Chippings
Editorial: The Editor can only repeat his apologies for the late issue of this number and plead his continued Mayoral and other engagements in part mitigation.
Waterford Ghyll:- The protest against the erection of a small-pox hospital at Waterford Ghyll, near Crookrise, by the Skipton Rural District Council – a protest in which the Club took part – has failed, and we can now only hope that the building will be made as inconspicuous as possible and will never be used. It is a pity that the Council could not see its way to accept another and less objectionable site.
The Excavations At Foxholes:- Foxholes is about a quarter of a mile further up the glen beyond the entrance to Clapham Cave, and is on the left hand side just before turning up to Trow Ghyll. The excavations carried out here during the summer of 1913 have been successful beyond expectations. Undertaken with the intention of exploring the well-known opening at the back of the scree slope, the work speedily developed in a direction totally unexpected. The removal of the débris from the front of the rock face laid bare a fortified rock-shelter dating from early Neolithic times; a discovery unique in the British Isles. Combined with human remains, many of which are of exceptional interest, numerous artifacts were found, such as worked implements of flint, chert and limestone; many pieces of broken pottery, bone needles and borers, and broken-up marrow bones. Associated with these were the teeth and bones of many animals now extinct in Great Britain which were evidently used for food, or had been killed for defensive purposes.
It is intended to carry out further excavations during the summer of 1914, and the result of the work will be published later in extenso.
The following is a list of the animals whose remains have been identified:- Aurochs, or Urus, Celtic Short-Horned Ox, Irish Elk, Red Deer, Roe Deer, Wild Boar, Common Pig, Horse, Wolf, Dog, Wild Cat, Fox, Badger, Stoat.
C. A H.
Borrowdale Plumbago Mines:- We are glad to learn from a letter by Canon Rawnsley to the press, that there is no truth in the rumour that the mines are to be re-opened, and agree with his suggestion that all mining ventures in England’s Playground should be submitted to a Government Commission before the owners or their lessees are allowed to deface its beauties in what appears to be a most uncertain form of speculation.
Buckstone:- In his little volume, “Some Gritstone Climbs,” Mr. J. Laycock speaks of the Buxton Boss, an excrescence of gritstone on the side of Coombs Moss, not far from Buxton. If this be the boulder I have in my mind, it is also known as the Buckstone and Robin Hood’s Stone and, in addition to presenting several attractive little problems, possesses a peculiar historic interest all its own.
This is the story. I have to rely entirely on my memory, so I hope that if any minor inaccuracies should be detected, they may be forgiven me.
Merrily blew the breeze o’er Coombs, the birds were singing, and nature had writ with her lusty wit that the year was at its spring. Near the Buxton Boss stood Robin Hood leaning on his unstrung bow, listlessly watching a herd of deer. To him came Brian the Bearward, with his charge on a chain, and, noticing Robin’s unusual indifference, rallied him on his lack of enterprise. Robin replied that he was not out for venison that morning, but that if Brian would like a shot, he would lend him his bow. Brian accepted the offer with alacrity, and a noble buck fell to his shaft, “nor lacked a second blow,” a phrase which would seem to mean exactly the opposite to what it appears to signify.
At this point Ralph the Ranger came on the scene. Seeing a dead buck with one of Robin’s arrows sticking in it, he came to a not unnatural, if incorrect conclusion, and asked Robin how he dare slay John of Mortain’s deer. Robin started a political argument to the effect that he did not recognize Prince John, that the deer belonged to Richard of the Lion Heart, and that he had His Majesty’s permission to kill as many deer as he pleased. (At or about this time Brian, the cause of all the mischief, seems to have ratted; at any rate he took no further active part in the proceedings.) Ralph interrupted with a pressing invitation to Robin to go with him. Now, as the least unpleasant result of acceptance was hanging, with some such agreeable alternatives as having one’s eyes bored out with a hot augur, or being flayed by the verderer, it is not surprising that Robin declined. Thereupon, at a signal from Ralph, up rushed a dozen or a score (I forget which) of Foresters. In reply Robin wound a blast on his horn, and forthwith, with a fitness “found only on the stage,” an equal number of outlaws, clad in Lincoln green, came bounding o’er the lea.
A fierce fray was imminent, when Robin suggested that a buck was not worth the cost of brave men’s lives, and challenged Ralph to settle the matter by a bout with quarter-staves. Ralph, who seems to have been a sportsman, agreed. After a little manoeuvring, Ralph led off on the head with such effect that Robin was brought to his knee. “Well struck, well struck,” cried bold Robin, and returned the blow with such interest that Ralph measured his length on the ground and stopped there.
The buck was now Robin’s by right of conquest, but he, too, was a sportsman and generously offered his antagonist another trial of skill – this time with the bow.
The mark was the disputed quarry. It was to be placed at the top of Buxton Boss, and the competitors were to shoot from a range of, I think, five score yards. He was to be adjudged victor who placed his shaft nearest “the dead buck’s glassy eye.”
I have tested this trial to an extent. I put my rucksack on the top of the rock with my Rambler’s button representing its glassy eye. I then paced off five score yards and tried to locate the mark, i.e., the bull’s or rather the buck’s eye. I conceive any Rambler who repeats the experiment will agree that our eyesight has deteriorated since the days of Robin Hood.
One would think such rattle-pate preliminaries as those recorded were scarcely conducive to good markmanship, but we, compared with the race of yore, are cast in a pigmy mould. Ralph had the ‘honour,’ and against the buck so right a shaft he set that it lodged in its “wame.” “Well shot! Well shot!” quoth bold Robin, and at once let fly and landed his arrow in the dead buck’s glassy eye.
Thus the prize became Robin’s by a double right, and the affair concluded in all amity.
This is the story of the Buck Stone. There are some who advance that from this episode the town of Buxton takes its name. I fear the proposition will not bear examination. Nevertheless, it would seem that this spot is somehow connected with bowmanship or some feat of bowmanship, for the near by wall is known as the Archers’ Wall, and the Archers’ marks can be seen to this day.
C.E.B.
Dinner:- The Twenty-first Birthday of the Club was duly honoured at the Annual Dinner on the l5th November; 1913, and we reproduce portraits of the Presidents, past and present,[1] which figured on the menu card, and the Time Table and Programme.
| P.M. | ||
| 6.45 – 7.50 | DINNER. | |
| 7.51 | TOAST | “The King” Proposed by The PRESIDENT. |
| 7.52 | SONG | “Here’s a health unto His Majesty” C. R. BARRAN. |
| 8.8 – 8.28 | TOAST | “The Yorkshire Ramblers’ Club” Proposed by G. A. SOLLY (President S.M.C.) |
| 8.30 – 8.34 | SONG | “Yorkshire” W. CLARKSON. |
| 8.35 – 9.0 | REPLY | The PRESIDENT. |
| 9.2 – 9.7 | SONG | “Ourselves” J. H. BUCKLEY. |
| 9.8 – 9.20 | REPLY | GEO. T. LOWE (Past President). |
| 9.21 – 9.25 | SONG | “West Country Lad” C. R. BARRAN. |
| 9.26 – 9.35 | TOAST | “Kindred Clubs” Proposed by ALFRED BARRAN (Past President). |
| 9.36 – 9.41 | OLD SONG | “On Eekla Moor baht ‘at” W. CLARKSON and A. CHARLESWORTH. |
| 9.44 – 9.50 | REPLY | GEO. YELD (Editor A.J.) |
| 9.51 – 9.54 | RECITATION | “The House that Jack built” (paraphrased) R. F. STOBART. |
| 9.55 – 10.12 | REPLY | C. H. PICKSTONE (Rucksack Club). |
| 10.13 – 10.16 | SONG | “The Ramblers of Yorkshire” J. H. BUCKLEY. |
| 10.16 – 10.20 | TOAST | “The Visitors” Proposed by LEWIS MOORE (Past President). |
| 10.23 – 10.26 | SONG | “Ho! Jolly Jenkin” W. CLARKSON. |
| 10.27 – 10.34 | REPLY | GEO. SEATREE (President of the Wayfarers’ Club). |
| 10.35 – 10.40 | SPECIAL TOAST | “Mr.Booth” (With musical honours) Proposed by The PRESIDENT. |
| 10.40 – 10.40½(!) | REPLY | T. S. BOOTH |
| 10.43 – 10.46 | SONG | “Floral Dance” W. CLARKSON. |
| 10.46 | OMNES | “Auld Lang Syne” |
| 10.47 | “God SAVE THE KING.” |
Modern Mountaineering:- After some recent works in “Alpinism” it is a relief to learn from the Club Bulletin of the Climbers’ Club Journal that a book on modern mountaineering is on the point of publication by Methuen and Co., to be edited by Mr. G Winthrop Young, with contributions from Messrs. Farrar, Spencer, Longstaff, Raeburn, Conway. Slingsby, A. F. Wollaston, Malcolm Ross, Mumm, Claude Elliott, Finch and Lunn.
A Climb On Dow Crags:- A good many moderate climbers are apt to be shy of Dow Crags, on account of their notorious difficulty. May I commend to such a climb on E. Buttress. Its starts immediately S. of the N. Gully, a short, stiffish crack leads to a narrow, well defined gully, which affords interesting, but not difficult climbing for some 200 feet. At about this height numerous variations would seem available, and an easy exit can be made by crossing the N. Gully above the great chock-stone to the easy rocks beyond. I think the best course is to continue straight ahead, keeping closely to the ridge line of the buttress until the crest is reached. The total length of the climb is somewhere about 400 feet. My companion considered the course as rather more serious than the Needle Ridge, which would classify it as a late moderate or early difficult. Another, but easier, course leads up the centre of the Buttress, and there is another, perhaps slightly more difficult, but less definite, close to the Easter Gully.
C.E.B.
[Web Note:- The highly literate YRC members clearly saw no problem publishing the article in it’s original language, so we have reproduced it here. However for a translation created between my own very rusty french & ‘Babel Fish’, click here]
{simplepopup link=”TranPopUp”}Link Text{/simplepopup}
As Others See Us:- One of the advantages of belonging to the English branch of the Club Alpin Suisse, is the monthly arrival of “L’Echo des Alpes” the lively and informing journal of the French-speaking sections, from the February issue of which we take the following appreciation of No. 12 of this Journal:-
“En lisant les nonante et quelques pages qui composent ce fascicule nous avons eu la grande surprise de trouver, reproduit in extenso, l’article que L’Echo der Alpes (avril, 1913) consacrait à la precédente livraison du Yorkshire Ramblers’ Club Journal; nous avons été touches de cette attention et nous avons eu du plaisir à constater que même en dehors de nos pays L’Echo est lu de la première et la dernière ligne.
Le numéro 12 contient, comme d’habitude, un choix trés grand d’articles accompagnés de photographies dont quelques-unes sont magnifiques.
M. Reginald Farrer vante les beautés de la Grigna, montagne qui s’élève au bord du Lac de Come, au-dessus de Varenna: la flore y est magnifique, abondante, la vue sur les Alpes y est stupéfiante et la masse du Mont-Rose, surtout, se présente dans toute sa majesté; non loin du sommet de la Grigna se trouve un refuge où, dans la bonne saison se pressent les botanistes et les admirateurs de la belle nature.
M. Reginald Farrer, en parlant du Refuge de la Grigna, vante les refuges autrichiens et italiens qui sont moitié cabane, moitié hotel, et critique notre genre de cabane qu’il trouve plutôt mauvais, ajoutons que l’auteur ne semble pas très bien connaître les cabanes du C. A. S. qu’il dit être rares et comparativement mauvaises; il ne faut pas en vouloir à l’auteur pour cette critique, car s’il apprécie les cabanes-hôtels, il deteste, par contre, et raille malicieusement les grands hôtels internationaux.
The Aurora Borealis est une étude succincte mais documentée que M. Claude E. Benson consacre au phénomène appelé aurore boréale, l’auteur montre que l’aurore boréale aux couleurs si curieuses est causée par l’électricité qui afflue aux pôles terrestres.
En mai 1911 M. A. Morris Slingsby s’est mis en route avec l’idee d’effectuer la première ascension du Kamet, haut sommet himalayen qui se dresse sur la frontière thibetaine; après avoir surmonte de nombreuses difficultés l’explorateur parvint à un col, haut de 7000 m. environ, en vue du sommet mais encore très éloigné de celui-ci.
M. John J. Brigg narre sa randonnée dans les déserts de la presqu’ile sinaitique, sa visite au célèbre couvent du Sinai et son ascension de ce sommet biblique.
Les membres du Yorkshire Ramblers’ Clubs’ intéressent beaucoup aux cavernes qui sont nombreuses en Grande-Bretagne; deux articles I’un de M. E. E. Roberts, l’autre de M. Harold Brodrick, traitent d’explorations faites dans deux des plus vastes de ces dédales souterrains. Notons encore une jolie pièce de vers signée Alex. Campbell, une abondante chronique bibliographique et une rubrique amusante d’échos du Club.”
Lake District Guide:- A new edition of Baddeley’s “Thorough Guide to the Lake District” is out. Chief additions, ,&c.: List of Garages; Closing of School Knott and Brant Fell; Purchases by National Trust; List of Old Oak Furniture; Height of High Street corrected; Amplification of Patterdale District; Unnamed places on maps named; Escarpments marked on map. The Editor will be glad to receive any corrections.
C. E B.
Telephone Posts:- Can nothing be done to stop H.M. Postmaster General disfiguring our moorland roads with these unsightly erections? A lively imagination can weave romance into a slender pole and a single wire, but when it comes to thick double posts every thirty yards, as on the Snake, with hundreds of wires and glaring white pots, one reaches out instinctively for an axe. The wires can be, and over portions of Shap Fells, are buried, and they ought to be everywhere.
Tail-Pieces:- These are taken (by permission) by Mr. Eric Greenwood from Mr. Louis Arnbler’s “The Old Halls and Manor Houses of Yorkshire.” – (B. T. Batsford, 94, High Holborn, W.C.)
New Members:- The following have been elected since our last issue:-
Baly, E. C. C., M.Sc., F.I.C.. F.R.S, 14, Sunnyside, Prince’s Park, Liverpool.
Clark, Edward Dowsett, M.A., Giggleswick School, Settle.
Croft, Edward Hugh, 28, Clarendon Road, Leeds.
Holden, Blackburn, Ghyll View, Coates, Barnoldswick.
Jones, Norman Kendall, 255, Hyde Park Road, Leeds.
Kerr, Robert, B.Sc., Cavendish Hall, Beckett’s Park, Leeds.
Seaman, John Frederic, Ashfield, Guiseley.
Swales, Robert Kidson, 5, Ridge Mount, Cliff Road, Leeds.
Back Numbers:- These, which are limited in number, can be obtained from the Hon. Librarian (J. H. Buckley, 168, Wellington Street, Leeds). Price: Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5, 5/- each; No. 2, 10/-; Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, 4/- each. Specially designed green buckram cases for the three volumes, 2/- each. Postage extra.
Erratum:- The lecture “Recent Work at Gaping Ghyll,” was given by A. Rule and not, as stated in our last issue, by H. Brodrick.
We hear, as we go to press, with deep regret of the death of Dr. C. A. Hill, and hope to publish a fuller memorial in our next issue.
{simplepopup popup=”false” name=”TranPopUp”}
In reading the ninety and some pages which compose this booklet we had the great surprise to find, reproduced in its entirity, an article from L’Echo der Alps (April, 1913) devoted to the preceding issued of Yorkshire Ramblers’ Club Newspaper; we were pleased of this attention and we were pleased to note that outside our country L’Echo is read cover to cover.
Number 12 contains, as always, a very large number of articles accompanied by photographs of which some are splendid.
Mr. Reginald Farrer praises the beauties of la Grigna, a mountain which raises at the edge of the Lac de Come, above Varenna: flora is splendid and abundant there, the view of the Alps is amazing and massif of Mont-Rose, especially, presents itself in all its majesty; not far from top of Grigna is a refuge where, in the good season has attracts botanists and admirors of the beauties of nature.
Mr. Reginald Farrer, while speaking about the Refuge de la Grigna, praises the Austrian and Italian refuges which are half cabin, half hotel, and critical our kind of hut which he finds rather bad, adding that the author does not seem to know the huts of C.A.S. very well which he says are rare and comparatively bad; one should not want some with author for this criticism, because he appreciates the hut-hotels, he hates, on the other hand, and scoffs the large international hotels.
The Aurora Borealis is a brief but documented study that Mr. Claude E. Benson devoted to the phenomenon called northern lights, the author shows that the northern lights with the so curious colors is caused by electricity which flows to the terrestrial poles.
In May 1911 Mr. A. Morris Slingsby started with an idea to carry out the first ascent of Kamet, a Himalayan high summit which is drawn up on the border with Tibet; after having overcome many difficulties the explorer arrived at a col, approximately 7000 m high, and saw the summit but still very distant.
Mr. John J. Brigg tells his excursion in the deserts of the Sinia, his visit to the famous Mount Saini and his ascent of this biblical hill.
Members of Yorkshire Ramblers’ Club are very interested in the caves which are numerous in Great Britain; two articles, one by Mr. E.E. Roberts, the other by Mr. Harold Brodrick, cover explorations made in two of vastest of these underground mazes. Still let us note a pretty piece of poetry signed Alex. Campbell, an abundant bibliographical chronicle and an amusing section on activity of the Club.
{/simplepopup}