Climbing in The British Isles. Vol. 1 - EnglandHaskett Smith, W. P. (Walter Parry)
History
Climbing in The British Isles. Vol. 1 - England
Haskett Smith, W. P. (Walter Parry)
Mountaineering -- England; Mountains -- England -- Guidebooks
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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