Journeywoman: Walking in the Footsteps of Dorothy Wordsworth

On 7 October 1818, Dorothy Wordsworth became one of the very first women to climb Scafell Pike, England's tallest mountain. This, to our knowledge, is the earliest surviving written account by a woman of such an excursion.
200 years later, we are celebrating Dorothy's great achievement, and her pioneering spirit, through our project 'This Girl Did'.
Film created by Jago Miller, Richard Berry and Ben Barden.
jagomiller.com/
www.richardber...
www.benbarden.c...
wordsworth.org...

[@Barnabybright]

Such a beautiful film!

[@Philornaphy]

For reference to viewers, the artist's name is Alex Jakob-Whitworth. Thank you for the video/project, I really enjoyed seeing it. Alex's work is spectacular and I appreciated hearing her speak about the experience, she clearly invested a lot of herself into it.

[@JOOLZBRUTNELL]

Thank you for sharing this with us . It must be just amazing travelling in Dorothy's footsteps :)

[@rogermarch6608]

Very interesting and atmospheric. Makes me want to do the walk (On a nice day ! )

[@nicholasmason3693]

What a great project and beautifully shot film. Kudos to everyone involved, especially the fearless climbers adorned in their period garb.

[@douglasmurray4481]

Thanks so much for this piece of film-making.

[@PastPresented]

Dorothy's was not the first published account of an ascent of Scafell Pike- that honour apparently goes to local artist William Green, who gave details in the second volume of his _The Tourist's New Guide to the Lake District_ (1819) of an ascent he had made from Wasdale Head with Keswick clockmaker and geologist Jonathan Otley, and a local guide, in September 1816 (plus a brief note of Otley's earlier ascent with another local guide in June 1815, from Seathwaite via Sty Head and Sprinkling Tarn). PS: If only the anniversary had been a single day earlier! Climbing Scafell Pike on 6 October 2018 was much closer to the 1818 experience: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qnjbiJ9oe914bbs

[@WordsworthGrasmere]

Thank you for your comment and pointing this out - I guess we focused on publications prior to Dorothy's walk in looking for earlier accounts. Maybe we can imagine William Green and the Wordsworths discussing walking this very mountain. To think, that William Green was on Skiddaw the same moment that Dorothy and Mary were on Scafell Pike - I wonder if when he talked with Beaumont and the Wilberforces on that mountain that day, he mentioned his own experiences of the Pike? We can picture these peoples' excitements at discovering these new routes together.

[@PastPresented]

@@WordsworthGrasmere- Green's comment in the same volume (page 136) on Miss Barker's house at Rosthwaite: _"an excellent house, commanding a fine view over the river, and of the rocky elevations, called Hay Stacks"_ carries the implication that he was invited to her upstairs drawing room (also a feature of her other home at Greta Lodge in Keswick; Miss B. certainly appreciated good views). That being so, he may have been one of the inspirations behind Mary and Dorothy's decision to continue onward and upward from Esk Hause.

[@pwestove]

And of course, all depends on what one means by "published." Green's guidebook appeared *in print* before W. Wordsworth's 1822 offering (which incorporated Dorothy's 1818 account in abridged form), but Dorothy's full account was circulating in manuscript before this. The fun thing is that all these early pioneers--Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Barker, William Green, Jonathan Otley--knew each other and presumably shared stories. Their accounts (printed and otherwise) strike me as an expanding conversation among colleagues.

[@circleofleaves2676]

I really enjoyed this. What is the background music piece?

[@elizabethdarley8646]

As a Yorkshire woman, I always laugh when people such as narrators or actors, give a regional accent to their portrayal of educated people. William and Dorothy and Samuel would have been well spoken; there is NO WAY that a man could enter Oxford or Cambridge universities by using a regional accent and grammar school children would be well spoken and not have regional accents! The same applies to Patrick Bronte who was also a Cambridge student. Even today, strong regional accents in Oxbridge interviews will not be an asset. I hear this from parents and young people in 2021.

[@breakablehandlewithcare]

Magical 🙏