=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 slope 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.