top of page

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...

A Praying Prime Minister & a President Sent by God

A Praying Prime Minister & a President Sent by God

As the UK faces a big freeze the Prime Minister’s position on Brexit has thawed slightly – although the reception from the EU remains...

Through the Looking Glass – Brexit Madness

Through the Looking Glass – Brexit Madness

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast,” says the White Queen in Lewis Carroll's Alice Through...

A Brexmas Miracle, but May’s on Thin Ice

A Brexmas Miracle, but May’s on Thin Ice

We begin this week’s Christmassy edition with an extract of the Gospel according to Morgan: “And lo, Theresa went unto Brussels, and...

You Say You Want a Revolution? – Plus ça change

You Say You Want a Revolution? – Plus ça change

For the last three weeks, France has been embroiled in a series of strikes and protests. They were originally sparked by the...

Don’t Panic! Who do you think you are kidding Mr Rees-Mogg?

Don’t Panic! Who do you think you are kidding Mr Rees-Mogg?

Firstly, let me take up where I left off last week. You may remember that last Friday it appeared that Mrs May was about to be toppled...

Brexagedon: “The Revolution is Eating its Children”

Brexagedon: “The Revolution is Eating its Children”

On Thursday this week, a senior Conservative Party source told the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, that “the revolution is...

That sinking feeling: Brexit and the Titanic

That sinking feeling: Brexit and the Titanic

Dear reader, welcome to the first of what will hopefully be many weekly columns here at the Courtauldian. I am Morgan Haigh, a...

bottom of page