| Jane Freshfield | |
| Birth Name: | Jane Quentin Crawford |
| Birth Date: | 5 July 1814 |
| Birth Place: | Patcham, Sussex, England |
| Death Place: | East Grinstead, Sussex, England |
| Known For: | Exploring the Swiss Alps |
| Occupation: | Climber, travel writer |
| Spouse: | Henry Ray Freshfield |
| Children: | Douglas Freshfield |
| Parents: | William Crawford |
| Nationality: | British |
Jane Freshfield (née Jane Quentin Crawford, publishing as "A Lady" and as Mrs Henry Freshfield; 5 July 1814 – 16 March 1901) was an English climber and travel writer. She was among the first British women to explore the Swiss Alps and encouraged others to do so.[1] [2] [3]
Jane Quentin Crawford was born 5 July 1814. She was the daughter of William Crawford, MP for the City of London (1822-1841), who had made a fortune in the British East India Company. Her brother was Robert Wigram Crawford, also an MP.
In 1840, she married Henry Ray Freshfield (1814-1895). Their son Douglas Freshfield (1845-1934) was the editor of Alpine Journal and president of the Alpine Club.
The couple brought up their son with an appreciation of nature and the arts. From an early age they took him on journeys which included the English Lake District and Scotland. From the mid-1850s the family took yearly summer holidays in Switzerland, particularly the Alps. In old age, her son described the holidays they had taken together:
Valeria Azzolini wrote about her in I resoconti di viaggio di Freshfield ("Freshfield's Travel Journals"):
Lover of the mountain in the youngest and truest sense, hurry was unknown to her because it wasn't really reaching the top which insterested her, but the captivation of the landscapes she encountered on the path, and thus the hours she spent in that enjoyment.
Apart from the members of the family, there was another protagonist in Mrs Freshfield's narrations: the guide, Michel Alphonse Couttet. And it was surely in those years that the young Freshfield understood the importance, in every mountain action, of the presence of a good guide.
The Grisons are the Swiss Alps now known as Graubünden.