THE LIFE OF
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
[Illustration: MISS NIGHTINGALE.
(_From a photograph by S. G. Payne & Son._)]
THE LIFE
OF
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
BY
SARAH A. TOOLEY
AUTHOR OF “PERSONAL LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA,” “LIFE OF QUEEN
ALEXANDRA,” “ROYAL PALACES AND THEIR MEMORIES,” “THE
HISTORY OF NURSING IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE,” ETC.
_MEMORIAL EDITION_
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD.
LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TO
THE LADY HERBERT OF LEA
THE LIFE-LONG FRIEND OF
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
THIS BOOK
IS BY PERMISSION
Dedicated
PREFACE
The writing of the Life of Florence Nightingale was undertaken with
the object of marking the jubilee of the illustrious heroine who left
London on October 21st, 1854, with a band of thirty-eight nurses for
service in the Crimean War. Her heroic labours on behalf of the sick
and wounded soldiers have made her name a household word in every part
of the British Empire, and it was a matter for national congratulation
that Miss Nightingale lived to celebrate such a memorable anniversary.
A striking proof of the honour in which her name is held by the rising
generation was given a short time ago, when the editor of _The Girl’s
Realm_ took the votes of his readers as to the most popular heroine in
modern history. Fourteen names were submitted, and of the 300,000 votes
given, 120,776 were for FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
No trouble has been spared to make the book as accurate and complete
as possible, and when writing it I spent several months in the vicinity
of Miss Nightingale’s early homes, and received much kind assistance
from people of all classes acquainted with her. In particular I would
thank Lady Herbert of Lea for accepting the dedication of the book
and for portraits of herself and Lord Herbert; Sir Edmund Verney for
permission to publish the picture of the late Lady Verney and views of
Claydon; Pastor Düsselhoff of Kaiserswerth for the portrait of Pastor
Fliedner and some recollections of Miss Nightingale’s training in that
institution; the late Sister Mary Aloysius, of the Convent of Sisters
of Mercy, Kinvara, co. Galway, for memories of her work at Scutari
Hospital; and Mr. Crowther, Librarian of the Public Library, Derby, for
facilities for studying the collection of material relating to Miss
Nightingale presented to the Library by the late Duke of Devonshire.
In the preparation of the revised edition I am indebted to Lady Verney,
the late Hon. Frederick Strutt, and Mrs. Dacre Craven for valuable
suggestions.
SARAH A. TOOLEY
KENSINGTON.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
_BIRTH AND ANCESTRY_
PAGE
Birth at Florence--Shore Ancestry--Peter Nightingale of
Lea--Florence Nightingale’s Parents 1
CHAPTER II
_EARLIEST ASSOCIATIONS_
Lea Hall first English Home--Neighbourhood of Babington
Plot--Dethick Church 8
CHAPTER III
_LEA HURST_
Removal to Lea Hurst--Description of the House--Florence
Nightingale’s Crimean Carriage preserved there 15
CHAPTER IV
_THE DAYS OF CHILDHOOD_
Romantic Journeys from Lea Hurst to Embley Park--George
Eliot Associations--First Patient--Love of Animals and
Flowers--Early Education 22
CHAPTER V
_THE SQUIRE’S DAUGHTER_
An Accomplished Girl--An Angel in the Homes of the
Poor--Children’s “Feast Day” at Lea Hurst--Her Bible-Class
for Girls--Interests at Embley--Society Life--Longing
for a Vocation--Meets Elizabeth Fry--Studies Hospital
Nursing--Decides to go to Kaiserswerth 38
CHAPTER VI
_FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE’S ALMA MATER AND ITS FOUNDER_
Enrolled a Deaconess at Kaiserswerth--Paster Fliedner--His
Early Life--Becomes Pastor at Kaiserswerth--Interest in
Prison Reform--Starts a Small Penitentiary for Discharged
Female Prisoners--Founds a School and the Deaconess
Hospital--Rules for Deaconesses--Marvellous Extension of
his Work--His Death--Miss Nightingale’s Tribute 54
CHAPTER VII
_ENTERS KAISERSWERTH: A PLEA FOR DEACONESSES_
An Interesting Letter--Description of Miss Nightingale
when she entered Kaiserswerth--Testimonies to her
Popularity--Impressive Farewell to Pastor Fliedner 68
CHAPTER VIII
_A PERIOD OF WAITING_
Visits the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul in
Paris--Illness--Resumes Old Life at Lea Hurst
and Embley--Interest in John Smedley’s System
of Hydropathy--Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Herbert’s
Philanthropies--Work at Harley Street Home for Sick
Governesses--Illness and Return Home 80
CHAPTER IX
_SIDNEY, LORD HERBERT OF LEA_
Gladstone on Lord Herbert--Early Life of Lord Herbert--His
Mother--College Career--Enters Public Life--As
Secretary for War--Benevolent Work at Salisbury--Lady
Herbert--Friendship with Florence Nightingale--Again
Secretary for War 87
CHAPTER X
_THE CRIMEAN WAR AND CALL TO SERVICE_
Tribute to Florence Nightingale by the Countess of
Lovelace--Outbreak of the Crimean War--Distressing
Condition of the Sick and Wounded--Mr. W. H. Russell’s
Letters to _The Times_--Call for Women Nurses--Mr. Sidney
Herbert’s Letter to Miss Nightingale--She offers her
Services 94
CHAPTER XI
_PREPARATION AND DEPARTURE FOR SCUTARI_
Public Curiosity Aroused--Description of Miss Nightingale
in the Press--Criticism--She selects Thirty-Eight
Nurses--Departure of the “Angel Band”--Enthusiasm of
Boulogne Fisherwomen--Arrival at Scutari 110
CHAPTER XII
_THE LADY-IN-CHIEF_
The Barrack Hospital--Overwhelming Numbers of Sick and
Wounded--General Disorder--Florence Nightingale’s
“Commanding Genius”--The Lady with the Brain--The Nurses’
Tower--Influence over Men in Authority 123
CHAPTER XIII
_AT WORK IN THE BARRACK HOSPITAL_
An Appalling Task--Stories of Florence Nightingale’s
Interest in the Soldiers--Lack of Necessaries for
the Wounded--Establishes an Invalids’ Kitchen and a
Laundry--Cares for the Soldiers’ Wives--Religious
Fanatics--Letter from Queen Victoria--Christmas at Scutari
140
CHAPTER XIV
_GRAPPLING WITH CHOLERA AND FEVER_
Florence Nightingale describes the Hardships of the
Soldiers--Arrival of Fifty More Nurses--Memories of Sister
Mary Aloysius--The Cholera Scourge 160
CHAPTER XV
_TIMELY HELP_
Lavish Gifts for the Soldiers--_The Times_ Fund--_The Times_
Commissioner visits Scutari--His Description of Miss
Nightingale--Arrival of M. Soyer, the Famous _Chef_--He
Describes Miss Nightingale 171
CHAPTER XVI
_THE ANGEL OF DEATH_
Death of Seven Surgeons at Scutari--The First of the “Angel
Band” Stricken--Deaths of Miss Smythe, Sister Winifred, and
Sister Mary Elizabeth--Touching Verses by an Orderly 183
CHAPTER XVII
_SAILS FOR THE CRIMEA AND GOES UNDER FIRE_
On Board the _Robert Lowe_--Story of a Sick Soldier--Visit
to the Camp Hospitals--Sees Sebastopol from
the Trenches--Recognised and Cheered by the
Soldiers--Adventurous Ride Back 192
CHAPTER XVIII
_STRICKEN BY FEVER_
Continued Visitation of Hospitals--Sudden Illness--Conveyed to
Sanatorium--Visit of Lord Raglan--Convalescence--Accepts
Offer of Lord Ward’s Yacht--Returns to Scutari--Memorial to
Fallen Heroes 204
CHAPTER XIX
_CLOSE OF THE WAR_
Fall of Sebastopol--The Nightingale Hospital Fund--A Carriage
Accident--Last Months in the Crimea--“The Nightingale
Cross”--Presents from Queen Victoria and the Sultan--Sails
for Home 217
CHAPTER XX
_THE RETURN OF THE HEROINE_
Arrives Secretly at Lea Hurst--The Object of Many
Congratulations--Presentations--Received by Queen
Victoria at Balmoral--Prepares Statement of “Voluntary
Gifts”--Tribute to Lord Raglan 239
CHAPTER XXI
_THE SOLDIER’S FRIEND AT HOME_
Ill Health--Unremitting Toil--Founds Nightingale Training
School at St. Thomas’s Hospital--Army Reform--Death of Lord
Herbert of Lea--Palmerston and Gladstone pay Tributes to
Miss Nightingale--Interesting Letters--Advises in American
War and Franco-German War 252
CHAPTER XXII
_WISDOM FROM THE QUEEN OF NURSES_
Literary Activity--_Notes on Hospitals_--_Notes on
Nursing_--Hints for the Amateur Nurse--Interest in the Army
in India--Writings on Indian Reforms 275
CHAPTER XXIII
_THE NURSING OF THE SICK POOR_
Origin of the Liverpool Home and Training School--Interest in
the Sick Paupers--“Una and the Lion” a Tribute to Sister
Agnes Jones--Letter to Miss Florence Lees--Plea for a
Home for Nurses--On the Question of Paid Nurses--Queen
Victoria’s Jubilee Nursing Institute--Rules for
Probationers 298
CHAPTER XXIV
_LATER YEARS_
The Nightingale Home--Rules for Probationers--Deaths of Mr.
and Mrs. Nightingale--Death of Lady Verney--Continues to
Visit Claydon--Health Crusade--Rural Hygiene--A Letter to
Mothers--Introduces Village Missioners--Village Sanitation
in India--The Diamond Jubilee--Balaclava Dinner 314
CHAPTER XXV
_AT EVENTIDE_
Miss Nightingale To-day--Her Interest in Passing
Events--Recent Letter to Derbyshire Nurses--Celebrates
Eighty-fourth Birthday--King confers Dignity of a Lady
of Grace--Appointed by King Edward VII. to the Order of
Merit--Letter from the German Emperor--Elected to the
Honorary Freedom of the City of London--Summary of her
Noble Life In Memoriam 338
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MISS NIGHTINGALE (_From a photograph_) _Frontispiece_
PAGE
LEA HURST, DERBYSHIRE 16
EMBLEY PARK, HAMPSHIRE 32
MISS NIGHTINGALE (_From a drawing_) 48
PASTOR FLIEDNER 55
MISS NIGHTINGALE (_From a bust at Claydon_) 61
SIR WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL 80
SIDNEY, LORD HERBERT OF LEA 96
MR. _PUNCH’S_ CARTOON OF “THE LADY-BIRDS” 113
THE BARRACK HOSPITAL AT SCUTARI 125
BOULOGNE FISHERWOMEN CARRYING THE LUGGAGE OF MISS NIGHTINGALE
AND HER NURSES 128
THE LADY-IN-CHIEF IN HER QUARTERS AT THE BARRACK HOSPITAL 133
MISS NIGHTINGALE IN THE HOSPITAL AT SCUTARI 144
MISS NIGHTINGALE AND THE DYING SOLDIER--A SCENE AT SCUTARI
HOSPITAL WITNESSED BY M. SOYER 176
LADY HERBERT OF LEA 192
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AS A GIRL 208
THE NIGHTINGALE JEWEL 237
THE CARRIAGE USED BY MISS NIGHTINGALE IN THE CRIMEA 240
MISS NIGHTINGALE AFTER HER RETURN FROM THE CRIMEA 272
PARTHENOPE, LADY VERNEY 288
MRS. DACRE CRAVEN (_née_ FLORENCE LEES) 304
CLAYDON HOUSE, THE SEAT OF SIR EDMUND VERNEY, WHERE THE
“FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE” ROOMS ARE PRESERVED 320
SPECIMEN OF MISS NIGHTINGALE’S HANDWRITING 335
MISS NIGHTINGALE’S OLD ROOM AT CLAYDON 336
MISS NIGHTINGALE 340
THE LIFE OF
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
CHAPTER I
_BIRTH AND ANCESTRY_
Birth at Florence--Shore Ancestry--Peter Nightingale of Lea--
Florence Nightingale’s Parents.
We are born into life--it is sweet, it is strange,
We lie still on the knee of a mild mystery
Which smiles with a change;
But we doubt not of changes, we know not of spaces,
The heavens seem as near as our own mother’s face is,
And we think we could touch all the stars that we see.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
Thought and deed, not pedigree, are the passports to enduring
fame.--GENERAL SKOBELEFF.
At a dinner given to the military and naval officers who had served
in the Crimean War, it was suggested that each guest should write on
a slip of paper the name of the person whose services during the late
campaign would be longest remembered by posterity. When the papers
were examined, each bore the same name--“Florence Nightingale.”
The prophecy is fulfilled to-day, for though little more than fifty
years have passed since the joy-bells throughout the land proclaimed
the fall of Sebastopol, the majority of people would hesitate if asked
to name the generals of the Allied Armies, while no one would be at a
loss to tell who was the heroine of the Crimea. Her deeds of love and
sacrifice sank deep into the nation’s heart, for they were above the
strife of party and the clash of arms. While Death has struck name
after name from the nation’s roll of the great and famous, our heroine
lives in venerated age to shed the lustre of her name upon a new
century.
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12th, 1820, at the Villa
Colombaia near Florence, where her parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Shore
Nightingale, of Lea, Derbyshire, were staying.
“What name should be given to the baby girl born so far away from
her English home?” queried her parents, and with mutual consent they
decided to call her “Florence,” after that fair city of flowers on the
banks of the Arno where she first saw the light. Little did Mr. and
Mrs. Nightingale then think that the name thus chosen was destined to
become one of the most popular throughout the British Empire. Every
“Florence” practically owes her name to the circumstances of Miss
Nightingale’s birth.
It seemed as though the fates were determined to give an attractive
designation to our heroine. While “Florence” suggested the goddess
of flowers, “Nightingale” spoke of sweet melody. What could be more
beautiful and euphonious than a name suggesting a song-bird from the
land of flowers? The combination proved a special joy to Mr. _Punch_
and his fellow-humorists when the bearer of the name rose to fame.
However, Miss Nightingale’s real family name was Shore. Her father
was William Edward Shore, the only son of William Shore of Tapton,
Derbyshire, and he assumed the name of Nightingale, by the sign manual
of the Prince Regent, when he succeeded in 1815 to the estates of his
mother’s uncle, Peter Nightingale of Lea. This change took place three
years before his marriage, and five before the birth of his illustrious
daughter.
Through her Shore ancestry Miss Nightingale is connected with the
family of Baron Teignmouth. Sir John Shore, Governor-General of India,
was created a baron in 1797 and took the title of Teignmouth. Another
John Shore was an eminent physician at Derby in the reign of Charles
II., and a Samuel Shore married the heiress of the Offleys, a Sheffield
family.
It is through her paternal grandmother, Mary, daughter of John Evans of
Cromford, the niece and sole heir of Peter Nightingale, that Florence
Nightingale is connected with the family whose name she bears. Her
great-great-uncle, Peter Nightingale, was a typical Derbyshire squire
who more than a century ago lived in good style at the fine old mansion
of Lea Hall. Those were rough and roystering days in such isolated
villages as Lea, and “old Peter” had his share of the vices then deemed
gentlemanly. He could swear with the best, and his drinking feats might
have served Burns for a similar theme to _The Whistle_. His excesses
gained for him the nickname of “Madman Nightingale,” and accounts of
his doings still form the subject of local gossip. When in his cups, he
would raid the kitchen, take the puddings from the pots and fling them
on the dust-heap, and cause the maids to fly in terror. Nevertheless,
“old Peter” was not unpopular; he was good-natured and easy going with
his people, and if he drank hard, well, so did his neighbours. He was
no better and little worse than the average country squire, and parson
too, of the “good old times.” His landed possessions extended from Lea
straight away to the old market town of Cromford, and beyond towards
Matlock. It is of special interest to note that he sold a portion of
his Cromford property to Sir Richard Arkwright, who erected there
his famous cotton mills. The beautiful mansion of Willersley Castle,
which the ingenious cotton-spinner built, and where he ended his days
as the great Sir Richard, stands on a part of the original Nightingale
property. When “old Peter” of jovial memory passed to his account, his
estates and name descended to his grand-nephew, William Edward Shore.
The new squire, Florence Nightingale’s father, was a marked contrast
to his predecessor. He is described by those who remember him as a
tall, slim, gentlemanly man of irreproachable character. He had been
educated at Edinburgh and Trinity College, Cambridge, and had broadened
his mind by foreign travel at a time when the average English squire,
still mindful of the once terrifying name of “Boney,” looked upon
all foreigners as his natural enemies, and entrenched himself on his
ancestral acres with a supreme contempt for lands beyond the Channel.
Mr. Nightingale was far in advance of the county gentry of his time in
matters of education and culture. Sport had no special attraction for
him, but he was a student, a lover of books and a connoisseur in art.
He was not without a good deal of pride of birth, for the Shores were a
very ancient family.
As a landlord he had a sincere desire to benefit the people on his
estates, although not perhaps in the way they most appreciated.
“Well, you see, I was not born generous,” is still remembered as Mr.
Nightingale’s answer when solicited for various local charities.
However, he never begrudged money for the support of rural education,
and, to quote the saying of one of his old tenants, “Many poor people
in Lea would not be able to read and write to-day, if it had not been
for ‘Miss Florence’s’ father.” He was the chief supporter of what was
then called the “cheap school,” where the boys and girls, if they did
not go through the higher standards of the present-day schools, at
least learned the three R’s for the sum of twopence a week. There was,
of course, no compulsory education then, but the displeasure of the
squire with people who neglected to send their children to school was a
useful incentive to parents. Mr. Nightingale was a zealous Churchman,
and did much to further Christian work in his district.
Florence Nightingale’s mother was Miss Frances Smith, daughter of
William Smith, Esq., of Parndon in Essex, who for fifty years was M.P.
for Norwich. He was a pronounced Abolitionist, took wide and liberal
views on the questions of the time, and was noted for his interest in
various branches of philanthropy. Mrs. Nightingale was imbued with
her father’s spirit, and is remembered for her great kindness and
benevolence to the poor. She was a stately and beautiful woman in her
prime and one of the fast-dying-out race of gentlewomen who were at
once notable house-keepers and charming and cultured ladies. Her name
is still mentioned with gratitude and affection by the old people of
her husband’s estates.
It was from her mother, whom she greatly resembles, that Florence
Nightingale inherited the spirit of wide philanthropy and the desire
to break away, in some measure, from the bonds of caste which warped
the county gentry in her early days and devote herself to humanitarian
work. She was also fortunate in having a father who believed that a
girl’s head could carry something more than elegant accomplishments and
a knowledge of cross-stitch. While our heroine’s mother trained her in
deeds of benevolence, her father inspired her with a love for knowledge
and guided her studies on lines much in advance of the usual education
given to young ladies at that period.
Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale had only two children--Frances Parthenope,
afterwards Lady Verney, and Florence, about a year younger. Both
sisters were named after the Italian towns where they were born, the
elder receiving the name of Parthenope, the classic form of Naples, and
was always known as “Parthe,” while our heroine was Florence.