Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Malham Cove, North Yorkshire


	Malham Cove, North Yorkshire
	Malham Cove
locality:-	Malham
county:-	North Yorkshire
locality type:-	rocks
coordinates:-	SD897641
1Km square:-	SD8964
10Km square:-	SD86

evidence:-	descriptive text:- West 1778 (3rd edn 1784)
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. goto source 3rd edn addenda, page 232:- "..." "My first excursion was to the tarn, (or little lake) skirted on one side by a peat bog, and rough limestone rocks, on the other; it abounds in fine trout, but has little else remarkable, except being the head of the river Air, which issuing from it, sinks into the ground very near the lake, and appears again under the fine rock which faces the village. In the time of great rains this subterraneous passage is too narrow; the brook then makes its way over the top of the rock, falling in a most majestic cascade full 60 yards in one sheet. This" goto source 3rd edn addenda, page 233:- "beautiful rock is like the age-tinted wall of a prodigious castle; the stone is very white, and from the ledges hang various shrubs and vegetables, which with the tints given it by the bog water, &c. gives it a variety that I never before saw so pleasing in a plain rock. ..."

evidence:-	descriptive text:- West 1778 (11th edn 1821) placename:- Malham Cave placename:- Maum Cove
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. goto source 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" goto source Page 278:- "and terrible they are. The first was Malham-cave (or vulgarly Maum-cove) though it has properly nothing of the cave about it. It is a fine amphitheatre of perpendicular limestone rock, on the side of the moor, at least an hundred yards high in the middle. The rocks lie stratum upon stratum; and on some there are saxa sedilia, or shelves, so that a person of great spirit and agility, but of small and slender body, might almost walk round. A small brook springs out of the bottom of the rocks; but in floods the narrow subterranean passage is not able to give vent to all the water, when there pours down a stupendous cataract, in height almost double that of Niagara. This is the highest perpendicular precipice I have ever seen, and I think not enough known and admired by travellers for its greatness and regularity.- ..."

evidence:-	old text:- WTL2p07.txt placename:- Malham Cove
source data:-	WTL2p07.txt page 7:- "..." "MALHAM COVE." "THIS singular lime-stone rock is about half a mile to the north of the village of Malham, and seven and a half from Settle; its height is estimated at two hundred and eighty-eight feet. It is perpendicular, and forms the segment of a circle, which, together with the regular horizontal strata, projecting in shelves from the body of the rock, has a very near resemblance to the ruins of a great amphitheatre. The general surface of the rock is excessively white; but it is tinged in some parts of a purple grey, and stained with long lines of a dark reddish brown, running from the summit to the base, probably occasioned by water which has passed over iron ore. The river Air, which derives its principal source from a lake above, has a passage under ground for more than a mile, and issues from a cave at the base of this rock. After much rain, when there is too great a body of water for the channel beneath to contain, the torrent falls over the face of the cove, and forms a magnificent cascade."

evidence:-	old print:- Westall 1818 placename:- Malham Cove
source data:-	Print, uncoloured aquatint, Malham Cove, Yorkshire, drawn and engraved by William Westall, published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, London, 1818. click to enlarge WTL210.jpg "Drawn & Etch'd by Willm. Westall A.R.A. / Malham Cove. / Publish'd July 12. 1818. by John Murray, Albemarle Street, London. / Proof" item:- Armitt Library : A6670.10 Image © see bottom of page

evidence:-	descriptive text:- Otley 1823 (8th edn 1849)
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. goto source Page 208:- "..." "MALHAM COVE, one of the most tremendous precipices which can be conceived. It stretches across the whole width of the valley, forming a natural barricade of stone of every variety of shade, nearly 300 feet high. A stream of water - the source of the Aire - flows from a small cavity at its base. When viewed from a distance, it has the appearance of an immense ruin, being apparently pierced with ornamental windows and doorways." goto source Page 209:- O80E54.jpg "MALHAM COVE." item:- Armitt Library : A1180 Image © see bottom of page "" "Was the aim frustrated by force or guile," "When giants scooped from out the rocky ground" "- Tier under tier - this semicirque profound?" "(Giants - the same who built in Erin's isle" "That causeway with incomparable toil!)" "O, had this vast theatric structure wound" "With finished sweep into a perfect round," "No mightier work had gained the plausive smile" "Of all-beholding Phoebus! But, alas," "Vain earth! - false world! - Foundations must be laid" "In Heaven; for 'mid the wreck of IS and WAS," "Things incomplete and purposes betrayed" "Make sadder transits o'er truth's mystic glass" "Than nobler objects utterly decayed." "WORDSWORTH"

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