Climbing in The British Isles Volume I Part 12

=Westmorland's Cairn= is a conspicuous object at the edge nearest to Wast.w.a.ter 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 a.s.sert that the detail view far surpa.s.ses 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 Lancas.h.i.+re, 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 k.n.o.b of iced rock that luckily was small enough for my grasp. This climb, however, in ordinary weather is by no means difficult.'

=Whernside=, in Yorks.h.i.+re, 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 diminis.h.i.+ng 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 hara.s.sed 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 fas.h.i.+on'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 slopes 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 pa.s.sed (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 pa.s.s between Dunnerdale and Little Langdale, and the meeting-point of the three counties of c.u.mberland, Westmorland, and Lancas.h.i.+re.

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 s.h.i.+re Stones, a Foot Distance each.' The name properly understood would have put them right. The natives p.r.o.nounce 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.; c.u.mberland sh. 74) is a narrow ridge a couple of miles long, which, seen end-on from the sh.o.r.e of Wast.w.a.ter, 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 d.y.k.es,' and beyond them the little climb called Bell Rib End.

=Yorks.h.i.+re= (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 const.i.tutes 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 Derbys.h.i.+re 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 Yorks.h.i.+re. 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 slopes, 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 Yorks.h.i.+re 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 astonis.h.i.+ng beauty. It is only fair to mention that the Yorks.h.i.+re 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, pa.s.sing 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.