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CLIMBING IN ENGLAND 



IT is more difficult to sympathize with other people's 

 amusements than with their troubles in this world. 

 The reflection is not new, but so many amusements are, 

 that we are constantly invited to recognize its truth. 

 The attraction of mountain-climbing, especially in the 

 minor form in which it can be enjoyed in England, is 

 a case in point. Yet the admiration for our mountain 

 scenery is a semi-modern sentiment. Speaking of the 

 beautiful Lune Valley, Defoe wrote, " This part of the 

 country seemed very strange and dismal to us (nothing 

 but mountains in view, and stone walls for hedges, 

 some oatcakes for bread, or clapat bread as it is called). 

 As these hills were so lofty, so they had an aspect of 

 terror. Here were no rich pleasant valleys between 

 them as in the Alps ; no lead-mines and veins of rich 

 ore as in the Peak ; no coal-pits as in the hills about 

 Halifax ! " The pleasure of climbing for climbing's 

 sake is almost as little understood by many minds at 

 the present day, as the picturesque forms of the moun- 

 tains were by Defoe. Yet it is increasingly popular, as 

 may be seen from the work on this amusement as now 



