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placename:-
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Skiddaw ascent 1794
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site name:-
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Skiddaw
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parish
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Underskiddaw parish, once
in Cumberland
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parish
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Bassenthwaite parish, once
in Cumberland
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county:-
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Cumbria
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descriptive text:- |
West 1778 (11th edn 1821)
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Guide book, A Guide to the Lakes, by Thomas West,
published by William Pennington, Kendal, Cumbria once
Westmorland, and in London, 1778 to 1821. |
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goto source.
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Mrs Radcliffe's Ride over Skiddaw, 1794
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Page 304:-
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Having engaged a guide, and with horses accustomed to the
labour, we began to ascend this tremendous mountain by a way
which makes the summit five miles from Keswick. ... a road
led to the foot of Latrig, ... A narrow path now wound along
steep green precipices, the beauty of which prevented the
danger there was from being perceived. Derwent-water was
concealed by others that rose above them; but that part of
the vale of Keswick which separates the two lakes, and
spreads a rich level of three miles, was immediately below;
Crosthwaite church nearly in the centre, with the vicarage
rising among trees. More under shelter of Skiddaw, where the
vale spreads into a sweet retired nook, lay the house and
grounds of Dr. Brownrigg - Beyond the level opened a glimpse
of Bassenthwaite-water - a lake which may be called elegant
- bounded on one side by well-wooded rocks, and on the other
by Skiddaw.- Soon after, we rose above the steeps which had
concealed Derwent-water, and it appeared, with all its
enamelled banks, sunk deep amidst a chaos of mountains, and
surrounded by ranges of fells not visible from below. On the
other hand, the more chearful lake of Bassenthwaite,
expanded at its entire length.- ... we pursued the path, and
soon after reached the brink of a chasm
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Page 305:-
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on the opposite side of which wound our future track; for
the ascent is here in an acutely zig-zag direction. The
horses carefully picked their steps along the narrow
precipice, and turned the angle that led them to the
opposite side.
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At length, as we ascended, Derwent-water dwindled on the eye
to the smallness of a pond, while the grandeur of its
amphitheatre was increased by new ranges of dark mountains,
no longer individually great, but so from accumulation - a
scenery to give ideas of the breaking up of a world. Others
(sic) precipices soon hid it again; but Bassenthwaite
continued to spread immediately below us, till we turned
into the heart of Skiddaw, and were inclosed by its steeps.
We had now lost all track, even of the flocks that were
scattered over these tremendous wilds. The guide conducted
us by many curvings among the heathy hills and hollows of
the mountain; but the ascents were such, that the horses
panted in the slowest walk, and it was necessary to let them
rest every six or seven minutes - An opening to the south,
at length, showed the whole plan of the narrow vales of St.
John and of Nadale, separated by the dark ridge of rocks
called St. John's Rigg, ...
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Leaving this view, the mountain soon again shut out all
prospect, but of its own vallies and precipices, covered
with various shades of turf and moss, and with heath, of
which a dull purple was the prevailing hue. Not a tree or
bush appeared on Skiddaw, nor even a stone wall any where
broke the simple greatness of its lines. Sometimes we looked
into
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Page 306:-
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tremendous chasms, where the torrent, heard roaring long
before it was seen, had worked itself a deep channel, and
fell from ledge to ledge, foaming and shining amidst the
dark rock. These streams are sublime, from the length and
precipitancy of their course, which, hurrying the sight with
them into the abyss, act as it were in sympathy upon the
nerves, and, to save ourselves from following, we recoil
from the view with involuntary horror. Of such, however, we
saw only two, and those by some departure from the usual
course up the mountain; but every where met gushing springs,
till we were within two miles of the summit, when our guide
added to the rum in his bottle what he said was the last
water we should find in our ascent.
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The air now became very thin, and the steeps still more
difficult of ascent; but it was often delightful to look
down into tho (sic) green hollows of the mountain, among
pastoral scenes, that wanted only some mixture of wood to
render them enchanting.- About a mile from the summit, the
way was indeed dreadfully sublime, lying, for nearly half a
mile, along the edge of a precipice, that passed with a
swift descent, for probably near a mile, into a glen within
the heart of Skiddaw; and not a bush nor a hillock
interrupted its vast length, or, by offering a midway check
in the descent, diminished the fear it inspired. The ridgy
steeps of Saddleback formed the opposite boundary of the
glen; and though really at a considerable distance, had,
from the height of the two mountains, such an appearance of
nearness, that it almost seemed as if could spring to its
side. How much, too, did simplicity increase the sublimity
of this scene, in which nothing but mountain, heath, and sky
appeared!- But our situation was too critical, or too
unusual, to permit the just impressions of such sublimity.
The hill rose so closely above the precipice, as scarcely to
allow a ledge wide enough for a single horse. We followed
the guide in silence, and, till we regained the more open
wild, had no leisure for exclamation. After this, the ascent
appeared easy and secure, and we were
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Page 307:-
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bold enough to wonder, that the steeps near the beginning of
the mountain had excited any anxiety.
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At length, passing the skirts of the two points of Skiddaw
which are nearest to Derwent water, we approached the third
and loftiest, and then perceived that their steep sides,
together with the ridges which connect them, were entirely
covered near the summits with a whitish shivered slate,
which threatens to slide down them with every gust of wind.
The broken state of this slate makes the present summits
seem like ruins of others - a circumstance as extraordinary
in appearance as difficult to be accounted for.
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The ridge on which we passed from the neighbourhood of the
second summit to the third, was narrow, and the eye reached,
on each side, down the whole extent of the mountain
following, on the left, the rocky precipices that impend
over the lake of Bassenthwaite, and looking on the right,
into the glens of Saddleback, far, far below. But the
prospects that burst upon us from every part of the vast
horizon, when we had gained the summit, were such as we had
scarcely dared to hope for, and must now rather venture to
enumerate then (sic) to describe.
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We stood on a pinnacle, commanding the whole dome of the
sky. The prospects below, each of which had been before
considered separately as a great scene, were now miniature
parts of the immense landscape.- To the north lay, like a
map, the vast tract of low country which extends between
Bassenthwaite and the Irish Channel, marked with the silver
circles of the river Derwent, in its progress from the lake.
Whitehaven, and its white coast, were distinctly seen; and
Cockermouth seemed almost under the eye. A long blackish
line, more to the west, resembling a faintly-formed cloud,
was said by the Guide to be the Isle of Man, who, however,
had the honesty to confess, that the mountains of Down, in
Ireland, which sometimes have been thought visible,
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Page 308:-
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had never been seen by him in the clearest weather. Bounding
the low country to the north, the wide Solway Frith, with
its indented shores, looked like a grey horizon; and the
double range of Scottish mountains, seen dimly through the
mist beyond, like lines of dark clouds above it. The Solway
appeared surprisingly near us, though at fifty miles
distance; and the guide said, that, on a bright day, its
shipping could plainly be discerned.- Nearly in the north,
the heights seemed to soften into plains, for no object was
there visible through the obscurity that had begun to draw
over the further distance; but towards the east they
appeared to swell again; and what we were told were the
Chevot (sic) hills, dawned feebly beyond Northumberland. We
now spanned the narrowest part of England, looking from the
Irish Channel on one side, to the German Ocean on the other;
which latter was however, so far off as to be discernable
only like a mist.- Nearer than the County of Durham,
stretched the ridge of Cross-fell, and an indistinct
multitude of Westmorland and Yorkshire highlands, whose
lines disappeared behind Saddleback, now evidently
pre-eminent over Skiddaw, so much so as too exclude many a
height beyond it.- Passing this mountain in our course to
the south, we saw, immediately below, the fells round
Derwent-water, the lake itself remaining still concealed in
their deep rocky bosom. Southward and westward, the whole
prospect was 'a turbulent chaos of dark mountains:' all
individual dignity was now lost in the immensity of the
whole, and every variety of character was overpowered by
that of astonishing and gloomy grandeur.- Over the fells of
Borrowdale, and far to the south, the northern end of
Windermere appeared, like a wreath of grey smoke that
spreads along a mountain's side. More southward still, and
beyond all the fells of the lakes, Lancaster Sands extended
to the faintly-seen waters of the sea. Then to the west,
Duddon Sands gleamed in a long line among the fells of High
Furness.- Immediately under the eye, lay Bassenthwaite,
surrounded by many ranges of mountains invisible from below.
We overlooked all these dark moun-
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Page 309:-
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[moun]tains; and saw green cultivated vales over the tops of
lofty rocks, and other mountains over these vales, in many
ridges: whilst innumerable narrow glens were traced in all
their windings, and seen uniting behind the hills with
others that also sloped upwards from the lake.
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The air on this summit was boisterous, intensely cold, and
difficult to be inspired, though below, the day was warm and
serene. It was dreadful to look down from nearly the brink
of the point on which we stood, upon the lake of
Bassenthwaite, and over a sharp and separated ridge of
rocks, that from below appeared of tremendous height, but
now seemed not to reach half way up Skiddaw; it was almost
as if
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... the precipitation might down stretch / Below the beam of
light ...
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... ...
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date:-
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1760
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period:-
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18th century, late; 1760s
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Old Cumbria Gazetteer - JandMN: 2008
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