CLIMBING IN ENGLAND 279 



the best class of English climbing. "There is no 

 time," writes Mr. Haskett Smith, " at which a trip to 

 Lakeland is more thoroughly enjoyable. In the first 

 place, there is no crowd. You can be sure that you 

 will get a bed, and that the people of the house will not 

 be too overworked to make you comfortable. You will 

 have no companions but life-long lovers of the moun- 

 tains, and robust young fellows whose highest ambition 

 is to gain admission to the Alpine Club, or having 

 gained it, to learn to wield with some appearance of 

 dexterity the ponderous ice-axes which are indispensable 

 to the dignity of their position. How different are the 

 firm outlines of the distant peaks from the hazy in- 

 distinctness which usually falls to the lot of the summer 

 tourist ! What sensation is more delightful than that of 

 tramping along while the smooth crisp snow crunches 

 under the feet, and gazing upward at the lean black 

 crags standing out boldly from the long smooth slopes 

 of dazzling white ! Christmas in Cumberland is usually 

 dry and fine, as is pointed out triumphantly by those 

 who resent Mr. James Payn's sarcastic allusion to " dry 

 weather " in the Lakes, " which is said to have occurred 

 about the year 1824." 



The Yorkshire dales, Cornwall, and Dartmoor, 

 though their beauties are not disparaged, have less 

 attraction for the ardent learner in mountaineering. 

 The axiom that " a very fine hill may be a very bad 

 climb," applies both to the " tors " and the limestone 

 carrs and crags of millstone grit. But the great sea- 

 cliffs of England offer a peculiar and natural playground 



