Editorial, December 1999
Well, here we are again for the Christmas Issue which, you might like to know, is the fourteenth
edition of the newsletter which has now been going for three-and-a-half years. Approaching the
Millennium I feel inclined to look back over the period and try to pick out the significant
bits: The first issue was modesty itself with just one double-sided page and a size of font
that disguised the paucity of it’s content. It was however, the start of the ‘Three Lonely Old
Men’, a theme that has dogged every issue since. Issue two began to improve and started
featuring poems and articles by you the readership but again, whilst it had expanded to two
double-sided pages, the final one had large enough print for me to read without my glasses!
In Issue three, yours truly began to develop in style and the acquisition of a scanner made a
vast difference to the quality of the newsletter. We also acquired our sponsors, Fell and
Mountain, who have been featured in every issue since. Issue four was an important one because
it featured the walk on Cribden which resulted in the opening of the Cribden path but at the
cost of the trig-point which was subsequently removed by the land owner. Issue five carried
our first photo - the aforementioned trig-point . Issue six, appropriately, was the first to
go from four to six pages. It featured stories and illustrations galore as well as a round-up
of reports to the AGM. This was also the first edition that was both edited and published by
yours truly. Issue seven featured, if not the first Scottish holiday organised by Richard,
certainly the first that was written about in advance and which subsequently was a roaring
success. Issue eight told of that success on a day-to-day basis. Issue nine featured the
alternative version of the holiday by Keith Pickup and also advised the membership of the
proposed trip to Ireland the following year. Number ten was the AGM Round-up again and an
attempt was made to stimulate the readership in starting a monthly draw but it proved
unsuccessful. Number 11 was unremarkable only in that it did not deal with anything specific
but featured the usual crop of goodies from front to back. Issue 12 featured a brief d
escription of the wonderful week we had in Ireland but held back on the full details because
these were going out in a small book which was being prepared by your editor. The issue before
this featured a picture of a bunch of very wet but happy participants in the Family Rambling
extravaganza that was so successful this year. It also contained an article, first published in
the Daily Telegraph, which was all about the annual Round the Hills Walk. That’s me up to date,
I just hope that we can keep up the standard that has been set over the years!
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