by narrow ridges. The latter are
the Edges of Saddleback. Narrow Edge (as _Halls Fell top_ is now
generally called) is the finest and most romantic. It runs up from
Threlkeld, where there is a convenient station. The proper name of Broad
Edge is _Gategill Fell_. Part of _Middle Tongue_ straight behind the
lead-mine is also very narrow. A writer in the _Penny Magazine_ for 1837
speaks of 'the serrated precipices above Threlkeld,' and adds, 'One of
these is called _Razor Edge_.' That name, however, has now for many
years at least been used as the equivalent of _Sharp Edge_, which is on
the east side of the mountain and on the north side of _Scales Tarn_,
and at one time enjoyed a tremendous reputation as a perilous climb.

The name of the mountain itself has been jeered at as a post-boy's name,
and romantically-minded people use the name Blencathara, for which many
Celtic etymons have been suggested. The most usual form seems to have
been Blenkarthur, and only the more northern of the two peaks was so
called.

The quickest ascent of the mountain is from Threlkeld up _Narrow Edge_,
but if the return is to Keswick, it should be made along the shoulder
towards Skiddaw, and so by Brundholme Wood.


=Sail.=--This word, in the opinion of Dr. Murray, the learned editor of
the new 'English Dictionary,' signifies 'a soaring dome-shaped summit.'
It occurs as a hill-name in the Grassmoor group, near Buttermere in
Cumberland; but the characteristics required by the above definition
are, to say the least, not conspicuously evident either there or in the
other cases where this element is found in fell-country place-names.
(See _Black Sail_.)


=St. Bees.=--In Cumberland, on the west coast. Several accidents have
occurred on the cliffs here. They are of sandstone, and incline to be
rotten. The best are about _Fleswick Bay_. The height is only about 200
ft. The Rev. James Jackson--the Patriarch (q.v.)--lived at Sandwith
close by, and was fond of climbing about on these cliffs.


=St. John's Vale.=--A name of modern invention, which has ousted
_Buresdale_ (q.v.). It is used in an article in the _Gentleman's
Magazine_ for 1754, and also in 'Gray's Journal,' which possibly misled
Sir Walter Scott, whose poem caused it to meet with general acceptance.


=St. Sunday Crag=, in Westmorland (sheet 19 of the Ordnance map), is of
far more importance than _Helvellyn_ to the views of and from Ullswater.
Moreover, it has some capital crags facing north-west, among which many
a good rock-problem may be found. They were long a favourite
scrambling-ground with Major Cundill, R.E., the inventor of the _North
Climb_ on _Scafell_, and are within easy reach of Patterdale.


=Scafell= (3,162 ft.) presents some fine rocks to Eskdale, but the
grandest rocks, both to look at and to climb, are towards _Mickledoor_.
As a climbing-ground it is perhaps even more popular than the _Pillar_,
especially in winter. In consequence of this the ground has been gone
over very closely by climbers of exceptional skill, and climbing of a
somewhat desperate character has occasionally been indulged in. This
applies mainly to the west side of Mickledoor. The other side is easier,
and has long been more or less well known.

Mr. Green says of it: 'The crags on the south-west [of Mickledoor],
though seeming frightfully to oppose all passage, have been ascended as
the readiest way to the top of Scafell, and, amongst other adventurers,
by Mr. Thomas Tyson, of Wastdale Head, and Mr. Towers, of Toes [in
Eskdale]; but Messrs. Ottley and Birkett contented themselves by
proceeding for some distance in the direction of Eskdale, to a deep
fissure, through which they scrambled to the top of Scafell.'

It might be thought that this 'fissure' was 'Mickledoor Chimney,' but
it is more likely that it was another and easier gully a good way
farther down.

Mr. Herman Prior's excellent 'Pedestrian Guide' (3rd edition, p. 194)
has a very clear and accurate account of it from the pen of Mr. C.W.
Dymond, who visited it about 1869, and another in Mr. C.N. Williamson's
second article in _All the Year Round_ for November 8, 1884; and in the
local press scores of descriptions have appeared.

[Illustration: SCAFELL CRAGS
A, Top of _Broad Stand_; B, _Pisgah_; C, _Scafell Pillar_;
D, Head of _Deep Gill_.]

The beginning of the climb is very easily overlooked by a stranger,
being just a vertical slit about eighteen inches wide, by means of which
it is easy to walk three or four yards straight into the mountain. It
will be found by descending the Eskdale <DW72> from Mickledoor ridge for
twenty-one yards, and disregarding a much more promising point which
presents itself midway and is noticed both by Professor Tyndall and Mr.
Dymond. The floor of the proper 'adit' rises slightly towards the inner
end, and consequently allows an easy exit to be made on the left-hand
side. From this point three large steps in the rock, each 7 ft. to 10
ft. high have to be mounted, and many will be reminded of the ascent of
the Great Pyramid. What builders call the 'riser' of each step is
vertical, but the 'tread' of the two upper ones becomes very steep and
smooth, and when there is ice about it, this is the chief danger of the
climb. If a fall took place it would probably be to the left hand, in
which direction the rock is much planed away, and forms a steep and
continuous <DW72> almost to the foot of the Mickledoor Chimney.

[Illustration: PLAN OF SCAFELL
A, _Broad Stand_; B, _Mickledoor Ridge_; C, _Scafell Pillar_;
D, _Lord's Rake_; F, _Pikes Crag_; G, _Deep Gill_.]

This <DW72> is climbable, but far from easy. At the top of the steps the
Broad Stand proper begins, at the head of which there is one little bit
to climb, and then a walk among huge blocks of stone leads out on to the
ridge of Scafell, close to the head of Deep Gill.

The way is not easy to miss, but in descending--especially in misty
weather--mistakes are often made, either in finding the entrance at the
top or the steps at the bottom. The latter difficulty is the more
serious, but may be obviated by keeping close to the foot of the cliff
on the left hand and making straight for Mickledoor ridge; when further
progress is barred, the exit is reached by a short descent to the right.


=Scafell Pikes=--the highest mountain in England (3,210 ft.). Curiously
enough the name seems to be very modern. Till quite the end of last
century it was always known as 'The Pikes,' and it was only when careful
surveys promoted it that it became necessary to add the name of its
finer-shaped and better-known neighbour, to show what 'Pikes' were being
spoken of. The present name, therefore, and the older form, 'Pikes of
Scafell,' really mean 'The Pikes near Scafell.'

On the Eskdale side there are a few climbs, including _Doe Crag_; but
the best are on the side of _Great End_ and _Lingmell_, which are merely
buttresses of it.

[Illustration: SCAFELL PILLAR (SEEN ACROSS DEEP GILL)]


=Scafell Pillar= stands between _Deep Gill_ and _Steep Gill_. It has a
short side close to the summit ridge of _Scafell_, and a long side
towards the _Rake's Progress_. The first ascent was made on the short
side by the writer on September 3, 1884, and the first from the Rake's
Progress by Mr. Robinson and the writer on the 20th of the same month.

[Illustration: SCAFELL PILLAR AND THE UPPER PITCH OF DEEP GILL]

They climbed by way of _Steep Gill_ on to the Low Man, and thence to the
High Man. On July 15, 1888, a way was made up the outside of the rock
from near the foot of _Steep Gill_ by Messrs. Slingsby, Hastings, E.
Hopkinson, and the writer. Miss Corder made the first lady's ascent by
the short way (August 1887), and Miss M. Watson the first by the outside
route (June 1890), both ladies having the advantage of Mr. Robinson's
escort. Marvellous feats of climbing and engineering have been performed
by the brothers Hopkinson in their endeavours to make a way direct into
_Deep Gill_, in which they have not entirely succeeded.


=Scree=: the _debris_ of decaying rocks, forming a talus on the lower
parts of a mountain. It is the Icelandic 'skrida.'


=Screes (The).=--A long range flanking Wastwater on the south-west. They
are often called the 'Wastdale' Screes, but it appears from Hutchinson
that they were in his time known as the 'Eskdale' Screes, and--like most
hills at that period--were said to be a mile high. Apparently in those
days they thought less of the climbs on it than of the sheep-runs, which
latter are in Eskdale. The rock is of very loose construction and comes
away at a touch, or without one, sometimes many tons at a time; but it
improves towards the foot of the lake, and the great bastion opposite
Wastdale Hall is full of magnificent climbing. The writer, at the
suggestion of Mr. G. Musgrave, tried the great gully both alone and in
good company, namely, that of two of the party which ultimately
succeeded. Dr. Collie contributed a vivid account of the first ascent to
the _Scottish Mountaineering Journal_, a publication which should be
better known to climbers. The party found no difficulty till they were
in the left-hand branch above the point where the gully divides, and the
first pitch gave them some trouble, as the stream, being frozen, formed
a cascade of ice, and they were forced on to the buttress which divides
the two gullies. Hastings was sent on to prospect, whilst I had to back
him up as far as possible. With considerable trouble he managed to
traverse back to the left into the main gully, using infinitesimal knobs
of rock for hand and foot hold. We then followed him, and found
ourselves in a narrow cleft cut far into the side of the hill.
Perpendicular walls rose on either side for several hundred feet; above
us stretched cascade after cascade of solid ice, always at a very steep
angle, and sometimes perpendicular. Up these we cut our way with our
axes, sometimes being helped by making the steps close to the walls on
either side, and using any small inequalities on the rock-face to steady
us in our steps. At last we came to the final pitch. Far up above at the
top, the stream coming over an overhanging ledge on the right had frozen
into masses of insecure icicles, some being 20 ft. to 30 ft. long.
Obviously we could not climb up these. However, at the left-hand corner
at the top of the pitch a rock was wedged, which overhung, leaving
underneath a cave of considerable size. We managed to get as far up as
the cave, in which we placed Robinson, where he hitched himself to a
jammed boulder at the back. I was placed in a somewhat insecure
position; my right foot occupied a capacious hole cut in the bottom of
the icicles, whilst my left was far away on the other side of the gully
on a small, but obliging, shelf in the rock-face. In this interesting
attitude, like the Colossus of Rhodes, I spanned the gulf, and was
anchored both to the boulder and to Robinson as well. Then Hastings,
with considerable agility, climbed on to my shoulders. From that exalted
position he could reach the edge of the overhanging stone underneath
which Robinson was shivering, and was thus enabled to pull himself up on
to the top. Robinson and I afterwards ascended this formidable place by
means of the moral support of the rope alone. But I know that in my
case, if that moral support had not been capable of standing the strain
produced by a dead weight of about ten stone, I should probably have
been spoiling a patch of snow several hundreds of feet lower down the
gill. Above this pitch the climbing is easier as the gully opens out.'

[Illustration: WASTWATER AND THE SCREES
A, A long gully, not very difficult; B, The great gully, extremely
difficult; C, A minor gully, also very difficult.]


=Sergeant Crag.=--About half a mile up the valley of Longstrath, which
bounds Glaramara on the east as Borrowdale does on the west, there is a
line of crag on the left hand. The part nearest to Eagle Crag is called
Sergeant Crag, and is some 300 ft. higher than the other, which is Bull
Crag.

In these rocks there is a very fine gully, discovered in 1886 by Mr.
Robinson and the writer, for whom a high wet slab of smooth slate proved
too difficult. In September last the former returned to the attack
accompanied by Mr. O.G. Jones, who, taking a different and to all
appearance more difficult way to the right, forced his way over the two
stones which form the pitch. His companion followed by working out of
the gill to the right and in again above the obstacle, and this way has
commended itself to later climbers.

'There are six large pitches and several small ones. The total climb
must be 500 ft., and the climbing is of exceptional interest all the
way.'


=Shamrock=, in Cumberland, stands just east of the _Pillar Rock_,
divided from it only by _Walker's Gully_.

Seen from _Scarf Gap_ it looks very well, and its outline can with
difficulty be distinguished from that of the main rock. It derives its
name (bestowed on it about 1882) from this deceptive character. The face
of it towards the north affords a good climb, and on the east side there
is a gully, which is choked near the top by a block, which makes one of
the stiffest pitches in all Cumberland. It was first climbed, with the
aid of deep snow, by a party led by Messrs. Hastings and E. Haskett
Smith in March 1887, and in December 1890 Mr. Hastings succeeded in
repeating his ascent without any snowdrift to help him, as did Dr.
Collier exactly two years later.


=Sharp Edge=, on Saddleback, runs along the north side of Scales Tarn.
Mr. Prior's 'Guide' observes: 'The ascent (or descent) by this Edge is
considered something of an exploit, but without sufficient reason. To a
giddy head, indeed, it is unquestionably several degrees worse than
Striding Edge, which it somewhat resembles; possibly, to a head so
constituted, just without the limits of safety, as Striding Edge is
decidedly well within them. The main difficulty lies in the descent of
the cliff above the "Edge," and in the two or three rocky knolls by
which this cliff connects itself with the latter, and from which there
is an unpleasant drop on each side.... Excepting _head_, however, no
other quality of a cragsman is required for Sharp Edge; the footing is
ample, and the hands would be less called into requisition than even on
Striding Edge.'

This is a very just estimate, but it need hardly be said that not only
Sharp Edge but also those on the Threlkeld side undergo marvellous
changes in winter, and then give splendid chances of real mountaineering
practice.


=Shuttenoer= is mentioned by more than one of the old authorities as one
of the rocks at Lowdore between which the water falls. My belief is that
the intelligent travellers of that date, not having mastered the
'Cummerlan' mak o' toak,' mistook for the name of the rock what was
merely intended for a casual description of it, namely, 'Shuttan'
ower'--'shooting over,' 'projecting.'


=Sike=: a rill in marshy ground.


=Silver Howe= (1,345 ft.), near Grasmere, is only notable as being the
scene of the annual fell race, or 'Guides' race,' as it is sometimes
called, though there are few guides, and of them very few would have any
chance of success in this race. The course is uphill to a flag and down
again. The time is generally about ten minutes to go up and something
less than five minutes to come down. It is a pretty race to watch, but
the scientific interest for mountaineers would be increased if the
course were free from all obstacles and of accurately measured height
and length.


=Skew Gill.=--A curious deep channel in the Wastdale side of Great End,
giving a convenient approach to the foot of the gullies on the other
side. To go by Grainy Gill and this one, and so up Cust's Gully, has for
many years been the regulation expedition for the first day of a winter
sojourn at Wastdale Head.


=Skiddaw= (Cumberland, sh. 56) is 3,058 ft. high, 'with two heads like
unto _Parnassus_,' as old Camden observed, and Wordsworth and others
have repeated it after him. On this characteristic, which is not very
strongly marked, many derivations of the name have been based. In older
writings, however, the word much more commonly ends in _-ow_, a
termination which in countless instances represents the well-known word
'how.' Whatever its name may signify, Skiddaw is not a mountaineer's
mountain, and no amount of snow and ice can make it so. As a local bard
has truly sung:

     Laal brag it is for any man
       To clim oop Skidder side;
     Auld wives and barns on Jackasses
       To tippy twop ma ride.

It is true that there are great facilities for procuring gingerbeer on
the way, but even that luxury is scarcely an adequate compensation for
the complete absence of anything like a respectable rock on the
mountain. Keswick has Skiddaw almost entirely to itself, and on the
matter of routes it will be enough to say that by the back of Latrigg
and the gingerbeer shanties is the easiest way, and by Millbeck and
Carlside is the shortest and quickest, being made up of two miles of
good road and of two of steep fell as against five miles of easy
hillside.

The mountain used to enjoy a great reputation, and is put first in
Camden's 'Byword':

     Skiddaw, Lauvellin and Casticand
     Are the highest hills in all England,

and the early climbers of it were deeply impressed with the importance
of their adventurous undertaking.

Mrs. Radcliffe, in 1795, ascended 'this tremendous mountain,' and says
that when they were still more than a mile from the summit 'the air now
became very thin,' and 'the way was indeed dreadfully sublime.' On
reaching the top they 'stood on a pinnacle commanding the whole dome of
the sky,' but unluckily 'the German Ocean was so far off as to be
discernible only like a mist.'

Even Hutchinson remarks that, on the top, 'the air was remarkably sharp
and thin compared with that of the valley, and respiration seemed to be
performed with a kind of oppression.'

Skiddaw reserves what little natural ferocity it has for _Dead Crags_ on
the north side, but there are also a few rocky bits on the side which
faces Bassenthwaite Water.


=Smoking Rock= is at the head of _Great Doup_, east of the _Pillar
Stone_ and level with the ridge of the _Pillar Fell_. For fear of the
name being adduced as a proof of recent volcanic action it is well to
say that it is so called not as itself smoking, but because a well-known
climber of the old school loved to smoke an evening pipe upon it.

It affords a pleasant climb taken on the outside straight up from the
foot. This was done by a party of four, of whom the writer was one, on
June 5, 1889. See a note in the Wastdale Head Visitors' Book at p. 250.


=Somersetshire= has little to attract the mountaineer, except the very
remarkable limestone scenery on the south side of the Mendips at
Cheddar, Ebber and Wookey. There are magnificent cliffs and pinnacles,
especially at the first-named place, but not many bits of satisfactory
climbing. The cliffs are rotten at one point, unclimbably vertical at
another, and perhaps at a third the climber is pestered by clouds of
angry jackdaws. Ebber Rocks are rather more broken, but on the whole the
climbing is not worth much at either place, though the scenery both
above ground and below it is such as no one ought to miss.


=Stand.=--See under _Broad Stand_.


=Steep Gill.=--On Scafell, forming the boundary of the Scafell Pillar on
the Mickledoor side. It contains a very striking vertical chimney more
than 50 ft. high, the upper part of which is rather a tight fit for any
but the slimmest figures. At the foot of this chimney on the right-hand
side there is an exit by which either the ridge of the Scafell Pillar
can be reached or the chimney circumvented. The Gill becomes very wet
and steep just below the top, and extreme care is necessary in following
it out on to the neck between Scafell Pillar and the mountain. Except in
dry weather this bit may be considered a little dangerous. It is usual
and more interesting to work out here by a grass ledge on the right on
to the Low Man. The Gill was discovered by the writer, and first climbed
by him and Mr. Robinson in September 1884. A note by the former in the
Visitors' Book at Wastdale Head describes it as 'a chimney of unusual
steepness and severity.' The name is quite recent.


=Steeple.=--In Cumberland, separated from _Pillar Fell_ by _Wind Gap_.
There are some grand scrambles on the Ennerdale side of it, and it is
extremely interesting to the student of mountain structure to note the
points of parallelism between this group and that of _Scafell_, _Wind
Gap_, of course, representing _Mickledoor_.


=Stirrup Crag=, on the north end of Yewbarrow, is probably the very
nearest climb to Wastdale Head, and may therefore be useful in cases
when a wet day clears up towards evening and exercise within easy reach
is required. The quickest way to it is to cross the beck by the bridge
behind the inn and go up the hill straight to the rectangular clump of
larches, and then on beyond it in the same direction. There is a nice
little climb on an isolated bit of rock, noted by Mr. Robinson in the
Wastdale book, at Easter in 1888. The little rock should be crossed from
north to south and the same course continued up to the open fell above,
after which a short descent towards Door Head, keeping rather to the
left hand, will bring to light several small but pretty rock-problems.


=Striding Edge=, a ridge on the east side of _Helvellyn_, is called in
one of the old maps _Strathon Edge_. The difficulties of it have been
absurdly exaggerated. Miss Braddon wrote amusingly about the exploits
upon it of a certain gallant colonel, identified by Colonel Barrow with
himself. In winter it is sometimes an exciting approach to _Helvellyn_,
in summer just a pleasant walk. The idea of its danger probably arose
from the celebrity given to the death of Charles Gough by the poems of
Scott and Wordsworth.


=Sty Head.=--This name applies to the top only of the pass from
Borrowdale to Wastdale, though often incorrectly used to designate the
whole way from Seathwaite to Wastdale Head. The natives always speak of
the whole pass as _The Sty_ or _The Stee_. Hutchinson says, and the
statement has been repeated by Lord Macaulay, that this was at one time
the only road between Keswick and the West Coast. It has lately been
proposed to construct a driving road across it, but the project is not
likely to be carried out for some time. The way is not easy to find on a
really dark night. Some years ago two tourists who had been benighted on
the pass wrote a most amusing account of their experiences in the
_Graphic_, and it is only a year or two since two well-known Cumberland
climbers were caught in the same ignominious fashion.


=Swarthbeck=, in Westmorland, and on the east shore of Ullswater and the
west <DW72> of _Arthur's Pike_, would appear to be identical with the
'chasm' noticed by Mr. Radcliffe in 1795. 'Among the boldest fells that
breast the lake on the left shore are _Holling Fell_ and _Swarth Fell_,
now no longer boasting any part of the forest of Martindale, but showing
huge walls of naked rock and scars which many torrents have inflicted.
One channel only in this dry season retained its shining stream. The
chasm was dreadful, parting the mountain from the summit to the base.'
It occurred to Messrs. T. and E. Westmorland, of Penrith, to explore it,
and they found it to be a capital little climb. They published a bright
and vigorous account of their climb in a Penrith paper, in consequence
of which a good sprinkling of climbers have been induced to visit it.
The writer has cause to remember the steepness of this gill, for on one
occasion, just as the last few feet of the climb were being done, the
alpenstocks, which had been a great impediment all the way up, slipped
and fell, and were afterwards found on the scree at the very bottom. The
steamers stop at Howtown, about a mile further up the lake, and the inn
at that place is much the most convenient place to start from.


=Tarn Crag= (Cumberland, sh. 57) is a precipitous bit of not very sound
rock, perhaps 200 to 300 ft. in height, rising on the south-west side of
Bowscale Tarn. There is a better-known crag of this name just by Scales
Tarn on Saddleback, and, in fact, they are exceedingly numerous, which
is natural enough, seeing that it is essential to every genuine tarn
that it should be more or less under a precipice of some sort.


=Toe-scrape.=--May be defined as 'foot-hold at or below its minimum.'


=Tors=, on _Dartmoor_ (q.v.).--The word is also found in Derbyshire,
though not there applied to quite the same kind of rock. The Ordnance
also give it in some instances in the North of England; but there it is
by no means clear that they have taken pains to distinguish it from the
sound of the word 'haw' when there is a final _t_ in the preceding word.
What, for instance, they call Hen Tor may be in reality Hent Haw. In
Scotland _tor_ is, of course, a common component in place names.

A few of the more interesting _tors_ are--

     _Belliver Tor._--Turn squarely to the right two miles from Two
     Bridges on the Moreton Hampstead Road.

     _Blackingstone Rock._--A true tor, though not on Dartmoor. It is a
     fine piece of rock two miles east of Moreton Hampstead. It is of
     loaf-like form, and gave a difficult climb until a staircase of
     solid and obtrusive construction was put there.

     _Brent Tor._--A curious cone of volcanic rock a long mile
     south-west of Brentor Station, and fully four miles north of
     Tavistock.

     _Fur Tor._--About six miles in a northerly direction from Merivale
     Bridge, Two Bridges, or Princetown.

     _Hey Tor._--Four miles west of Bovey Tracy; was quite a nice climb,
     but has been spoilt by artificial aids.

[Illustration: A TYPICAL TOR (HEY TOR, DARTMOOR)]


     _Links (Great) Tor._--About two miles east of Bridestow station.

     _Longaford Tor._--Strike off to the left about halfway between Two
     Bridges and Post Bridge.

     _Mis Tor (Great and Little)._--Two miles north from Merivale
     Bridge. They are fine objects, especially the larger.

     _Row Tor._--On the West Dart some four miles north of Two Bridges.
     It has a very striking block of granite on it.

     _Sheep's Tor._--About two miles east of Dousland Station. It is
     finely shaped.

     _Shellstone Tor._--Near Throwleigh, about halfway between Chagford
     and Oakhampton.

     _Staple Tor._--Under a mile north-west from Merivale Bridge, and
     four miles east of Tavistock.

     _Vixen Tor._--One mile from Merivale Bridge, or four miles north
     from Dousland Station. It is near the Walkham River, and is almost
     the only tor which has a distinct reputation as a climb. It is got
     at by means of the cleft shown in the illustration. Here it is
     usual to 'back up.' The struggles of generations of climbers are
     said to have communicated a high polish to the surface of the
     cleft.

     _Watern Tor._--Five or six miles west of Chagford, on the left bank
     of the North Teign. It has three towers of friable granite much
     weathered.

     _Yar Tor._--Halfway between Two Bridges and Buckland-in-the-Moor;
     it has a curiously fortified appearance.


=Vixen Tor.=--One of the finest of the Devonshire _Tors_ (q.v.).

[Illustration: VIXEN TOR (DARTMOOR)]


=Walker's Gully= is the precipice in which ends the East Scree, between
the _Pillar Rock_ and the _Shamrock_. It is named after an unfortunate
youth of seventeen who was killed by falling over it on Good Friday,
1883. He had reached the rock with four companions, and found there two
climbers from Bolton, who had been trying for nearly three hours to find
a way up, and were apparently then standing in or near Jordan Gap.
Seeing Walker, they shouted to him for advice as to the ascent. He
thereupon endeavoured to join them by sliding down on the snow; but he
had miscalculated the pace, and when he reached the rock at which he had
aimed, it was only to find that his impetus was too powerful to be
arrested. He shot off to one side, rolled over once or twice, and then
darted away down the steep East Scree, passing the Bolton men, who could
not see him owing to that position, and disappeared over the precipice.


=Wallow Crag=, a long mile south of Keswick, is abrupt but not high, and
somewhat incumbered by trees. It contains _Lady's Rake_, and _Falcon
Crag_ is really a continuation of it. Both are too near Keswick to
please climbers, who do not enjoy having their every movement watched by
waggon-loads of excursionists.


=Wanthwaite Crags= (Cumberland, sh. 64) rise on the east side of the
stream which flows, or used to flow, from Thirlmere. There is good
climbing in them, and they are easily reached from Keswick (1 hour), or
Grasmere, taking the Keswick coach as far as the foot of Thirlmere; and
Threlkeld station is nearer still (half an hour). The rocky part has a
height of 600 to 700 ft. Bram Crag, just a little south, is really part
of it.


=Wastdale.=--There are two valleys of this name, one near Shap in
Westmorland, and the other and more famous in Cumberland, at the head of
Wastwater. It is the Chamouni of England, and would be the Zermatt also,
only it lacks the charm of a railway. Fine climbs abound among the
various fells which hem it closely in. (See under the heads of
_Scafell_, _Lingmell_, _Great Gable_, _Pillar_, _Yewbarrow_, _Steeple_,
_Red Pike_, and _Great End_.) A well-filled 'Climbing book' is kept at
the inn, where also are some fine rock-views and a very complete set of
large-scale maps. Men with luggage must drive up from Drigg Station;
those who have none can walk over _Burnmoor_ from Boot Station in one
hour and a half or less.


=Westmorland=, as a climber's county, is second only to Cumberland.
Langdale is perhaps the pick of it, but about Patterdale, Mardale, and
Kentdale abundant work may be found, and there are few parts of the
whole county which have not small local climbs of good quality set in
the midst of charming scenery. Defoe's account of it is extremely
amusing:

'I now entered _Westmorland_, a county eminent only for being the
wildest, most barren, and frightful of any that I have passed over in
_England_ or in _Wales_. The west side, which borders on _Cumberland_,
is indeed bounded by a chain of almost unpassable Mountains, which in
the language of the country are called _Fells_.... It must be owned,
however, that here are some very pleasant manufacturing towns.'

The notion of lake scenery being rendered tolerable by manufacturing
towns is one which may be recommended to the Defence Society; but Mr.
Defoe has not done yet:

'When we entered at the South Part of this County, I began indeed to
think of the mountains of Snowden in North Wales, seeing nothing round
me in many places but unpassable Hills whose tops covered with snow
seemed to tell us all the pleasant part of England was at an end.'


=Westmorland's Cairn= is a conspicuous object at the edge nearest to
Wastwater of the summit plateau of _Great Gable_. There is a wide-spread
impression that this cairn, which is built in a style which would do
credit to a professional 'waller,' was intended to celebrate a climb;
but Messrs. T. and E. Westmorland, of Penrith, who built it in July
1876, wished to mark a point from which they 'fearlessly assert that the
detail view far surpasses any view from _Scafell Pikes_, _Helvellyn_, or
_Skiddaw_, or even of the whole Lake District.' At the same time the
short cliff on the edge of which the cairn stands is full of neat
'problems,' and it is customary to pay it a visit on the way to Gable
Top after a climb on the _Napes_.


=Wetherlam=, in Lancashire, is about 2,500 ft., and has some crags on
the north side among which here and there good climbing may be found.
They can be reached in about an hour and a half from either Coniston or
the inn at Skelwith Bridge. In an article signed 'H.A.G.' (i.e.
Gwynne), which appeared in the _Pall Mall Gazette_ in April 1892, the
following description of a part of it is given: 'On the west face there
is a bold cliff that stands between two steep gullies. The cliff itself
can be climbed, and in winter either of the gullies would afford a good
hour's hard step-cutting. Just now, after the late snowstorm, the
mountaineer would have the excitement of cutting through a snow-cornice
when he arrives at the top. The precipice itself is fairly easy. I
happened to find it in very bad condition. All the rocks were sheeted
with ice and extremely dangerous. In one part there was a narrow, steep
gully ending in a fall. It was full of snow and looked solid. I had
scarcely put my foot on it when the snow slipped away with a hiss and
left me grabbing at a knob of iced rock that luckily was small enough
for my grasp. This climb, however, in ordinary weather is by no means
difficult.'


=Whernside=, in Yorkshire, was considered even as late as 1770 to be the
highest mountain in England, 4,050 ft. above the sea.


=White Gill=, in Langdale, Westmorland, nearly at the back of the inn at
_Millbeck_, derives its chief interest from the loss of the two Greens
there, so graphically described by De Quincey.

This and the other gills between it and _Stickle Tarn_ afford good
climbing up the walls by which they are enclosed.


=Winter Climbs.=--Only a few years ago a man who announced that he was
going to the Lakes in the depth of winter would have been thought mad.
Exclamations of this kind are even now not unfrequently called forth at
that season of the year; yet they seem to have little or no effect in
diminishing the number of those who year by year find themselves somehow
attracted to the little inns which lie at the foot of Snowdon or of
Scafell Pikes.

On Swiss mountains winter excursions have been made even by ladies, and
perhaps the British public was first rendered familiar with the idea by
Mrs. Burnaby's book on the subject. But, in truth, the invention is no
new one, and those bold innovators who first dared to break through the
pale of custom and to visit North Wales or the Lakes in mid-winter were
richly repaid for their audacity; for there is hardly any time of year
at which a trip to Lakeland is more thoroughly enjoyable.

In the first place, there is no crowd. You can be sure that you will get
a bed, and that the people of the house will not be, as they too often
are in the summer time, too much overworked to have time to make you
comfortable, or too full of custom to care much whether you are
comfortable or not. Out of doors there is the same delightful
difference. You stride cheerily along, freed for a time from the din of
toiling cities, and are not harassed at every turn by howling herds of
unappreciative 'trippers.' The few who do meet on the mountains are all
bent on the same errand and 'mean business'; half-hearted folk who have
not quite made up their minds whether they care for the mountains or
not, people who come to the Lakes for fashion's sake, or just to be
able to say that they have been there, are snugly at home coddling
themselves before the fire. You will have no companions but life-long
lovers of the mountains, and robust young fellows whose highest ambition
is to gain admission to the Alpine Club, or, having gained it, to learn
to wield with some appearance of dexterity the ponderous ice-axes which
are indispensable to the dignity of their position. Then what views are
to be had through the clear, frosty air! How different are the firm
outlines of those distant peaks from the hazy indistinctness which
usually falls to the lot of the summer tourist! What sensation is more
delightful than that of tramping along while the crisp snow crunches
under foot, and gazing upward at the lean black crags standing boldly
out from the long smooth <DW72>s of dazzling white! There is no great
variety of colour; for the rocks, though a few are reddish, are for the
most part of grey in varying shades; yet there is no monotony.

It is true that January days have one fault; they are too short. Or
shall we not rather say that they seem so because--like youth, like life
itself--they are delightful? They would not be too short if they were
passed (let us say) in breaking stones by the roadside. After all, the
hills hereabouts are not so big but that in eight or nine hours of brisk
exertion a very satisfactory day's work can be accomplished. In short,
youth and strength (and no one can be said to have left these behind who
can still derive enjoyment from a winter's day on the Fells) can hardly
find a more delightful way of spending a week of fine frosty weather.


=Wrynose.=--The pass between Dunnerdale and Little Langdale, and the
meeting-point of the three counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, and
Lancashire.

It would seem that we are poorer than our ancestors by one mountain, for
all the old authorities speak of this as a stupendous peak. _Defoe's
Tour_ (1753) says: 'Wrynose, one of its highest Hills, is remarkable for
its three Shire Stones, a Foot Distance each.' The name properly
understood would have put them right. The natives pronounce it 'raynus,'
and I have not the least doubt that it represents 'Raven's Hause.'
Indeed, in early charters the form 'Wreneshals' is actually found, and
the intermediate form 'Wrenose' is found in a sixteenth-century map.


=Yewbarrow= (2,058 ft.; Cumberland sh. 74) is a narrow ridge a couple of
miles long, which, seen end-on from the shore of Wastwater, has all the
appearance of a sharp peak. There is climbing at the north end about
_Door Head_ and _Stirrup Crag_, while towards the south end there are
two very interesting square-cut 'doors' in the summit ridge, apparently
due to 'intrusive <DW18>s,' and beyond them the little climb called Bell
Rib End.


=Yorkshire= (see _Attermire_, _Calf_, _Craven_, _Gordale_,
_Ingleborough_, _Malham_, _Micklefell_, _Penyghent_, _Pot-holes_,
_Whernside_)--a county whose uplands fall naturally into three great
divisions, only one of which, however, demands the attention of the
mountaineer. The chalk _Wolds_ in the East Riding, and the moorland
group formed by the _Hambleton_ and _Cleveland Hills_, may be dismissed
here with a mere mention. The third division, which constitutes a
portion of the _Pennine Chain_, and, entering the county from
Westmorland and Durham on the north, stretches in an unbroken line down
its western border to Derbyshire on the south, approaches more nearly to
the mountain standard. Even in this division, however, only that portion
which lies to the north of Skipton attains to any considerable
importance. It is in this latter district--in _Craven_, that is, and in
the valleys of the Yore, the Swale, and the Tees--that we must look for
the finest hill scenery in Yorkshire. Most of these mountains consist of
limestone, capped in many cases by millstone grit, and of such summits
some twenty-five or thirty rise to a height of 2,000 ft. Very few of
them, however, exhibit individuality of outline, and, with the exception
of the low lines of limestone precipice which occasionally girdle them,
and of the wasting mill-stone bluffs which, as in the case of _Pen-hill_
or _Ingleborough_, sometimes guard their highest <DW72>s, they are
altogether innocent of crag. If any climbing is to be found at all, it
will probably be among the numerous 'pot-holes,' or on the limestone
'scars,' such as _Attermire_ or _Gordale_, which mark the line of the
Craven Fault. The _Howgill Fells_, north of Sedburgh, form an exception
to the above remarks. (See _Calf_.)

Although the climber may find little opportunity to exercise his art
among the Yorkshire mountains, yet the ordinary hill-lover will discover
ample recompense for the time spent in an exploration of these hills and
dales. The ascent of _Micklefell_, of _Great Whernside_, of _Penyghent_,
or of _Ingleborough_, whilst not lacking altogether the excitement of
mountain climbing, will introduce him to many scenes of novel character
and of astonishing beauty. It is only fair to mention that the Yorkshire
waterfalls are second to few in the kingdom.

It is necessary to add a word or two with regard to the coast. The
rapidly wasting cliffs to the south of Flamborough are too insignificant
for further notice. Flamborough Head, where the chalk attains to a
height of 436 ft., is noticed elsewhere. (See _Chalk_.) The line of
coast from Flamborough to Saltburn, passing Filey, Scarborough, and
Whitby, presents an almost unbroken stretch of cliff, which, however,
will find greater favour with the landscape-lover than the climber.
These cliffs, which consist chiefly of the oolite and lias series, are
throughout crumbling and insecure, and are very frequently composed of
little more than clay and shale. _Rockcliff_, or _Boulby Cliff_,
however, near Staithes, merits a certain amount of attention. In
addition to not a little boldness of outline, it enjoys--or, at any
rate, enjoyed--the reputation of being the highest cliff (660 ft.) on
the English coast.


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RACING AND STEEPLE-CHASING. _Racing_: By the EARL OF SUFFOLK AND
BERKSHIRE and W.G. CRAVEN. With a Contribution by the Hon. F. LAWLEY.
_Steeple-chasing_: By ARTHUR COVENTRY and ALFRED E.T. WATSON. With 58
Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._

RIDING AND POLO. By Captain ROBERT WEIR, Riding Master, R.H.G. and J.
MORAY BROWN. With Contributions by the DUKE OF BEAUFORT, the EARL OF
SUFFOLK AND BERKSHIRE, the EARL OF ONSLOW, E.L. ANDERSON, and ALFRED E.
T. WATSON. With 59 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._

SHOOTING. By LORD WALSINGHAM and Sir RALPH PAYNE-GALLWEY, Bart. With
Contributions by LORD LOVAT, LORD CHARLES LENNOX KERR, the Hon. G.
LASCELLES, and A.J. STUART-WORTLEY.

Vol. I. Field and Covert. With 105 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 10_s._6_d._

Vol. II. Moor and Marsh. With 65 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._

SKATING, CURLING, TOBOGGANING, and other ICE SPORTS. By J.M. HEATHCOTE,
C.G. TEBBUTT, T. MAXWELL WITHAM, the Rev. JOHN KERR, ORMOND HAKE, and
HENRY A. BUCK. With 284 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._

SWIMMING. By ARCHIBALD SINCLAIR and WILLIAM HENRY, Hon. Secs. of the
Life-Saving Society. With 119 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._

TENNIS, LAWN TENNIS, RACKETS, and FIVES. By J.M. and C.G. HEATHCOTE,
E.O. PLEYDELL-BOUVERIE, and A.C. AINGER. With Contributions by the
Hon. A. LYTTELTON, W.C. MARSHALL, Miss L. DODD, H.W.W. WILBERFORCE,
H.F. LAWFORD, &c. With 79 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._

YACHTING. By Sir EDWARD SULLIVAN, LORD BRASSEY, R.T. PRITCHETT, the
EARL OF ONSLOW, LEWIS HERRESHOFF, &c. With 309 Illustrations. 2 vols.
Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._ each.


London: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.

...
Transcriber's note: Inconsistent hyphenation is as in the original.
...





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Climbing in The British Isles.  Vol. 1
- England, by W. P. Haskett Smith

*** 