Champion lady walkers

Her husband kickstarted the genre of writing about walking, but it was Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt who took the giant strides – as the story of the couple’s ‘divorce tour’ to Scotland reveals...

Starting with one in particular – the awesome Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt.

THERE CAN SCARCELY be anything more sublime than those masses in which Benvenue appears to tumble in upon the view at the entrance of Loch Katrine,’ wrote Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt in her diary in 1822. She had walked into the heart of Scotland’s Trossachs, during a 170-mile trek that would see her all the way to Edinburgh by way of Loch Lomond, Glasgow and Lanark. This was a time when the drawing room was considered a more suitable habitat for ladies than the mountains – particularly a woman alone – which made her solo adventure remarkable. But the sad saga that brought her here was even more so.

In May 1808 Sarah had married William Hazlitt, an eminent writer, literary critic and philosopher whose essay On Going a Journey was one of the first articles ever published about walking in nature. Husband and wife were considered unconventional and therefore, by some logic, well-suited, and his later work seemedto suggest a kindred spirit: ‘Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours’ march to dinner.’ But by 1817 they were living apart, and when 42-year-old William clapped eyes on his landlady’s 19-year-old daughter he decided he must have a divorce. In England, it required an act of parliament, but in Scotland it was possible in civil court on proof of infidelity – if you were resident in the country for 40 days. So Mr and Mrs Hazlitt travelled separately to Edinburgh, with a plan for Sarah to ‘catch’ William with a prostitute.

As soon as she stepped off the sailing smack Superb on the 21st April 1822, she started walking. That first afternoon she climbed to Edinburgh Castle and Calton Hill. During the next week – between legal meetings – she roamed far and wide across the capital and beyond: to Leith and Portobello on the Firth of Forth; to Blackford and Corstorphine Hills; to Roslin Glen nine miles south of the city; and to the mini-mountain of

DIARY OF A WALKER ‘The innumerable bends and windings of Loch Katrine afford every five minutes new and impressive views of the most wild and stupendous grandeur.’

MAN... BUT NO WIFE We could not unearth a single picture of Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt, only one of her famous writer husband, William.