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Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering
Sheng-Hong Chen
Computational
Geomechanics
and Hydraulic
Structures
Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering
Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering (STCE) publishes the latest developments
in Civil Engineering—quickly, informally and in top quality. The series scope
includes monographs, professional books, graduate textbooks and edited volumes,
as well as outstanding Ph.D. theses. Its goal is to cover all the main branches of civil
engineering, both theoretical and applied, including:
Computational
Geomechanics and Hydraulic
Structures
123
Sheng-Hong Chen
School of Water Resources
and Hydropower Engineering
Wuhan University
Wuhan, Hubei
P.R. China
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
part of Springer Nature
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
Foreword I
With the increasing demand of people for improved life quality, a large number of
mega projects spring up in our modern society. The successful construction and
sustainable operation of these mega projects mark not only the progress in modern
science and technology but also the significant development of human society and
civilization.
It is well known that the safety, reliability, and sustainability of a project depend
on an elaborate, skillful, and accurate design. Structural computation is, in turn, a
fundamental tool for its design, which provides the theories, methodologies, and
procedures for profoundly understanding the structural performances of the project.
Over the past three decades, China, a populated country, has witnessed rapid
economic and social development and risen to be a middle-income country. In the
process, the mega projects, such as high dams, motorways, high-speed trains,
ultra-long and deeply buried large-scale tunnels, and UHV grids, played crucial
roles.
To exploit and utilize the hydro and water resources of the rivers, China has
designed and built a great number of mega water resources and hydropower pro-
jects including the Three Gorges, Ertan, Xiaolangdi, Longtan, Xiaowan, Shuibuya,
Pubugou, Guangzhao, Xiluodu, Jinping-I, Jinping-II, and South-to-North Water
Diversion. These projects challenge the computational methods to tackle with high
dams, high and steep cut slopes, large and long hydraulic tunnels with high velocity
flow, deep overburden underground cavern clusters under complicated engineering
and hydrogeological conditions.
Computational methods have experienced remarkable advancement over the past
thirty years. They have evolved from the traditional empirical and semiempirical
material mechanics methods as well as rigid body limit equilibrium methods to the
nonlinear finite element method, non-continuum discrete element method, and other
numerical calculation methods. This should be attributed to not only the develop-
ment of modern computer technology but also the design and construction of
various mega projects. On one hand, the computational methods offered credible
and reliable scientific demonstration to the design of mega projects. On the other
v
vi Foreword I
hand, these mega projects promoted the development of modern geomechanics and
computational methods.
Professor Chen Sheng-Hong has long been engaged in the research and devel-
opment of computational methods and computer software for geomaterials and
hydraulic structures. Paying special attention to laboratory experiments and in situ
testing validation, he links the theories with practice and has made considerable
innovative and practical research achievements. He harvested pragmatic results in
the fields like standard adaptive software of the finite element method and initiated
the block element analysis and composite element method which are influential
both in China and abroad. These methods cover reinforcement analysis, feedback
analysis, reliability analysis, seepage field and thermal field analysis, and multifield
coupling analysis. He also has realized the synergy of methods, models, parameters,
and hydraulic engineering structure safety. His theory and methodology have been
verified and widely applied in the dam construction works, underground works, and
artificial high slope works. They have offered solutions and scientific demonstra-
tions to the crucial technological challenges in the design of the key national
hydropower projects, such as Three Gorges, Longtan, Shuibuya, Guangzhao,
Xiluodu, Jinping-I, Pubugou, Xiaowan, and contributed greatly to the success of
project construction.
Professor Chen Sheng-Hong has won many science and technology awards
of the provincial, ministerial, and national levels as well as those of national
industry authorities and associations. He was honored as the Distinguished
Professor of the Wuhan University of Hydraulic and Electric Engineering, and the
Excellent Professor of Wuhan University, the Ministry of Water Resources, and the
Ministry of Education. He is also granted the special government allowance of the
State Council.
Professor Chen Sheng-Hong was invited as guest professor of Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland) and Parma University,
Italy. He also worked as the guest professor in the Université des Sciences et
Technologies de Lille (Université Lille1, France) on a long-term basis. He opens
lectures overseas every year to teach advanced modern numerical computation
methods and programs. Since 2000, he acted as the member of Computational
Aspects of Analysis and Design of Dams, International Committee of Large Dam.
As the undergraduate and postgraduate schoolmate living in a same residence, as
well as the partner in the construction of many mega hydraulic projects, I and Prof.
Chen Sheng-Hong are good friends and colleagues. I am proud of his achievements
in academic theory and engineering technology related to the geomechanics and
hydraulic structures. I shall thank him for his valuable research findings to our
breakthrough in the key technology projects of high dams, high and steep cut
slopes, and large underground works. I am lucky to have read most of the manu-
scripts of this great book before publishing and deeply impressed by its rigorous
Foreword I vii
theory, clear logic, as well as innovative and pragmatic contents. The book has both
historical texture and broad international vision. I am convinced that the book can
not only serve as the reference to technicians engaged in geomechanics and
hydraulic structures but also positively promote the health development of com-
putational methods.
During the visit of my friend Prof. Chen Sheng-Hong to Lille last year (June–July,
2017), he kindly presented me with an advanced draft of Computational
Geomechanics and Hydraulic Structures and asked me to write a foreword. I was
greatly impressed by the extensive area covered in this book, by the scientific and
engineering basis of his works, and by the quality of the presentation. I accepted his
invitation with great pleasure.
From our first encounter in 20 years ago at Lille when he worked in the
Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille (Université Lille 1, France) as the
guest professor until today, we have met regularly either in China or in Europe,
including his regular 1- to 3-month stay in Lille as guest professor in our university.
We succeeded in building a strong cooperation through yearly academic visits,
Ph.D. co-supervision, joint paper publication in international journals and confer-
ences, and the organization of lectures for postgraduate students and young
researchers. He is an enthusiastic, hardworking, and interdisciplinary engineering
scientist and university educator. I highly appreciated the scientific and the engi-
neering quality of the work of Professor Chen as well as that of his students. I am
also proud of that for years our university has opportunity to provide resources for a
portion of his theoretical researches and academic writings, which contribute to a
part of the coverage in this book.
Through this book, Prof. Chen enhances our library by a synthesis of more than
30 years of academic and professional experience in the field of computational
geomechanics and their use in the assessment of both the safety and performances
of hydraulic structures throughout their lifecycle covering design, construction, and
exploitation stages. At each stage, engineers have to deal with multiple analysis and
decision-making challenges, which are related to the complexity of the hydraulic
structures geometry, nonlinear behaviors of geomaterials, multiphysics and tran-
sient phenomena as well hydro-thermo-mechanical coupling. To cope with these
challenges, engineers need to enhance the conventional analysis tools by advanced
computational methods in order to consider complex issues, which could highly
influence the safety and performances of hydraulic structures.
ix
x Foreword II
The works of this book resulted in significant advances in (i) the major issues
of the finite element method (FEM) in the analyses of hydraulic structures inclusive
error estimation and mesh refinement, thermomechanical and hydromechanical
coupling, reinforcement mechanism and modeling, parametric inverse and feedback
design, and safety calibration; (ii) the fundamentals of the block element analysis
(BEA) and its enhancement inclusive hybrid techniques, seepage analysis and
reinforcement analyses, as well as stochastic and dynamic analyses; (iii) the fun-
damentals of the composite element method (CEM) and its use in the reinforce-
ment, seepage, and thermal analyses.
It is remarkable that Prof. Chen has conducted a huge state-of-the-art study in the
field of computational geomechanics and hydraulic structures, and he crossed it
with his own academic and professional expertise in the computation methods,
laboratory tests and field observations, material properties and parametrical inverse,
safety calibration, and countermeasure design. He also presents his research phi-
losophy and skill with engineering cases such as the most famous hydraulic projects
of Three Gorges, Longtan, Shuibuya, Xiaowan, Guangzhao, etc. All these resulted
in this exceptional book, which I believe will be an important reference book in the
field of computational geomechanics and hydraulic structures. I would like to
outline that this book constitutes a kind of “encyclopedia” on the computational
geomechanics methods and their applications.
In conclusion, this book should be found in every public or private engineering
library, particularly in universities. Engineers and postgraduate students can find
comprehensive information about the fundamentals of the computational methods
in geomechanics as well as scientific and practical recommendations for the effi-
cient use of these methods in the analysis of hydraulic structures. Thanks to Prof.
Chen for this great contribution.
Hydraulic structures, particularly large underground caverns and high dams with their
vicinal high cut slopes, play core roles in hydraulic projects. Following the rapid
progress in the construction of mega hydraulic projects, China has reached interna-
tional level in the theories and technologies related to the project investigation,
research, design, construction, and management. The largest work completed in the
world, the Three Gorges Project, is installed with electric power generator capacity of
22,400 MW; the world highest arch dam (Xiaowan, H = 294.5 m; Jinping-I, H = 305
m), the world highest concrete-faced rockfill dam (CFRD) (Shuibuya, H = 233 m), the
world highest roller compacted concrete (RCC) gravity dam (Guangzhao, H = 200.5
m; Longtan, H = 192 m) are all erected in China.
Initiated in the 1960s and classified as a sub-discipline within computational
mechanics, computational geomechanics uses numerical methods to study the
phenomena governed by the principles of geomechanics. It is a successful paradigm
of interdisciplinary development supported by the applied mathematics and
mechanics as well as the computer science, and driven by engineering practices.
Since the 1980s, Chinese scientists and engineers have made significant contribu-
tions to the research and application of computational geomechanics attributable to
the impetus from the demands of civil engineering, environmental engineering,
mining and transportation engineering, and hydraulic engineering. Today, modern
computational geomechanics has profound influences on the design of giant and
complex engineering structures that would be previously very difficult or even
impossible to be appropriately analyzed using traditional calculation tools.
This book is mainly focused on the development and application of represen-
tative computational methods to estimate the performance and safety of hydraulic
structures from their planning and design phases to construction and service phases,
on which the author has been working since the mid-1980s. In addition, this book is
intended to show how to achieve a good correlation between the numerical com-
putation and the in situ behavior of the hydraulic structure, which is actually
attributable to a close collaboration of the author and his colleagues, friends, and
students with field engineers. In this book, the heuristic and visualized style is
attempted to disseminate the research philosophy and road map. The organization
xi
xii Preface
of various matters with typical methods (FEM, BEA, CEM) as warps and others
(physical fields and engineering practices) as woofs is meant to clearly and logically
elucidate the following aspects related to the subject of this book.
– Modeling of materials. The results of computational geomechanics for hydraulic
structures are significantly dependent on the models of rock-like materials
characterized by structure planes (rock discontinuities and concrete joints) and
mitigation countermeasure components (e.g., reinforcement, drainage, and
cooling). In the selection of constitutive models (relations) toward the definition
of rock-like materials, these characteristics should be simplified in a rational
way for the feasible and credible simulation of hydraulic structures (Chap. 2).
This philosophy is followed throughout the generation of computation meshes
(Chap. 3), the establishment of typical computational methods (Chaps. 4, 9 and
14), and the approaches of joints and reinforcement components (Chap. 6).
– Input of parameters. It is well known that the unsuccessful computation with
regard to hydraulic structures is often blamed on the inappropriate input
parameters defined in the material model. This is due to the difficulties arise
from laboratory and in situ tests in addition to environmental (stress/water
content/temperature) dependence. The laboratory test is suffered from stochastic
variation whereas the in situ test possesses poor representativeness entailed by
sample amount and high cost. Therefore, it is paramount to be involved in the
investigation and experiment works as deeply as possible toward a correct
interpretation of experimental data and a realistic evaluation of inputting
parameters. On the aspects of computation technique, parametric back or inverse
analysis is a supplementary approach to handle this issue subject to
well-installed instruments, good understanding of construction procedure, as
well as sufficient engineering experience (Chap. 7).
– Diversification of methods. Nowadays, there are a variety of modern computa-
tional methods available for geomechanics and hydraulic structures (Chap. 1),
although only three of them are representatively elaborated in this book (i.e., FEM,
BEA, and CEM). They may be roughly distinguished into entirely different two
classes according to their conceptualization of rock-like materials, i.e., the con-
tinuum or discontinuum, each of them reflects one extreme aspect of the hydraulic
structure encountered. The selection of the most representative ones is, however,
an open question. This is actually dependent on the problem type, the material, the
work situation, etc. Take a large rock block system for example, to understand its
post-failure movements, the DDA or DEM would be a good choice because they
permit decoupling of the block system. On the other hand, when the safety margins
with respect to collapse/serviceability limit states are demanded, and suggestions
concerning the seepage/stabilization countermeasures are expected, the BEA
would be more appropriate attributable to its competent strength parameters and
clearly allowable safety factors stipulated in the design codes/specifications.
Preface xiii
– Interpretation of results and calibration of safety. Once the analysis has been
accomplished, it is necessary to display the results in such a way that they can be
easily understood and interpreted, based on which the safety calibration with
respect to the strength/seepage/temperature according to the design codes/
specifications is undertaken. The calibration criteria may be both of local and/or
overall (Chap. 4).
– Validation by test/observation and feedback. It is also highly important to check
the validation of computational solutions by comparing them with in situ
observed data. This is particularly presented in the study of Xiaowan Project
(Chap. 8) where the comparison of the FEM computation with the instrumen-
tation data is comprehensively carried out for the arch dam, and in the study of
Longtan Project (Chap. 9) where an abutment slope failure accident is captured
by the BEA.
This book may be looked at as an advanced continuation of the Hydraulic
Structures by the author published in 2015 which mainly deals with the investi-
gation, planning, design, construction, and management of hydraulic structures.
I was planning to finish my professional activities by that book and to launch a new
writing life that I have been dreaming since my childhood. However, the publi-
cation of the Hydraulic Structures was so welcome by the readers, and I was deeply
touched and proud of. Encouraged by my friends, colleagues, and students that I am
liable to further present the research achievements and engineering experiences of
my team, I have to continue technical writing and now, I feel in relief by con-
tributing this continuation book.
The basis of this book is established on my studies and practices conducted in
China over the decades with the help of my students partially recited as Dr. Chen
Shangfa, Dr. Wang Weiming, Dr. Xu Minyi, Dr. Fu Shaojun, Dr. Xu Qing,
Dr. Wang Shufa, Dr. Qiang Sheng, Dr. Hu Jing, Dr. Cheng Zhao, Dr. Xia Huaixiao,
Dr. Li Yongming, Dr. Fei Wenping, Dr. Qin Weixin, Dr. Feng Xuemin, Dr. Zheng
Huifeng, Dr. He Zegan, Dr. Xu Guisheng, Dr. Peng Chengjia, Dr. Fu Chenghua,
Dr. Xue Luanluan, and Dr. He Ji et al. I am so proud to see that most of them are
now successful university professors, consultant engineers, and enterprise man-
agers. In my engineering consultant and education works, I am very fortunate to
have chance to collaborate with Prof. Zhou Jianping (Chief Engineer of Power
Construction Corporation of China), Prof. Zou Lichun (Deputy President of
Kunming Engineering Corporation Limited, PowerChina), Prof. Yang Jiaxiu
(Deputy President of Guiyang Engineering Corporation Limited, PowerChina),
Prof. Feng Shurong (President of Zhongnan Engineering Corporation Limited,
PowerChina), Prof. Wang Renkun (Chief Engineer of Chengdu Engineering
Corporation Limited, PowerChina), Prof. An Shengxun (Deputy President of
Northwest Engineering Corporation Limited, PowerChina), et al. In the interna-
tional education and academic activities, the collaboration with my lifetime friends,
Prof. Peter Egger (EPFL, Switzerland) and Prof. Isam Shahrour (Lille University 1,
France), is the most important. In addition, I am really grateful to Wuhan University
for providing tolerant ivory tower and allowing time for me, to complete this book.
Preface xv
Greater challenges await us in the next prospective decades. From 2011 to 2050,
under the state policy guidance for developing her vast western area, tens of mega
hydropower projects will be built in China. For example, the Motuo hydropower
project will be installed with generator capacity larger than 40,000 MW. These
milestone projects will further give strong impetus to push the technology of
hydraulic engineering in China up to an unprecedented level, and to provide ever
vast room for the progress in computational geomechanics. By the publishing of
this book, the author does wish to encourage our successors to take on historical
responsibilities by conducting more advanced and practical researches on the rel-
evant topics.
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Mathematical Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Computational Methods for Engineering Structures . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 History and State-of-the-Art of Computational Methods . . . . . . 7
1.4.1 3000 BC–300 BC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4.2 300 BC–1600 AD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.4.3 1600s–1800s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4.4 1800s–1940s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4.5 1940s–1970s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.4.6 1970s–Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.5 Concluding Remarks on the Computational Geomechanics for
Hydraulic Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
1.5.1 Understand of Engineering Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
1.5.2 Selection of Computational Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
1.5.3 Standardization of Computation Software . . . . . . . . . . 41
1.5.4 Evaluation of Material Models and Corresponding
Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
1.5.5 Safety Calibration of Hydraulic Structures . . . . . . . . . . 42
1.5.6 Work Style of Scientists and Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2 Preparation Knowledge of Material Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2.2 Rock-like Materials and Auxiliary Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
2.2.1 Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
2.2.2 Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.2.3 Steel Bars and Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.3 Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
2.3.1 Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
xvii
xviii Contents
2.3.2 Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
2.3.3 Steel Bars and Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
2.4 Permeability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
2.4.1 Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
2.4.2 Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
2.5 Thermal Conductivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
2.5.1 Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
2.5.2 Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
2.5.3 Cooling Pipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
2.6 Deformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
2.6.1 Quasistatic and Cyclic Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
2.6.2 Sustained Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
2.7 Yield and Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
2.7.1 Basic Strength Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
2.7.2 Yield (Failure) Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
2.8 Constitutive Relations: Elasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
2.8.1 Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
2.8.2 Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
2.8.3 Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
2.8.4 Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
2.9 Constitutive Relations: Viscoelasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
2.9.1 Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
2.9.2 Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
2.9.3 Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
2.10 Constitutive Relations: Plasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
2.10.1 Classical Elasto-Plasticity Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
2.10.2 Remarks on Other Plasticity Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
2.11 Constitutive Relations: Viscoplasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
2.11.1 Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
2.11.2 Potential Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
2.12 Coupling Phenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
2.12.1 Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
2.12.2 Partial Coupling: Explicit Thermal
to Stress/Strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
2.12.3 Partial Coupling: Iterative Permeability
to Stress/Strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
3 Geometrical Description and Discretization of Hydraulic
Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
3.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
3.1.1 Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
3.1.2 State of the Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Contents xix
1.1 General
The first thing the young Master did was to improve the breed of his
hounds, and this he accomplished by getting a strain from John Peel's
kennels. How much of Ruby, 'Ranter, Royal, and Bellman, so true,' spoken
of in the song, still runs in the blood of the Blencathra pack, I know not.
Other strains since then have been introduced, but a hardier pack never
breasted a mountain side, and there is not one of them who would not carry
on the line himself, if his fellows failed, to the death.
John Crozier once received the following note: 'To J. Crozier, Esq.,
M.F.H., from Isaac and Edward Brownrigg, of Brownrigg. This hound
(Darling) brought a splendid dog-fox, and after a very exciting hunt
ultimately caught it in our house field. About an hour afterwards other five
dogs came. After being fed they left, but this one would not leave. We intend
having the fox preserved.' After carrying on the hounds at his own cost for
30 years, 'the Squire,' as he was always called, at the request of his
neighbours, allowed them to become a subscription pack, in the year 1870.
There was a general feeling in the dales that it was not fair to allow all the
burden to be upon one man, and on the conditions that he would remain
Master, and in case of the hunt ceasing, the hounds should be returned to
him. A treasurer and secretary were appointed, and the Blencathra Hunt
went on merrily as before.
Up till the past two years the old Master of the hunt presided at the
annual hunt dinner, but it was known that his health was failing, and though
each week up to the end he kept in touch with all the doings of his pack, he
did not leave his house. Still week by week members of the hunt would go
up and have a 'crack' with him—always to be received with the same
courteous inquiry, 'Well, how about your wives and families, are they well?
That's right. Is any news stirring? What about the House last night?' He took
the keenest interest in politics up to the end, and that came, not
unexpectedly, at two o'clock on a quiet starlit morning, Thursday, 5th March,
1903.
I could not wonder that my old friend the yeoman had said it was a dark
day for Threlkeld, for he had lived among his own people, and loved them to
the end. How they loved him may be gathered from the fact that two days
before he died, a casket containing a book in which every householder in the
parish had entered his name, with an illuminated address, full of affection
and gratitude, for the friendship towards them of a long life, was brought to
the house. 'Ya kna,' said my friend, 'they knew t' aid Squire was house-fast,
and they likely thowt 't wad cheer 'im up a laal bit.' He never saw it, for it
was thought he was too ill to be 'fashed' with it, and he is beyond all earthly
cheering now; 'the Hunter is home from the Hill.'
But as they left the churchyard they all in memory saw the old Master in
his sealskin cap, with the lappets about his ears—squarely built and strong,
with his alpenstock in hand, as the prefatory verse tells:
And as they thought of what he has been to them for the last 65 years in the
Threlkeld vale, they admitted the truth of the following words:
Yesterday, though we had little wind in the valley, one could hear the
humming and the roaring of what seemed a tempest in middle heaven, but at
night-time heaven and earth were still, and the seven stars in Orion and the
Pleiads, 'like fireflies tangled in a silver braid,' shone clear, and we felt that
the Frost King had come in earnest. There was no snow on the hills this
morning; the leaves at one's feet tinkled as though they were made of iron; I
met schoolboys with rosy faces and skates upon their shoulders going off to
Tewfit Tarn—the little tarn upon the ridge dividing Naddle from St. John's in
the Vale, that always gives our skaters in the Keswick neighbourhood their
first winter happiness. Down to the lake I went, and standing at Friar's Crag,
saw that part of it was burnished steel and part black ebon water. It was
incredible that one night's frost should thus have partly sealed the lake from
sight.
A WINTER'S DAY ON DERWENTWATER.
I was bound for Brandelhow to meet the woodman to discuss the felling
of certain timber, and through the ice pack, if it were possible, I must needs
go. Coasting along round the island, I soon found myself in a narrow inlet of
water that stretched half across the lake; tiny spikules of ice that seemed like
floating straws were right and left of me in the still water; here and there
little delicate fans of ice were passed. These miniature ice-islands were the
nuclei round which the freezing mixture would crystallise. Forward across
towards Lingholme I steered, and suddenly should have been brought up
sharp had not the boat, with good way upon it, crashed right into the ice-floe
and shown me how unsubstantial a thing this first ice-covering of the lake
was. With every stroke of the oar the boat forged its way with marvellous
sound of crash and gride, and one remembered how the Ancient Mariner had
heard those 'noises in a swound,' and was able to summon up something of
the roar with which the great ice-breakers or steam rams on the Neva crash
their way up and down the river to keep the waterway clear for the Baltic
shipping. But in a short time the difficulty of rowing became doubled, and if
it had not been that one saw clear water ahead one would hardly have
ventured forward. Meanwhile in the wake of one's boat one saw how swiftly
the little ice-elves repaired the damage one had done by bringing back to its
own place and rest each fragment one had displaced, and piecing over with
exquisite exactness the breach that one had made.
Now the way was clear, for by some mysterious reason, known only to
the water-gods, the shallower the water became as one went shoreward the
freer it was of ice. It may have been mere fantasy, but it seemed as if the
water so near to freezing was semi-fluid, viscous; always right and left of
one swam by the little ice spikules, and the ice fans, with irridescent beauty,
floated and shone hard by. Presently another crash was heard, and an ice-
belt, only a yard wide, but stretching fifty or sixty yards along, was crashed
through, another and another, and so, with alternate noise and silence, one
made one's way to Victoria Point, and ran the boat ashore at Brandelhow.
If the first height one had ascended was rightly called 'Mons Beata,' and
the seat one had last left was placed on a hill that might be called Mons
Blencathrae, which gave such fair prospect of Blencathra, surely this fair
mount might be called 'Mons Borgadalis,' or the Mount of Borrodale.
Down to the boat landing in Victoria Bay I went, and as I went the
woodland filled with a mysterious light. I thought of St. Francis and the
visions he had seen at Al Verna; the sun was beyond the hills, it had faded
now even from Walla Crag, but the light from Brandelhow seemed to leap
up from the ground, the larches so dim and dead before gleamed into gold;
the red bracken at my feet burned like fire; it was an enchanted woodland;
the magic after-glow was the enchanter.
MONS BEATA, BRANDELHOW.
I pushed off from the shore, gained the ice-pack, crashed through it but
not without difficulty, and won the dark, clear water beyond. The sun had
sunk between Robinson and Grisedale, a dark cloud-bar had filled the
heavenly interspace, but there in the gap it seemed as if beneath its heavy
eyebrow the eye of God was keeping watch and ward above the quiet land.
One had often seen at the seaside the sun sink and the slender pillar of
golden light reach downward to the shore, but never had I seen such a
magnificent golden roadway laid upon shining water for happy dreams of
tired men to follow the flying day, as I saw that eventide upon the silver ice
and the darkling flood of tranquil Derwentwater.
WORDSWORTH AT COCKERMOUTH.
Early died
My honoured mother, she who was the heart
And hinge of all our learnings and our loves,
Nor would I praise her, but in perfect love!
We can in fancy see her in earnest converse with Mr. Ellbanks, the teacher of
the school by the churchyard, talking about William's 'moody and stiff
temper'; we can hear her say 'that the only one of the children about whom
she has fears is William; and he will be remarkable for good or evil.' We may
note her pinning on the child's breast the Easter nosegay, for the young lad is
to go up to the church, to say his catechism. Daffodils I expect the flowers
were: years after, in the ecclesiastical sonnets Words worth, speaking of this
act of his mother's, writes:
Or we can see the father, book in hand, hearing the lad recite the long
passages of Shakespeare, and Milton, and Spenser which were insensibly to
mould his ear to music, fire his imagination, and make a poet of him.
Or, follow him with his nurse, he a child of only five years of age,
bathing and basking alternate, all the hot August day in the shallows of the
mill pool, and leaping naked as an Indian through the tall garden ragwort on
the sands, and clapping his hands to see the rainbow spring from middle air.
Or I go with him by the river, 'winding among its grassy holmes,' whose
voice flowed along his earliest dreams—that Derwent he could never forget
—away to the Castle-hold of the barons of old time, Waldeof, Umfraville,
Multon, Lucies, and Nevilles, and watch him peering with look of awe into
the dark cellar and dungeons, watch him chase the butterfly through the grim
courts or climb after the tufts of golden wallflower upon its broken
battlements.
But happiest of all was he when with his story book he lay full stretched,
as he describes in the Prelude, upon the sun-warmed stones and sandy banks
'beside the bright blue river,' and there feasted his little heart on fairy tale
and filled his soul with scenes from wonderland.
So far as I know this was the last public work he attempted to do for the
place that gave him birth. But at least we cannot regret that his last effort
was in a cause near to his heart, the cause of the religious interests and life of
his fellow Cumbrians, the cause of reverence, worship, and godly fear, of
'pure religion breathing household laws,' the cause of the worship and praise
of Almighty God, here in his native place.
The seed he sowed, though it lay dormant, did not fall on barren ground;
and in a real sense the present All Saints' Parish Church may stand as a
monument to the immortal Poet, who then, as ever, championed 'in perilous
times the cause of the poor and simple,' and did what he might in his day for
church life and piety in the place of his nativity, Cockermouth.
This was the line from Tennyson's poem that kept ringing in my ears, as on
the mid-most day of April I wandered out and away across the vale to the
skirts of Skiddaw.
No, no! this last couplet was untrue; the anemones had not yet opened their
delicate shells, and the blackthorn buds were only dimmest seed-pearls of
yellowish lustre. But as I gazed from the fence halfway up Latrigg and
watched the Greta flashing, and the great plain fresh-enamelled with the first
faint green of spring, a Jacob's ladder was let down from above Scafell and
Glaramara, and all the angels that ever came on earth to fill men's hearts
with April jollity came trooping downwards. They took on various forms.
Some of them became tortoise-shell butterflies that lay in sunny content
upon the moist woodland path. Others sailed out of blue air and became
glorious peacock butterflies upon whose underwings in blue and black one
clearly saw the head and face of human kind sketched in with lustrous
powdery pencillings. Other angels ministered to the pink coral glumes of the
sycamore; others, again, daintily untwisted the leafage of the wild rose in the
hedge; others delighted to unfold the tufts upon the elder. But the angels that
seemed to be busiest were those that made the vivid emerald of the 'dog's
mercury' contrast with the faded red of the bracken in the woods, and where
the purple birches showed against the flowering larches added moment by
moment a deeper, ruddier purple to the trees' beauty and a finer flash of
green to the surrounding wood to set the purple off.
But all the gifts of the angels of that April morning seemed as nothing
when compared with the joy of the sight of one single angel of the spring—
he a lustrous-backed swallow who flashed from steel-purple into black and
from black to steel-purple, and disappeared from sight behind the larches. I
had known of his coming, for a swift-eyed shepherd had seen one of his kind
in the valley as early as April 1, but April 13 to the 15th was marked in my
calendar as swallowtide, and I had not expected sight of him till this week.
Here he was, glossy with African sun, and full of silent message that
summer was sure. The chiffchaff would be a-trill and the cuckoo would be
calling for a mate within the week. Ah, swallow! swallow! flying north!
How much of hope and happiness you bring. Then as I moved through the
larchen grove, I heard the titmice whispering that they too were glad, they
too felt reassured by sight of the swallow, and one walked on in a kind of
consciousness that man and swallow and budding larches were more akin
than one had believed, until the joyousness of spring found the selfsame
echo in such divers hearts, and that indeed the over-soul was one, the music
and the melody one voice. Yes, Wordsworth sang truly when he wrote:
'Ay, ay, sir; you see they've gone to "laate" Herdwicks to-day for
lambing-time, and I went up to the Gale with the dogs.'
Herdwicks! Lambing! What did it all mean? Only that those great brown
slopes of Skiddaw which till this day have been vocal with flocks and alive
with sheep, will by this eventide be as silent as the grave. For between April
10 and April 20 the shepherds know that the Herdwicks will become
mothers of their springtide young, and so they will go forth to the fells and
upland pastures, to bring their woolly charges down from the mountain
heights to the safety and the food and care of the dale-farm enclosures. I
overtook the shepherds at the 'Gale,' and went with them. Soon the dogs
were seen scouring the fell-side, now disappearing from sight, now coming
back to get a signal from their master. A wave of the hand to left or right was
all that was needed, and away they went, and slowly and surely they seemed
to be able to search out and bring into a close company the Herdwicks from
all the heathery waste and grey-bleached mountain hollows.
Then began the home-bringing. Very tenderly and gently did the dogs
urge the sheep, heavy with young, down the fell-side slopes. Now and again
the shepherd cried, 'Hey, Jack!' and away the collies flew back towards him.
'Ga away by!' and away again the collies flew in a great circle out beyond
and behind the sheep. The sheep were a little hustled and came on too fast.
Then the shepherd whistled and held up his hand, and the dogs sat like
stones till he whistled and waved his hand again. So down from Lonscale
and across the gulfy Whitbeck the sheep came. The dogs dashed off to
where, through a great carpet of ever-lucent moss, the main fountains break
from the hill. They slaked their thirst, then came back slowly to urge the
flocks homeward and downward toward the Shepherd's Cross, and so over
the Gale to the Lonscale Farm. We stopped at the Cross, and a tall, 'leish,'
handsome man, with fair hair and the grey Viking eye, said in solemn
undertone, 'Fadder and brudder cud hev been weal content to be wid us on
sic a day as this, I'se thinking.' And the mist gathered in his eyes, and he said
no more, but just went homeward with the sheep. Ah, yes, that Shepherd's
Cross tells of men—father and son—who spent their whole lives in
following the Herdwicks on the sides of Skiddaw and Lonscale Fell;
wrought for their sheep, thought of them by day and dreamed of them by
night, and were as proud, as ever David was, of what they looked upon as
the finest life a man need care to live, the mountain shepherd's round of love
and toil.
I waved adieu, and up beyond the huts to 'Jenkin' I went. The red fern
had been washed into faintest ochre, the heather had grown grey with winter
storm, but everywhere beneath the blanched grass one felt new life and
tenderest first flush of April green was astir; and as one looked down from
'Jenkin' into the circle of the deep blue hills and the Derwent's perfect mirror,
one saw that though the larches were still brown there was an undertone of
something, neither brown nor green, that flooded not only the larch woods
but the great Latrigg pastures also, and betokened that the spring was even at
their doors, and that the fells would soon rejoice with the emerald valley
below. Gazing at the vale of Crosthwaite, where still all the trees seem
winter white, one was astonished at the darkness of the hedgerows that
divided the meadows, and one saw the new fallows shine and swim like
purple enamel upon the green flood of the springtide grass. 'Jenkin' was
reached, but not until many swathes of lingering snow, black with the smoke
of the blast furnaces of the coast and of Lancashire and Yorkshire mills, had
been passed. Here at 'Jenkin top' we found two men hard at work 'graaving'
peats for the Coronation bonfires on June 26.
I saw that what he called 'wire' were the rootlets of the ancient
undergrowth of years gone by, the matted texture of primeval springtides,
and, stooping down, he broke a peat across and showed me the wire. 'You
kna,' he continued, 'we shall just leave peats ligging here, and thoo mun send
up scheul-lads to spreead them in a forthnet's time. Then they mud coom oop
a week laater and shift 'em and turn them, and then a week laater they mud
coom and foot 'em. That is if thoo want 'em in fettle by Coronation-daay, for
they are ter'ble watter-sick noo.'
'Foot them?' I said. 'What do you mean?' And the shepherd took a couple
and leaned them one against another, and showed me how thus a draught of
air passed between the peats and ensured their drying. 'Well, good-daay,
good-daay. But we mud hev nae mair kings to be crooned,' said he; 'for peat
moss ull nobbut howd oot for this un, I'm thinking.'
I bade farewell, and down to the valley I went, noting how doubly near
and blue the hills and vales all seemed to grow, as one passed down beneath
the veils of haze which had lent both greyness and distance to the view.
Again I saw the swallow skim; again I watched the gorgeous butterflies, and,
with a wand of palm-flower that had just lost its gold, and the rosy plumelets
of the larch in my hand, I made the best of my way homeward, through air
that throbbed and thrilled with the voice of thrush and blackbird, and felt the
deep contrast between these silent flockless slopes of Skiddaw, and the
ringing singing valley at his feet.
INDEX