Editor’s note: The 13-page account of Dorothy Wordsworth’s “Scawfell Excursion” in DCMS 51 features edits in both pen and pencil. Previous editors have assumed that the pencil marks are William Wordsworth’s, noting that many of these changes appeared in the version published in the third edition of his Guide to the Lakes (1823).
This theory is plausible; however, both William and Dorothy appear to have undertaken multiple rounds of edits between 1818 and the text’s 1822 publication, and it is difficult to tell which edits belong to which hand. The diplomatic transcription that follows therefore aims to include all markings, including lines and symbols for deletions or insertions that are difficult to reproduce typographically. Unfortunately, the final page of DCMS 51 is badly torn. For the missing text, readers must consult a second manuscript source, which we refer to as the Kenyon Transcript. For more on DCMS 51, see the section introduction.
DCMS 51, pp. 47–59, 25r–31r
A.D. 1818. From a letter to Mr Johnson
Sir George & Lady Beaumont spent a few
days with us lately, & I accompanied them to
Keswick. Mr & Mrs Wilberforce & their Fami
-ly happened to be at K. at the same time,
& we all dined together in the romantic Vale
of Borrowdale, at the house of a female
Friend, Miss Barker an unmarried Lady, who, bewitched
with the charms of the rocks, & streams, &
mountains, belonging to of that secluded spot,
has there built herself a house, and, though
she [pencil mark] is admirably fitted for society, & has
as much enjoyment when surrounded by
her Friends as any one can have her
chearfulness has never flagged, though she
has lived more than the year round
alone in Borrowdale, at six miles distance
distance from Keswick, with bad roads
between – You will guess that she has
resources within herself – Such indeed she
has – She is a painter & labours hard in
depicting the beauties of her favorite Vale;
she is also fond of music and of reading;
and has a reflecting mind: besides, (though
[Page Break—end p. 47, 25r]
before she lived in Borrowdale she was no
great walker) she is become an active climber
of the hills, &
I must tell you of a feat
that she & I performed on Wednesday the 7th
of this month. I remained in Borrowdale
after Sir G. & Lady B. and the Wilberforces
were gone, & Miss Barker proposed to me
that the should go the next day she & I
should to Seathwaite beyond the Black
lead mines at the head of Borrowdale, &
thence up a mountain called at the top Ash
Course, which we suppose may be a
corruption of Esk Hawes, as it is a settling
between the mountains over which the Peo-
ple of Eskdale are accustomed to pass be[?]
their way to between Eskdale and Borrowdale; & such settlings
are generally called by the name of “the
Hawes” – as Grisedale Hawes – Buttermere
Hawes – from the German word Hals, the
(neck). At the top of Ash Course Miss Bar
- ker had promised me that I should see a
most magnificent prospect; but we had some
miles to travel to the foot of the mountain, and
accordingly we went thither in a cart, Miss
Barker, her Maid, & myself: We departed
before nine o’clock.- the sun shone; the sky
[Page Break—end p. 48, 25v]
was clear and blue; and light and shade fell
in huge masses upon the mountains;
the fields
below glittered with the dew, where the beams
of the sun could reach them; and every little stream
tumbling down the hills seemed to add to the chear
-fulness of the scene.
We left our Cart at Stonethwaite Seathwaite
and proceeded, with a man to carry our provi
-sions, and a kind Neighbour of Miss Barker’s,
a Statesman & Shepherd of the Vale, as our
companion & Guide. We found ourselves at the
top of Ash Course without a weary limb,
having had the fresh air of autumn to help us
up by its invigorating affects, power & the sweet
warmth of the unclouded sun to tempt us
to sit and rest by the way. From [vertical pencil mark] the top
of Ash Course We beheld [vertical v-shaped pencil mark] a prospect which ind
indeed have amply repaid me us for a toilsome
journey, if such it had been; and a sense
of thankfulness for the continuance of that
vigour of body, which enabled me to climb
the high mountain, as in the days of my
youth, inspiring me with fresh chearful
-ness, added a delight, a charm to the
contemplation of the magnificent scenes
before me which I cannot describe – Still
less can I tell you the glories of what
[Page Break—end p. 49, 26r]
we saw. [vertical v-shaped pencil mark] Three views, each distinct in
its kind, we saw at once – the vale of Bor-
rowdale, of Keswick, of Bassenthwaite – Skid
-daw, Saddleback, Helvellyn, numerous
other mountains, and,– still beyond,– the Solway
Frith, and the Mountains of Scotland.
Nearer to us on the other side, and below
them to us us were the Langdale Pikes – their
own Vale below them, - Windermere – and, far
beyond Windermere, after a long long distance we saw
Ingleborough in Yorkshire. – But how
shall I speak of the peculiar deliciousness of the
third prospect! At this time that was
most favoured by sunshinesun & shade. The
green Vale of Esk – deep & green, with
its glittering serpent stream was below us;
and on we looked to the mountains near
the sea – Black Comb & others – and still
beyond, to the sea itself in dazzling
brightness. At this same station,
(making as it might be called a 4thdivisi
-on or prospect). Turning round we saw the
Mountains of Wasdale in tumult; and
Great Gavel, though the middle of the Mountain
[Page Break—end p. 50, 26v]
was to us as its base, looked very grand.
We had attained the object of our jour-
ney; but our ambition mounted higher.
We saw the summit of Scaw Fell, as
it seemed, very near to us: we were indeed,
three parts up that mountain; & thither
we determined to go [pencil mark].(7)
We found the dis-
tance greater than it had appeared to us; but
our courage did not fail; however, when
we came nearer we perceived that, in but order
to attain that summit which had invit-
ed us forward, we must have makede a great
dip, and seeing that the ascent afterwards
would be exceedingly steep & difficult, so
that we might have been benight-
ed if we had attempted it, therefore,
unwillingly, we gave it up, and resolv -
-ed, instead, to ascend another pike point
of the same Mountain, called the Pikes,
& which, I have since found, the mea -
- surers of Mountains estimate as higher
than the larger summit which bears
the name of Scaw Fell, & where the
[Page Break—end p. 51, 27r]
the StoneMan is built, which we, at the time,
considered as the point of highest honour.
-The Sun had never once been oversha -
-dowed by a cloud during the whole of
our progress from the centre of Borrow
-dale; at the summit of the Pike there
was not a breath of air to stir even the
papers which we spread out containing
our food. – refreshments which [ink] There
we ate our dinner
in
summer warmth; and the stillness seem -
-ed to be not of this world. – We paused,
& kept silence to listen, & not a sound
of any kind was to be heard. – We were
far out of above the reach of the Cataracts
of Scaw Fell; & not an insect was
there to hum in the air.
The Vales
which I have
before described lay
in view; : and, side by side with Esk
-dale, we now saw the sister Vale
of Donnerdale terminated by the
Duddon Sands. - But the majesty
[Page Break—end p. 52, 27v]
of the mountains below us, & close to us,
is not to be conceived. We now beheld
the whole Mass of Great Gavel from
its base – the Den of Wasdale at our
feet, the Gulph immeasurable – Grass
-mire & the other mountains of Crum-
mock – Ennerdale & its mountains; and
the sea beyond.
While we were looking
round after dinner our Guide said
to us that we must not linger long;
for we should have a storm. We looked
in vain to espy the traces of it; for
mountains, vales, & the sea were all
touched with the clear light of the
sun. . “It is there,” he said, pointing to
the sea beyond Whitehaven; and,
sure enough, we there perceived
a light cloud, or mist, unnoticeable
but by a Shepherd, accustomed to
[Page Break—end p. 53, 28r]
watch all mountain bodings. . We gazed
around again & yet again, unwilling fearful to
lose the remembrance of what lay before
us in that lofty solitude; and then prepar-
ed to depart. Meanwhile the air chang-
ed to cold, and we saw thethat tiny vapour
swelled into mighty masses of cloud which
came boiling over the mountains. Great
Gavel, Helvellyn, & Skiddaw were
wrapped in storm; yet Langdale, &
the mountains in that quarter were
all bright with sunshine. . Soon the
storm reached us; we sheltered under
a crag ; and, almost as rapidly as it
had come, it passed away, and left us
free to observe the goings-on of storm
& sunshine in other quarters – Langdale
had now its share, and the Pikes were
decorated by two splendid rainbows; -
- Skiddaw also had its own Rainbows, but
we were truly glad to see them & the clouds
disappear from that mountain, as we
[Page Break—end p. 54, 28v]
knew Some friends of ours that Mr & Mrs Wilberforce & their Family
(if they kept the intention which they had
formed before when they parted from us the night
before) must certainly be upon Skid-
-daw at that very time [pencil mark]
– and so it was.
They were there, and had much more rain
than we had; we, indeed, were hardly at
all wetted at all wetted; and before we
found ourselves again upon that part of
the mountain called Ash Course every
cloud had vanished from every summit.
-Do not think we here gave up our
spirit of enterprise. No! I had heard
much of the grandeur of the view of
Wasdale from Stye Head, the point
from which Wasdale is first seen
in coming by the road from Borrow
-dale; but though I had been in Wasdale
I had never entered the Dale by that
road, and had often lamented that I
had not seen what was so much
talked of by Travellers. Down to that
[Page Break—end p. 55, 29r]
Pass (for we were yet far above it) we
bent our course by the side of Ruddle Gill,
a very deep red chasm in the mountains,
which begins at a spring;
that spring
forms a stream, which must, at times, be
a mighty Torrent, as is evident from the
Channel which it has wrought out – thence
by Sprinkling Tarn to Stye head; & there
we sate & looked down into Wasdale.
We were now upon Great Gavel which
rose high above us. [pencil, circle around full stop] Opposite was Scaw Fell,
and we heard the roaring of the stream,
from one of the ravines of that moun
-tain, which, though the bending of
Wasdale Head lay between us and Scaw
Fell, we could look into, as it were;
and the depth of the ravine appeared
tremendous; it was black, & the Crags
were awful.
We now proceeded homewards
by Stye head Tarn along the road into
Borrowdale. Before we reached Stone
thwaite a few stars had appeared, and
[Page Break—end p. 56, 29v]
we travelled home in our Cart by moonlight.
I ought to have described the last
part of our ascent to Scaw Fell pike.
There, not a blade of grass was to be
seen – hardly a cushion of moss, & that
was parched & brown; and only growing
rarely between the huge blocks & stones
which cover the summit & lie in heaps
all round to a great distance, like
skeletons or bones of the earth not want-
ed at the creation, & there left to be
covered with never-dying lichens, which
the Clouds and dews nourish; and adorn
with colours of the most vivid and ex-
-quisite beauty, and endless in variety.
No gems or flowers can surpass in colour-
- ing the beauty of some of these masses
of stone, which no human eye beholds,
except the Shepherd is led thither by chance or the Traveller is led
thither by curiosity; and how seldom
must this happen! The other eminence is
that which is visited by the adventurous
Traveller, and the Shepherd has no tempta [blot]
tion
[Page Break—end p. 57, 30r]
to go thither in quest of his sheep; for
on the Pike there is no food to tempt them.
We certainly were singularly fortunate
on in the day; for when we were seated on
the summit our Guide, turning his eyes
thoughtfully round, said to us, “I do not
know that in my whole life I was ever
at any season of the year so high up
-on the mountains on so clear so calm a day.”
Afterwards, you know, we had the storm
which exhibited to us the grandeur
of earth & heaven commingled, yet
without terror; for we knew that the
storm would pass away; for so our pro
-phetic Guide assured us. I forgot
to tell you that I espied a Ship
upon the glittering sea while we
were looking over Esk dale, “Is it a
Ship?” replied the Guide?”
“A Ship!
yes it can be nothing else don’t you
see the shape of it?” Miss Barker
interposed, “It is a Ship [indecipherable cancel]
[Page Break—end p. 58, 30v]
[31r torn, mostly missing, bottom of page survives]
of
our
-mon performances
-ker & I each wrote a
Top of the Pike of Scaw Fell
distant Friend, Sara Hutchin
South Wales.
October 21st 1818
Went up Scaw Fell on Wednesday the
7th October -1818
[Page Break—end p. 59, 31r. End of notebook.]
