Chippings
(The Editor invites contributions to this column on any matters of general interest to Members ).
The Footpath From Wasdale Head To Scafell And The Pikes:- By an Agreement concluded between Lord Leconfield’s agent on the one part and representatives of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club and the Lake District Association on the other part, a footpath through Lord Leconfield’s enclosures to near the foot of Brown Tongue is now open to the public. Stiles have been erected over the three walls to be crossed, and it is to be hoped that climbers, tourists and others using this convenient route will respect the desire of the owner and the tenant of the land by keeping strictly to the pathway indicated and using the stiles provided.
The Fatal Accident To Mr. C. D. Robertson on the Eastern gully of Glyder Fach at Easter-tide, 1910, is so fully described in the Alpine Journal, (Vol. XXV., p. 145), that it is only necessary to add our tribute of regret that a fall, due it would seem, to that temptation which appeals most strongly to the strongest climbers – the attempting of difficult rocks before there has been time to get into condition – should have out short a life so full of promise. How great that promise was appears from the beautiful and touching memoir in the Alpine Journal by his friend Mr. G. Winthrop Young. “To be so mourned one would even dare to die.”
The Fatal Accident To Mr. Leonard Spencer Salt when leading up the E. Buttress of Lliwedd by the Horned Crag route, also at Easter-tide, 1910, appears to have been due either to a slip or to a rock giving way. But for the rope breaking on a projecting rock, his fall might have dragged down the rest of the party.
The Fatal Accident To Mr. J. Anton Stoop on the 16th October, 1910, when leading up the N. face of Y Garn, a mountain almost due W. of Snowdon and divided from it by the long valley running from Carnarvon to Beddgellert , seems to have been due to a large rock falling on the climber from above, an accident to which climbs on little explored rocks are of course peculiarly liable and against which the greatest care is of little avail.
Mr. Stoop was well known to many of our members and our sincerest sympathy is extended to the Rucksack Club in the death of one of its prominent members.
Peregrine Falcons On Ingleborough:- From the Transactions of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union (Part 34, A. Brown & Sons, Ltd., 5, Farringdon Avenue, E.C.), a publication full of interest to all Ramblers who care for the natural history and physical features of our county – we learn that a pair of peregrines attempted to nest on the slopes of Ingleborough, but unsuccessfully, owing to some local individuals endeavouring to shoot them. We hope the prosecution which followed, though unsuccessful, will prevent the recurrence of such an outrage.
Martindale Deer Forest:- We learn, with regret, from the daily press, that the Earl of Lonsdale, who has taken a long lease of Canon Hasell’s Martindale deer forest, which extends from the top of High Street to Askham, and from Ullswater to Haweswater, is making some important changes. In the secluded glen of Rampsgill, just beyond the point of junction with Bannerdale, his Lordship has erected a handsome bungalow, and, a short distance away, stabling for six horses, a coach-house and caretaker’s cottage. A new road has been constructed across the valley, and two becks – which in storm time become rivers – are crossed by heavy iron bridges with thick concrete floors. Near the main road from Martindale to Bannerdale deer-dressing houses have been erected. Next season the sport obtained in the forest – which, with the exception of Exmoor, is the only one in England with 600 wild red deer – is expected to be on a scale not before known.
We hope that this does not point to the re-afforesting of what is now almost a national playground.
Borrowdale:-We are glad to learn that the National Trust have been successful in raising the purchase money for the Bowder Stone estate in Borrowdale to which we drew attention in our last issue. Three hundred and twenty acres of the most picturesque part of that lovely valley are now assured to the public for ever, and we ask Canon Rawnsley, and his helpers for more.
Crag-Fast Hounds:- The Eskdale and Ennerdale Hounds had an extraordinary experience at Wasdale Head this winter. A fox was hunted to Scafell Crags, where hounds and fox got crag-fast. When the hunters got there they found two hounds lying at the crag bottom. Charmer, the best hound in the pack, was killed, and Melody had to be carried to Wasdale Head in a badly mauled state. The hunters had to go to Wasdale Head for ropes and cragsmen, to get the other hounds out of their predicament.
H. Eilbeck and W. Geldart, with J. Gaspard, Mr. Whiting’s French guide, roped themselves together and were let down the crag 180 feet. The hounds were then all roped together and brought safely to the top. The rain came down in torrents, and all the hunters were soaked to the skin and suffered from the severe cold. (Yorkshire Post)
La Ligue Pour La Conservation De La Suisse Pittoresque is doing a much needed work for the protection of Switzerland against the attacks on its mountain charm by those who, for financial profit, are continually projecting – and sometimes building – funicular railways up its grandest mountains, ugly hotels amid the fairest landscapes and power stations in its loveliest valleys. Some of these works may be useful and even necessary, but they need not be ugly, and the Society has been able, in some instances, to persuade the promoters of the truth of this. Their monthly periodical “Heimatschutz” is full of illustrations in which the architectural beauties of previous generations are contrasted with the modern eyesores so painfully in evidence in many Swiss centres. The English Branch of the Society, (the annual subscription of which is only 2s. 6d.), deserves the support of every mountain lover. And indeed, it might find scope for some of its energies nearer home.
Geology:- The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (November 1910) has a paper by Dr. Wilmore on the carboniferous limestone series in the Hellifield-Grassington district, S. of the Craven Fault, where the structural complications and overlying drift present many difficulties.
“Nothing is sacred to a sapper” – or a geologist, and surely only one of the latter would venture to approve of Swinden Hill near Cracoe being “dissected” by the new lime quarry which now mars the lovely view of Wharfedale from Thorpe Fell.
In the same issue is a paper by Mr. Bailey on the district between Loch Linnhe and the Moor of Rannoch (including Ben Nevis and Glencoe) and another by Dr. Tempest Anderson (with several photographs) on the volcano of Matavanu in Savaii, (Samoa).
Club Meets:- The following members camped out at Gaping Ghyll at Whitsuntide 1910 :- Messrs. Albrecht, Barstow, Booth, W. A. Brigg, Brodrick, L. Chappell, Constantine, Dalton, C. Hastings, Hudson, Leach, Lewis Moore, Robinson, Rule, W. Cecil Slingsby, and Wingfield; together with Dr. Bassett and Messrs. Haskett-Smith, Seatree and Laurence Slingsby as visitors.
Miss Ingilby, of Austwick, Dr. Burnett, and some of Mr. Farrer’s guests were taken down Gaping Ghyll.
At the Club Meet at the Hill Inn, Chapel-le-Dale, on the 17th and 18th September, 1910, the members present were Messrs. E. Addyman, Barstow, W. V. Brown, J. H. Buckley, Burnett, Davidson, C. Hastings, Horn, Horsell, Kentish, Leach, Kinnaird, Lewis Moore, Roberts, Robinson, Rule, R. F. Stobart, Waud, Williamson, and Wingfield ; with Messrs. Stancliffe and J. G. Stobart as visitors.
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