Darby Field -1642

Darby Field

Darby Field's ascent of Mount Washington, in 1642, when he was about 32 years of age, was recorded by Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in his journal:

"One Darby Field, an Irishman, living about Piscataquack, being accompanied with two Indians, went to the top of the white hill. He made his journey in 18 days... and within 12 miles of the top was neither tree nor grass, but low savins [shrubs], .... Some of them (Indians) accompanied him within 8 miles of the top, but durst go no further, telling him that no Indian ever dared to go higher, and that he would die if he went.

Mt Washington (1,917m)
(Courtesy: https://newenglandtravelplanner.com/)

 So they staid there till his return, and his two Indians took courage by his example and went with him. They went divers times through the thick clouds for a good space, and within 4 miles of the top, they had no clouds but very cold..."

His description of the top of Mount Washington was likewise accurate. Field's feat would be repeated only a handful of times over the next 150 years.

Despite Winthrop's claim that Field was Irish it seems that he had been born in Boston, Lincolnshire and was the son of John Field of London, England, who had emigrated before 1636.

Irish mountains and uplands continued to be frequented by Rapparees and Lughnasa celebrants during this period and 1729 saw the birth of a man who later had a profound influence on the attitude of people towards mountains;  this was Edmund Burke.

Home

Climbing mountains for pleasure

 As we've seen, travel in and through the mountains took place in many different cultures and in many different places for many different reasons.  Mountains were seen not just as physical entities but represented a wide spectrum of ideas, needs and fears at different times in history.  They were; the sacred places of pilgrimage; barriers to military advances; source of bad weather and the home of dragons and other demons.  They were visited only of necessity.

Croagh Patrick

Croagh Patrick

Christianity may have caused a change in attitude towards mountains and many of the pagan mountain sites were subsumed into Christian practice - Croagh Patrick in Ireland, Harz Mountains in Germany,

Gr St Bernard. Courtesy IAAH

,Great St Bernard Pass in Switzerland -  so that pilgrimages to mountains became part of Christian spirituality.

To climb for the pleasure of doing so!  The Italian, Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) is regarded as the first person to have climbed a mountain simply "for the view" in April 1336.  Mt Ventoux was close to where he lived and he felt  a "wish to see what so great an elevation had to offer". 

Through the succeeding centuries some mountains in Europe were being climbed by individuals for such 'non utilitarian' reasons:

Antoine de Ville - (d.1504) ordered by the King of France (Charles VIII) to climb Mont Aiguille, then regarded as 'unclimbable', he assailed the mountain with ropes and ladders and succeeded in 1492.  This is regarded as the first ascent of a peak of any technical difficulty and, using techniques far ahead of the time, is considered the first truly "Alpine" climb.

During these centuries there were others who were interested in the Alps and Alpine travel:

Josias Simmler (1530-'76), an academic in Zurich interested in classical accountsof Alpine travel and his work promotes a growing interest in the topography of the Alps. he produced the first book solely related to Th Alps. (Wikipedia).

Conrad Gesner (1516-65), 'his writings were the first to instil a positive delight in the mountains and a joy in the scenery for its own sake'.  His account of the ascent of Mt Pilatus in 1555 is one of the early classics of mountain literature. He declared in a letter to a friend the he " resolved for the future ... to climb mountains, or...to climb one mountain every year".  (Wikipedia)

Conrad Gessner

Josias Simmler

In Ireland there seems to be no evidence that any such activity was taking place although mountain journeys continued to be undertaken, as related earlier, in relation to pilgrimages to holy mountains and Lughnasa festivals.

The earliest mention of an Irishman climbing a significant mountain was Darby Field who made the first ascent of Mt Washington in USA in 1642. (More to follow)

Home

Mountains in Early Modern times.

  There are some references to the mountains in Irish literature. A notable one is from Brian Merriman in his Cúirt an Mheán Oíche from the 18th Century.

Ba ghnáth mé ar siúl le ciumhais na habhann

https://twitter.com/lorraineelizab6

Ar bháinseach úr is an drúcht go trom,

In aice na gcoillte i gcoim an tsléibhe

Gan mhairg gan mhoill ar shoilseadh an lae.  

  Do ghealadh mo chroí nuair chínn Loch Gréine, 

  An talamh, an tír, is íor na spéire 

 Ba thaitneamhach aoibhinn suíomh na sléibhte 

 Ag bagairt a gcinn thar dhroim a chéile.

Translation of underlined:

By the edge of the woods on the wild mountainside

At the dawn of the day I'd cheerfully stride.

This might indicate, if not for the requirements of metre and rhyme, that he was accustomed to walk in the hollows or cooms (cwms) of the mountains and simply for the pleasure of doing so.

The Rapparees:  

This was a cohort of 'outlaws' that used the hills and mountains as a place of refuge from the authorities.  The poem 'Eamon an Cnoic' is the story of Ned Ryan, an 18th Century rapparee, who was a folk hero in Co Tipperary.  He may have used the hills and mountains of Tipperary, as the poem's title indicates,  as a base from which to operate as others did in different parts of the country.

This may be meagre evidence but it does indicate that the uplands and mountains were being frequented by the people and for a variety of reasons up to modern times.

Home