[5][6][7] Morrell went on the tour together with her brother William and cousin Sarah Ayres,[1] two friends, and a group of nearly 60 other tourists, including many members of the Junior United Alpine Club.

[6] Morrell's participation on the tour was funded by her brother William, who followed in their father's footsteps as a banker and had recently earnt a "very small fortune" through the publication of a text on income tax.

[5][6] The journal kept by Morrell is an important historical document since it records every detail of the tour in Switzerland, one of the trips that can be seen as marking the origins of modern international tourism.

[4] When they were leaving Geneva, Morrell records that she and her companions were so eager that they were "downstairs before the servants" and despite constant rain began walking "at the rate of four miles an hour".

According to Morrell, the toughest portion of the journey was walking up the Gemmi Pass but the party still had enough energy by the time they reached the top to engage in a snowball fight.

[4] Despite the often perilous journey, Morrell noted that "the dangers of Alpine travel may be divided into two classes, the real and the imaginary, and in the retrospect, it was found that ours all belonged to the latter.

Morrell concluded her account with the reflection "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.

In contrast to earlier tourists, Morrell's party went for the fun of exploring a new part of the world and made no pretensions that it had anything to do with education or culture or that the antiquities and scenery they encountered were the main purpose of the journey rather than being incidental.

[8] Morrell's account also gives a snapshot of Victorian travelling and tourist groups; among other details, she mentions how the "obligatory jester" Tom insisted on referring to other members of the group by thee and thou to "lighten the toils of the way", the "extortionate" prices of souvenirs, and a humorous episode in which the customs at Dieppe taxed Sarah Ayres's "veritable Yorkshire tarts" at fifty cents.

[3] At one point while in the Chamonix valley, Morrell critiqued a guestbook for demanding excessive personal information, writing that the book was "one of the most inquisitorial of its kind we ever met with – one not merely satisfied with knowing your present whereabouts but demanding on government authority the past, present and future of your history" and that the information the group left "considerably enlightened those authorities!

[1] The family, which included three children of Greenwood from his previous marriage, moved first to Lytham St Annes in Lancashire, then to Somerset, and finally back to Yorkshire.

[1] The journal would likely never have been published at all if a copy had not been found in a tin box in Thomas Cook's destroyed warehouse in London during the Blitz of World War II.

For the 150th anniversary, Inntravel and Switzerland Tourism also held a competition to find a "modern-day Jemima" to follow in her footsteps on a commemorative journey and record their experience in "21st-century style through blogs and tweets".