THE POPULAR HEROINE
Miss Nightingale looks to her reward from this country in having a
fresh field for her labours, and means of extending the good that
she has already begun. A compliment cannot be paid dearer to her
heart than in giving her work to do.--SIDNEY HERBERT.
The news of Miss Nightingale's illness spread sympathetic anxiety
throughout Great Britain. Even more than when her mission of mercy was
first announced, she became the popular heroine; and more than ever men
and women of all classes sought means of showing their sympathy.
Lady Verney, whose depth of feeling is not concealed by the play of
humour which sparkles pleasantly upon the surface, described,
successively, the penalties and the pleasures of being the sister of a
heroine:--
(_Miss F. P. Nightingale to Miss Ellen Tollet._) EMBLEY, _Friday_
[_Summer of 1855_]. I am quite _done_ with writing, a second blast
of linen and knitted socks was nearly the death of me, and 'hints,'
my dear!--oh, my horror of being asked for hints,--such as "can
newspapers be put into the post free?" and such like _niaiseries_.
How grateful I am to you for never once having inquired whether
socks or muffetees are most required, and whether you are safe in
sending 6 towels and an old tablecloth to London, or whether they
had better come to us. It sounds very ungrateful, I am afraid, but
when one's wrist aches over the two hundredth repetition of the
matter, I do wish the public would apply to the nearest post
office, or read that scarce and erudite work the _Times_, and use
their sense not their pens.
However, these words are only when I am cross at having been
prevented from writing to the folk I love, such as thee, of the
progress of Scutari. Else generally the feeling in every soul, so
wide and so deep, touches us more than I can tell, and helps us
over the inevitable weight of the anxiety more than I thought
possible--heavy, redfaced, old fox-hunting Squires, who never had a
"sentiment" in their lives, come with their eyes full of tears;
narrow-minded Farmers with _both_ eyes on the main chance are
melted; young ladies who never got beyond balls and concerts are
warmed. Dearest, I do feel of the feeling she has raised, it
blesseth "him here who gives and those out there who take," and
will do good wider than one hoped. I can't so much as write for a
dispatch box for her (thinking an official of her scale must want
one for her papers) without its coming back full of pretty little
match boxes as an offering, and wrapped in a large contribution of
old sheets.... I must give you the cream of this last three or four
days' letters. Firstly, Mr. Hookham, the bookseller, sending down a
parcel, says he "trusts to hear of the return of Miss N., as he
does not think, though convalescent, she can get well on the shores
of Bosphorus or Black Sea; that a General or Admiral can be
replaced, but there can be no successor to Miss N., her skill, her
fortitude, her courage cannot be replaced. I speak of courage in
the most exalted sense that it is possible to characterise the
bravery and devotion of woman." Then comes a letter from a
shipowner in the north of Scotland going to launch a vessel, and
wanting to call it after her, sends to have her name quite
"correct." Next, Lady Dunsany saying that "Joan of Arc was not more
a creation of the moment and _for_ the moment than F. Joan's was
the same unearthly influence carrying all before its spirit
might--Joan's was the same strange and sexless identity, which,
belonging as it were neither to man nor woman, seemed to disembody
and combine the _choicest results_ of both, and then to sweep down
conventionalities, prejudices, and pruderies, with the clear, cold,
crystal sceptre of its _majestic purity_. Joan's mission, too, was
the condensation of her country's moral and intellectual power in
the person of a young and single woman when the men of that country
were so many of them imbecile and effete! I think my parallel runs
pretty close." Lord Dunsany adds that he has no time to write, so
he says, "ditto to Mrs. Burke," and that I know he is "fanatico
for Joan of Arc rediviva, God bless her." Then a bit from Lady
Byron, saying, "even her illness will advance her work as all
things must for those who do all with His aid," and more that is
most beautiful. Then 2 copies of the _History of Women_, with
portrait of Miss N. to be sent to her "from the author," and a
flaming extract from a County paper in a pamphlet, _Stroll to Lea
Hurst_, 20 copies ditto, ditto, and a majestic effusion from the
family grocer about "heroic conduct," "brave and noble Miss N.,"
"identified with Crimean success and sad disasters," "posterity,"
"arm of civilisation," "rampant barbarism," &c. &c., and so on.
(_To Florence Nightingale._) _Dec._ 8 [1855]. It has been curious
(as your representative) how our Burlington Street room has seen
Manning and Maurice, Mr. Best and the Chancellor, Lady Amelia Jebb
and Mrs. Herbert, Lady Byron and Lady Canning, the extremes of all
kinds crowding in to help you in every way that they could devise.
Then come in tradespeople, all so intent on you; and working folk,
your stoutest supporters, and those you will care most for. And we
are tenderly treated and affectionately welcomed by one and all of
all classes and opinions for your sake, my dear, and very sweet to
me is kindliness for your dear sake; it seems as if it were part of
you coming to meet me.
II
But Miss Nightingale's popularity was not limited to such circles as
those in which her family moved. Letters from soldiers in the Crimea had
made her known in thousands of humble homes, and she became the heroine
of the cottage, the workshop, and the alleys. Old soldiers dropped into
poetry about her, and rhymed broadsheets, with rough woodcuts of the
Lady with the Lamp, issued from printers in Seven Dials and Soho. One of
these songs, entitled "The Nightingale in the East," and intended to go
to the tune of "The Cottage and Water Mill," was especially popular with
its refrain:--
So forward, my lads, may your hearts never fail,
You are cheer'd by the presence of a sweet Nightingale.[181]
[181] For the text see Bibliography B, No. 7. An article in the
_Quarterly Review_ of April 1867, entitled "The Nightingale in the
East," is "a study of the Poetry of Seven Dials." The popular ditty
about Miss Nightingale has been sung under many skies and to many
audiences; never to greater effect than on Christmas Day 1870 in
St. Thomas's Hospital (then in the Surrey Gardens). The nurses had
arranged a Christmas treat; the children had sung hymns, and older
patients had given popular songs of the day. A patient in the
Accident Ward, a coal-heaver with a broken leg, then volunteered;
when the words of the refrain caught the ears of the Nightingale
nurses, "we dropped all work" (says one of them), "and listened
intently till the song was over, all enthusiasm for our Chief."
The singer told them that he was an old soldier, and had been
nursed by Miss Nightingale in the General Hospital at Balaclava.
Then from the same class of printing-offices there issued "Price One
Penny, The Only and Unabridged Edition of the Life of Miss Nightingale,
Detailing her Christian Heroic Deeds in the Land of Tumult and Death,
which has made her name most deservedly Immortal, not only in England,
but in all Civilized Parts of the World, winning the Prayers of the
Soldier, the Widow, and the Orphan." The poets and biographers were not
only in Seven Dials. The Poet's Corner of every newspaper, from _Punch_
and the _Spectator_ to the smallest country journal, was devoted to the
praise of the heroine. Ingenious triflers were at work, and it was found
that her anagram was indeed, as an old definition has it, poesie
transferred, and Florence Nightingale became "Flit on, cheering angel."
Prize poems at the universities pictured her, in the manner of such
compositions, walking fearlessly
Where strong men tremble and where brave hearts fail.
Then the musicians took up the Popular Heroine, and both now, and after
her return from the Crimea, sentimental songs, set to music, were
inscribed to her: "Angels with Sweet Approving Smiles," "The Shadow on
the Pillow," "The Soldier's Widow," "The Woman's Smile," "The Soldier's
Cheer"--this latter "played by the band of the 97th Regiment,"--"Die
Soldaten Lebewohl," "The Star of the East," and so forth. The stationers
followed in the wake of the printers, and brought out note-paper with a
picture of Florence Nightingale as the water-mark, or with lithographed
views of "Lea Hurst, her home." Portraits of her were eagerly sought;
and as the family were unwilling to supply them, likenesses had to be
invented to adorn sentimental prints. Life-boats and emigrant-ships were
christened _The Florence Nightingale_. Children, streets, valses, and
race-horses were named after her. "The Forest Plate Handicap was won by
Miss Nightingale, beating Barbarity and nine others." Tradesmen printed
portraits and short lives of her on their paper bags. At Fairs there
were "Grand Exhibitions of Miss Florence Nightingale administering to
the Sick and Wounded." China figures, with no recognizable likeness to
her, but inscribed "Florence Nightingale," were put on sale. The public
would not be denied. "Yes, indeed," wrote Lady Verney to her sister,
"the people love you with a sort of passionate tenderness that goes to
my heart."
Miss Nightingale did not relish all this. They had sent her various
supplies for the sick, and also a packet of "Lives," "Portraits," and
the like to Scutari. "My effigies and praises," she wrote in reply,
"were less welcome. I do not affect indifference to real sympathy, but I
have felt painfully, the more painfully since I have had time to hear of
it, the éclat which has been given to this adventure. The small still
beginning, the simple hardship, the silent and _gradual_ struggle
upwards, these are the climate in which an enterprise really thrives and
grows. Time has not altered our Saviour's lesson on that point, which
has been learnt successively by all reformers from their own experience.
The vanity and frivolity which the éclat thrown upon this affair has
called forth has done us unmitigated harm, and has brought mischief on
(perhaps) one of the most promising enterprises that ever set sail from
England. Our own old party which began its work in hardship, toil,
struggle, and obscurity has done better than any other."
III
When it became known in England that Miss Nightingale had recovered from
her illness, and had resolved to remain at her post until the end of the
war, a movement at once sprang up for marking in some public manner the
nation's appreciation of her services and her devotion. There was at
first some idea, as Lady Verney wrote, of a personal testimonial in the
"teapot and bracelet" kind. Mrs. Herbert, who was consulted in the
matter, knew her friend well enough to be certain that Miss Nightingale
would decline to accept any such proposal. The only form of testimonial
to which she would ever listen was something to enable her the better to
carry on her work for others. Miss Nightingale was written to, and
replied, in accordance with Mrs. Herbert's expectation, that she must
absolutely decline any testimonial of a personal character. Her friends
knew well that what she would best like was the establishment in one
form or another of "an English Kaiserswerth." This suggestion was
accordingly put before her, and she was asked to submit a plan. Her
reply was, again, very characteristic. Immersed in the crowded work of
the moment, she was in no mood to make future plans; but she took the
earliest opportunity of intimating that, whatever the plan might be, she
must be the autocrat of it. "Dr. Bence-Jones has written to me," she
said (Sept. 27), "for a plan. People seem to think that I have nothing
to do but to sit here and form plans. If the public choose to recognize
my services and my judgment in this manner, they must leave those
services and that judgment unfettered." She was experiencing enough of
fetters in the East to last her for a lifetime. An influential Committee
was formed, on which Mr. Sidney Herbert and Mr. S. C. Hall served as
honorary secretaries, and it was decided to raise a fund for the
establishment of some School for Nurses, under a Council, to be
nominated by Miss Nightingale. A public meeting was called for November
29, 1855, at Willis's Rooms, "to give expression to a general feeling
that the services of Miss Nightingale in the hospitals of the East
demand the grateful recognition of the British people." The room proved
far too small. It was crowded to suffocation; and never, said the
_Times_, in reporting the meeting, had a more brilliant, enthusiastic,
and unanimous gathering been held in London.
"Burlington St., this 29th of November," wrote Mrs. Nightingale to
Florence, "the most interesting day of thy mother's life. It is very
late, my child, but I cannot go to bed without telling you that your
meeting has been a glorious one. I believe that you will be more
indifferent than any of us to your fame, but be glad that we feel this
is a proud day for us; for the like has never happened before, but will,
I trust, from your example, gladden the hearts of many future mothers.
One thing will rejoice you. We were all as anxious as you were there
that the good Bracebridges' devoted love should be publicly recognized,
and Sidney Herbert has taken this occasion to do it most gracefully. The
Duke of Cambridge was in the chair and made a simple, manly speech.
Sidney Herbert's delighted every one. Lord Stanley, the Duke of Argyll,
and Sir J. Pakington spoke capitally. Monckton Milnes was very touching.
Lord Lansdowne as good as in his best days. All seemed inspired by their
subject. Parthe and I, though we could not take courage to go
ourselves, staid it over; our informants came flocking in, and we were
rewarded." "Fancy if you can," wrote Mr. Nightingale to his sister, "our
joy at the universal oneness of the meeting which has honoured Flo with
its absolute fiat of 'Well done' and well to do. I am not apt to be
easily satisfied with the things which I see and feel or hear or think,
but all people seem to agree that there was _there_ nothing wanting."
The speeches deserve, I think, all that the proud mother said of them.
Mr. Sidney Herbert's was, perhaps, the best, if one can judge from the
reports; and certainly it is the best remembered, for in the course of
it he read out the soldier's letter, which, as mentioned already (p.
237), became famous throughout the world. But "the truest thing," as
Lady Verney wrote to her sister, "was said by Monckton Milnes. He said
that too much had been made of the sacrifice of position and luxury in
your case." How true that was is known to all who have read the first
part of this volume. "God knows," said Mr. Milnes, "that the luxury of
one good action must to a mind such as hers be more than equivalent for
the loss of all the pomps and vanities of life."
And Mr. Milnes, with the touch of a poet and the feeling of a friend,
said another very true thing. He drew a contrast between the crowded and
brilliant scene before him, and "the scene which met the gaze of that
noble woman, who was now devoting herself to the service of her
suffering fellow-creatures on the black shores of Crim Tartary,
overlooking the waters of the inhospitable sea." She was grateful for
sympathy; but the glitter of praise and reputation was as nothing, or
less than nothing, to her. She was wrestling by those bleak shores with
disease and death, wrestling, too, with jealousies and intrigues and
other difficulties. She cared for no recognition, except in so far as it
could help her in her work. A contribution of £1000 to her private fund,
sent by the people of New Zealand in November, greatly pleased her. "If
my name," she wrote to her parents, "and my having done what I could for
God and mankind has given you pleasure, that is real pleasure to me. My
reputation has not been a boon to me in my work; but if you have been
pleased, that is enough. I shall love my name now, and shall feel that
it is the greatest return that you can find satisfaction in hearing your
child named, and in feeling that her work draws sympathies
together--some return for what you have done for me. Life is sweet after
all."
The form taken by the memorial, inaugurated at the public meeting in
Willis's Rooms, was the establishment of a "Nightingale Fund," to enable
her to establish and control an institute for the training, sustenance,
and protection of nurses, paid and unpaid. A copy of the resolution was
sent to Miss Nightingale, who acknowledged it in a letter from Scutari
(Jan. 6, 1856): "Dear Mr. Herbert--In answer to your letter (which
followed me to the Crimea and back to Scutari) proposing to me the
undertaking of a Training School for Nurses, I will first beg to say
that it is impossible for me to express what I have felt in regard to
the sympathy and the confidence shown to me by the originators and
supporters of this scheme. Exposed as I am to be misinterpreted and
misunderstood, in a field of action in which the work is new,
complicated, and distant from many who sit in judgment upon it,--it is
indeed an abiding support to have such sympathy and such appreciation
brought home to me in the midst of labour and difficulties all but
overpowering. I must add, however, that my present work is such as I
would never desert for any other, so long as I see room to believe that
what I may do here is unfinished. May I, then, beg you to express to the
Committee that I accept their proposal, provided I may do so on their
understanding of this great uncertainty as to when it will be possible
for me to carry it out?"[182]
[182] _Report of the Nightingale Fund_, "Addenda," pp. 1-2.
Public meetings in support of the Fund were held throughout England and
in the British Dominions.[183] Among the speeches made at these
meetings, one of the most notable was Lord Stanley's at Manchester.
"There is no part of England," he said, "no city or county, scarcely a
considerable village, where some cottage household has not been
comforted amidst its mourning for the loss of one who had fallen in the
war, by the assurance that his last moments were watched, and his worst
sufferings soothed, by that care, at once tender and skilful, which no
man, and few women, could have shown. True heroism is not so plentiful
that we can afford to let it pass unrecognized--if not for the honour of
those who show it, yet very much for our own. The best test of a
nation's moral state is the kind of claim which it selects for honour.
And with the exception of Howard, the prison reformer, I know no person
besides Miss Nightingale, who, within the last hundred years, within
this island, or perhaps in Europe, has voluntarily encountered dangers
so imminent, and undertaken offices so repulsive, working for a large
and worthy object, in a pure spirit of duty towards God and compassion
for man." Lord Stanley showed a true appreciation, too, of the facts in
pointing out the strength of character which Miss Nightingale had shown
as a pioneer. "It is not easy everywhere, especially in England, to set
about doing what no one has done before. Many persons will undergo
considerable risks, even that of death itself, when they know that they
are engaged in a cause which, besides approving itself to their
consciences, commands sympathy and approval, when they know that their
motives are appreciated and their conduct applauded. But in this case
custom was to be violated, precedent broken through, the surprise,
sometimes the censure of the world to be braved. And do not underrate
that obstacle. We hardly know the strength of those social ties that
bind us until the moment when we attempt to break them."[184] The
Nightingale Fund was taken up heartily, but there was some carping
criticism, and the jealousies which attended Miss Nightingale's work
found expression against the Fund in her honour. There were great ladies
who, strange as it may now seem, regarded the attempt to raise the
_status_ of the nursing profession as a silly fad. "Lady Pam," wrote
Lord Granville, "thinks the Nightingale Fund great humbug. 'The nurses
are very good now; perhaps they do drink a little, but so do the
ladies' monthly nurses, and nothing can be better than them; poor
people, it must be so tiresome sitting up all night.'"[185] The
existence of the Fund was notified in General Orders to the army in the
East. "I hear," wrote Dr. Robertson at Scutari to Dr. Hall in the
Crimea, "that you have not (any more than myself) subscribed your day's
pay to the Nightingale Fund. I certainly said, the moment it appeared in
Orders, I would not do so, and thereby countenance what I disapproved.
Others may do as they please, but though Linton, Cruikshanks, and Lawson
have all subscribed, I believe the subscriptions _in the hospital_ are
not many or large."[186] But this disgruntlement of the doctors was not
shared by the troops, who subscribed nearly £9000 to the Fund. The
Commander of the Forces, in sending to the Secretary of the Fund a first
remittance of £4000 from "Headquarters, Crimea," wrote (February 5,
1856) that this amount, "the result of voluntary individual offerings,
plainly indicates the universal feeling of gratitude which exists among
the troops engaged in the Crimea for the care bestowed upon, and the
relief administered to, themselves and their comrades, at the period of
their greatest sufferings, by the skilful arrangements, and the
unwearying, constant personal attention, of Miss Nightingale and the
other ladies associated with her." The Navy and the Coastguard Service
subscribed also. Nor was "society" all on the side of Lady Palmerston. A
concert given by Madame Goldschmidt (Jenny Lind) brought in nearly
£2000. The ultimate application of the Fund did not follow precisely the
lines originally proposed, but it was the means of enabling Miss
Nightingale to do one of the most useful pieces of her life's work.[187]
[183] Reports of some of the meetings are collected in the _Report of
the Nightingale Fund_. At Manchester (Jan. 17, 1856), in addition
to Lord Stanley, Mr. Herbert and Mr. Milnes spoke; at Oxford
(Jan. 23), Mr. Herbert again spoke; at Brighton (Jan. 14),
Mr. Milnes.
[184] _Speeches of the 15th Earl of Derby_, 1894, vol. i. pp. 16, 18.
[185] Fitzmaurice, _Life of the Second Earl Granville_, vol. i. p. 136.
[186] _Hall_, p. 449.
[187] See below, p. 456.
The sympathy and interest of the Royal Family in Miss Nightingale's work
had been shown by the presence of the Duke of Cambridge in the chair at
Willis's Rooms; but the Queen desired to associate herself in some more
direct and signal measure with "the grateful recognition" by her
people. A few weeks after the Public Meeting the following letter was
sent:--
WINDSOR CASTLE [_November_ 1855].[188] DEAR MISS NIGHTINGALE--You
are, I know, well aware of the high sense I entertain of the
Christian devotion which you have displayed during this great and
bloody war, and I need hardly repeat to you how warm my admiration
is for your services, which are fully equal to those of my dear and
brave soldiers, whose sufferings you have had the _privilege_ of
alleviating in so merciful a manner. I am, however, anxious of
marking my feelings in a manner which I trust will be agreeable to
you, and therefore send you with this letter a brooch, the form and
emblems of which commemorate your great and blessed work, and
which, I hope, you will wear as a mark of the high approbation of
your Sovereign!
It will be a very great satisfaction to me, when you return at last
to these shores, to make the acquaintance of one who has set so
bright an example to our sex. And with every prayer for the
preservation of your valuable health, believe me, always, yours
sincerely,
VICTORIA R.
[188] Wrongly dated "January 1856" in _Letters of Queen Victoria_,
vol. iii. p. 215. The gift was announced in the _Morning Post_
of December 20, 1855; the brooch reached Miss Nightingale in
November, and her reply had been received by Dec. 21 (see below,
p. 278). An illustrated account of the gift appeared in the
_Illustrated London News_, Feb. 2, 1856. It may now be seen in the
Museum of the United Service Institution.
The jewel, which was designed by the Prince Consort, resembles a badge
rather than a brooch, bearing a St. George's Cross in red enamel, and
the Royal cypher surmounted by a crown in diamonds. The inscription,
"Blessed are the Merciful," encircles the badge, which also bears the
word "Crimea." On the reverse is the inscription: "To Miss Florence
Nightingale, as a mark of esteem and gratitude for her devotion towards
the Queen's brave soldiers.--From Victoria R., 1855."
"I hope," wrote Lady Verney (Dec. 27, 1855), "you will wear your Star to
please the soldiers on Sundays and holidays; because, judging from those
at home, it will be such a pleasure to them to know that the Queen has
done her best to do you honour." At home, Miss Nightingale never wore
the decoration. She wore it in the East, on one occasion certainly (p.
296); and possibly on other occasions. If so, it would have been for the
reason suggested by her sister. She loved the soldiers. Honours and
reputation, so far as they were valued by her at all (and that was
little), were valued only as a means to the end of further service. With
what zeal, and to what good purpose, she was now devoting herself to
serve the best interests of the common soldier, we shall learn in the
next chapter.