Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Helvellyn: ascent 1780s


included in:-	Helvellyn, St John's Castlerigg etc
	Helvellyn: ascent 1780s
site name:-	Helvellyn
civil parish:-	St John's Castlerigg and Wythburn (formerly Cumberland)
civil parish:-	Patterdale (formerly Westmorland)
county:-	Cumbria
locality type:-	hill
locality type:-	historic ascent
coordinates:-	NY34261508
1Km square:-	NY3415
10Km square:-	NY31
altitude:-	3100 feet
altitude:-	945m

evidence:-	old text:- Clarke 1787 placename:- Helveylin item:- snow
source data:-	Guide book, A Survey of the Lakes of Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire, written and published by James Clarke, Penrith, Cumberland, and in London etc, 1787; published 1787-93. goto source Page 31:- "... Above all, Helveylin rises with precipice over precipice, and hides his rugged summit amidst almost continual mists. Snow is seldom a wanting here; and I know a gentleman who went from Penrith to it, in order to dine in a snow drift upon Midsummer-day. His account of his journey being curious and singular, will plead my excuse if I insert it at length." ""I had often, from the neighbourhood of Penrith, seen specks of snow in the height of Summer, on the summit of a hill, the name of which I did not at that time know, and a strong desire seized me of dining in so elevated a situation, and upon such a seat as is not at all common in Britain at that season. Accordingly, about two o'clock of the a Midsummer morning, I set forward, and rode about eleven miles to Glencoyn, which lyes at the bottom of that heap of mountains on the summit of which this snow was seen. Leaving my horse at the house which stands in this small valley, I began to ascend: it was now betwixt four and five o'clock, and I experienced what I would not have believed to be possible at that time of the morning, viz. a heat greater than I have felt in any situation at noon. The rays of the sun, just now risen, were reflected from the Lake, and thrown right into the valley, which resembles pretty much the half of a beehive cut longitudinally: in front were rocks almost perpendicular; on the right hand, a steep hill covered with heath; on the left, another hill cloathed with wood: such a stagnation of the air as then took place, and such an intensity of heat, had an effect resembling suffocation. The summit of the first hill afforded no alleviation of the uneasiness thus occasioned; for the air heated, and rarified in the valley, was ascending. The north wind, however, compensated for this in the upper parts of the mountain, and with severe toil I, in about five hours, reached the snow, and the summit. The surface of it was covered with dust, so that I was obliged to make a hole in it with my staff to procure clean snow to drink, or rather eat to my dinner, Such a prospect was never presented to me as from this place, though I have been upon almost every high mountain in the North of England, and upon many in Scotland. After I had satisfied myself with surveying the countries beneath, and the sea at a distance, I began to set forward on my return; and after having spent about ten hours in the ascent and descent, arrived again, though by a different way, in Glencoyn.""

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