_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.
Then leave her to the quiet she has chosen; she demands
No greeting from our brazen throats and vulgar clapping hands.
Leave her to the still comfort the saints know that have striven.
What are our earthly honours? Her honours are in heaven.
_Punch._
Florence Nightingale, under a carefully preserved incognito, arrived
quietly at Whatstandwell, the nearest station to her Derbyshire home,
on August 8th, 1856, and succeeded in making her way unrecognised
to Lea Hurst. According to local tradition she entered by the back
door, and the identity of the closely veiled lady in black was first
discovered by the old family butler. The word quickly circulated
round Lea and the adjacent villages that “Miss Florence had come back
from the wars,” and dearly would the good people have liked to light
a bonfire on Crich Stand or some other available height to testify
their joy, but all demonstration was checked by the knowledge that Miss
Florence wanted to remain quiet.
During the ensuing weeks hundreds of people from the surrounding towns
of Derby, Nottingham, and Manchester, and from more distant parts,
crowded the roads to Lea Hurst and stood in groups about the park,
hoping to catch a glimpse of the heroine. “I remember the crowds as if
it was yesterday,” said an old lady living by the park gate, “it took
me all my time to answer them. Folks came in carriages and on foot,
and there was titled people among them, and a lot of soldiers, some of
them without arms and legs, who had been nursed by Miss Florence in
the hospital, and I remember one man who had been shot through both
eyes coming and asking to see Miss Florence. But not ten out of the
hundreds who came got a glimpse of her. If they wanted help about their
pensions, they were told to put it down in writing and Miss Florence’s
maid came with an answer. Of course she was willing to help everybody,
but it stood to reason she could not receive them all; why, the park
wouldn’t have held the folks that came, and besides, the old squire
wouldn’t have his daughter made a staring stock of.”
[Illustration: THE CARRIAGE USED BY MISS NIGHTINGALE IN THE CRIMEA.
[_To face p. 240._
]
London shared the disappointment of Derbyshire in not being
permitted to give Florence Nightingale a public welcome, but the
situation was realised by the genial Mr. _Punch_ in the sympathetic
lines quoted at the heading of this chapter.
_Punch_ had had his joke when the “dear Nightingales” first went to the
succour of the soldiers, but the day for raillery was past; a great
humanitarian work had been accomplished, which the genial humorist was
quick to acknowledge on the return of the heroine in a cartoon showing
“Mr. _Punch’s_ design for a statue to Miss Nightingale.” It represented
her in nurse’s dress, wearing the badge “Scutari” across her breast,
and holding a wounded soldier by the hand. Below was a scene portraying
the good Samaritan.
The public interest in Miss Nightingale was testified in many ways.
Not only did platforms all over the land resound with her praises, but
her portrait became a popular advertisement for tradesmen. I have seen
preserved in the Derby Town Library paper bags used in the shops of
Henry Calvert, grocer, Hulme, the tobacconist, and Bryer, provision
merchant, Derby, decorated with portraits of Florence Nightingale.
Playbills displayed the heroine’s name, beside Romeo and Juliet,
songs and musical compositions were dedicated to the “good angel of
Derbyshire.” There was the “Nightingale Varsoviana” and “The Song of
the Nightingale,” published with a full-page picture of the heroine on
the cover. Almanacks displayed her portrait and ballads innumerable
told of her gentle deeds. Street minstrels found a Nightingale song
the most remunerative piece in their repertoire, and people who had
hitherto been guiltless of versifying were compelled to satisfy an
importunate muse by writing verses on Florence Nightingale. Broadsheet
ballads were sung and sold in the streets, and the following extract is
from one emanating from Seven Dials:--
When sympathy first in thy fair breast did enter,
The world must confess ’twas a noble idea,
When through great danger you boldly did venture,
To soothe the afflicted in the dread Crimea.
No female on earth sure could ever be bolder;
When death and disease did you closely surround,
You administered comfort to the British soldier--
You soothed his sorrows and healed his wounds.
Before her return home Miss Nightingale’s services had been recognised
by an influential meeting at St. George’s Hospital, presided over by
the late Duke of Cambridge. It was moved by Viscount Chelsea that
“Miss Nightingale should be elected an honorary Governor of St.
George’s Hospital in testimony of the respectful admiration felt by the
supporters of this charity for her self-denial and disinterestedness
and her devoted heroism.” The Duke of Cambridge spoke of what he had
himself seen of Miss Nightingale’s work amongst the sick and wounded
soldiers during his stay at Scutari, and said that her name was revered
alike by English, French, Turks, and Russians.
Letters of congratulation and expressions of esteem from all sorts and
conditions of people poured in upon Miss Nightingale after it was known
that she was settled in her Derbyshire home, and public associations
and societies sent deputations. If Florence Nightingale could have
been persuaded to hold a reception, it would have been attended by
delegates from every representative body in the kingdom; but while
such a national appreciation of her labours was very gratifying to
our heroine, her chief desire now was to escape publicity, and her
enfeebled health made quietude a necessity.
She was specially pleased by an address sent by the workmen of
Newcastle-on-Tyne, and replied in the following beautiful letter:--
“_August 23rd, 1856._
“MY DEAR FRIENDS,--
“I wish it were in my power to tell you what was in my heart when I
received your letter.
“Your welcome home, your sympathy with what has been passing while
I have been absent, have touched me more than I can tell in words.
My dear friends, the things that are the deepest in our hearts are
perhaps what it is most difficult for us to express.
“‘She hath done what she could.’ These words I inscribed on the
tomb of one of my best helpers when I left Scutari. It has been my
endeavour, in the sight of God, to do as she has done.
“I will not speak of reward when permitted to do our country’s
work--it is what we live for; but I may say to receive sympathy
from affectionate hearts like yours is the greatest support, the
greatest gratification, that it is possible for me to receive from
man.
“I thank you all, the eighteen hundred, with grateful, tender
affection. And I should have written before to do so, were not the
business, which my return home has not ended, been almost more than
I can manage. Pray believe me, my dear friends, yours faithfully
and gratefully.
“FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.”
The working men of Sheffield subscribed a testimonial to Miss
Nightingale and presented her with a case of cutlery. Each blade,
instead of bearing the maker’s name in the customary way, was stamped
with the words “Presented to Florence Nightingale, 1857.” The oak case
containing the cutlery was bound in silver, and the top inlaid with
a device representing the “Good Samaritan,” and inscribed with the
words “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My
brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”
Another very interesting and tenderly prized gift was a writing-desk,
inlaid with pearl, presented to Miss Nightingale by her friends in
the neighbourhood of her Derbyshire home. On the front of the desk
was a silver plate inscribed with the words “Presented to Florence
Nightingale on her safe arrival at Lea Hurst from the Crimea, August
8th, 1856, as a token of esteem from the inhabitants of Lea, Holloway,
and Crich.” Miss Nightingale, on being told that her friends and
neighbours wished to celebrate her home-coming by a presentation,
requested that it might be done as privately as possible; accordingly
a small deputation waited on her at Lea Hurst a few weeks after her
arrival and presented the desk.
Amongst other old friends whom Miss Nightingale received on her return
home was the late Duke of Devonshire, who drove over from Chatsworth to
Lea Hurst and presented his distinguished neighbour with a silver owl
and some other tokens of his esteem. The duke caused a collection of
press notices--there were no press cutting agencies in those days--to
be made with regard to Miss Nightingale and her work and made into a
scrap-book, which His Grace eventually presented to the Derby Town
Library.
During these weeks, in which Miss Nightingale was recruiting her health
at Lea Hurst, she entertained from time to time little parties of her
humble friends and neighbours, who enjoyed the privilege of seeing the
mementoes which she had brought from the Crimea.
There are still living a few old people in the neighbourhood of Lea
Hurst who recall the awe and wonder with which they regarded cannon
balls from Sebastopol, bullets taken from Balaclava heroes, and other
martial objects in Miss Florence’s collection, and the emotion they
felt at sight of the flowers and grasses which she had gathered from
the graves of the soldiers in the cemeteries of Scutari and Balaclava.
Then there was “Miss Florence’s Crimean dog,” a large Russian hound
which was the wonder of the countryside, second only in interest to the
drummer boy Thomas, who attended his lady home from the war and was a
very big person indeed as “Miss Nightingale’s own man.” For graphic and
thrilling narrative of the fall of Sebastopol, Thomas could outvie the
special correspondent of _The Times_, and if he was unavoidably absent
from the Balaclava charge, he had the details of the engagement by
heart.
Queen Victoria had taken from the first a deep interest in Miss
Nightingale’s work, and was wishful to receive and thank her in person,
while the young Princesses were with natural girlish enthusiasm eager
to see the heroine of the war. Accordingly, it was arranged that
Miss Nightingale should proceed to Balmoral, where the Queen and
Prince Consort were spending the autumn. She arrived in the middle
of September, a month after her return from the Crimea, and was
privately received by the Queen. The favourable impression made by Miss
Nightingale on the royal circle is recorded in the Life of the Prince
Consort. One can imagine, too, the emotions of the Crown Princess
and Princess Alice, whose desire to help the suffering soldiers had
been fired by the visitor’s noble work. Both these young Princesses
were destined to experience the anxiety of the soldier’s wife whose
husband is at the front, and both followed in the footsteps of Florence
Nightingale in organising hospital work in the Prussian War of 1866 and
in the Franco-German War of 1870, while tiny Princess Helena was to
become in after years an accomplished nurse, and an active leader in
the nursing movement of this country; and, alas! to yield her soldier
son on the fatal field of South Africa.
Miss Nightingale spent several weeks in the Highlands as a guest at
Birkhall, near Balmoral. She was present at a dance at the Castle, and
sat with the Royal Family at one end of the hall, and is described
as looking very graceful and pleasing. She wore a pretty lace cap to
conceal her short hair, her abundant tresses having been cut off during
her attack of Crimean fever. On Sundays Miss Nightingale worshipped at
the old church of Crathie, and her sweet, pale face was affectionately
regarded by the village congregation, for there were many brave sons of
Scotland whose pains she had soothed and whose dying lips had blessed
her.
After leaving the Highlands, Miss Nightingale joined her family for
the customary stay at Embley Park, her Hampshire home, where she was
received by the people with many expressions of congratulation. At
Embley she was in the near vicinity of Wilton House, the home of her
friends, the Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Herbert, with whom there was much
to discuss regarding the founding of the training home for nurses to
which the Nightingale Fund was to be devoted. The fund was the people’s
gift to Florence Nightingale, and continued to be enthusiastically
supported by private contributions, from the pennies of the poor to the
cheques of the rich, and by means of public entertainments throughout
the winter which succeeded the return of the heroine from the Crimea.
During the months which succeeded her return, Miss Nightingale, with
characteristic business promptitude, prepared a clear and comprehensive
statement regarding the “free gifts” which had been sent to her for
the sick and wounded, and in the latter months of the war for the
convalescent soldiers. One can read between the lines of this report
the general muddle which characterised the transit of goods from
London to the seat of war, in consequence of which bales of things
sent by benevolent people made wandering excursions everywhere but to
the Scutari hospitals where they were so urgently wanted, and in some
instances were actually brought back to their donors unopened. This was
owing to the fact that from May, 1854, when our army first encamped at
Scutari, until March, 1855, no office for the reception and delivery
of goods had been established either at Scutari or Constantinople. In
consequence packages arriving by merchant vessels not chartered by
Government passed into the Turkish Custom House, from which they were
never extracted without delay and confusion, and many were destroyed or
lost. In cases of ships chartered by Government, masses of goods were
delayed, as Miss Nightingale wittily remarks, by “an unnecessary trip
to Balaclava and back” before they reached her at Scutari.
In face of such confusion the task of giving a detailed account of
the “free gifts” would have hopelessly baffled a less clear head than
Miss Nightingale’s. “The Statement of the Voluntary Contributions”
which she had received for the hospitals in the East was published in
1857, and in it Miss Nightingale took occasion to pay a tribute to the
devotion and zeal of the medical officers in the hospitals, who had
been so handicapped by the lack of proper medical supplies and comforts
in the early part of the campaign. She also refers to the liberality
of the British Government and the support which she had received from
the War Office, and acknowledges the sympathy and help received from
various general and commanding officers, both British and French,
and pays the following tribute to her old friend Lord Raglan, the
Commander-in-Chief: “Miss Nightingale cannot but here recall, with deep
gratitude and respect, the letters of support and encouragement which
she received from the late Lord Raglan, who invariably acknowledged all
that was attempted for the good of his men with the deepest feeling, as
well as with the high courtesy and true manliness of his character. No
tinge of petty jealousy against those entrusted with any commission,
public or private, connected with the army under his command, ever
alloyed his generous benevolence.”
At this period, though in weakened health, Miss Nightingale was under
the impression that she was still “good for active service.” When the
Indian Mutiny broke out, she wrote to her friend Lady Canning, the
wife of the Governor-General, offering to go out to organise a nursing
staff for the troops in India. Lady Canning writes, November 14th,
1857: “Miss Nightingale has written to me. She is out of health and
at Malvern, but says she would come at twenty-four hours’ notice if
I think there is anything for her to do in her ‘line of business.’”
Lady Canning did not, however, encourage Miss Nightingale to undertake
a task for which she had not the strength, neither did she at that
time see the practicability of forming nursing establishments in the
up-country stations of India. That Miss Nightingale made the offer is
characteristic of her indomitable spirit.