MAXINE GORDON traces the incredible journey of Jemima Morrell, a Victorian lady from Selby who joined Thomas Cook on his first Alpine tour

DRESSED in heavy, dark crinolines, wearing lace-up boots and carrying umbrellas, the women looked more ready for a walk in the park than an attempt on an Alpine summit.

But the photograph doesn’t lie. Yes, that really is four Victorian women traipsing across the Alps; in this instance the Mer de Glace in Chamonix, France.

Such adventures were rare in the 19th century – especially for women.

Which makes the story of Jemima Morrell all the more exceptional.

Jemima was a middle-class woman from Selby with a spirit of adventure. Unmarried and aged 31, she joined excursionist Thomas Cook (yes, he later of travel agency fame) on his first guided tour of the Swiss Alps.

Jemima was one of 130 intrepid travellers to undertake the trip in 1863. Jemima belonged to the Junior United Alpine Club, and five fellow members joined her on the Alpine adventure including her younger brother, William.

Their itinerary was gruelling. Over 20 days, they travelled from London to Paris then Geneva, before embarking on a series of challenging walks in the Swiss Alps.

They rose at 4am every morning, went to bed late, and endured all weathers; all the while dressed in Victorian attire. Some days the women walked 17 miles, the men covering 25.

We know how tough was because Jemima kept a diary. The journal was ‘lost’ among family memorabilia for almost 100 years, before being discovered in 1963. It was published under the title Miss Jemima’s Swiss Journal.

Today, to mark the 150th anniversary of Jemima’s journey, North Yorkshire company Inntravel is looking to find a modern-day Jemima to undertake an updated version of the trip and write about it in 21st-century style through blogs and tweets.

Inntravel is also launching a series of tours based on Jemima’s journey.

Taking part in the first one this summer is one of Jemima’s descendants, John Morrell.

John will be travelling to Switzerland with his wife, Margaret. He is looking forward to it greatly – his brother Nicholas and late father, William, were invited on a similar tour to mark the 100th anniversary some 50 years ago.

The Morrells are used to leaving their mark on this corner of the world. John’s grandfather, John Bowes Morrell, was an illustrious figure – he became Lord Mayor of York twice, helped create the York Castle Museum and was a founding member of the University of York. The family’s property company became the York Conservation Trust.

If it hadn’t been for her diary, Jemima’s derring-do might have been forgotten, concedes John Morrell today.

“My grandfather was such a big name in York and London that other relatives who achieved a great deal were overlooked,” he said.

Jemima was an artist, and later married and had one son. “That’s all we really know about her,” said John. “If she hadn’t gone on Cook’s first tour of Switzerland she would have faded away and nobody would have taken an interest.”

When we meet at the family flat in Bootham, John has a large brown envelope bursting with documents from the family archive.

Inside is a small, leather-bound, green booklet with the words Cook’s Tourist Ticket, embossed in gold on the front.

It contains documents from Jemima’s 1863 trip, including the itinerary written on a ragged piece of parchment; the brown ink starting to fade – perhaps written by Thomas Cook himself. Next to it are two booklets; one on travel insurance, the other on currency exchange.

From Jemima’s diary entries, we know the Alpine Club were a determined gang.

On leaving Geneva, they were “downstairs before the servants” and, despite torrential rain, “started out on foot at the rate of four miles an hour”. On June 30, near Montanvert, she notes, “how strange, how intensely incongruous it felt on that hot summer’s day to be crunching ice under our feet… as we crawled along a slippery ledge, our only safeguard… a rope fastened to the rock”.

The following day she wrote about their ascent to the Col de Beaune: “With the noonday sun beating on our shoulders as we toiled up the steepest paths, the supposition of freezing cold seems most remote to our imagination.

“At last the mountain ridge is reached. Oh! thanks for that shade, rest and wild strawberries.”

Possibly, the toughest section of the tour was the walk up the Gemmi Pass where “our toil began as we fought up its intermediate twistings”. At the top they still had energy for a snowball fight – the women in the party using their umbrellas to fend off the attack.

The Alpine Club members spent four days in Paris at the end of their Alpine adventure, where Jemima reflected on the expedition: “If any test were wanted of the powers of endurance of the Alpine Club, it is here given, that nearly all were able to go sightseeing in Paris with the same energy that characterised their proceedings all along.

“However, it is to the Swiss rambles that we look back with the greatest pleasure, apart from the recollection of a pleasant companionship that has served to enliven many subsequent hours.

“We have acquired a wider knowledge of human nature, habits of self-reliance and valuable lessons in our own ignorance that amply repaid us all for the fatigue.”

• Find out more about Inntravel’s Swiss tours in the footsteps of Jemima Morrell at inntravel.co.uk

 

Following in Jemima’s footsteps

WOULD you like to spend a week travelling through the Swiss Alps?

If you are aged over 18, have a full passport, have Yorkshire connections and enjoy hill walking and writing, then you could win the chance to follow in Jemima Morrell’s footsteps.

Inntravel and Switzerland Tourism are looking for someone with a spirit of adventure to apply for the role of Jemima for a commemorative journey from June 22 to 29 this year.

The successful applicant will enjoy a seven-day adventure following Jemima’s journey from Leukerbad to Lucerne by rail and foot. In return the winner will be required to produce diary entries in the form of blogs, tweets and posts for Switzerland Tourism and Inntravel.

For a chance to become Jemima, email jemima@inntravel.co.uk with the following information

• Write in less than 100 words why you should be Jemima

• Send a picture of yourself taken on an earlier adventure anywhere in the world (maximum 5mb)

• Give your name, age, address and full contact details.

Applications must arrive by Monday, April 29, 9am. The successful applicant will be contacted directly by the competition organisers, Switzerland Tourism.