Your achievement is inspired and indicates a fertile imagination that, if applied instead to matters beyond the compass of computers, could well contribute to the sum of human knowledge. This horoscope is free.
The document is quite amazing and opens up all manner of possibilities. But not for me. I am too old-fashioned, thank goodness.
As you say, it must be the way you are built.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
However Mr Kershaw wrote back saying that he was still an ordinary human being, who loved steaks and smoking a foul pipe which makes ladies cough, and that the point of computers was that they were the future but they should remain our slaves.
LETTER 199: TO BRIAN KERSHAW, 24 MARCH 1976
c/o Westmorland Gazette
KENDAL, Cumbria
24th March 1976
Dear Brian,
Your second letter pleased me much more than your first. In fact, it delighted me immensely, not so much for its sentiments, which coincide with mine, but for the artistry with which you can use words. There is a compelling literary talent in your choice of expression, in your linking of phrase and passage, in your observation of the seemingly trivial (sheep suddenly spotting a walker) and inspired interpretations (question-mark floating above its head), the whole being a joy to read and deserving a wider public. You have the rare knack of translating simple incidents into a jolly good prose that reads better than poetry and since your subject is the Lakeland everybody loves your words could strike a chord in the hearts of the multitudes of inarticulate admirers of the district who think the place lovely but do not notice the little details that build up into the complete picture. Curtains of rain, lambs calling for their mums, a raven circling a crag: these things are the essence of Lakeland. These are the things many visitors never notice, a few never forget.
You are mis-employed, wrestling day after day with four computers, even though you do contrive to get some fun out of them. I noted your originality previously, and it shines through your second letter, embroidered this time with a beauty of expression and command of language that lifts you far above the common herd. Maybe it’s dealing with robots that has sub-consciously determined you never to become one. Even your typing is meticulous, perfect.
What I am saying is that, on the little evidence I have, you have a talent you should be using not on programming computers but on writing for the greater joy of kindred souls, Lakeland lovers, who would hunger for your every word. First write a best-seller, an original epic of Lakeland. Then quit your job. (I hope your missus isn’t looking over your shoulder). Then go all romantic: take over Millican Dalton’s cave under Castle Crag; live like a hermit; give to an adoring world the best that is in you.
I could be wrong. Your letter reads as though written without hesitation, the words coming easily, not laboured. If so, I think I am right.
Sorry about this, Mrs Kershaw. But I do feel that you should be prodding Brian to get away from his wretched machines and settle in lovely Borrowdale.
AW
I hope this letter makes up for my first reaction!
The ones pointing out mistakes, or what they believed were mistakes, still got proper replies. A Mr K.K. Gibbs wrote to say that from the top of Barrow he had not been able to see Fleetwith Pike, which was what AW had indicated, and in fact he had checked with others and they had not been able to see Fleetwith Pike either. In his reply, AW for once is a bit weaselly, suggesting he realised he might not have been totally accurate.
LETTER 200: TO MR GIBBS, 13 AUGUST 1977
c/o Westmorland Gazette
KENDAL, Cumbria
13th August 1977
Dear Mr Gibbs,
Thank you for the kind comments in your letter of 30th July, addressed to the Westmorland Gazette, and the interesting enquiry it contains.
I am unlikely to have an early opportunity of re-visiting Barrow to check the accuracy of the published view, but have been consulting the map again and looking at the contours. I think most certainly that Fleetwith Pike is visible from the summit, and that, on a clear day, it will be seen backed and overtopped slightly by Kirk Fell. A lot depends on weather conditions, but I think it most likely, after reading your letter, that the distant peak was Kirk Fell and that you did not notice Fleetwith Pike in front of it and slightly lower in elevation. Although my views cannot be comprehensive simply because of lack of space I usually selected the most prominent in cases where one summit was overtopped by another. Or it may be that on the occasion of my visit Fleetwith Pike stood out clearly while the higher Kirk Fell was obscured by mist or haze.
I notice that in my views from Fleetwith Pike and Kirk Fell there is no mention of Barrow. This is understandable because from these viewpoints it appears quite insignificant against the background of Skiddaw.
Yours sincerely.
AWainwright
At other times, he was adamant he had not made a mistake.
LETTER 201: TO MR SWALLOW, 14 JUNE 1977
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
14th June 1977
Dear Mr Swallow,
I read your letter with profound dismay.
It is inconceivable that I made an error in quoting the O.S. number on Wild Boar Fell’s column. My eyes are not all that good, and the numbers are placed in an awkward place and not always easy to decipher, but I cannot believe that I got my figures wrong.
There are two possibilities to account for the discrepancy you mention. One is that I got on some other summit thinking it was Wild Boar Fell. The second is that you did the same. Neither is even remotely likely. The answer can only be that the number has been changed since my visit.
This opens up the dreadful possibility that the numbers of other trig columns in the district may also have been changed, with dire consequences for me. Therefore I should be extremely glad if you would check the numbers I have quoted when engaged on other expeditions in the area, and report if you find any changes.
I agree about the walk up from Aisgill. But just at present Wild Boar Fell is out of favour with me. But thanks a lot for writing with the sad news.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
LETTER 202: TO MR SWALLOW, 19 NOVEMBER 1979
c/o Westmorland Gazette
KENDAL, Cumbria,
19th November 1979
Dear Mr Swallow,
There has been a sequel to our correspondence about the number of the Ordnance column on Wild Boar Fell.
A few weeks ago I had a letter from a walker who told me that I had made a mistake in the chapter on Black Combe (in ‘The Outlying Fells’) where I quoted the Ordnance column number as 2953. The number, he reported, was 11602. I was confident that I had not been in error, and told him so.
Unknown to me he then wrote to the Ordnance Survey to settle the matter, and has just sent me their reply, from which I learn that all their columns are inspected every ten years and repaired if necessary. Latterly they have been finding many vandalised and the number plates stolen, no doubt as mementos. Their records show that an inspection of the one on Black Combe in July 1976 showed that a complete rebuilding was needed and this was done. As the former number plate 2953 could not be found, a new one with the number 11602 was affixed.
The same thing must have happened on Wild Boar Fell – we were both right!
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
By the end of the 1970s, AW was beginning to complain even more about getting old, about his eyesight fading, and his lack of enthusiasm for ever going abroad.
LETTER 203: TO MR HOUGHTON, 1 SEPTEMBER 1978
38 Kendal Green,
KENDAL, Cumbria
1st September 1978
Dear Mr Houghton,
It was nice to hear from you again.
Yes, the Cuillin from Elgol is reserved for you. I have now finished the 5th and 6th Scottish books and sent them to the printers. The 6th includes Skye, and I expect publication next spring, after
which I will be able to let you have the drawing. During the making of the book I visited some of the Western Isles that were quite new to me, and I can recommend to you Harris in particular, Jura and Mull rather less so and Islay not at all.
I must be an old stick-in-the-mud, having never greatly wanted to leave for foreign parts, and, being now well into my seventies, cannot work up enthusiasm for going abroad although my wife is always urging a visit to Switzerland. Someday, perhaps. Thanks for the invitation to see your film. Someday, perhaps.
Watendlath drawing? Well, someday, perhaps.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
In a letter to a Mr Simmons, who was planning a directory of something called viewpoint indicators, AW generously says that he can publish anything from his books. This must have had his publisher screaming, if they ever found out.
LETTER 204: TO MR SIMMONS, 12 DECEMBER 1977
c/o Westmorland Gazette
KENDAL, Cumbria,
12th November 1977
Dear Mr Simmons,
I have received your interesting letter of 21st November, and am sorry it has taken me so long to reply.
I am a little puzzled, however, by the nature and purpose of the directory you are planning. I am not sure that I understand what you mean by ‘viewpoint indicators’. There are, in fact, not more than half a dozen viewpoint indicators on the hills of the United Kingdom, certainly not enough to need a directory, and I am left wondering whether you mean the triangulation columns of the Ordnance Survey, of which, of course, there are several hundreds but which cannot be described as viewpoint indicators. A viewpoint indicator shows and names the most prominent objects in view, the details usually being engraved on a circular brass plate or recorded on paper protected by glass, but, as I say, there are very few in number.
The Ordnance columns, on the other hand, are customary features of mountain tops, and there are many of them. If these are what you intend to list, you should have the information vetted by the Ordnance Survey before your directory is published.
If you wish to publish anything from my books you are welcome to do so, but should bear in mind that many of the books were published some years ago and will not now necessarily be up-to-date.
I do not wish to discourage your efforts, but must say that, if I have interpreted your letter correctly, I cannot really see much need for what you propose to do.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
One of the simmering problems caused by the success of AW’s books was not just the increased numbers of fell walkers on popular paths, and the possibility of erosion, but the danger of trespassing. AW could be a bit cavalier in his suggested routes, often not being aware or ignoring the possibility that he was leading people over private property. He began, privately, to get several legal letters of complaint on behalf of owners, but no one in fact took legal action as by now AW was such a respected, popular and increasingly national figure.
LETTER 205: TO LAWYERS RE BRYERSWOOD ESTATES, 12 SEPTEMBER 1979
38 Kendal Green,
KENDAL, Cumbria
12th September 1979
Dear Sirs,
Re Bryerswood Estate:
Three Dubs Tarn
The Editor of Westmorland Gazette has passed on to me your letter of the 7th for my observations. I think it might resolve the matter in question more quickly if I reply directly.
I am profoundly sorry if my mention of Three Dubs Tarn has caused inconvenience to your clients, and of course I will correct my reference to it to meet your wishes.
You will probably be aware, and no doubt your clients also, that people have walked over Claife Heights and occasionally visited Three Dubs Tarn since Victorian times. The Tarn has long been a subject for artists and photographers, and my own memory of it goes back fifty years. It was with this knowledge that I assumed that the owners had no objection to walkers visiting the tarn and that therefore there was tacit permission for them to do so, as is the case with so much privately-owned land in the district. I have, however, never seen or heard of any specific permission to do so.
Fortunately the book you refer to is continually re-printing and there should be little delay in having a correction made in future editions. I am not quite clear whether your client’s grievance is simply the statement that permission has been granted when in fact it has not (in which case it appears that all I need to do is delete the words ‘but walkers are permitted on them’), OR, more seriously, whether they now seek to exclude all walkers from the area, in which case I would propose to delete entirely the paragraph headed ‘A shorter version of the walk’ at the foot of page 82, substituting a note to the effect that the Tarn and approaches to it are on private land to which walkers are not permitted, and adding to the map on page 83 the word ‘private’ to the two paths leading to it.
Kindly convey my apologies to your clients, and, if you will please let me know what you want done it will be done.
Yours faithfully,
AW
Proof of AW’s growing national fame had been his MBE in 1967, and after that, several universities wanted to give him honorary degrees. He accepted an Honorary MA from Newcastle University in 1974 but from then on made a point of investigating whether they experimented on live animals in their laboratories, in which case, he preferred to decline, which was what he did in 1977 when Lancaster University offered him a D. Litt which at first he had accepted.
LETTER 206: TO MR CARTER, VICE-CHANCELLOR, LANCASTER UNIVERSITY, 24 MARCH 1977
38 Kendal Green,
KENDAL, Cumbria
24th March 1977
Dear Mr Carter,
I have heard recently, with dismay, that animal experiments are conducted at Lancaster University as part of the curriculum of the Biology Department, and a recent press report, of which you will be aware, confirms that vivisection is practised. I was unaware of this when accepting the Senate’s invitation to receive an honorary degree in July next.
I deplore, and abhor, experiments on animals, and, as Chairman of Animal Rescue, Cumbria, cannot possibly agree to any association with an institution that encourages such practices.
Therefore I wish to give you notice that I hereby withdraw my acceptance of the Senate’s invitation. I regret the circumstances that have decided this action, but please understand that I cannot be persuaded otherwise.
Yours sincerely,
AW
Part 17
Letters to Margaret Ainley, 1971–80
One of AW’s longest correspondences, again with someone he never met, was with Margaret Ainley. Almost from the beginning he was very affectionate, if not quite as saucy as in his letters to Molly, except on rare occasions. Perhaps it was because she was a young married woman, a primary school teacher aged twenty-seven. She was living in Brighouse, Yorkshire, with her husband Richard, an industrial chemist, who worked for Nu Swift, fire extinguishers. In her second letter, she reveals she is pregnant.
The letters began in 1971, when she wrote to say that it was now possible to reach Spout Force without the need for a machete, and continued for twenty years, right up to 1990, by which time the second generation Ainleys had taken over, as their daughter Catherine was now writing to AW. Altogether, they received thirty-three AW letters.
Margaret told AW about their walks, her family, sent him photos, and AW always responded enthusiastically, telling of his holidays with Betty and the books he was working on.
LETTER 207: TO MARGARET AINLEY, 20 MARCH 1971
c/o The Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
20th March 1971
Dear Mrs Ainley,
Thank you so much for your very kind letter.
Correspondents are, as a rule, quick to tell me where my books have gone wrong, but nobody, until now, has written to give me up to date information about Spout Force, and I was still under the impression that you couldn’t approach it without a machete and heavy armour. So I am grateful for your news and propose
to adopt your welcome suggestion that the subject should be included in a future Sketchbook (which would give me the opportunity of an explanatory note) – but it will have to be in the Fourth, not the Third which is already finished and at the printer’s.
Your other suggestion, about the Yorkshire Dales, is, I fear, beyond my powers, which are declining fast although I am currently working on a guidebook to the Howgill Fells (near Sedbergh, in case you have never heard of them) and planning a Dales Sketchbook. I’m getting old, that’s the trouble. How I wish tempus wouldn’t fugit so much!
Thank you again for writing, and for finding the time and taking the trouble to do so. And for doing it so nicely.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
LETTER 208: TO MARGARET AINLEY, 6 OCTOBER 1971
c/o The Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
6th October 1971
Dear Mrs Ainley,
It was a pleasure to hear from you again and learn, amongst other interesting facts, the thrilling news written at the very end of your letter – almost as a postscript (although I am sure it takes first place in your mind!)
I haven’t yet re-battled my way to Spout Force but have every intention of doing so to get an illustration for a book I am currently preparing. Just lately I have been exploring (of all places) the North York Moors from a base in Whitby and next week I am gong to Helmsley for a few days to continue the operation. This does not imply a desertion of the places we love most of all but is merely a temporary distraction to enable me to complete a guide to a long walk right across the north of England, from St. Bees Head to Robin Hood’s Bay. I must admit, however, that I found the heather moors of Cleveland extremely attractive and colourful when I was there last month.
The Wainwright Letters Page 33