“Excursion Up Scawfell Pike”

A nature enthusiast, Dorothy Wordsworth would often write about her experiences in the wild. On October 7, 1818, she hiked to the summit of Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England, accompanied by friends. Her account of this experience is one of the earliest of a recreational hike to the summit and is the first known record of a woman doing so. Because an abbreviated version of Dorothy’s account was published (without attribution) in 1822 in her brother’s Guide to the Lakes, the feat was often attributed to William. However, Ernest de Selincourt included the full account in his 1941 edition of Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth.