قراءة كتاب Climbing in The British Isles. Vol. 1 - England
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their ascent of it in September 1893, but it seems that four or five years ago there were traces on it of a previous ascent.
'Crag' is not very commonly used of a single stone, as it is here and in the case of Carl Crag.
Borrowdale.—'Divers Springes,' says old Leland in his 'Itinerary,' 'cummeth owt of Borodale, and so make a great Lowgh that we cawle a Poole.'
The 'Lowgh' is, of course, Derwentwater, and Borrowdale is the heart of the finest scenery and the best climbing in England. It may be said to stretch from Scafell to Skiddaw, and excellent headquarters for climbers may be found in it at Lowdore, Grange, Rosthwaite, and Seatoller. With the aid of its wad mines and its Bowder Stone, it probably did more during last century than anything else to arouse public interest in the Lake country. The natives were not famed for their intelligence, and many stories are told in support of their nickname of 'Borrowdale gowks.'
There is another Borrowdale in Westmorland, and Boredale is perhaps the same name.
Bowder Stone in Borrowdale was already a curiosity about a century and a half ago, when it was visited by Mr. George Smith, the correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine. Clarke, writing some years later, says it bore the alternative names of Powderstone and Bounderstone; and being 'thirty-one yards long by eight yards high, must therefore weigh over 600 tons, and is said to be the largest self-stone in England.' It is not really a 'boulder' at all, but the word is rather loosely used in Cumberland.
Bow Fell (2,960 ft.).—The name is probably the same as that of Baugh Fell, also called Bow Fell, in Yorkshire. This graceful peak, standing as it does at the head of several important valleys—Eskdale, Langdale, Dunnerdale, and Borrowdale—is a great feature in Lake scenery. There is not much rock-work on it, but a good deal of rough walking and scrambling. From Borrowdale or Wastdale it is approached by way of Esk Hause. On this side there is no climbing, except that Hanging Knot, as the N. end of Bow Fell is called, descends to Angle Tarn in a long, steep, rocky slope which offers a pleasant scramble.
On the Eskdale side there is a gully or two which might be worth exploring.
By inclining to the right hand on emerging at the top of Hell Gill, or to the left hand from the pony-track at the foot of Rossett Gill we reach Flat Crags, huge glacier-planed slopes of rock, overlooked by what in winter is a fine couloir of most alpine appearance. When Messrs. J. & A.R. Stogdon ascended it (Alpine Journal, v. p. 35) the inclination of the snow increased from 30° at the foot to 63° after 350 ft. or more, and there was a large cornice at the top. In the account which the same party inserted at the time in the Wastdale Head Book steeper angles are given.
In summer it is merely an open scree-gully; but the insignificant-looking chimney just N. of it, and only separated from it by a narrow ridge, is quite worthy of attention, though it has but one pitch in it after the one at the foot. The descent is harder than the ascent, and takes about twenty minutes.
There is a fine rocky walk along the S. ridge, called Shelter Crags and Crinkle Crags, which descends towards the head of Dunnerdale, but it is extremely unfrequented.
Bram Crag and Wanthwaite Crag flank the coach road between Threlkeld and Grasmere on the east. The best part is rather more than two miles south of Threlkeld station. The climbing is somewhat similar to that about Swarthbeck on Ullswater, but on better and sounder rock, and there is more of it. A good day's work will be found among these crags, and a fine specimen of a 'sledgate' is deserving of notice.
Brandreth is between Borrowdale and the head of Ennerdale. The name, which occurs elsewhere in the neighbourhood, denotes a tripod (literally a 'grate,' usually made with three legs). The meeting-point of three boundaries of counties, parishes, &c. is often so named. Brandreth has only one short bit of bold rock—one of the many Raven Crags. It is hardly worth a special journey, but may very easily be taken by any one who attacks Great Gable from Borrowdale.
Brimham Rocks, in Yorkshire, are very easily visited from Harrogate or from Pateley Bridge. From the latter they are only four miles to the eastward. The station for those who come from Harrogate is Dacre Banks, from which the Rocks may be reached in an hour's walking. They are of millstone grit and well deserve a visit, for nowhere are the grotesque forms which that material delights to assume more remarkable. Some resemble the sandstone forms common about Tunbridge Wells, and many might very well stand for Dartmoor Tors; but others at first sight seem so evidently and unmistakably to suggest human handiwork that one can feel no surprise at the common notion that they were fashioned by the ingenuity of the Druids. Several of them, though very small, can only be climbed with considerable difficulty.
Broad Stand—a term commonly but, in my opinion, incorrectly used to denote a particular route by which the crags of Scafell may be ascended direct from Mickledoor. There are numerous other places within a few miles of this into the names of which this word 'stand' enters, and a consideration of them leads me to the belief that it signifies 'a large grassy plot of ground awkward of access.' This is exactly what we find here. A break in the cliffs produces a large open space which is the key to the ascent by the Mickledoor Chimney, to that by the North Climb, and to that which, being the oldest, easiest, and most frequented, has arrogated to itself as distinctive the name of a feature which it should only share with the other two. Really all three routes are merely different ways of reaching the Broad Stand.
One of the earliest recorded ascents is that of Mr. C.A.O. Baumgartner in September 1850, an account of which was sent by one of the people of the dale to the local paper in these terms: 'The Broad Stand, a rocky and dangerous precipice, situated between Scaw Fell and the Pikes, an ascent which is perhaps more difficult than even that of the Pillar Stone.' The late Professor Tyndall climbed it in 1859, and described it in the Saturday Review of that year. It evidently had a great reputation then, which was not, in his opinion, entirely deserved. It seems to have been known in 1837 (see the Penny Magazine) to the shepherds; and even in Green's time, at the beginning of the century, one or two daring spirits had accomplished the feat.
Buckbarrow (C. sh. 79).—Broadcrag (more north-east) is really part of it, and about 400 ft. high. Buckbarrow rises near the foot of Wastwater, opposite the best part of the Screes. When approached from the head of the lake it appears as two huge rocky steps; but, as in the case of Eagle Crag in Greenup, the steps are not really in the same plane. Seen from the slopes of Lingmell, it forms the boundary between the mountains and the plain, to which it sinks in one very graceful concave curve. It is not lofty—there are perhaps some 400 ft. of rock—but by the shepherds it is reputed inaccessible. This is only true in the sense that there are stiff bits on it which have to be evaded. It is haunted by both the fox and the buzzard—connoisseurs on whose taste in rocks the climber can