THE PALL MALL GAZETTE

London, England

19 July 1899

(page 9)

BEACHY HEAD.

To the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette.

Sir,—Thanking Mr. Crowley for his kind letter, I may mention that it was the coastguard, who, when we squeezed ourselves out at the top of Beachy Head, called it the Devil's Chimney. Whether he did so in a correct topographical sense, or in a seaman's generally damnatory manner, I cannot say. "Devilish" difficult that last part of the ascent certainly also was.

When I read in the Pall Mall Gazette of July 8, in the interview with Mr. Crowley, that “these different climbs are known as the Devil's Chimney, Ethelreda's Pinnacle, the Cavern Climb, Pisgah from the West, Crowley's Climb, the Waterhouse Climb, and various gullies,” I at once remembered—as I have done through all the years since our ascent—how the coastguard had described the hole through which we came up. It was rather towards the east; a narrow, winding bit, and exceedingly steep. Whatever be its name, the one given it by the coastguard was not far away from the truth, and I have no special wish to clamber and to creep up once more through that tight, perpendicular, slightly corkscrew, chimney.—Yours truly,

Karl Blind.

Hampstead, July 18.