I don’t think I altogether agree with a tax on visitors for the maintenance of paths and bridges, but perhaps I am being a bit selfish here because I personally derive so much interest from tracing them. I work from 6” maps published by the Ordnance Survey about a century ago, before there were any walkers’ paths as such but when drove roads and miners’ tracks were common. It’s fun trying to find them today!
As for the ‘cloak of anonymity’ I have assumed, it’s all part of the game, but, for me, an essential part. I always travel alone (the best way of walking the hills). I never reveal my identity to anyone. I keep out of other people’s way. Mind you, there have been some very embarrassing moments, especially on buses and in cafes. It’s funny hearing yourself discussed by a stranger on the next seat! Twice only, I have been challenged, and had to own up. Molly Garmeworthy knows me (by sight only) through her association with Kendal C.H.A.
I have had several reports that the cairn on Pike o’ Blisco had been rebuilt (which pleases me) but since all my correspondents claim to have contributed to the work, it must be getting quite a height now! I hope some of these good people will give their attention to the Lingmell cairn next. This was a beauty, a slender pile 10’ high, but some time ago I heard that it had been thrown down.
I am sorry about my failure to autograph your copy of the Southern Fells. This must have been a shocking oversight on somebody’s part. However, repeat the request next time, and if you feel it worth the trouble to send Book Four back for autographing, of course I’ll be pleased to do it.
I hope your operation has proved successful, and that your next visit to the Lakes will find you in possession of all your faculties. I hope, too, you will be able to find time for another account of your wanderings. Your letters are a pleasure to read.
Myself, I’m off for a holiday later this week – to Scotland!!! Yours sincerely
AWainwright
Bert Markland ceased writing to AW in 1961, feeling that AW was now so well known, his books so famous, that he should not bother him any more. He died in 1999, just a few days before his 90th birthday.
In his last letter from AW, in October 1961, AW refers to a ‘delicate personal matter’ but this was nothing to do with his wife – as AW never referred to her in any of his letters – but to an invitation Bert Markland had issued for AW to to be guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Bolton Photographic Society.
LETTER 60: TO BERT MARKLAND, 27 OCTOBER 1961
Henry Marshall
Low Bridge
Kentmere
Westmorland
Telephone: Kentmere 45
27th October 1961
Dear Mr Markland,
Thank you for your interesting letter. It was a pleasure to hear from you again.
I’m glad you located the old grave all right (and rather relieved to know it is still there). If the grave actually marks the spot where the body was found, it seems that your supposition (that the direct route was in use in those far off days as well as the pony track) is probably correct – I hadn’t thought of this before.
I have personal knowledge of the sloppiness of the crossing from Stake top to Rossett top. The ‘terrace’ route below Black Crag, on the contrary, is very good indeed – although, if coming from Langstrath, a descent and re-ascent would be involved in the use of it.
About the delicate personal matter – no, I’m sorry. It isn’t the sort of thing I enjoy – some defect in my make-up, obviously. And I’ve got to an age when I don’t do things I don’t like doing. This doesn’t mean that I don’t think the occasion is going to be anything but a splendid weekend for those present; and it certainly doesn’t mean that I am not appreciative of your very kind invitation. I am indeed – you do me a great honour. I just don’t happen to be a sucker of honours, nor do I feel I deserve any. Funny old stick!
Sorry to hear your operation was not a success, but disabilities only become really serious when they keep you off the hills.
I’ve remedied the oversight in the book, which I now return (with apologies for the delay), and hope it will not happen again.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
Part 7
Pictorial Guides Letters, 1960–6
The seven Pictorial Guides, which had first appeared in 1955, came out at regular intervals from then on, roughly every two years, until the last one, the Western Fells, was published in 1966. By then his fan mail had grown enormously, with letters coming in every day. He managed to answer every one, though sometimes a month or so late, while still working at his day job as Kendal’s Borough Treasurer, and bashing on with his Guides, spending his weekends and daylight evenings in the summer either walking or writing his current book.
Many of his letters are very chatty, friendly and informative, especially about his books and what he was then working on, but he rarely ever gives away any personal information – either about his office job or his family life.
By 1960, his wife Ruth is never mentioned, even when occasionally old friends from the past write to him. It looks as if they have ceased to be on speaking terms, in the same house but living their own separate lives, never going out nor having holidays together.
Peter, his son, born 1933, who until he was a teenager was a regular walking companion with his father, also ceases to be mentioned in any letters. He left school aged sixteen and moved to Windermere, working at the local gas works. In 1959, he moved abroad to work for the Bahrain Petroleum Company where he stayed for the next 15 years. He wrote regularly to his mother, but heard nothing from his father.
AW appeared to prefer communicating with people he didn’t know, and was not likely to meet.
One of his earliest long-running correspondents was Len Chadwick of Dobcross near Oldham. He was a member of a local club called the Kindred Spirits Fell Walking Society. (The reference to OT presumably refers to its magazine.)
In a letter to AW in 1960, he happened to mention that he and some others were planning to spend two weeks climbing the Munros – the 277 Scottish Mountains over 3,000 feet – and enclosed their detailed timetable, routes and plans, all of which AW found fascinating. He himself had become interested in the Scottish mountains, despite his obsession with the Lakeland fells. He wrote back, promising to sponsor him, even though Mr Chadwick had not asked for any money or sponsorship. He even enclosed a cheque for £25 in advance, which was generous, considering the assaults were not going to be attempted till the following summer.
LETTER 61: TO LEN CHADWICK, 31 OCTOBER 1960
[on Henry Marshall headed paper]
Low Bridge
Kentmere
Westmorland
Telephone: Kentmere 45
31st October 1960
Dear Mr Chadwick,
‘Munro’s Tables’ herewith. I suggest you keep this to work from. It should be the Expedition’s Bible!
On looking through this book, I find there aren’t quite as many genuine Munros (separate mountains) as I thought, and I am now rather inclined to your opinion that 20 are as many as could be managed in a fortnight.
I didn’t intend my terms to be quite so harsh and am now prepared to extend my offer as follows:
5/- for every separate mountain over 3000 ft Plus 10/- for every top (not being a separate mountain) over 3000 ft according to the first two columns of TABLE II. As before, all members of the party must touch the summit-cairn to qualify. Maximum contribution 50 pounds (the same summit cannot qualify both for 1 pound and 10/-)
This adjustment should give you rather more scope and augment the funds. You should have some fun with your Scottish maps and timetables this winter!
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
LETTER 62: TO LEN CHADWICK, 8 FEBRUARY 1961
[on Henry Marshall headed paper]
Low Bridge
Kentmere
Westmorland
Telephone: Kentmere 45
8th Feb 1961
Dear Mr Chadwick<
br />
I return the November O.T. and am sorry that some delay has arisen in its transit from one reader to another. You wanted it back by January 16th, and it is now February 8th.
I have studied your provisional programme for the Munro Challenge with interest – obviously there has been a great deal of careful planning. It looks very attractive, especially as it introduces territory new to you – but it does mean a fortnight’s hard graft. Don’t forget that the first consideration should be that you are going up there to enjoy yourselves, and that you are on holiday. We don’t want you to come back two stone lighter and with an enlarged heart, not after all you’ve suffered with your teeth!
Personally, I don’t expect you to complete the programme. To do it in full, you will have to strike top form right away and get a fortnight’s continuously good weather. Anyway, we’ll have to see what happens. Of course I wish you the best of good fortune!
Yours sincerely.
AWainwright
LETTER 63: TO LEN CHADWICK, 10 MARCH 1961
[on Henry Marshall headed paper]
Low Bridge
Kentmere
Westmorland
Telephone: Kentmere 45
10th March 1961
Dear Mr Chadwick,
I am afraid the circulation of O.T. never follows your programme of distribution as far as dates are concerned, and here is your December issue coming back to you five weeks behind schedule.
In a couple of months I hope to be in Scotland myself on a much easier mission than yours in the summer. I plan to follow the coast from Lochinver to Kinlochbervie, or perhaps cutting across to Durness, doing about 10–12 miles a day (which is enough for comfort) and hoping for weather suitable for photography.
Yours sincerely.
AWainwright
LETTER 64: TO LEN CHADWICK, 18 APRIL 1961
[on Henry Marshall headed paper]
Low Bridge
Kentmere
Westmorland
Telephone: Kentmere 4
18th April 1961
Dear Mr Chadwick,
Thank you for your letter and newspaper cuttings, which I greatly enjoyed reading. I have a fancy for the Cairngorms, having read much about them but never actually seen them – except from trains at Aviemore. I might possibly visit the area next month.
I was extremely sorry to hear about Andrew’s sad bereavement, which must have been a great shock to him and spoilt his memories of a grand holiday. I agree that if he feels he must cancel his Munro arrangements in the circumstances we should not try to persuade him otherwise. If you are disposed to tackle the [illegible] alone, then of course the offer still holds good. Similarly if you decide to take some other companion. Or, if you prefer to do your postponed Ireland trip this year instead, the offer would hold good for 1962. I know what a nuisance a late break-up of holiday plans can be, and I leave it entirely to you.
I should be interested to know, later on, what you have decided to do.
Yours sincerely.
AWainwright
Another early correspondent was Bob Harvey, a research scientist for the BBC, living in Surrey, with whom AW exchanged photographs.
LETTER 65: TO BOB HARVEY, 22 DECEMBER 1961
[on Henry Marshall headed paper]
Low Bridge
Kentmere
Westmorland
Telephone: Kentmere 4
22nd December 1961
Dear Mr Harvey,
I feel I owe you much more than mere thanks for your very kind letter. Your references to my books are extremely generous, and, as I am a man who blushes easily, somewhat embarrassing!
I have always maintained that I compile these books for my own self-gratification, enthusiasm for the job being a flame that needs no fanning by encouragement from others, and this is still perfectly true. But more and more I am coming to realise that others are finding pleasure in my efforts, and increasingly a new stimulus is creeping in – to do my best for the many friends I have won. I number you amongst them, and thank you sincerely for your kindness in writing to me. You have a happy literary style that makes your account of your various wanderings on the hills, of the incidents that happen to you, of the encounters you enjoy (and suffer!) most interesting and pleasant and amusing to read. It kept me chuckling all the way through it – and has done since.
The photograph you enclosed is a masterpiece of simple, effective arrangement – the man, the cairn, the boundless sky – and somehow symbolic, too. It’s an absolute gem, and although you don’t actually say I may keep it, I am going to assume it is a gift and have it framed to stand on my desk. An inspiration in itself!
I have never been back to Pike o’ Blisco since, but several people have written to say that the cairn is now restored, but yours is the first picture I have had and I would say it is now back to its original proportions. Thanks for your help. I didn’t know the fine cairn on Sergeant Man had also been wrecked – that was news to me – but a Keswick reader wrote some time ago to report that the slender column on Lingmell had been thrown down, and that he was making a series of visits to try to get it up again. Poor chap – he’s over 70!
I am terribly sorry it’s taken me such a long time to reply – I feel dreadful about this – but the delay does at least give me the opportunity to combine Christmas greetings with my reply – and the hope that 1962 will be a grand fell walking year for you. Perhaps after your next expedition you could find time to let me know what you have done! It would always been a pleasure to hear from you …
Yours sincerely
AWainwright
LETTER 66: TO BOB HARVEY, 19 MAY 1963
[on Henry Marshall headed paper]
Low Bridge
Kentmere
Westmorland
Telephone: Kentmere 4
19th May 1963
Dear Mr Harvey,
I have formed a deplorable habit latterly (due to a chronic shortage of time) of piling up letters received into a cairn on my desk instead of answering them promptly, as decency demands, and only when the edifice topples over do I give some attention to them. I have become adept at making excuses for neglecting correspondence and these are generally accepted (at least the writers write again) but occasionally it happens that I withdraw from the heap, with dismay and shame, a manuscript that, because of its interest or literary merit, deserved immediate acknowledgment – and, alas, I have allowed it to mingle for months with much less worthy material (usually from fond parents asking if its is safe to take their progeny up Jack’s Rake, to which I always answer ‘yes!’). Such a manuscript was yours, mercifully undated, describing your experience at the Lingmell cairn. You close this letter by wishing me a Happy Christmas. As there hasn’t been a Christmas for five months, you can imagine my remorse, for this letter, like the one I had from you earlier, was a classic. I shall treasure it, and the accompanying photograph.
As a matter of fact I have had several letters about the Lingmell cairn, which have left me rather bemused. Some people have claimed my thanks because they have rebuilt it; others have stated that it is still in ruins. However quite recently I had a letter from a scoutmaster (who I therefore assume to be a paragon of virtue) stating that he and his troop had fully restored the height of the cairn and its slender appearance from afar, while admitting to a certain weakness in the structure on the Gable side: this, he assured me, would be corrected on a later visit this year. When you come up in June, therefore, you might (or might not) find an edifice that stands no less proudly that did its predecessor. As an expert in the subject, you will be interested in the reconstructed cairn on Dale Head (photo enclosed) which replaces one recently scattered although not quite in the same place. This is a magnificent, professional job done in cut green stone (which must have been hauled up from Yew Crag Quarry), and is unusual in being wider in the middle that at the base. Take a look at it this summer – before somebody knocks it down!
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
&nbs
p; LETTER 67: TO REG BOND, UNDATED, 1963
[first page of letter missing]
… making the correction isn’t quite so easy. It isn’t a simple matter of the printer taking out one figure and substituting another. The whole of the page (and all other pages in these books) is reproduced from a zinc block which gives an exact impression of the author’s original. The correction could only be made, therefore, by my doing the whole page again and having another block made. So far, I haven’t found time to do this, but later I may.
Actually, there is a mistake on Scafell Pike 17, too. ‘Bus shelter’ at Seatoller should be ‘Bus terminus’ (see Scafell Pike 15). There isn’t a shelter – I got wet there yesterday waiting for a bus. I ought to correct this also, but I’m hoping somebody will put a shelter there soon and save me the trouble!
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
There were also women readers who wrote to AW, such as Joy Ross from Bowness on Windermere. She was a Cambridge graduate, mother of four, and a madly keen Lakeland walker and swimmer who had made her own maps of Lakeland, plotting every swimmable rock pool. She got him going on the subject of maps, especially those produced by Messers Bartholomew.
LETTER 68: TO JOY ROSS, 27 OCTOBER 1963
Kendal
27 October 1963
Dear Mrs Ross
Thank you very much for your interesting letter, and its kind (too kind) references to myself. Reading it made me blush, but I am, of course, very pleased to learn that my books are proving helpful.
No, I am not in touch with the Ordnance Survey or Bartholomews about the footpaths on their Lake District maps. Bart’s map is just hopeless, dangerously inaccurate and very misleading; no attempt has been made to show paths correctly, and they would have been better omitted altogether. For the Ordnance Survey, however, I have the most profound respect – their maps are my favourite literature, and their surveys and cartography is, in general wonderfully accurate, especially on their large scale maps. Features on the ground (walls, sheepfolds, streams, tarns, buildings etc) are 100% correct. There are three things I am disposed to criticize: first, the hachuring for crags, which is unreliable in many instances; secondly, the contours on the two and a half inch maps are often wildly wrong on high ground; and thirdly, the footpaths. In the case of the O.S., however, the trouble is not that they invent paths or smooth out the bends and corners, as Bart’s does, but that they do not keep them up to date. They still show paths that have completely vanished, although I do not doubt that they existed a hundred years ago; and conversely, they do not show paths that are not in popular use. These, however, are difficulties arising from too infrequent revision, not from inaccurate cartography.
The Wainwright Letters Page 13