Alfred Wainwright and Haystacks

“All I ask for, at the end, is a last long resting place by the side of Innominate Tarn on Haystacks, where the water gently laps the gravely shore and the heath blooms and Pillar and Gable keep unfailing watch. A quiet place, a lonely place, I shall go to it, for the last time and be carried: someone who knew me in life will take me and empty me out of a little box and leave me there alone. And if you dear reader, should get a bit of grit in your boot as you are crossing Haystacks in the years to come, please treat it with respect. It might be me…” Alfred Wainwright

I like to consider the history behind places when walking through them or drawing them. Here at the summit of Haystacks was one of Wainwrights favourite places and his final resting place.

Alfred Wainwright wrote and illustrated 7 volumes of guides for the Lake District. The above quote was written in the closing paragraphs of his book, Memoirs of a Fell Wanderer, when Wainwright was in his Eighties and his eyesight and legs were failing.