In my 15th blog I quoted messages published in the Wainwright Facebook site between December 2018 and July 2020 in which I was involved. Here are some more messages that were published between July 2020 and January 2023. I have corrected minor mistakes, and I have omitted some items that are complimentary to myself. I have left gaps between items that are not related.
Chris Jesty, 31/8/2020 (refering to a photograph of the Ordnance Survey maps of the Coast to Coast Walk): In 1993 and 1994 I worked on these maps for Michael Joseph. I found the relevant correspondence in my computer recently, and there is quite a lot of it.
Chris Butterfield, 1/9/2020: I think the Southern Fells takes the crown for the highest impression number, as it was the biggest selling book until the Coast to Coast TV series aired in 1990, then the ‘A Coast to Coast Walk’ book beat it.
Chris Jesty, 2/9/2020: According to my royalty statements 13,000 copies of the second edition of ‘A Coast to Coast Walk’ were sold between 2010 and 2019, which works out at 1300 copies per year. This does not compare with the 100,000 copies of ‘The Southern Fells’ that were sold between 1960 and 1979, which works out at 5000 copies per year.
Chris Jesty, 22/9/2020 (refering to a drawing of Nether Bridge, Kendal): There are almost identical drawings on page 168 of ‘Westmorland Heritage’ and in ‘Kendal in the Nineteenth Century’ (principal drawing number 5).
From a letter sent by Wainwright in 1975: I am sorry to decline your invitation, but due partly to extreme pressure of work and mainly to a profound reluctance to engage in any form of public speaking, I cannot accept it. I know my limits, and indulgence in addressing an audience is way beyond my talents. But I appreciate your kindness in asking, and consider it an honour.
Chris Jesty, 11/10/2020: A.W. and I have much in common: I say much the same thing whenever I am invited to speak in public.
Chris Jesty, 18/1/2021: Throughout Wainwright’s Lakeland guides selected mountains are blessed with annotated drawings of the views from their summits. These drawings are excellent for identifying places in the Lake District on days of average visibilty, but useless for identifying distant places that are only visible on days of exceptional clarity.
For this purpose you need to use the internet. Go to http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org, then to ‘Panoramas’, ‘England’, and ‘Cumbrian Lakes’. The drawings that appear are arranged in a clockwise direction, starting in the north. You won’t be able to read the names because they are too small, but you can obtain an enlargement by clicking the relevant part of the view. In theory it should be possible to do this in the mountains using a mobile phone, but I have not met anyone who has done so.
Arran Sutherland: Thanks Chris. I didn’t realise that the site was still live, but I found it years ago and remember it was a real treasure trove. Even though they are computer generated from the contour data they are real works of art in their own right. I wouldn’t rely on the phone signal to use them directly from the website in the mountains, but they could be saved as a file or photo to the phone in advance.
Wayne Dornan, 25/1/2021 (about my book Happy Memories): This arrived today but I wasn’t expecting such an existential introduction. Tonight I’ll be delving into the mind of Chris Jesty.
John Burland, 7/2/2021: No wonder the Yorkshire Dales has been voted the best National Park in Europe.
Chris Jesty, 9/2/2021: In that case, why have only 383 copies of the second edition of ‘Walks in Limestone Country’ been sold, when 177,000 copies of the second edition of the Lakeland guides have been sold?
Hilary Healey, 24/7/2021: We had an early walk up Castle Crag yesterday – on the NT carpark at Rosthwaite by 7am! Still beautifully cool, we had the unexpected bonus of a cloud inversion. Expecting to have the summit to ourselves at that time we were surprised to see two gentlemen on the top, one of them quite elderly. It turns out they were Chris Butterfield expert and archivist of all things Wainwright, and Chris Jesty who edited the revised second edition of all seven Wainwright guides.
Chris Butterfield, 24/7/2021: Chris Jesty returned to Castle Crag for the first time since he revised the pictorial guides ‘second edition’. We scrutinised the walk from Grange in great detail, and noted all the changes to the route since Chris last passed through here all those years ago.
Chris Jesty, 25/7/2021: We found that all the changes that had taken place since 2007 were faithfully recorded by Clive Hutchby, but it occurs to me that he might have mentioned in the descent notes that walkers should follow the zigzags carefully to avoid taking the short cut to the gate. There is plenty of unimportant text that could be removed to make room.
Chris Butterfield, 30/8/2021: Chris Jesty kindly introduced me to the delights of Whitbarrow in the Outlying Fells. We followed the route that Wainwright described as “the most beautiful in this book”.
Chris highlighted some of the minor changes he made which really enhanced the experience – more pics to follow.
A huge thanks to Chris for sharing some of his favourite places. He had not been back here since he revised The Outlying Fells of Lakeland guidebook nearly ten years ago.
In the first photo, Chris admires the view, whilst perched on the edge of a limestone outcrop not far from the summit. Witherslack Hall School is in the background.
In the second photo, we compare the route from both the first and second edition guides.
George Kitching: Beautiful fell, and what a privilege to climb it in such esteemed company.
Chris Jesty, 7/9/2021: Only minor changes were made to the chapter on Whitbarrow. More significant changes were made to the chapters on Hugill Fell and Reston Scar, which are also near Kendal.
Chris Butterfield, 19/9/2021: Chris Jesty is a good friend friend of mine, and in my humble opinion produced the best revisions of Wainwright’s guides. Over a ten year period he delicately updated Wainwright’s original masterpieces. One of his objectives was to make changes only when required, and retain the look and feel of the originals as closely as possible.
Chris has kindly signed a small number of his books for the group. For those of you who own the second edition guidebooks, this book complements them nicely.
Happy Memories
Andy Beck: I fully agree about the Chris Jesty revisions of the PG’s, in keeping with the original versions, revising details where needed and not feeling the need to hack about with AW’s clever designs or adding unnecessary content.
Lesley Ritchie: Ordered one on your fab website. Can’t wait for it to arrive. I love Chris Jesty’s beautiful work.
Chris Butterfield: It’s on its way to you. Chris is chuffed to bits
John Fearn: “Happy Memories” is a fascinating book. I enjoyed it enormously. Highly recommended.
Chris Butterfield: Kind words John. Chris will be so pleased when he reads your comments.
Chris Jesty: I am.
To Clive Hutchby 15/7/2021: I have never before seen such a brilliant combination of a panorama and a photograph.
From Clive Hutchby: Wow, Chris, what a compliment from the man who put together ‘The View From Scafell Pike’ (and a number of other great panoramas).
Chris Butterfield 23/10/2021: I am delighted to announce that Chris Jesty and I are planning more fells walks. Even low level walks that are rich in history. Chris hasn’t revisited many of the locations since he revised the guides. I look forward to increasing my knowledge of the local area, and how Chris revised certain routes. Everything will be shared with the group, website and other media. The attached photo is from a recent walk to Whitbarrow Scar. The walk that leads to this fabulous view (that many of you will recognise) features in Chris’s revised Outlying Fells guidebook
Chris Jesty, 26/10/2021 (following on from a message about the Lake District pound): The first time I heard of the Lake District pound was in March, 2017 when I received an email from the director of the Lakes Currency Project asking if they could use parts of the Scafell Pike panorama on their banknotes, but they never did.
Chris Butterfield, 29/10/2021: Evening all. Here is a previously unpublished photo of the one and only – Chris Jesty. I will let you all guess where he is. Chris and I have done a few walks together, and we have more planning when the weather improves. There’s a purpose behind each walk, so they are very educating.
Chris Jesty, 30/10/2021: If you compare the cairn in this photograph with that on page 38 of The Outlying Fells of Lakeland you will see how well it was drawn and how it has remained unchanged for 47 years. [In the photograph I am standing next to the cairn. After I sent this message I realised that I should have added ‘(unlike the person standing next to it)’ at the end.]
Peter Valli, 22/11/2021: Great that you could spend what looks like a fine day with the very dapper Mr. Jesty!
Lesley Ritchie, 22/11/2021: How lovely to share walkies with him. I love his revised guides and I’ve used them for all my 214’s.
Chris Jepson-Brown: Chris never fails to impress me with his sartorial elegance. His clothes look so cool.
Peter Wilday: That’s the first duffel coat I’ve seen in decades.
Chris Butterfield, 28/11/2021: This is a clip from the recent Antiques Roadshow, and features a lovely Wainwright drawing. Chris Jesty copied the segment to disc and mailed it to me for the group to watch. He thought the group might find it interesting…..and he’s quite right. Thanks Chris
Chris Jesty, 30/1/2022 (about Wainwright’s North Wales Sketchbook): He was working on this book when he stayed in my cottage in Dolgellau in 1979.
Karen Curwen, 23/3/2022 (under a photograph of Andrew Nicholl and myself): There must be such a lot of history and experience in those two heads.
Chris Butterfield: Old school gentlemen that they don’t make anymore.
Chris Jesty, 8/4/2022: I was pleasantly surprised to find quotations from my diary in your Facebook article. I have been keeping a diary now for 67 years.
Chris Jesty, 8/4/2022: Chris Butterfield usually comes to my aid whenever I can’t get something to work.
Chris Butterfield, 9/6/2022: Good evening. June is the 50th Anniversary of Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk, and on Saturday, Chris Jesty will be showing my wife and me some of the route’s highlights. He will also reveal some of the route changes he made and why. A report will be coming soon to the group.
A quote from Chris himself:
“It seemed to me that every page of the first edition of A Coast to Coast Walk was a pleasure to read and that later editions were spoilt by unsympathetic changes that had been made to pages 63, 65 and 75. I felt that it was my mission to bring these pages back to the standard set by the rest of the book. I introduced an alternative route to replace the route that had been removed from page 75, and I found it to be more interesting and beautiful than the main route.”
[For some reason the page numbers in the paragraph above were replaced by asterisks. I have reinstated the page numbers. C.J.]
Chris Butterfield, 11/6/2022: My wife and I had a wonderful time on the Coast to Coast Walk with Chris Jesty this morning. Chris introduced us to an alternative route we’d never seen before. The whole walk was picturesque and a delight to experience.
Chris Butterfield, 15/9/2022: It must have been special being around when the guides were still in publication. You must have countless memories from those days.
Chris Jesty, 16/9/2022: I went on an Outward Bound course at Eskdale Green in the summer of 1959 when Wainwright was working on The Southern Fells. I might have met him without knowing who he was.
Chris Jesty, 16/10/2022: I am puzzled by the map to the left of the painting. It is clearly taken from White Side 3 in Book One, but it is not from the 1955 edition or the 2005 edition or the 2015 edition. So where is it from?
Richard Jennings: If the books were to be revised again, then a good step would be to start from the first editions, just like Chris Jesty did. Chris did a wonderful job with very little change, and that should be the inspiration forward. Walk every path, note the odd route change yes, and gates etc, but all these can be done on the route page in question. This way no layout is changed.
David Hatton: I have & use Chris Jesty’s versions out on the fells & they are a joy to use & to look at – totally tastefully & correctly done and most importantly approved of. The original guides are part of history and absolutely should not be tampered with!
Jane McGeary (about a photograph taken on Raven Crag): Such an honour to meet you all that gorgeous day.
Chris Butterfield, 26/11/2022: What better venue for a Wainwright talk than the Kendal Town Hall. My wife Priscilla and I will be hosting the evening. Some notable guests will also attend, including Wainwright’s former publisher Andrew Nichol and Wainwright guidebook reviser Chris Jesty.
Chris Jesty, 28/11/2022: The page shown above, to the right of the photographs, is Burnbank Fell 4 in Book 7. It was removed from the second edition at the request of the farmer.
Chris Butterfield, 28/11/2022: Interesting Chris I didn’t know that.
Ronnie Bowron, 28/11/2022: This is one of only two access issues that I’m aware of in the Lakes. From memory it’s technically one private field between a public footpath and open access land the far side.
Chris Jesty, 29/11/2022: Other pages removed for the same reason were Fellbarrow 5 and Gavel Fell 6, both in Book 7.
David Hall, 6/12/2022 (about a photograph): Looking like Kendal Green.
Chris Jesty, 7/12/2022: It looks more like Castle Crescent to me.
David Hall: OK thanks Chris.
David Hatton (about a photograph of Andrew Nichol and myself), 11/12/2022: Fabulous picture – two remarkable, great people in one frame. Oh to be able to listen to their conversation, it would be fascinating!
Glenn Pike: Chris certainly knows how to dress as does Andrew, perhaps you could learn something from them.
Chris Jesty (about a photograph taken on Billinge Hill near Blackburn), 18/1/23: The object in the foreground is a view indicator. This is a poor example because you can’t look along the lines to the places you want to identify.