I don't 'do' charity shops very often but today I wandered into a new one and found a lovely hardback copy of Fellwalking with Wainwright. Needless to say I bought it and turned straight to the chapter on Blencathra - or Saddleback. Apart from Wainwright's evocative descriptions there are also some spectacular photos by Derry Brabbs. Apparently, according to Wainwright "A few decades ago, Blencathra was in danger of losing its lovely Celtic name in favour of the more prosaic Saddleback".

It is such a beautiful fell looking down as it does over Castlerigg - there is a superb photo of Castlerigg in the book - with the clouds and the shadows over Blencathra in the background.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge used to walk over the fells for hours when he lived up there at the same time as Wordsworth, he wrote this poem:

A Thought Suggested By A View

On stern Blencartha's perilous height
The winds are tyrannous and strong;
And flashing forth unsteady light
From stern Blencartha's skiey height,
As loud the torrents throng!
Beneath the moon, in gentle weather,
They bind the earth and sky together.
But oh! the sky and all its forms, how quiet!
The things that seek the earth, how full of noise and riot!

The book, the poem, and Blencathra would have fitted in on any of half a dozen threads but I felt moved to give it one of its own. Hope no-one minds.

tjj