THE INTREPID VICTORIANS

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 171, 7 April 1923, Page 15

THE INTREPID VICTORIANS

ON THE MOUNTAIN ; HEIGHTS

The advent of Murray’s earliest handbook, published m 1833, is ono of i the first testimonies to the existence of the woman climber. To be sure, ' she appears in the guise of the fair traveller” and must have possessed means, for evert on the mildest excursions ‘‘when the travelling party includes ladies a guide is required to attend to each,” states a writer in the “Manchester Guardian.” The earlymorning start of a well-equipped mountaineering partv must have been a, sight for th® for. apart ironi feminine eccentricities. Murray, for some reason, insists on the male tourists wearing over his ordinary garb lt o, blousp made like a smock-frock, and to be bought ready-made in any German town.” By the fifties, women climbers had progressed from “fair travellers” to “the ladies,” and about this time the market was flooded with books of travel written by women, concerned mainly with sentimental descriptive. passages and feminine equipment. These are easily distinguished by their titles, which are incorrigibly romantic — “Light Leaves Gathered in 18591860,” or rather more definite, “A Lady’s Tour Round Monte Rosa.” This was the era of “the lady’s facemask” with which every woman was advised to protect herself. All these books abound in advice of the “No lady should do this” or “No lady should attempt that” variety, and indeed it is rarely considered advisable for a woman to use her legs, judging from the number of times she is consigned “to mule-back by easy stages.” Imagine the emotions of a modern damsel faced by I this: “It (a very easy day’s ramble) would be more than a lady could attempt ; but I am satisfied that it might be done by a first-rate walker.” Or this intimation about the inn on the Monte Moro Pass: “No lady ought to complain of the inn merely on account of the roughness of its deal furniture, or the primitive character of its cookery ; for without; this sleeping-place it would be scarcely possible for her unless she incurred dreadful fatigup to cross Moro at all.” No pains were spared in giving the most minute details as to the complete climbing gown, and the following dress prescription was universally approved as combining usefulness and propriety. “Small rings should be sewn inside the seams of th? skirt and a. cord passed through them, the ends of which should be knotted together in, such a way that i;he whole dress may be drawn up at a moment’s notiep to the requisite height.” Taken in conjunction with a face-mask, and a warm spring day one is inclined to sympathise with those women who considered mountaineering a doubtful form of amusement. '