Legend of the Lakes
QUESTION What age was Alfred Wainwright when he did his final fell walk?
LakeLand fell walker alfred Wainwright (‘AW’) ( 1907- 1991) was noted f or his quirky, fastidiously accurate hand- drawn works, the Pictorial Guides To The Lakeland Fells.
It’s generally accepted AW was difficult, grumpy, reclusive and more than a little misanthropic, fonder of animals than he was of people.
In the mid-eighties, however, he did three series of walks with broadcaster and Gardeners’ Question Time chairman eric Robson, which proved remarkably popular, pulling in an audience of more than three million on BBC2.
People loved AW’s dry, laconic style, bluntness and northern wit.
Wainwright loved solitude, particularly out on the Lake district hills, yet through his books, thousands of people have been attracted into that landscape. In 1989, he was 82 when he completed his final walk — for the TV series with Robson. The walk was on Haystacks, at the south- eastern end of the Buttermere Valley.
Haystacks (597 m, 1,958 ft) was AW’s favourite fell: ‘For beauty, variety and interesting detail, for sheer fascination and unique individuality, the summit area of Haystacks is supreme. This is, in fact, the best fell-top of all.’
Robson said the weather was atrocious and they were forced to take an all-terrain vehicle to the foot of the fell. Wainwright was so uncomfortable he got out and disappeared into the mist. Robson and the crew got lost before finding Wainwright at the appointed rock, smoking his pipe upside-down, his trick in bad weather.
after this walk, Robson conducted a poignant last interview with Wainwright, who said: ‘It was a very wet day and though I was very familiar with Haystacks and knew all the paths, I found myself slipping and stumbling as I walked along.
‘It wasn’t because the rain was misting my glasses, it was because I couldn’t see where I was putting my feet.
‘My advice to people has always been “watch where you’re putting your feet” so you won’t have an accident. That was really the moment of decision. I couldn’t see where I was going. It rained all day long — and Haystacks rained tears for me that day.’
alfred Wainwright died of a heart attack on January 20, 1991. In his autobiographical fragment, Fellwanderer, he wrote: ‘all I ask for in the end is a last long resting place by the side of Innominate Tarn on Haystacks, where the water gently laps the gravelly shore and the heather blooms and Pillar and Gable keep unfailing watch.
‘a quiet place. a lonely place. I shall go to it, for the last time, and be carried; someone who knew me in life will take me there and empty me out of a little box and leave me alone. and if you, dear reader, should get a bit of grit in your boot as you are crossing Haystacks in the years to come, please treat it with respect. It could be me.’
Simon Griffin, St Bees, Cumbria.
QUESTION Roots by the folk band Show Of Hands contains the lyric: ‘And a minister said his vision of hell/Is three folk singers in a pub near Wells.’ To whom were they referring?
THIs was kim Howells MP, Welsh Labour MP for Pontypridd from 1989 to 2010. He was a junior minister with the trade and broadcasting brief at the department for Culture, Media and sport from June 2001 until June 2003.
He made the comments in december 2001, during a Commons debate on the number of musicians permitted to play on licensed premises, at that time restricted to two.
Liberal democrat MP david Heath had asked what the difference would be between Michael Jackson teaming up with Madonna down the local pub and a group of somerset folk singers performing.
Howells responded by stating that ‘the idea of listening to three somerset folk singers sounds like hell’.
naturally, the comments drew an angry response from British folk musicians. Howells later apologised and claimed the comments were light-hearted.
However, we can thank Howells for inspiring show Of Hands to write one of the best english folk songs of the past
decade. It appeared on their 2006 album Witness and is a terrific song about loss of identity, invasion of american culture ( But I’d be richer than all the rest/If I had a pound for each request /For Duelling Banjos, American Pie /It’s enough to make you cry/ Rule Britannia or Swing Low . . . Are they the only songs we English know?), liberal embarrassment about englishness and the loss of tradition.
I particularly like the lyric that follows
Howell’s remark: ‘ Well, I’ve got a vision of urban sprawl/There’s pubs where no one ever sings at all/And everyone stares at a great big screen/Overpaid soccer stars, prancing teens/Australian soap, American rap/Estuary English, baseball caps/And we learn to be ashamed before we walk/Of the way we look, and the way we talk/ Without our stories or our songs.’
Right-wing groups missed the point and tried to appropriate the song. It was used, without permission, by the British national Party in a campaign video.
The band had it removed and showed their opposition to the BNP by joining the Folk against Fascism movement.
Colleen Hall, Birmingham.
QUESTION My partner and I love to perform an elegant dance called the Wedgwood Blue gavotte. What are its origins?
ALBERT WILLIAM KETELBEY (18751959) was a Birmingham-born composer, conductor and pianist. aged 11, he had already composed a piano sonata, which he performed publicly at Worcester Town Hall, and which earned, in later years, the praise of sir edward elgar.
His parents wisely allowed him to compete for a Trinity College scholarship. at the age of 13, he was installed as Queen Victoria scholar for musical composition, which he again won three years later.
He was appointed organist at st John’s Church, Wimbledon, at 16, and continued the study of higher composition. at 22, he was appointed musical director of Opera Comique in the West end.
He composed many serious classical works, but is best known for his light romantic music. Wedgwood Blue was written ‘ a la gavotte’, in other words, in 4/4 time and played at a stately tempo ideal for the stately dance, French court gavotte.
Wedgwood Blue was the perfect name for a piece evoking the blue jasper ware with classical reliefs pioneered by Wedgwood.
Listening to it you can imagine the exquisite workmanship of a Wedgwood vase translated into musical sound. It is a piece of music quite typical of the composer.
Diane Kelley, Lolworth, Cambs.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB You can also fax them to 0141 331 4739 or you can email them to charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.