A Tour to the Caves

Author: John Hutton

Publisher: S.R. Publishers, 1970

ISBN 0-85409-630-2

A Tour of the Caves was written by John Hutton (1740?–1806), who attended Sedbergh School and later became vicar of St James Church, Burton-in-Kendal.

It was first published in 1780 by Richardson and Urquehart of London within an addendum to the second edition of Thomas West's Guide to the Lakes, but was based on a short article which appeared in letter format in the March 1761 edition of The Gentleman's Magazine (pp. 126-128) under the pseudonym Pastor. It was republished later in 1780 as a work in its own right by the same publisher, and a year later a new edition was issued. This is the edition which was published in facsimile in 1970 by S.R. Publishers.

The book describes a "tour" from Kendal to Settle. Hutton made a point of seeking out "caves and natural curiosities", and describes expeditions to, and sometimes into, a number of caves including Yordas, Hurtle Pot, Jingle Pot, Weathercote Cave, Great Douk, Meregill, Braithwaite Wife's Hole, Hardrawkin Pot, Gatekirk Cave, Greenside Cave, Catknot Cave, Alum Pot, Long Churn, Diccan Pot, Brantsgill, Hull Pot, and Hunt Pot.

It was written at the height of the Picturesque Movement, when people such as Turner and Wordsworth were seeking out natural curiosities for their inspiration, and its diary format was typical of traveller's guide books of the day.

Even so, the archaic style adopted by Hutton seems to have been found somewhat extreme since it was first published. A scathing account of it by William Wordsworth, appears in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1819: "[The caves] ... were afterwards subjected to a visit from a Mr Hutton, a Westmoreland Rector, we believe, or Church dignitary of some sort or other, whose long and laboured account of them may be found in the appendix to West's Guide to the Lakes. Mr Hutton having read Virgil at Cambridge, more especially the sixth book of the Aeneis, seems to have been perpetually haunted by the image of the infernal regions; and the moment he found himself in a cave he imagined himself metamorphosed into Aeneas. This fancy pervades his journal of his descent into the caves of Yorkshire; and after having identified the great Trojan prince with the parish minister of Burton, he found no difficulty in transforming the old hostler of the inn at Ingleton into the Sybil. Accordingly, Virgil becomes a Yorkshireman - and he, the old hostler and Aeneas Hutton on their reascent from the "mania regna", seek out the "Eagle and Child" and get rather more than social over a can of stingo."

It is likely that the tour is somewhat apocryphal, as it is supposed to have covered some 111 miles in two days, eight of which were on foot, as well as visiting the caves listed above. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating book, and strongly recommended.