Climbing in The British Isles Volume I Part 3

=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 _h.e.l.l 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 gra.s.s 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 pa.s.s. 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.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 pa.s.sed 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 s.p.a.ce comprised between the two pitches can be entered very easily by pa.s.sing round the foot of the _Scafell Pillar_, or with much more difficulty down the vertical south wall. The upper pitch may be pa.s.sed in two ways, besides the incline.

One is by means of a narrow side gully, the upper stage of which is most easily pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sistance 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 fas.h.i.+onable 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_.

=Derbys.h.i.+re= 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 a.s.sumes 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.

=Devons.h.i.+re.=--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 Devons.h.i.+re 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 pa.s.sion 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 c.u.m 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 Yorks.h.i.+re 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-sh.e.l.l (N. of Eng.).

=Dow= (or =Doe=) =Crag=, in Lancas.h.i.+re, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ill.u.s.tration 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 b.u.t.tress 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 n.o.ble 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 gra.s.s 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 c.u.mberland, 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 Wast.w.a.ter 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 pa.s.sage from the ridge of the _Curtain_ down onto the lower part of the _Steep Gra.s.s_. It figures in some of the earlier accounts as a formidable feature of the ascent.