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Gordale Scar, North Yorkshire
Gordale Scar
county:-   North Yorkshire
locality type:-   rocks
1Km square:-   SD9164
10Km square:-   SD96
evidence:-   old print:- 
source data:-   Print, uncoloured engraving, Fall at Gordale, drawn by N Whittock, engraved by J Rogers, published by I T Hinton, 4 Warwick Square, London, perhaps late 18th century?
image  click to enlarge
PR0720.jpg
 
printed at bottom left, right, centre:-  "N. WHITTOCK, DELT. / J. ROGERS, SC. / FALL AT GORDALE. / LONDON. PUBLISHED BY I. T. HINTON, 4, WARWICK SQAURE."
item:-  JandMN : 297
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evidence:-   descriptive text:- West 1778 (3rd edn 1784) 
placename:-  Gordale Scar
source data:-   Guide book, A Guide to the Lakes, by Thomas West, published by William Pennington, Kendal, Cumbria once Westmorland, and in London, 1778 to 1821.
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3rd edn addenda, page 233:-  "... Gordale-scar was the object of this excursion. My guide brought me first to a fine sheet cascade in a glen about half a mile below the scar, the rocks of a beautiful variegation and romantic shrubbery. We then proceeded up the brook, the pebbles of which I found incrusted with a soft petrify'd coating, calcarious, slimy, and of a light brown colour.- I saw the various strata of the limestone mountains approach day-light in extensive and striking bands, running nearly horizontal, and a rent in them (from whence the brook issued) of perpendicular immense rocks:- On turning the corner of one of these, and seeing the rent complete - good heavens! what was my astonishment! The Alps, the Pyrenees, Killarney, Loch-Lomomd, or any other wonder of the kind I had ever seen, do not afford such a chasm!- Consider yourself in a winding street, with houses above an hundred yards high on each side of you;- then figure to yourself a cascade rushing from an upper window, and tumbling over carts, waggons, fallen houses, &c. in promiscuous ruin, and perhaps a cockney idea may be formed of this tremendous cliff. But if you would conceive it properly, depend upon neither pen nor pencil, for 'tis impossible for either to give you an adequate idea of it.- I can say no more than that I believe the rocks to be above 100 yards high, that in several places they project above 100 yards over their base, and approach the opposite rock so near that one would almost imagine it possible to lay a plank from one to the other. At the upper end of this rent (which may be about 300 yards horizontally long) there gushes a most threatening cascade through a rude arch of monstrous rocks, and tumbling through many fantastic masses of its own forming, comes to a rock of entire petrifaction, down which it has a variety of picturesque breaks, before it enters a channel that conveys it pretty uniformly away.- I take these whimsical shapes to"
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3rd edn addenda, page 234:-  "be the children of the spray, formed in droughty weather, when the water has time to evaporate, and leave the stony matter uninterrupted in its cohesion. These petrifactions are very porous; crumbly when dry, and pulpy when wet, and shaped a good deal like crooked knotty wood."
"I found here a stratum of white clay, perfectly free from grit, when tried by the teeth - it does not effervesce with an acid, nor dissolve in water. When dry 'tis as white as this paper, light, close, soapy, compact, and very hard. It appears to me like the petunzee of the Chinese, and though I have not tryed it in the fire, believe it might be well worth the china or pot manufacturer's examination."
evidence:-   descriptive text:- West 1778 (11th edn 1821) 
placename:-  Gordale Scar
source data:-   Guide book, A Guide to the Lakes, by Thomas West, published by William Pennington, Kendal, Cumbria once Westmorland, and in London, 1778 to 1821.
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Addendum; Mr Gray's Journal, 1769 
Page 220:-  "..."
"Oct. 13. To visit the Gordale-scar, which lay six miles from Settle: but that way was directly over a fell, and as the weather was not to be depended upon, I went round in a chaise the only way one could get near it in a carriage, which made it full thirteen miles, half of it such a road! but I got safe over it, so there is an end, and came to Malham (pronounced Maum) a village in the bosom of the mountains, seated in a wild and dreary valley. From thence I was to walk a mile over very rough ground, a torrent rattling along on the left hand; on the cliffs above hung a few goats; one of them danced, and scratched an ear with its right foot, in a place where I could not have stood stock-still."
"For all beneath the moon."
"As I advanced, the crags seemed to close in, but discovered a narrow entrance turning to the left between them; I followed my guide a few paces, and the hills opening again into no large space; and then all further way is barred by a stream that at the height of about fifty feet, rushes from a hole in the rock, and spreading in large sheets over its broken front, dashes from steep to steep, and then rattles away in a torrent down the valley; the rock on the left rises perpendicular, with stubbed yew-trees and shrubs starting from its sides, to the height of at least 300 feet; but these are not the thing; it is the rock to the right, under which you stand to see the fall, that forms the principal horror of the place. From its very base it begins to slope forward over you in one black or solid mass without any crevice in its surface, and overshadows half the area below its dreadful canopy: when I stood at (I believe) four yards distant from its foot, the drops which perpetually distil from its brow, fell on my head; and in one part of its top, more exposed to the weather, there are loose stones that hang in the air, and threaten visibly some idle"
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Page 221:-  "spectator with instant destruction; it is safer to shelter yourself close to its bottom, and trust to the mercy of that enormous mass, which nothing but an earthquake can stir. The gloomy uncomfortable day well suited the savage aspect of the place, and made it still more formidable; I stayed there, not without shuddering, a quarter of an hour, and thought my trouble richly paid; for the impression will last for life. At the alehouse where I dined in Malham, Vivares, the landscape painter, had lodged for a week or more; Smith and Bellers and also been there, and two prints of Gordale have been engraved by them."
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Tour to the Caves in the West Riding of Yorkshire, late 18th century 
Page 277:-  "..."
"From Settle we proceeded eastward, over the moors and mountains, about half a dozen miles, to Malham, or Maum, in order to see some other natural curiosities of the precipice and cataract kind. We had already indeed seen so many, that our wonder could not easily be excited, except there were more great and terrible: as such we had them represented at Settle, or else we should scarce have left the turnpike-road; and when we saw them we were not disappointed, for great"
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Page 278:-  "and terrible they are. The first was Malham-cave ... ... by the side of the deep and romantic channel of the river Air, which washes the base of many a rugged and high precipice in its impetuous course to the vale beneath, we came to Gordale, the highest and most stupendous of them all.- The prospect of it, from the side of the opposite western bank, is awful, great, and grand. After viewing for some time its horrid front with wonder and astonishment, we were tempted to descend, with care and circumspection, down the steep bank, on the west side, to this river, which being interspersed with trees and shrubs enabled us to rely on our hands, where we could find no sure foot-hold. The water being low, we met with no difficulty in stepping from one broken fragment of the rocks to another, till we got on the other side, when we found ourselves underneath this huge impending block of solid limestone, near an hundred yards high. The idea for personal safety excited some awful sensations, accompanied with a tremor. The mind is not always able to divest itself of prejudices and unpleasing associations of ideas: reason told us that this rock could not be moved out of its place by human force, blind chance, or the established laws of nature; we stood too far under its margin to be affected by any crumbling descending fragment (and a very small one would have crushed us to atoms, if it had fallen upon us) yet, in spite of reason and judgement, the same unpleasing"
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Page 279:-  "sensations of terror ran coldly through our veins, which we should have felt if we had looked down, though secure, from its lofty top. Nothing, however, fell upon us, but a few large drops, which sweat from out its horrid prominent front. Some goats frisked about, with seemingly a wanton carelessness, on the brink of this dreadful precipice, where none of us would have stood for all the pleasant vales washed by the river Air. Some lines in Virgil's Eclogues seemed to receive additional beauties when repeated in this grotesque scene.-"
"Non ego vos posthac, viridi projectus in antro, / Dumosa pendere procul de rupe videbo."
"No more extended in the grot below, / Shall I e'er see my goats high up the brow, / Eating the prickly shrubs, or void of care, / Lean down the precipice, and hang in air."
"Ecl. 1. l.76."
"A little higher up is a fine cascade, where the river, striving for an easier and gentler descent, has forced a way through the rocks, leaving a rude natural arch remaining above. If a painter wanted to embellish his drawing of this romantic scene with some grotesque object, he could add nothing which would suit his purpose better, if nature had not done the work for him. ..."
evidence:-   old text:- WTL2p07.txt
placename:-  Gordale Scar
source data:-   WTL2p07.txt
page 7:-   "..."
"GORDALE SCAR."
"THESE extraordinary rocks owe the grandeur which they possess more to their uncommon forms than to their height; and some degree of disappointment is generally felt on being directed to a ridge of comparatively low hills, where the scene is situated about a mile to the south of Malham."
"APPROACH TO GORDALE. --- In this view the principal scene is hid by the projecting rock above the figures, which prevents the base of the"
WTL2p08.txt
page 8:-   "overhanging rock to the right from being seen, though this view may give an idea of the general forms of the limestone which compose this romantic spot."
"GORDALE SCAR. --- After passing the rock beyond the figures represented in the last plate, the scene bursts upon the spectator, and generally occasions a mingled sensation of terror and astonishment, for the rocks overhang their bases in so abrupt a way, so out of common nature, that they look in the momentary act of falling, and with the roaring of the cataract, seldom fail of producing a powerful effect upon the mind. The rocks on each side appear to have been connected, and were probably torn asunder by some terrible convulsion of nature. The lime-stone here is of a shingly and much coarser quality than at the caves, having no veins fine enough to be used as marble."
evidence:-   old print:- Westall 1818
source data:-   Print, uncoloured aquatint, Approach to Gordale, Yorkshire, drawn and engraved by William Westall, published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, London, 1818.
image  click to enlarge
WTL211.jpg
"Drawn & Etch'd by Willm. Westall A.R.A. / Approach to Gordale. / Publish'd July 12. 1818. by John Murray, Albemarle Street, London. / Proof"
item:-  print
Armitt Library : A6670.11
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evidence:-   old print:- Westall 1818
placename:-  Gordale Scar
source data:-   Print, uncoloured aquatint, Gordale Scar, Yorkshire, drawn and engraved by William Westall, published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, London, 1818.
image  click to enlarge
WTL212.jpg
"Drawn & Etch'd by Willm. Westall A.R.A. / Gordale Scar. / Publish'd July 12. 1818. by John Murray, Albemarle Street, London. / Proof"
item:-  Armitt Library : A6670.12
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evidence:-   descriptive text:- Otley 1823 (8th edn 1849) 
placename:-  Gordale
source data:-   Guide book, A Descriptive Guide to the English Lakes, by Jonathan Otley, 1823, published by Jonathan Otley, Keswick, Cumberland, by Simpkin, Marshall and Co, Stationers' Court, London, and by John Foster, Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmorland, 8th edn 1849.
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Page 209:-  "..."
"GORDALE.- In writing of this stupendous and magnificent work of Nature, to which nothing in Britain is comparable, language must fail to describe, and imagination cease to conceive. To direct the curious traveller into the gorge, and there leave him to his own sensations, is all we can do. The approach is through a rocky ravine, (strewn with immense fragments, and intersected by one or two small streams,) which gradually narrows"
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Page 210:- 
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O80E55.jpg
"GORDALE."
"and grows more gloomy as we progress. The rocks on each side rise to an enormous height, and are the habitations of kites and ravens. At length, on turning round an awful-looking, precipitous shoulder of rock. the horrors of the dismal gorge, and the almost closing precipices, burst upon the sight; whilst the din of the foaming waters, and the rushing of the winds through the narrow crevice, heighten the terror of the scene, which is still further enhanced by a cliff 240 feet high, which threatens every moment to hurl destruction on the heads of those who stand underneath its seeming-ever-falling bulk. An adventurous person may climb above the lower fall to another, which rushes from a round aperture in the cliff above. The whole may also be surveyed from the top."
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O80E56.jpg
The gorge. 
item:-  Armitt Library : A1180
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source data:-   image OT80P211, button  goto source
Page 211:-  "At early dawn, or rather when the air"
"Glimmers with fading light, and shadowy Eve"
"Is busiest to confer and to bereave,"
"Then, pensive votary! let they feet repair"
"To Gordale-chasm, terrific as the lair"
"Where the young lions crouch:- for so, by leave"
"Of the propitious hour, thou may'st perceive"
"The local Deity, with oozy hair"
"And mineral crown, beside his jagged urn,"
"Recumbent: Him thou may'st behold, who hides"
"His lineaments by day, yet there presides,"
"Teaching the docile waters how to turn;"
"Or, if need be, impediment to spurn,"
"And force their passage to the salt-sea tides!"
"WORDSWORTH"
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