Old Cumbria Gazetteer |
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| Black Arches, Carrock Fell | ||
| fictional? | ||
| Black Arches | ||
| locality:- | Carrock Fell | |
| civil parish:- | Caldbeck (formerly Cumberland) | |
| county:- | Cumbria | |
| locality type:- | rocks | |
| coordinates:- | NY341336 | |
| 1Km square:- | NY3433 | |
| 10Km square:- | NY33 | |
| SummaryText:- | This place might be a fiction of Charles Dickens, perhaps representing the crags at the east side of the fell? | |
| references:- | Dickens 1857 |
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| evidence:- | old text:- Dickens 1857 |
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| source data:- | Book, The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, by Charles Dickens,
1857. goto sourcePage 15:- "... [Thomas Idle, Francis Goodchild, and a guide, in a mist on Carrock Fell] ... It appeared to the uninstructed mind of Thomas that when three men want to get to the bottom of a mountain, their business is to walk down it; and he put this view of the case, not only with emphasis, but even with some irritability. He was answered from the scientific eminence of the compass on which his companions were mounted, that there was a frightful chasm somewhere near the foot of Carrock, called the Black Arches, into which the travellers were sure to march in the mist, if they risked continuing the descent from the place where they had now halted. Idle received this answer with the silent respect which was due to the commanders of the expedition, and followed along the roof of the barn, or rather the side of the mountain, reflecting upon the assurance which he received on starting again, that the object of the party was only to gain "a certain point," and, this haven attained, to continue the descent afterwards until the foot of Carrock was reached. ..." "More sideways waking, thicker and thicker mist, all sorts of points reached except the "certain point;" third loss of Idle, third shouts for him, third recovery of him, third consultation of compass. Mr. Goodchild draws it tenderly from his pocket, and prepares to adjust it on a stone. Something falls on the" goto sourcePage 16:- "turf - it is the glass. Something else drops immediately after - it is the needle. The compass is broken, and the exploring party is lost!" "It is the practice of the English portion of the human race to receive all great disasters in dead silence. Mr. Goodchild restored the useless compass to his pocket without saying a word, Mr. Idle looked at the landlord, and the landlord looked at Mr. Idle. There was nothing for it now but to go on blindfold, and trust to the chapter of chances. Accordingly, the lost travellers moved forward, still walking round the slope of the mountain, still desperately resolved to avoid the Black Arches, and to succeed in reaching the "certain point."" "..." |
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