LETTERS
WRITTEN BY
THE REV JAMES JACKSON
OF SANDWITH, WHITEHAVEN,
TO MR. GEORGE SEATREE AND OTHERS
DESCRIBING HIS
Wonderful Octogenarian
Mountaineering and
Climbing Exploits in
Cumberland
1874 – 1878
Re-printed from the “Penrith Observer,” November and December, 1906
R. SCOTT, Printer, Penrith.
REV. JAMES JACKSON – The Patriarch of
the Pillar Rock.
Photograph by J.
Reay, St. Bees.
A SERIES OF
LETTERS
WRITTEN BY
THE REV JAMES JACKSON
OF SANDWITH, WHITEHAVEN,
TO MR. GEORGE SEATREE AND OTHERS
DESCRIBING HIS
Wonderful Octegenarion
Mountainering and
Climbing Exploitrs in
Cumberland
1874 – 1878
Re-printed from the “Penrith
Observer,” November and December, 1906
R. SCOTT, Printer,
Penrith.
The publisher is
indebted to Dr. J. H. Taylor
Salford; Messrs.
Abraham, Keswick: and Mr.
J. Reay, St. Bees,
for kind permission to use
their photographs.
PILLAR ROCK,
ENNERDALE
General View of
North-West Face.
The Patriach of the
Pillar Rock.
In his most recent lecture at
Penrith, on the rock climbing in Cumberland and other places, Mr. George
Seatree showed a portrait of the late Rev. James Jackson, Sandwith, and told of
some of the remarkable feats performed by the veteran in the way of
mountaineering. It is nearly thirty years since the Patriarch met his tragic
death, and not many are left that can say they knew him well. Mr. Seatree,
however, not only had that privilege – for such indeed is a true description –
but he enjoyed a long correspondence with Mr. Jackson, extending over about
four years. Mr. Seatree has very kindly placed the letters at my disposal, and
believing that they will be of general interest, but particularly to those who
love our Lakeland fells, I have made some extracts. In 1873, Messrs, Edward and
Thomas Westmorland, of Penrith, and four other friends, had a long ramble on
the fells in the very heart of the Lake District, and in the following summer
sent a ‘rhythmical account’ of it to the “Whitehaven News,” where it was
published. The versical narrative is too long to be given here – it would
occupy a column – but, as Mr. Seatree explained in his lecture, the verses
included a statement of how a lady – Miss Westmorland – had climbed to the top
of Pillar Rock. “N.Y.Z.” wrote to the paper that he had read the story “with
incredulous amazement.” Happily, in the same month Mr. Seatree and Mr. Stanley
Martin had both found their way to the top of the Rock, and so the former was
able to not only corroborate but to amplify the assertion of his
fellow-townsmen. Mr. Jackson thereupon threw aside the non-de plume, admitted
that he wrote the doubting letter, and made the amende honourable.
Thus Mr. Seatree and Mr. Jackson
began a correspondence which clearly gave each a great amount of pleasure. The
first letter of which notice need be taken was dated September 25th,
1874, and included the following passages:
Many, many thanks for your prompt
notice of my Pillar letter published yesterday in the “News,” and for your kind
promise of sending when out a copy of the local paper containing an account of
your wanderings. Your letter was really redolent of courtesy, and to an old
tramp like myself was quite refreshing. When your letter arrived I was just
folding up a short letter for the “News” of next week, in which I complained
that the word “unmistakable,” used and spelled alike both by you and myself,
had in my own case been corrected but not amended by the insertion of and “e,”
and thus might expose me to the taunt of knowing more of topography than I did
of orthography……. I am personally acquainted with Mr. Waugh and had the honour
of entertaining the Lancashire Poet at my house when I lived at
Broughton-in-Furness. Will you kindly say when you next write whether you used
any and what appliances – as spikes, ropes, &c., when you ascended the
Rock? To give you some idea of my powers of endurance, I will briefly say that
Oct. 1st, 1864, I walked 46 miles in 14 ½ hours, Oct. 4th,
I walked 56 miles in 18 hours; and on Oct. 7th, 60 miles, my
crowning exploit, in 19 hours 50 minutes. The last mentioned was to Keswick and
back, via Whitehaven and Cockermouth. As the season for rambling is nearly
over, I may perhaps beguile some dull or rainy day by giving a brief account of
my lengthened and varied and still robust existence. I have been beneath the
falls of Niagara. I have sung “God Save the King” in the ball of St. Peter’s. I
have ascended Vesuvius in the eruption of 1828. I have capped Snowdon and
Slieve Donard in Ireland, and nearly all the high hills in this district, many
of which I can see from my residence. It only remains for me to mount the
Pillar Rock, and then I may sigh for something else to conquer.
In his next letter a fortnight
later, the veteran was planning a visit to the Rock during the same Autumn, as
he felt himself in “excellent walking trim and think my limbs may be more
supple now than in the spring of next year.” He continued:
Now a word as to Mickle Door (vulg. Mickle
Duer), proper pronunciation Mickledore. I went three times to the connecting
ridge before I found the right way from the Pikes to Scaw Fell. In fact, I
ascertained that there were three ways of ascending or passing from the Pikes
to Scaw Fell – one by a gully on the Eskdale side, which I once took; another
by the Lord’s Rake on the Wasdale side, and the usual pass which commences
about 10 or 20 yards from the ridge on the Eskdale inclination. My rambles have
all been solitary, and often my experience dearly bought. On a third visit to
Mickle Door I found the passage as stated above. It commences with a cleft
which just admits you sideways – then you gain at some height above a flat
portion of rock and observe that someone has cut for you a toe step, and Nature
provided you with a cleft for the insertion of the fingers of your right hand.
This is the critical point. Your fingers might slip, and the fall might be
fatal. Will Ritson’s remedy is “a narrow tooth in the crack.” I did without
one, and fortunately succeeded. I have read your graphic description with much
interest. I have no doubt you and your friend are the first who have mounted by
the way you describe. I have looked at it wistfully myself, but I did not
venture. My visits to Scaw Fell and the Pikes have been so many and from
different points that it would appear a story without an end. I will just state
that I once accompanied two brother clergymen up the pass at Rossett Gill. The
elder tramped without breaks, Highland fashion – a young curate from Manchester
was beaten to a standstill. I (the patriarch of the party) had to insist on
carrying the young man’s luggage, and only obtained it by threatening that I
would carry him too. I arrived at Angle Tarn long before my companions. In the
“News” of October 8th there will be found a letter from me, not on
the subject of “dizzy heights,” but containing what I consider a valuable
suggestion in the interest of the dalesmen of Wasdale Head; perhaps you may
find time to pursue it. I have lunched in three counties at once, and then
Crinkle Crags, Bowfell, and Bowfell Chains have been under my foot. I almost
shudder at the recollection.
A little later Mr. Jackson
acknowledged a gossip from Mr. Seatree, for whose descriptive powers, nerve,
daring in mounting the rugged rocks, and tenacity of purpose he had “nothing
but good words.” In the Penrithian he confessed he had a formidable rival in
pedestrian endurance. He then goes on to describe the steps he took towards
securing a walk with Henry Lancaster, “one of the Stylites,” from the Anglers’
Arms at Ennerdale on an October morning when the lake was raging like a little
sea, and the hills were invisible in the mist, and so the trip had to be
abandoned. Then Mr. Jackson shows another side of his character:
When incumbent of Rivington I replaced a heavy
copper weather cock which required both hands to lift to the turning point, and
which seemed so perilous in the eyes of a gazing rustic as to make him feel
sick at the sight, which produced on the way to the parsonage the following
impromptu epigram:
Who has not heard of
Steeple Jack,
That Lion-hearted
Saxon?
Tho’ I’m not he, he
was my sire,
For I am Steeple
Jackson!
If under your guidance I should succeed in reaching the top
of the Rock you will have an opportunity of crowning me with parsley fern or
heather as “The Pedestrian Patriarch of the Pillarites,” for in April 1875, I shall have entered my eightieth year.
Next year the
programme began early, and in April the Patriarch asked Mr. Seatree for some
information as to the route the Penrith party followed. On the 20th
the old gentleman, being disappointed in getting company, drove to Ennerdale –
a journey of 2½ hours – sailed up the lake, and by noon with his driver, was at
the altitude of the Rock.
-----------------------------------------------
Gbe patriarch of tbc
pillar IRocfc,
In his recent most interesting
lecture at Penrith, on Rock Climbing in Cumberland and other places, Mr. George
Seatree showed a portrait of the late Rev. James Jackson, Sandwith, and told of
some of the remarkable feats performed by the veteran in the way of
mountaineering. It is nearly thirty years since the Patriarch met his tragic
death, and not many are left who can say they knew him well. Mr. Seatree,
however, not only had that privilege for such indeed is a true description but
he enjoyed a long correspondence with Mr. Jackson, extending over about four
years. Mr. Seatree has very kindly placed the letters at my disposal, and
believing that they will be of general interest, but particularly to those who
love our Lakeland fells, I have made some extracts. In 1873 Messrs. Edward and
Thomas Westmorland, of Penrith, and four other friends, had a long ramble on
the fells in the very heart of the Lake District, and in the following summer
sent a " rhythmical account" of it to the " Whitehaven
News," where it was published. The versical narrative is too long to be
given here it would occupy a column but, as Mr. Seatree explained in his
lecture, the verses included a statement of how a lady Miss Westmorland had
climbed to the top of the Pillar Rock. "X.V.Z." wrote to the paper
that he
had read the story " with
incredulous amazement." Happily, in the same month Mr. Seatree and Mr. Stanley
Martin had both found their way to the top of the Rock, and so the former was
able not only to corroborate but to amplify the assertion of his
fellow-townsmen. Mr. Jackson thereupon threw aside the nom de plume, admitted
that he wrote the doubting letter, and made the amende honourable.
Thus Mr. Seatree and Mr. Jackson
began a correspondence which clearly gave each a great amount of pleasure. The
first letter of which notice need be taken was dated September 25th, 1874, and
included the following passages:
Many, many thanks for your prompt
notice of my Pillar letter published yesterday in the " News," and
for your kind promise of sending when out a copy of the local paper containing an
account of your wanderings, lour letter was really redolent of courtesy, and to
an old tramp like myself was quite refreshing. When your letter arrived I was
just folding up a short letter for the " News" of next week, in which
I complained that the word " unmistakable," used and spelled alike
both by you and myself, had in my own case been corrected but not amended by
the insertion of an " e," and thus might expose me to the taunt of
knowing more of topography than I did of orthography. ... I am personally
acquainted with Mr. Waugh and had the honour of entertaining the Lancashire
Poet at my house when 1 lived at Broughton-in-Furness. Will you kindly say when
you next write whether you used any and what appliances as spikes, ropes,
&c., when you ascended the Rock? To give you some idea of my powers of
endurance, I will briefly say that Oct. 1st, 1864, I walked 46 miles in 14
hours; Oct. 4th, I walked 56 miles in 18 hours; and on Oct. 7th, 60 miles, my
crowning exploit, in 19 hours 50 minutes. The last-mentioned was to Keswick and
back, via Whitehaven and Cockermouth.
As the season for rambling is
nearly over, I may perhaps beguile some dull or rainy day by giving a brief
account of my lengthened and varied and still robust existence. I have been
beneath the falls of Niagara. I have sung " God save the King" in the
ball of St. Peter's. I have ascended Vesuvius in the eruption of 1828. I have
capped Snowdon in Wales and Slieve Donard in Ireland, and nearly all the high
hills in this district, many of which I can see from my residence. It only
remains for me to mount the Pillar Rock, and then I may sigh for something else
to conquer.
In his next letter a fortnight
later the veteran was planning a visit to the Rock during the same autumn, as
he felt himself in "excellent walking trim and think my limits may be more
supple now than in the spring of next year." He continued:
Now a word as to Micklce Door
(vulg. Mukle Duer), proper pronunciation Mickledore. I went three times to the
connecting ridge before I found the right way from the Pikes to Scaw Fell. In
fact, I ascertained that there were three ways of ascending or passing from the
Pikes to Scaw Fell one by a gully on the Eskdale side, which I once took;
another by the Lord's Rake from the Wastdale side, and the usual pass which
commences about 10 or 20 yards from the ridge on the Eskdale inclination. My
rambles have all been solitary, and often my experience dearly bought. On a
third visit to Mickle Door I found the passage as stated above. It commences
with a cleft which just admits you sideways then you gain at some height above
a Hut portion of rock and observe that someone has cut for you a toe step, and
Nature provided you with a cleft for the insertion of the fingers of your right
hand. This is the critical point. Your fingers might slip, and the fall might
be fatal. Will Ritson's remedy is " a narrow tooth in the crack." I
did without one, and fortunately succeeded. I have read your graphic description
with much interest. I have no doubt you and your friend are the first who have
mounted by the way you describe. I have looked at it wistfully myself, but I
did not venture. My visits to Scawfell and the Pikes have been so many and from
different points that it would appear a story without an end. I will just state
1 once accompanied two brother clergymen up the pass of Rosset Gill. The elder
tramped without breeks, Highland fashion a young curate from Manchester was
beaten to a standstill. I (the patriarch of the party) had to insist upon
carrying the young man's luggage, and only obtained it by threatening that I
would carry him too. I arrived at Angle Tarn long before my companions. In the
"News" ol October 8th there will be found a letter from me, not on
the subject of "dizzy heights," but containing what I consider a
valuable suggestion in the interest of the dalesmen at Wastdale Head; perhaps
you may find time to peruse it. I have lunched in three counties at once, and
then Cringle Crags, Bow Fell, and Bowfell Chains have been under my feet. I
almost shudder at the recollection.
A little later Mr. Jackson
acknowledged a gossip from Mr. Seatree, for whose descriptive powers, nerve,
daring in mounting the rugged rocks, and tenacity of purpose he had "nothing
but good words." In the Penrithian he confessed he had a formidable rival
in pedestrian endurance. He then goes on to describe the steps he took towards
securing a walk with Henry Lancaster, "one of the Stylites," from the
Anglers' Arms at Ennerdale, on an October morning when the lake was raging like
a little sea. and the hills were invisible in the mist, and so the trip had to
be abandoned. Then Mr. Jackson shows another side of his character:
When incumbent of Rivington I
replaced a heavy copper weather cock which required both hands to lift to the
turning point, and which seemed so perilous in the eyes of a gazing rustic as
to make him feel sick at the sight, and which produced on my way to the
Parsonage the following impromptu epigram:
Who has not heard of
Steeple Jack,
That lion-hearted
Saxon?
Tho' I'm not he, he
was my sire,
For I am Steeple
Jackson!
If under your guidance I should
succeed in reaching the top of the Hock you will have an opportunity of
crowning me with parsley fern or heather as "The Pedestrian Patriarch of
the Pillarites, " for in April 1875, I shall have entered my eightieth
year.
Next year the programme began
early, and in April the Patriarch asked Mr. Seatree for some information as to
the route the Penrith party followed. On the 20th the old gentleman, being
disappointed in getting company, drove to Ennerdale a journey of 24 hours
sailed up the lake, and by noon with In.- driver was at the altitude of the
Rock. " Either thro' misdirection or mis-understanding" the twain went
astray for two hours, and found many rocky lions in their path ere they got to
the base of the Pillar, near to a niche mentioned by Mr. Seatree:
We found our way across it and
climbed for some distance without difficulty until we came to a sloping bank of
heather. Here I was inclined to try the cleft on the left hand, but my
companion wishing to look round the rock on the right we drove some spike nails
into the rock, and he had an opportunity of satisfying himself that the route
was far from inviting in that direction. We were, however, both so thoroughly
exhausted by our previous efforts that I determined to be content with our
partial success and come again some other day to complete our work, for we were
satisfied that we were on the right track and had no doubt as to our ability.
We had two coils of rope, each 17 or 18 yards long, and several iron spikes. We
left four spikes in the rock, but not the ropes. On returning we ascended to
the summit of the mountain, thence to the Windyeat, and by Gillerthwaite to the
Boat House. We got home safe but both very weary; yet next morning I was
neither stiff, sick, nor sorry, and my companion has since told me that he did
not begrudge the journey. . . . Before summer is far advanced I hope to tell
you that the Patriarch of the Pillarites has been on the Rock and vindicated
his claim to the title. I wrote to William Ritson to ask if any of the dalesmen
had yet ascended by the east side, and his reply is in the negative. Did I ever
tell you I was on- flirting with some ladies in your neighbourhood, but I made
no impression on them? You will not wonder at this when I tell you the ladies
were Long Meg and her Daughters!
The Patriarch had not long to
wait ere he attained his ambition, for he wrote the following most interesting
letter on June 1st, 1875:
Yesterday was the last day in
May, and a proud day it was for me, for I succeeded in gaining the summit
From a Photograph by Messrs. Abraham, Keswick.
Showing the route the Patriarch would climb by.
of the Pillar Rock, and of
returning unscathed to my home, and am now writing in a very comfortable
condition of mind and body. I will not here give you any particulars on the
subject, as I shall send an account for publication in the " Whitehaven
News" of the 10th of the month. I content myself for the present with
sending you the enclosed card written in Greek at home this day without
spectacles, a copy of the one left on the Rock. The translation is not a part
of the card left and was written with "specs" on nose. As you may
think the card worth preserving as a souvenir of a very verdant old gentleman,
I have given it a covering of liquid glue, i.e., shellac in solution. Our route
was without doubt the very route by which you and your friend ascended. We
noticed the letters " G.S." and the initials of what we supposed were
those of your companion, cut on the summit of the Rock. I am sorry to say the
bottle is in very bad condition and should be replaced by a new one on the
first opportunity and an oaken receptacle provided for it. The things left by
me on the Rock will be minutely described in the newspaper. The following is
the translation of the parchment to be found inside the bottle: " Jacobus
Stylites with John Hodgson ascended the Pillar of Rock on the last day of the
fifth month in the year of our Lord 1875. Written on the summit without
spectacles, and the card rolled up and put in the bottle."
The next letter to Mr. George
Seatree is dated June 22nd, 1875. Mr. Jackson mentions ascents made by three
persons from Cleator, and seven from Lamplugh and Sandwith, all within a few
days of each other. The seven were all on the Rock at the same time, and one of
them was a lady. He added:
Therefore, to the names of Miss
Barker and Miss Westmorland must be added the name of Mrs. Ann Crears among the
Pillarites. If I were an artist I would sketch the Rock both from an eastern
and a western point of view, and then have it lithographed. Can you give any hint
how this may be done? Your surmise that a visitors' book would be required to
supersede the bottle is likely soon to be a desideratum then " un fait
accompli."
Two days later there was another
gossip from the Patriarch, enclosing some verses which he had written. Mr.
Jackson disclaimed being a poet, though admitting himself to be a facile
rhymer. The verses refer to the ascent of Mrs. Crears and her six male friends
mentioned in the previous letter:
The Pillar smiled a
sober smile,
When on his dizzy height,
Last day of May there
proudly stood
An aged errant
Knight!
But on the twentieth
day of June,
His laugh was loud
and long;
For never since his
birth had been
On his top, so large
a throng!
Two Johns, two Joes,
Tom, Will, and Ann,
Were there a wondrous
eight!
And the feat is now
recorded by
The aged errant
Knight.
To each the Pillar
Patriarch gives
His hand and greets
with joy;
In proof, to each he
sends the lines
Of that wonderful Old
Boy.
In youth he went to
fight the French.
For King George upon
his Throne;
And now he lives in
health and peace
In his own cottage
home.
When man, he wrote in
small p.p.*
Expression of his
charge;
But now he writes in
age P.P.**
But they're in
letters large.
June 23rd, 1875.
* Parish Priest, with a small
living,
** Patriarch of the Pillarites,
with more than competence.
The Rev. J. Jackson was an
inveterate maker of puns, and they crop up in the most unexpected places. On
June 28th he perpetrated several of them in the following amusing letter to Mr.
Seatree:
Will you kindly convey when
convenient the enclosed " Souvenir from December to May," which I
respectfully offer for the acceptance of Miss Westmorland. If my penmanship had
been on an equality with my pedestrianism, the offering might have assumed a
more artistic and neater appearance. But pen, ink, and time united to mar the
production. . . . You have read of that mad Macedonian whom victories never
satisfied. If I may compare small things with great I should say that my
idiosyncrasy is akin to his, though of a more harmless' nature. True to my
motto, ' Stare nescio," I have been cogitating. What next? Shall I go to
the Giant's Causeway, or to Staffa, and bring home a basaltic specimen for my
rockery? Or shall I foot it from Maiden Kirk to John O' Groat's? Or, as I have
a large balance at the bank, shall I girdle the globe, or as my fund of
strength and daring is not exhausted, shall I ascend the Pillar Rock from the
west under the guidance of Henry Lancaster? This is certainly practicable, and
I may say in some measure desirable, for as yet I have no right to claim
jurisdiction over the Pillarites as a whole: I am, perhaps, the acknowledged
Patriarch of the eastern division of the Order, but some one in the western
division may dispute my claim. If the ascent could be effected in the following
fashion it would afford a very sensational picture for the mountaineers of
canny Cumberland. Let us in fancy see, on some fine day well suited for the
work, the aged knight preceded by his squire. Henry of Lancaster, winding their
way up the western side of the Rock, finally gaining its summit, and to the
wonder of all are met on the top by May and her brothers! Here on the dizzy
height would be a realistic union between May and December the happy pair could
descend by the eastern route, and the brothers of the lady might give wings to
the event by writing an Epithalamium, i.e., "Carmen nuptiale." This
may appear to some mere midsummer madness, but it is not the craze of
feebleness. It may never happen that May and December are in Union on the Rock.
but it is possible if not probable that the octogenarian may reach the summit
from the west. " Nous verrons." The imagination is in my brain; it
remains for me to give
" To airy
nothing
A local habitation
and a name."
University men have long been
leaders in rock climbing and mountain rambling in Cumberland, and it is
particularly interesting to learn how a Senior Wrangler, who afterwards became
famous for his feats, came to make his ascent of the Pillar Rock. The next
letter is dated September 17th, 1875:
I have received your photo and
return my best thanks. As you conduced by example and by friendly directions to
the final success of my ascent to the summit of the Pillar Rock. I think it
will not be an inappropriate conjunction if I place side by side in one frame
the photographs of the Pioneer and the Patriarch. You may perhaps be surprised
when I tell you that in addition to my own, yours makes the sixth photo of
Pillarites now in my possession. It happened in this wise. A gentleman of the
name of Maitland having read of my mountain pranks and having heard that I had
capped the Rock and had been photographed since the event, solicited, from
Wastdale Head, my assistance in procuring the two portraits. I at once complied
with his request and received from him in return a very beautiful photographic
group of six persons, namely, Mr. Maitland and two daughters, and his friend
Mr. Butler, daughter, and son. The group was taken last year at Ambleside, but
it was not until this year that five of the six have become Pillarites. Some of
them have been up twice. On the first occasion Mr. Maitland was accompanied by
two girls and four others of the masculine gender, one of whom was the Senior
Wrangler and Smith's Prizeman of his year, and assisted Mr. Maitland in hauling
up the " Lassies." On the second occasion the party of four was
Maitland and son and Butler and son. On intimating to Mr. Maitland. who is now
in Keswick, my desire to procure a sketch or photograph of the Rock, though he
despaired of finding a photo-artist bold enough to mount the hill, he very
kindly sent me a pen and ink sketch made by his son, and that you may form some
idea of the work I send you a tracing of it. I assure you that the original is
a very neat artistic production. But it is not the point of view which I should
select. If you should meet an artist on tramp you might try to coax him for a
sketch, or rather two - one from the east and the other from the west, and then
we might have the two lithographed for the benefit of future tourists. The
Wrangler has been up four different routes. Mr. Maitland is now 60 and has been
in the habit of spending several months in each year amongst the mountains. He
enumerates the following ascents: Scawfell 17 times. Great Gable 18. Skiddaw
21, Helvellyn 14. Red Pike 20, Grassmoor 17, Bowfell 4, Langdale Pikes 9,
Pillar Mountain 7, Steeple 6, &c. He seems more of a mountain maniac than
either you or myself. In fact, the sum total of his ascents is enough to take
away one's breath! I have suggested to him that he should assume the designation
of " Maitland of Many-mounts." If you have not seen the Roman Station
on Hardknot and the Shires' Stones, or rather Stone, for it is not three -but
one with three faces they are worth your attention. I once was at the three-
faced stone and sitting upon the top I enjoyed the unique felicity of dining in
three counties at once! . . . The keeper of the lighthouse at St. Bees Head
informed me the other day that when he was 17 (he is now twice that age) he and
four others ascended the Rock, and their route was the same as the one known to
us both, i.e., up the sloping-faced rock and along the narrow ledge.* Some fine
day after April 12th. 1876, I hope to be in a condition to again ascend the
Rock and clinch the claim I have this year made to the title of the Patriarch
of the Pillarites. In the meantime it will give me great pleasure to receive
whenever convenient some account of your summer rambles, and if you should
visit Shires' Stone, and then ascend Wrynose, on over Crinkle Crags, Bowfell,
Bowfell Chains, Eskhause, Great End, Scawfell Pike, and from Mickledoor descend
to Wastdale Head (a route which I once travelled), you will sleep without
rocking.
* Now think of Will Ritson and ye
dalesmen knowing nothing of this route, and Ritson saying, " It may be
possible to go the route you mention, but I very much doubt it." I believe
the Wrangler's name is Richard Pendlebury; if you have access to the 56th volume
of the " Illustrated London News," at page 225 you will find a
portrait of the gentleman, and a full account of his very brilliant scholastic
and collegiate career. I knew the grandfather of the man, and believe his
father was at the Grammar School of Rivington, and I have also seen him. The
above was written with a quill pen, but at last it played me so many dirty
tricks that I threw it aside in disgust and conclude with a steel one.
Writing at some length on
September 28th Mr. Jackson said:
Your letter from Wastdale was
received on ye 26th, a day of storm and gloom which your welcome missive made
more than endurable, for anything concerning the Pillar and its rugged Rock
produces in me an effect as exhilarating as the veritable mountain air. Then ye
terms of your letter were personally most gratifying, and the announcement that
you were able to tell me that Miss Kate Calvert was now enrolled under the
Patriarchal Banner was more than an antidote for sun obscured and rainy blasts.
Besides, the Westmorland group was a most welcome and desiderated enclosure.
Indeed, so much so that I determined not to part with it unless you assured me
that it was not possible for you to procure another in its stead. But to obtain
condonation for this breach of trust I enclose the photos of myself as First
Student of St. Bees Coll. and Patriarch of the Pillarites, together with two tracings
of the Rock from Mr. Mainland's sketch, in hopes that the Westmorland’s will in
exchange for them be pleased to give you another card of their very interesting
group to supply the place of the one you kindly sent for my inspection. And if
your friend Miss Calvert would favour me with a photograph of herself it would
give me much pleasure to send to her address my two portraits and a tracing of
the Rock in return for her kindness. The portrait of the First Student enlarged
in a beautiful oval frame, 24in. by 30in., executed in London by the Woodbury
type was delivered to me by Mr. Reay on the 22nd inst. . . . The patriarchal
frame will as time goes on, opportunity offers, and kind friends hold the
Patriarch in remembrance, be surrounded by kindred spirits, young men and
maidens, with good heads and stout hearts, who have fearlessly done what many
bearded men in their prime have turned their backs upon in dismay. . . . Mr.
Reay informed me that the students of ye College were making arrangements to have
the enlarged portrait painted there. More than 50 years ago a full-length
portrait life size, of the first Doctor Ainger was placed in the College
Lecture Room. To this I subscribed.
Mr. Seatree's last letter from
the Rev. J. Jackson in 1875 was dated December 9th, and again he was full of
the unique photographic groups he was getting together, and their association
with the Pillar Rock. The following are some extracts from the letter:
Yours of the 7th, in which you
kindly permit me to retain the group sent only for my inspection was received
yesterday. In return I send for your acceptance a copy of the Maitland and
Butler group. . . . Well, I am sorry there are some natures to which nurture
never sticks; yours and mine are not in that category. Before long I have a few
matters to communicate to you, but I reserve them for stormy weather when I
cannot get abroad. I will content myself with saying for your due understanding
of the groups that Mr. Maitland is seated stick in hand his two daughters are
standing behind; Mr. Butler is seated staff in hand his daughter in Alpine
costume to his left seated with staff in hand; her boy brother on the ground
near Mr. Maitland. All in the group are Pillarites and owe allegiance to the
Patriarch except the lady with the white hat. I yesterday made glad the heart
of my neighbour Mrs. Crears - the third in the order of female Pillarites - by
presenting her with a copy of the Maitland and Butler group.
Then we come to 1876, a year
which had much of interest for the Patriarch. On January 23rd he wrote to Mr.
Seatree a very long letter from which the following extracts are taken:
I have again been corresponding
with Mr. Maitland, who kindly furnished me with some sketches made by Mr.
Dymond in 1866 of the Pillar Rock and Scawfell from Mickledoor (vulg:
Meckledure), and also of the Lord's Rakes, &c.; but these artistically are
very inferior to the sketch made by young Maitland. . . . Amongst the matters
communicated to Mr. Maitland I sent an account of the individual ascents of the
Pillar Rock made in 1875, as known to me, as follows:
1. Strangers from Keswick names
unknown 2
2. Self and John Hodgson 2
3. C. W. Dixon, Walcock, and Hugh
McDonall 3
4. Mrs. Crears, my neighbour, and
6 others 7
5. Rothery, Robinson, and 2 others
4
6. Seatree and Friend with 2
strangers 4
7. Westmorlands, 2 males and 2
females... 4
8. Maitlands, Butlers,
Pendlebury, Senior Wrangler, &c 7
9. Maitland, 2 of the above
party, and young Butler 4
10. Seatree and Miss Galvert 2
11. Maitland, Bowring, a
barrister, 2nd son of I. B., &c 3
12. Mr. Maitland has enabled me
to add other 4
The female Pillarites are:
Miss A. Barker in 1870; Miss
Westmorland in 1874; then in 1875 we have the following six:
Mrs. Crears, two Misses
Westmorland, Miss Maitland, Miss Butler, and Miss Calvert.
Mr. Jackson goes on to supply
some information which is of greater value now than was the case thirty odd
years ago, because in all probability to-day it would have been impossible to
obtain such historical refutation of Wordsworth's suggestion:
In one of Mr. Maitland's letters
he says that Mr. Dickinson, of Red How, Lamplugh, informed him (in a letter)
that a young Bowman, of Mireside, in Ennerdale, was found dead at the foot of
the Pillar Rock 100 years ago. If you have got Edwin Waugh's " Seaside,
Lakes, and Mountains of Cumberland," you will find at page 31, on the
authority of Wordsworth's poem " The Brothers," something
confirmatory of the story. I read " The Brothers," but the name and
circumstances of the parties do not correspond. The name in the poem is Ewbank;
they were the last of their race. On the death of their grandfather they were
thrown upon the charity of the people of the dale. The Bowmans for generations
have been and are in the class of substantial "statesmen." Now as
Patriarch of the Pillarites I was jealous of the reputation of the Rock and was
unwilling that it should be burthened with a catastrophe of which it might be
guiltless. I therefore wrote to Mr. John Bowman, of Mireside, to inquire if
there was any tradition in his family of such a fatality having happened to
some juvenile branch a century ago. This is his answer: "Rev. Sir, the
name of the man who lost his life on the mountains of Ennerdale was John
Bowman. It was not the Pillar Rock from which he fell, but from a rock about
one mile higher up the dale. Yours truly, John Bowman." To my first
inquiry an old woman who had lived at Ennerdale Bridge replied that she had
never heard of the Pillar Rock until she was told that I had been on the top of
it, and the reply from a lady who had known the Bowmans for fifty years was
that she had never heard of such a fatality in the family. The fact appears to
be this the poet had heard that there had been a fatal fall from a rock on the
Ennerdale mountains, but all the rest is "airy nothing," to which the
poet's pen has given "a local habitation and a name.'
Having personally had some
adventures including that of being lost on Whiteside, I read with great
pleasure the Patriarch's description of his visits to one of the most
beautifully situated though least known of our easily accessible mountains. I
would recommend readers to peruse the following paragraph when they have a map
at hand, so as to do full justice to the old gentleman's feats, for it is a
long step from Sandwith to Crummock foot:
I have now been three times on
the top of Grassmoor. I think I have not told you anything about the two first,
and I am sure I have not hitherto said anything about the last July 17th,
1874 was a red-letter day. I rose at midnight, left home 12-20, reached the
summit of Banna Fell, near Flantern [Floutern] Tarn 5-20. near Crummock 6-40,
at Buttermere 7, Bannerdale 7-40, left at 8, on the summit 10-2, down again
11-25, at Ullock Station 2-45, where I had to wait for train to Moor Row until
6 no house of refreshment near. Home 8 p.m. a day of 20 hours!
July 16th, 1874, I again took
train from Moor Row to Ullock, walked thence to Lanthwaite Gate, and made the
attempt on the Whiteside side of the Gill, but having no proper directions to
the Gill Head I crossed the beck at the sheepfold, and gained the cairn on the
top; but was sorely tried by the effort needed for the task. In descending I
came to the Gill Head and saw at once where and how I had missed the way and
took a note of it for future guidance. However, I did not descend by the Gill,
but went over Wanlop Top, and to Whiteless Pike before I commenced a downward
course. After a good cup of tea, hospitably afforded by Mrs. Robt. Pearson, of
Lanthwaite Gate, I got to Ullock, thence by train to Moor Row, and home in good
time.
The excursion on the 1st of
November in 1875 was signalised by my third ascent. There was an early walk to
Moor Row, the train to Ullock, thence the walk to Lanthwaite Gate. I had
determined to find the route by the Gill Head, and succeeded, but it required
an effort, for the east wind was dead against me in the Gill. But I overcame
the opposition, and after a little chat with Farmer Banks, who knew Mr.
Maitland, I went on to the dubs where the water sheds in different directions,
i.e., to Rannerdale, and to Lanthwaite. From this point 15 minutes' walkable
ground lies between it and the cairn of stones on the summit. The ungenial
state of the atmosphere excited my sympathy for the brave men now in the Polar
regions. The wind was charged with a frozen vapour,
Photograph by J. Reay, St. Bees.
rebuked my temerity and attempted
to unbonnet me for presuming to defile with my hob-nailed shoes the hoary carpet
which it had spread on its own Grassmoor. After tapping the pole, I descended
with ease and haste, and found myself in a state of genial warmth before I
arrived at Lanthwaite Gate.
That the "vis vitae" is
still strong within me you will easily believe from the following brief time
table. On the 1st of November 1875, in the most jubilant spirit, I rose at 4
a.m., left home at 5, was on tip toe 12 hours four of which were taken up with
the ascent and descent of the mountain and absent from home 15 hours, and was
neither sick nor sorry next morning, for at 8 a.m. I merrily walked three miles
out and three miles in to recover a small bag which had no value but a
sentimental one, which a little misadventure had caused me to leave on the top
of a thorny hedge, which I was obliged to climb in order to gain a practicable
homeward path; for I had attempted in the obscurity of the night to thread my
way by a field foot-path and became bewildered. This vain attempt must have
cost me half-an-hour of needless toil.
I have made two copies of Mr.
Dymond's note sent to me by Mr. Maitland, and send the one enclosed for your
acceptance. Perhaps you will think with me that it is a curiosity and not
without interest to the lofty Order to which we belong. When Mr. Dymond in 1866
penned the note, the feminine and patriarchal era had not begun; therefore we
must not wonder that so small a number as 20 in the aggregate are allotted to
the 40 years preceding I say 40 years assuming that the ascent of Cooper
Atkinson was made in the year 1826, and no previous ascent is recorded. We are
now in the year 1876, and I am happy to say that I am still able to describe
myself in two words " Senex Juveniles " words of pregnant meaning, -
and I have no intention of allowing the year to be a fallow-field but rather a
year of Jubilee. My great object will be to gain a more accurate knowledge of
the Pillar Rock than I have at present, and if I gain any additional light on
the subject I will not hide it under a bushel, but let it shine before others.
I was highly delighted the other
day on learning from the grocer with whom I deal in Whitehaven that a tradesman
of his acquaintance with artistic proclivities had made a large sketch of the
Pillar Rock, and which was framed and glazed in his dwelling house. I shall
respectfully solicit the favour of inspecting, and in due time you shall hear
of it. My first ascent of Grassmoor was on the 7th of July 1874. The day after
there might have been a strange coincidence, for Mr. Maitland was on the summit
on the 8th; thus, the future Patriarch of the Pillarites and his heir-apparent
might have met! Mr. Maitland is proud of the designation.
The Patriarch's copy of Mr.
Dymond's description of the Pillar Rock is too interesting to be passed over.
In his communication to Mr. Jackson, Mr. Dymond said:
The Pillar Rock is severed into
two distinct portions by a chasm 6 feet wide with inaccessible walls. The
smaller [in bulk] and less lofty of these two portions stands between the main
rock and upward slope of the mountain. The larger portion is partially severed
by a cleft floored with a steep slope of grass. To ascend you pass the chasm
just mentioned and cross a small sloping slab of slate by means of a shallow
horizontal crack in its surface. This is the most dangerous feat in the ascent,
as the slab terminates at its foot in a precipice. You then immediately begin
to escalade the rock, making use of some of the horizontal shelves to get round
its right hand face, which you must do without ascending too high. Arrived in
view of the cleft, wriggle round (a business which seemed to me the worst
feature in the whole climb) as well as you may, off the rock on to the green
floor on the cleft, which like the slab before mentioned, also runs down to a
precipice. You climb this slope up into the narrow throat of the cleft, where
your way is barred by a fallen rock jammed in. A bit of tugging will, however,
raise you over this, and then you easily run up to the top. This rock has one
peculiarity. Its descent is at least as easy as its ascent.
N.B. - A guide desirable. Will
Ritson never did it. Two Alpines spent two hours in vain attempts to find the
way up. One in four pedestrians might do it, but no object is gained by doing
it, except the reputation of having accomplished it. Twenty people have done
it. Five views ascending the Screes thro' Hawl Ghyll. The Lord's Rakes on
Scafell. width 5 to 20, floored with screes swarming with garnets. The ascent
cannot be steeper than the "angle of repose" of such loose materials,
namely, about 45 degrees. C. W. DYMOND, 1866.
Writing again to Mr. Seatree on
January 18th, 1876, the Patriarch gossiped pleasantly about other things, his
Penrith friend having recently been lecturing about his adventures in the
vicinity of Niagara, a district with which the veteran had also more than a
passing acquaintance. He said:
On the 11th inst. the newspaper
and Rambles were duly received, for both of which I return my best thanks.
Under date the 13th inst. I wrote to Mr. Maitland intimating that he was at
liberty to retain what I had sent only for his perusal, and it is very likely
that as he was furnished by me with your address, and contemplated writing to
you, he may have done it before this comes to hand. Under the circumstances in
which your paper on Niagara was read, you were doubtless limited to time, or
instead of confining yourself to the present you might have revealed something
of the past and uplifted the veil of the future. You might have told your
audience that there was a time when, though there might be rapids, the falls
were not, and that 30,000 years have been required for devouring time to
disintegrate the shale and crush down its limestone bed from Queenstown Heights
to their present locality, and that in 90,000 years more the falls of Niagara
may be things of the past, and that Lake Erie as Ontario had done in times long
ago, might recede from its present bounds and would be deprived of one of its
greatest wonders.
In reference to the following,
" And the
rainbow lays its gorgeous gems
In tribute at thy
feet,"
though I have noted in my journal
the word " rainbow" I am not quite certain that it was the inverted
Bow that I saw at Niagara; but I have a lively recollection of seeing the
wonder at Rochester on the Genesee Falls in 1827. You allude to the Table Rock,
but it is not the same over which my legs dangled fifty years ago. That shelf
has fallen. I went beneath the Falls and saw the green water above me; you say
nothing of this feat. 1 wonder whether it is now practicable.
I think in my last letter to you
I stated that I had heard of the existence of some sketch or sketches of the
Pillar Rock made by a Whitehaven gentleman. I have seen the same, but they are
not sufficiently individualised for my purpose, or I would have asked the
owner's permission to submit them to the photographers.
Though in the gossip just quoted
Mr. Jackson said nothing about his plans for the future, it was impossible that
such a topic could be ignored for any length of time, and so on April 3rd he
wrote as follows to Mr. Seatree:
On the 12th of this month I shall
have completed my lengthened span of eighty years. Now, as I feel " pretty
bobbish," I contemplate spending a considerable part of my birthday on and
about the Pillar Rock. My plan is this. On the 11th I shall train it to
Seascale, thence walk via Gosforth to Wastdale Head, and lodge for the night at
Ritson's. On the 12th I shall be up betimes and quietly wend my way to the
Rock, either with or without a dalesman, for a ladder rope which I shall take
with me makes me feel very independent in the matter. If the exigencies of
business will permit it, I shall be glad of your company; if not on this
occasion another opportunity will be afforded to you of meeting me, when I have
arranged with a photographer to take the Rock both from the east and west, and
also from the south. The last point being very near to the object, the
Patriarch will appear staff in hand on the summit, where perhaps you might
desire to appear as one of his supporters; and though London is a long way off,
Mr. Maitland might appear as the other. I am in Whitehaven to-day, and shall
see Mr. Brunton, the artist, on the subject. The ascent of the Pillar Rock in
April, even by an octogenarian, seems to me a very tame affair compared with
the ascent of Mont Blanc in January of this year by a lady. I think we should
both of us bow very low in the presence of such a heroine. Don't you think so?
That is the last letter from the
Patriarch which Mr. Seatree has preserved. It would seem that circumstances
caused Mr. Jackson to postpone his ascent for three weeks, but on May 6th he
wrote from his house, at Summer Hill, Sandwith, to the " Whitehaven
News" the following account of his exploit:
I trust you readers will hold me
guiltless of any undue assumption when I say that they may wait many a day
before they see it again recorded that another full-blown octogenarian, on the
4th day of May, or any other day, all alone in his glory, between eight and
nine a.m., has stood upon the Pillar Rock, having ascended and descended,
without mortal eye or aid being near, and was able to say in his house on the
next morning that he was neither sick, sore, nor sorry. Before I give a few
particulars of this feat, I will first state that on the 18th ult. I walked to
St. Bees, trained to Seascale, then walked via Gosforth to Wastdale Head, and
the next morning, full of hope and vigour, began the ascent by the Black Sail
Pass. But here the mist closed in upon me, and I was literally mistified. I
have coined the word as more applicable to my condition than the word mystified
found in the dictionaries. Then there was rain, then large flakes of snow, and
as I trod the summit of the Pillar Mountain I had to knock the snow-pattens
from my feet. I succeeded at last in gaining a glimpse of the Rock, but as my
hands were smarting with cold (though I am a bold man, I am not wanting in
discretion), I at once perceived that under such adverse circumstances it would
be worse than folly to attempt to overcome the gigantic difficulty I came
single-handed to encounter. I therefore decided on making a descent by the Wind
Gap, the Black Crag, and the Steeple; then, turning to the left, to pass by
Scoat Tarn, down Bowderdale, and so gain the road by the lake. But when I
emerged from the mist I was at the head of Mosedale, and not of Bowderdale. The
last-named has not an inviting surface, but it has nothing so bad as the Screes
of Mosedale. These have left a disagreeable impression on my memory, for the
muscular exertion required to retard my descent left a soreness which made me
uncomfortable for several days. However, I reached Ritson's at 1-15 p.m., then
tramped the thirteen miles to Seascale, which I reached in time for the 6-24
train to St. Bees, with the reflection that if my foresight had been as good as
my aftersight I should have waited for the month of May. This month came with a
rising barometer, and full of promise. So, I trusted the favourable
indications, and the 3rd and 4th days of the month required for my work fully
atoned for the mist and the snowstorm which in April had left my labour without
the desired result. From St. Bees I went by rail to Seascale. thence on foot to
Wastdale Head, reaching Ritson's at 5 p.m. Early to bed, early I rose; and
after a cold breakfast I unlocked the door, and was on my way to the Pillar
Mountain at 4-20 a.m. The summit was reached at 7-30 a.m. The descent of 400
feet to the Rock was effected before eight, when I stood in the presence of
this awe-striking and picturesque freak of Nature. After duly surveying the
route I had to pursue, I was soon at the rock with the transverse nick which
has to be traversed; then I scrambled to the sloping rock, which is about six
yards in extent, and may be called the pons asinorum of the climb. Into this
rock I drove a spike, on which, by the means of my staff. I raised the loop of
a rope ladder with four rungs, hanging it on the spike; as an additional
security a hand-rope was also attached to the same point; and with these
appliances I gained, without slip or injury, the narrow heath-covered ledge.
About six yards is the horizontal extent of this ledge, when you have again to
mount upwards for 20 yards. Here I left my staff with its point in the ledge
below, and its top just visible to indicate the precise place to which I should
go in my downward course. With ungloved hands I grasped the rugged rock, and in
five or six minutes I stood proudly on the summit, and a second time asserted
my claim to be the Patriarch of the Pillarites. Whilst on the rock I
ascertained, by means of a string to which a small plummet was attached, that
the depth of the chasm which separates the rock from the mountain was 16 ½ yards.
My next task was to leave some proof that the old juvenile had been there. I
saw no bottle and had prepared no card had there been one. So, I took a small
pocket knife, and with it made four successive scores on the western side of
the higher staff; and then, descending to the lower one, performed the same
operation on its eastern side. To the untutored cragsman these whittlings might
have no meaning, but be regarded as the work of some mischievous boy; whilst,
if some intelligent person, let us say the Senior Wrangler and Smith's Prizeman
of his year (he has often been upon the Rock), had seen the marks, he at once
would say, " These marks have a meaning they are repeated on both staffs
to draw attention they are four in number ; and viewed through the hieroglyphical
lens the four scores may mean 80 years, which is the age of the Senior
Scrambler, alias the Patriarch of the Pillarites, and this is the record he has
left." If he so spoke, the wandering (Edipus would have been right in his
divination. I will now briefly state that the descent was made in safety, and
that, too, without the aid of the rope ladder; for I discovered a practicable
path parallel to the ladder, and only a yard or two from it. I observed this in
my ascent, and even hesitated whether I should avail myself of the appliance I
had with me. I was again on the top of the mountain at 10-15 a.m., and at
Ritson's by 12-10. After a slight refreshment I was driven in a trap to the
Strands, then walked to Drigg, reached St. Bees by rail, and was at Summer Hill
by 7-30 p.m.
If you have space I should be
gratified by the insertion of the lines below not because they have any
poetical merit, but because they are a truthful description of the feelings and
the powers of a man old in years, but young in deeds and daring.
AN OCTOGENARIAN'S SOLILOQUY ON
HIS VISIT TO THE PILLAR ROCK, MAY 4TH, 1876.
A word with you, good
Father Time,
I know your motto's
" Tempus fugit";
But fold your wings,
and trip with me,
And listen whilst on
foot we trudge it.
You brace my nerves,
you oil my joints,
You care for liver,
heart, and bellows;
My laboratory too,
you tend;
To me you're Prince
of all good fellows.
Decades in number
eight have passed
Since first you heard
me feebly wailing;
Roe-footed now o'er
hills I bound,
And lo! alone the
Rock I'm scaling!
The summit gained, in
joy I stand,
Greeting the rocks
and rocklets near;
Then at the base, in
thankful mood,
I muse upon a climb
next year.
Let all who pleasure
find in toil,
To find it long, this
maxim borrow;
Four-score, with
Nature's laws observed,
May neither labour be
nor sorrow.
These laws from none
are ever hid,
They're written fair
on Nature's page,
And with attention
may be read
"By saint, by
savage, and by sage."
And now comes the last sad story
of how the Rev. James Jackson paid for his temerity with his life. How the
accident happened can never be known, because the Patriarch was alone; indeed,
as will have been gathered from the letters already printed, he had a passion
for wandering about the mountains without a companion guides would have been
useless, because he knew more than they could tell him. All that is known is
contained in a newspaper report of the inquest, dated Thursday, May 9th, 1878.
The inquiry was held on Saturday, May 4th, at the Wastwater Hotel before Mr. J.
M'Kelvie, the district coroner, the Rev. George Pigot, vicar of Wastdale, being
the foreman. It was a pathetic coincidence that "Auld Will" Ritson
should have been the principal witness. He said he had known Mr. Jackson for
ten or fourteen years. Deceased had told him he was 82 years of age. Mr.
Jackson went to his house Wastdale Head Hotel on Tuesday evening, April 30th,
and was then in his usual health and spirits. The veteran left about five
o'clock on the Wednesday, telling Mr. Ritson he was going on the Pillar Rock if
it was not misty. If it was misty he would go back and stop another night. He
had two poles, and a bag containing ropes, of which he intended to make a
ladder. As Mr. Jackson did not return that night, Auld Will sent a party to search
for him next day. They did not succeed that day, and so returned to the
vicinity of the Rock on the Friday. The Tuesday was rather misty sometimes.
Another witness, John Jenkinson, labourer, Burnthwaite, who did not know Mr.
Jackson, was one of those sent out by Ritson, told the jury how the searchers
found the dead body about mid-day at a place called Great Doup, about 400 yards
from the Pillar Rock. The dalesmen found he had apparently fallen down a very
steep place, 200 or 300 yards high. They found some hair on a rock about 100
yards above the body, which led them to conclude that he had fallen on that
with his head. He was lying on his left side, with his arm underneath. A part
of his head and face were knocked away, and otherwise he had suffered terrible
injuries. Mr. Jackson's watch had stopped at three o'clock. This witness
produced the watch, 2 in gold, 10s. 6d. in silver, and 4d. in copper, and other
articles. He also showed to the jury a bottle containing a memorandum which Mr.
Jackson had intended to deposit on the Pillar. When further interrogated
Jenkinson said he could not tell how the old gentleman fell from the height.
Isaac Fletcher, labourer, of Wastdale Head, who was also sent out with
Jenkinson. gave some additional information, showing that they found one of
deceased's sticks about 100 yards above where they found the body, and the
other stick about 40 yards above that.
The writing in the bottle to
which the witness referred was as follows:
Two elephantine properties are
mine,
For I can bend to pick up pin or
plack,
And when this the Pillar Rock I
climb.
Four score and two's the howdah
on my back.
P.P. Date of the third ascent,
May, 1878.
On the cork of the bottle was
" Rev. J. Jackson, Sandwith." Of course, the only thing the jury
could do was to find that death was the result of an accident.
Another sad coincidence was the
arrival of Mr. Seatree at Wastdale Head without knowledge of any accident, when
all that was left of his aged correspondent were the terribly disfigured remains
occupying an out-house of the inn awaiting the coroner's inquiry.
A couple of years after his death
two veteran lovers of the Lake Mountains, Mr. F. H. Bowring and the late Mr. J.
Maitland contemporaries of the Patriarch built a cairn and placed an iron cross
on the spot where the old gentleman was found, but the winter storms which rage
round Pillar Fell and sweep down the savage corries of Great Doup, carried both
away. On August 16th, 1906, a more lasting memorial was completed. Mr. C. A. 0.
Baumgartner, another veteran lover of the Fells the oldest living Pillarite,
having ascended the Rock so far back as 1850 in conjunction with Mr. J. W.
Robinson and Mr. Seatree, had the initials "J. J." and the date
" 1878" chiselled on to the nearest suitable rock to where the body
was found, by Mr. Benson Walker, marble mason, Cockermouth. Taking advantage of
the day set apart by Mr. Robinson, one of Cumberland's foremost cragsmen, for
his hundredth ascent of the Pillar Rock, an opportunity was found to have the
work done. Mr. Robinson, Mr. Walker, and Mr. Seatree were accompanied by Mrs.
Robinson, Miss Cleeve, Tasmania, and Miss A. E. Seatree. Mr. Walker found the
rock to be very hard, but in a few hours an effective memorial of the old
clergyman was inscribed which nothing short of an earthquake should destroy.
And so we leave the Patriarch of
the Pillarites in his last sleep, with a grateful thought for all he did in the
interests of British rock climbing, but deeply regretting that his enthusiasm
should thus so tragically have robbed Cumberland of its Grand Old Man of the
Mountains.
NORTHERNER,
The following short article which
appeared in the "Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury" on September1st,
1906, under the title of "Cumberland Rock Climbing, will be of interest in
connection with the letters in the preceding- pages:
Some recent achievements in
connection with the well-known Pillar Rock, in Cumberland, have great interest
for the widespread and cosmopolitan fraternity of mountain and crag climbers.
Mr. J. W. Robinson, of Brigham,
selected the 16th of last month for the accomplishment of his hundredth ascent
of that famous crag. Mr. Robinson is regarded as the pioneer of Cumber- land
rock climbing. With the exception of one only, each of the various ascents,
some fourteen in number, is familiar to him, and he has climbed at all seasons
of the year and in all weathers.
The exception referred to is a
new climb up the north-west face, one of extreme difficulty and danger, the
credit of first accomplishing which is due to Messrs. Botterill, of Leeds, Dr.
Taylor, and Mr. Oppenheimer, who successfully achieved it in June last.
Mr. Robinson, on his hundredth
ascent, was accompanied by Mrs. Robinson, Miss Cleeve, Mr. George Seatree, of
Bootle, an ardent and enthusiastic Cumberland cragsman of the older school,
Miss A. E. Seatree, Mr. R. Lamb, &c., and in addition to the pleasure of
the climb itself, the party had a special object of a most interesting nature.
It was to establish a memorial to the Rev. J. Jackson, formerly vicar of Rivington,
Lancashire, whose extraordinarily extended climbing record was tragically
closed whilst approaching the Pillar Rock in May 1878. Mr. Jackson was then
eighty-two years of age. The late Mr. John Maitland, himself a well-known "
Pillarite," interested himself at that time in the erection of an iron
cross and stone cairn at the spot where Mr. Jackson's body was found. Winter
storms, however, having carried away the memorial, Mr. Robinson and party,
including Mr. Benson Walker, of Cockermouth, a marble mason, made a halt on
their journey and waited whilst Mr. Walker cut in the face of the rock a cross
with the initials "J. J.," and the date 1878, thus forming a memorial
of the deceased clergyman which nothing short of earthquake will destroy.
Judging from an interesting
series of letters written by this wonderful octogenarian climber to Mr.
Seatree, and still in that gentleman's possession, he must have been the most
remarkable pedestrian and mountaineer that ever rambled over his beloved Fells.
At the summit of the Pillar Mr. Robinson and party performed a pleasant little
ceremony. It was to deposit under the cairn a zinc box containing a visitors'
book, which it is hoped will be allowed to remain, though past experience gives
no satisfactory assurance.
Receptacles for records, and the
records themselves, the "Carlisle Journal" laments, disappear very
mysteriously. The first that was deposited was left by L'eutenant Wilson, R.N.,
of Troutbeck, in 1849. That was a bottle, and it was replaced in the early
seventies by a tin box, by Mr. Dismore, of Liverpool, who was afterwards killed
on Grib Coch. The curse which Mr. Dismore recorded in the visitors' book
against him who should dare to remove it saved the records from molestation for
some years, but in 1889 they vanished. One or two climbers took the precaution
to copy the most interesting of the records, and there is in the possession of
one gentleman a copy of all the entries between May 27th, 1882, and September
4th, 1886. This was the period when Mr. Haskett-Smith and Mr. Robinson were
Photograph by Dr. J. H. Taylor, Salford,
PILLAR ROCK. NEW NORTH-WEST CLIMB,
First ascended in June 1906.
systematically exploring the
Rock, and there are numerous references to their accents.
On August 23rd two young
Liverpool climbers, Mr. Robertson Lamb and Mr. Collinson, with Mr. Steeples, of
Birmingham, and Mr. Haughton, of Southampton, succeeded in making the second
successful ascent of the new north-west route to the summit of the Pillar Rock.
The achievement was a very notable one, inasmuch as the climb was undertaken
when the rock was in the worst possible condition owing to recent heavy rains.
Mr. Lamb led throughout, and it speaks well for his nerve-power, care, and
skill as a cragsman that he carried the party so successfully to the summit.
The nature of the difficulties
encountered can be appreciated from the fact that the ascent of this 450ft. of
almost vertical crag occupied upwards of four hours.
Three ropes, 80ft. each in
length, were used and required. The most severe part of the climb is a 45ft.
very open chimney, hard to negotiate owing to the scantiness of holds, and
dripping wet on this occasion.
After laborious and trying work
Oppenheimer's Chimney a very interesting finish was reached. It took the party
all their time to surmount the chock stones of this chimney, though this part
of the climb would have been easy enough but for the severe work already
undergone.
The greeting of friendly voices
waiting to hail the quartette on the summit was a welcome sound to them all.
In Mr. Lamb's view, this climb is
one of the most difficult in the Cumberland mountain district and ought not to
be attempted except in the best of weather conditions, and only by experienced
and reliable parties.
Mr. Lamb is quite in the front
rank of the younger generation of climbers. He is one of the very few who have
scaled the difficult Devil's Kitchen ascent in Wales, and one of the hardest
gullies on Sgurr-nan-Gillean, Skye, last year succumbed to his efforts, being
the first complete ascent ever made.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date
stamped below.
Form L9-40m-7,'56(C79084)444
LIBRARY
IFORKL4
