top of page

Screen Shot 2021-11-01 at 6.28.42 PM.png

Millican Dalton: A Sublime Midlife Crisis

The relevance of a 20th century cave-dweller to environmental aesthetics.

Wednesday, 23 December 2020

borrowdale pic 1.jpg

At the mouth of the cave at Borrowdale, May 2020. Photograph: Lewis Eaton.

On a swelteringly hot day in the North Western Fells of The Lake District, the gaping mouth of a cave offered itself as a refuge and swallowed us mercifully into its cool damp interior. Caves are otherworldly places. This particular cave, set into the hillside of Castle Crag, allows you to peer out at the gently swaying trees and glimmering daylight of the outside world from a viewing point void of light and sound. The daytrip itself had been to seek refuge in The Lakes; an attempt at replacing the stagnancy of a locked-down city summer with a more welcome, less claustrophobic, kind of tranquillity. We spent a few minutes scrambling around on the siltstone, marvelling at the height of the cave walls and exchanging the obligatory comments about feeling small in big spaces. On leaving, I noticed a large, flat stone covered in scrawlings. At the centre in neat, deeply-etched letters read ‘Don’t Waste Words, Jump to Conclusions’ with dozens of smaller sections of writing surrounding this. Each gave names and dates, with many faded with age and dissolving back into the stone’s surface. It was from a frantic Googling during the car ride home that I came to find out we had happened across a sort-of pilgrimage place for hikers: the cave in which a man had lived out his summers for over forty consecutive years.

In 1904, at the age of thirty-six, Millican Dalton gave up his life as an insurance clerk in London in order to dedicate himself to The Great Outdoors. Having spent part of his childhood in Nenthead, the North Pennines, he found life and work in the capital stifling in comparison. From then on Dalton split his year, spending the summer months in the cave under Castle Crag and winters in a canvas hut in Buckinghamshire. Far from your conventional hermit, Dalton was an active and sociable member of the community. He organised camping excursions for the outdoors novice which included teaching hiking, rock climbing, rafting and how to forage for food. What I found extraordinary for the time was that these excursions didn’t exclude women, with one of Dalton’s advertisements for a mountaineering course stating his views bluntly: “Ladies are welcome to the camp. There is nothing new in ladies camping, the custom being at least 10,000 years old.” This rare indiscriminate approach led to Dalton forging a long-lasting friendship with geologist Mabel Barker, who over the years consistently recommended Dalton’s courses to women students and friends.

Millican and Mabel.jpg

Dalton and Barker atop a needle, 1913. The Mable Barker Collection.

ARCHIVE

Take a look...

Find all our of old features and articles below...

Notes on Camp: ‘Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!’

Notes on Camp: ‘Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!’

Picture the scene. You’re in your most splendid garb, nursing a double vodka orange between the murky hours of 12am and 4am in The Flying...

Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Edward II’ and Tom Stuart’s ‘After Edward’ at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Th

Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Edward II’ and Tom Stuart’s ‘After Edward’ at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Th

Tom Stuart and Beru Tessema in ‘Edward II’ at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (Photo: Marc Brenner) I would not usually be compelled to write...

The Boss: Non-Conformity Through the Eyes of Eileen Gray

The Boss: Non-Conformity Through the Eyes of Eileen Gray

Non-Conformist, Eileen Gray, 1926 (Image: eileengray.co.uk) One of my least favourite questions, right after “what are your plans after...

'Into the Mind of the Coloniser': In Conversation with Adelaide Damoah

'Into the Mind of the Coloniser': In Conversation with Adelaide Damoah

On Thursday 28 March, British-Ghanaian artist Adelaide Damoah will present ‘Into the Mind of the Coloniser’, in the Virginia Woolf Room...

Opportunity is Dead: A Galaxy of Misery

Opportunity is Dead: A Galaxy of Misery

Sad news this week (although it’s seldom but sad), as NASA has officially given up hope on their Martian robotic rover Opportunity. The...

Kitsch Cupid: Rococo and Romance

Kitsch Cupid: Rococo and Romance

There are numerous historical sources attached to St Valentine — the Catholic. Church recognizes at least three different saints named...

The Favourite: Duck Racing, Voguing and Sapphism in the Court of Queen Anne.

The Favourite: Duck Racing, Voguing and Sapphism in the Court of Queen Anne.

It’s a Tuesday night at a cinema in Peckham, we’re sat in Screen 4. The atmosphere feels giddy with anticipation for what we’re about to...

The Importance of Ambitious Political Rhetoric: The West Wing, Season One - A Review

The Importance of Ambitious Political Rhetoric: The West Wing, Season One - A Review

It is not often one is able to decipher why we are drawn to the things we are, but in cases like this, it is less important to consider...

3

bottom of page