CHAPTER XXVAT EVENTIDEMiss 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.The golden evening brightens in the west;Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest.Dr. Walsham How.
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.The golden evening brightens in the west;Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest.Dr. Walsham How.
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.
The golden evening brightens in the west;Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest.Dr. Walsham How.
The golden evening brightens in the west;Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest.Dr. Walsham How.
The golden evening brightens in the west;Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest.
The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest.
Dr. Walsham How.
Theshadows of evening have fallen about the life of our revered heroine. Miss Nightingale has not left her London house for many years, and remains principally in bed. Her mind is still unclouded, and she follows with something of the old eager spirit the events of the day, more particularly those which relate to the nursing world. She is no longer able to deal personally with her correspondence, all of which passes through the hands of her secretary. Nothing gives her greater pleasure than to chat over past days with her old friends and fellow-workers, and she occasionally receives by invitation members of the nursing professionwho are heads of institutions with which her name is connected.
She followed with intense interest the elaborate preparations made for dealing with the sick and wounded in the South African War, bringing home to her as it so vividly did the difficulties of the pioneer work at the time of the Crimean campaign. It gave her peculiar pleasure to receive and bid God-speed to some of the nurses before their departure for South Africa.
Even at her great age Miss Nightingale retains the distinction of manner and speech which gave her such influence in the past, and now and again a flash of the old shrewd wit breaks out when views with which she is not in agreement are advanced. Her friends marvel most at the almost youthful roundness and placidity of her face. Time has scarcely printed a line on her brow, or a wrinkle on her cheeks, or clouded the clearness of her penetrating eyes, which is the more remarkable when it is remembered that she has been a suffering and over-worked invalid ever since her return from the Crimea. The dainty lace cap falling over the silver hair in long lapels gives a charming frame to Miss Nightingale’s face which is singularly beautiful in old age. When receiving a visitor, she seems, as one phrased it, “to talk with her hands,” which retain their beautiful shape, andwhich she has a habit of moving over the coverlet, as from a sitting posture she inclines towards her friends in the course of conversation.
A delightful trait in Miss Nightingale’s character is the honour which she pays to the women of a younger generation, who are now bearing the heat and burden of the day. “Will you give me your blessing?” said the Superintendent of a benevolent institution to her recently, when taking her leave. “And you must give meyourblessing,” replied Miss Nightingale, as she took her hand. On another occasion she said to the same lady, after listening to an account of good work going successfully forward, “Why, you have put new life into me.”
No subject interests Miss Nightingale more to-day than that of district nursing. She inquires minutely into the experiences of those engaged amongst the sick poor. “Are the people improving in their habits?” is a question she often asks, or again, “Tell me about these model dwellings, which they are putting up everywhere. Have they had a good effect on the personal habits of the people?” If a Sister chances to mention some new invalid appliance, the old keen interest comes to the surface and Miss Nightingale will have it all explained to her, even to the place where the apparatus was procured.
MISS NIGHTINGALE.(From a memory sketch.)[To face p. 340.
MISS NIGHTINGALE.(From a memory sketch.)[To face p. 340.
MISS NIGHTINGALE.
(From a memory sketch.)
[To face p. 340.
The popularity of nursing as a profession is another topic of great interest to Miss Nightingale, and when she hears of more applications to enter the Training Home at St. Thomas’s than the Council can entertain, she recalls the very different state of things when she used in the early days to issue her urgent call for recruits. While she is particularly anxious that a high standard of character and efficiency should be maintained amongst nurses, she keeps strictly to her original attitude that “a nurse should be a nurse and not a medical woman.” Miss Nightingale feels that ability to pass a technical examination does not necessarily prove that a woman will make a good nurse. It is a profession in which natural aptitude and personal character count for a great deal; to use a familiar axiom, a nurse is “born, not made.”
Often Miss Nightingale’s mind travels back to her old Derbyshire home. Embley has passed out of the family, but Lea Hurst is occupied by a relative, Mrs. William Shore Nightingale, and Miss Nightingale keeps up her interest in the old people of the place. In August, 1903, the late Hon. Frederick Strutt, the Mayor of Derby and a distant cousin of Miss Nightingale’s, entertained the nurses of the borough at Lea Hurst, which was specially lent for the occasion, and Miss Nightingale, hearing of what was aboutto take place, wrote the following letter to Mr. Strutt: “Will you,” she said, “express to each and to all of them my very warmest wishes for their very highest success, in the best meaning of the word, in the life’s work which they have chosen. We hear a great deal nowadays about nursing as a profession, but the question for each nurse is, ‘Am I living up to my profession?’ The nurse’s life is above all a moral and practical life—a life not of show, but of practical action. I wish the nurses God-speed in their work, and may each one strive with the best that is in her to act up to her profession, and to rise continually to a higher level of thought and practice, character and dutifulness.”
The reading of this letter from Miss Nightingale to the nurses assembled in the garden of her old home was an occasion of impressive interest. Fifty years ago she would not have predicted that Derby would ever possess such a large body of nurses, and still less that the members of the profession in Great Britain should have reached such a large total.
Oh, small beginnings, ye are great and strong,Based on a faithful heart and weariless brain!Ye build the future fair, ye conquer wrong,Ye earn the crown, and wear it not in vain.
Oh, small beginnings, ye are great and strong,Based on a faithful heart and weariless brain!Ye build the future fair, ye conquer wrong,Ye earn the crown, and wear it not in vain.
Oh, small beginnings, ye are great and strong,Based on a faithful heart and weariless brain!Ye build the future fair, ye conquer wrong,Ye earn the crown, and wear it not in vain.
Oh, small beginnings, ye are great and strong,
Based on a faithful heart and weariless brain!
Ye build the future fair, ye conquer wrong,
Ye earn the crown, and wear it not in vain.
So far as her own personality is concerned, the founder of this sisterhood of ministry is “a veiled and silent woman,” shunning publicity. Her namehas circled the globe, her deeds are known in every clime, and people cite her noble heroism without even knowing that she still lives, at such pains has Miss Nightingale been to keep herself in strict seclusion. The power of her fame, the brilliance of her example, and the wisdom of her counsels are a national heritage. Women who now wear the garb of a nurse with honour and dignity owe it to the lofty tradition which has come down with the first of the gracious dynasty.
On May 12th, 1904, Miss Nightingale was the recipient of many congratulations from her friends on the attainment of her eighty-fourth birthday, and the King paid a graceful compliment to the lady who is without doubt the most illustrious heroine in His Majesty’s Empire, by conferring upon her the dignity of a Lady of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Miss Nightingale received the Red Cross from Queen Victoria.
A more unique honour was however yet in store for the heroine of the Crimea and the founder of the modern nursing movement. In November 1907, King Edward VII. appointed Miss Nightingale to the Order of Merit, which was founded by His Majesty in 1902 and first announced in the Coronation Honours List. The King is Sovereign of the Order, which originally consisted of twelve men distinguished in war, science, letters, and art. Othernames have since been added, but Florence Nightingale is the only woman placed amongst these Immortals. The conferring of the Order was not accompanied by any ceremony, as Miss Nightingale was unable, through failing health, to receive Sir Douglas Dawson, the representative appointed by the King, and the insignia was simply handed to Miss Nightingale’s nephew. The badge of the Order is a cross of red and blue enamel of eight points, bearing the legend “For Merit” in gold letters within a laurel wreath. The reverse side shows the King’s royal and imperial cipher in gold. Members of the Order rank after the Order of the Bath, and use the letters O.M. The appointment of Miss Nightingale to the Order was received with great enthusiasm throughout the country.
The German Emperor, who was visiting our shores at the time, took occasion to pay Miss Nightingale a very graceful compliment, by sending her a bouquet of flowers, accompanied by the following letter from the German Ambassador:
“Dear Miss Nightingale,—His Majesty the Emperor, having just brought to a close a most enjoyable stay in the beautiful neighbourhood of your old home [Embley Park] near Romsey, has commanded me to present you with some flowers as a token of his esteem for the lady who, after receiving her education in nursing by the Sisters of Mercy atKaiserswerth, on the Rhine, rendered such invaluable services to the cause of humanity during the Crimean War, and subsequently founded a house for the training of nurses in England, which is justly considered to be a model institution of European fame.“His Majesty sends you his best wishes, and I have the honour to remain,—Yours sincerely,“P. Metternich,“German Ambassador.”
“Dear Miss Nightingale,—His Majesty the Emperor, having just brought to a close a most enjoyable stay in the beautiful neighbourhood of your old home [Embley Park] near Romsey, has commanded me to present you with some flowers as a token of his esteem for the lady who, after receiving her education in nursing by the Sisters of Mercy atKaiserswerth, on the Rhine, rendered such invaluable services to the cause of humanity during the Crimean War, and subsequently founded a house for the training of nurses in England, which is justly considered to be a model institution of European fame.
“His Majesty sends you his best wishes, and I have the honour to remain,—Yours sincerely,
“P. Metternich,“German Ambassador.”
The following letter was sent in reply:
“Your Excellency,—I have the honour to acknowledge, on behalf of Miss Nightingale, the receipt of your letter of to-day, and of the very beautiful flowers, which she greatly appreciated.“Miss Nightingale desires me to request you to be good enough to convey to His Majesty the Emperor how much she values his Majesty’s gracious expressions of esteem and good wishes. She has always thought most highly of the nursing of the Sisters of Mercy at Kaiserswerth.“She also recalls with deep gratitude the friendship and sympathy with which his Majesty’s august mother, the late Empress, was pleased to honour her. Miss Nightingale would write personally but that failing health and eyesight prevent her.—I have the honour, etc.“K. Shore Nightingale.”
“Your Excellency,—I have the honour to acknowledge, on behalf of Miss Nightingale, the receipt of your letter of to-day, and of the very beautiful flowers, which she greatly appreciated.
“Miss Nightingale desires me to request you to be good enough to convey to His Majesty the Emperor how much she values his Majesty’s gracious expressions of esteem and good wishes. She has always thought most highly of the nursing of the Sisters of Mercy at Kaiserswerth.
“She also recalls with deep gratitude the friendship and sympathy with which his Majesty’s august mother, the late Empress, was pleased to honour her. Miss Nightingale would write personally but that failing health and eyesight prevent her.—I have the honour, etc.
“K. Shore Nightingale.”
The City of London might most fittingly have bestowed its honourable freedom upon Miss Nightingale when she returned from the Crimea in 1856, but the heroine’s retiring disposition and the conservatism of an ancient corporation stood in the way of that honour being bestowed. The late Baroness Burdett-Coutts was the first woman presented with the freedom of the City, and she has had no successor until, in February 1908, the Corporation, with the Lord Mayor presiding, passed with great enthusiasm the following resolution moved by Mr. Deputy Wallace:
“That the honourable freedom of this City, in a gold box of the value of one hundred guineas, be presented to Miss Florence Nightingale, in testimony of this Court’s appreciation of her philanthropic and successful efforts for the improvement of hospital nursing and management, whereby invaluable results have been attained for the alleviation of human suffering.”
Mr. Deputy Wallace in moving the resolution said that, “never in the history of the freedom of the City, including on its roll of fame the names of monarchs, statesmen, soldiers, and famous men of all kinds and of all callings, had it enrolled among the recipients of its honorary freedom a nobler name than that of Florence Nightingale.”
In accepting the honour of the Freedom of the City, thus offered, Miss Nightingale requested thatthe sum of one hundred guineas, which it was proposed to spend on the gold box for containing the scroll, should be given as a donation to the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute for Nurses and the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen, Harley Street, of which Miss Nightingale was the first Superintendent.
The Court of Common Council acceded to Miss Nightingale’s request and arranged for an oak box to be used instead of the traditional gold casket.
Miss Nightingale was unable to make the journey to the Guildhall to receive the Freedom, and it was arranged that the presentation should be made, on her behalf, to her nearest relative.
The ceremony took place March 16th, 1908, in the Council Chamber at the Guildhall, the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, Sir John Bell, Kt., presiding. There was a large attendance, invitations having been issued to leading medical and hospital authorities and to other representative people. There was a goodly gathering of nurses.
The City Chamberlain (Sir Joseph Dimsdale) asked Mr. L. H. Shore Nightingale, who represented Miss Nightingale, to accept the casket containing the Freedom, and made a most felicitous speech. A cheque for 106 guineas, to be devoted to any charities which Miss Nightingale was pleased to name, was given with the casket.
Mr. Shore Nightingale replied, regretting thatMiss Nightingale was unable to be present, and accepting the honour on her behalf.
Mr. Henry Bonham Carter, for many years secretary of the Nightingale Fund, gave an interesting account of his early recollections of Miss Nightingale, and related that on one occasion when they were young people she had given him first aid after an accident. In conclusion he spoke of the high qualities of heart, mind, and character which had enabled Miss Nightingale to achieve such great and signal success in the work to which she devoted her life.
We honour the soldier and applaud the valiant hero, but it required a more indomitable spirit, a higher courage, to purge the pestilential hospital of Scutari; to walk hour after hour its miles of fetid corridors crowded with suffering, even agonised, humanity, than in the heat of battle to go “down into the jaws of death,” as did the noble “Six Hundred.” A grateful nation laid its offering at the feet of the heroine of the Crimea, poets wafted her fame abroad, and the poor and suffering loved her. In barracks, in hospital, and in camp the soldier has cause to bless her name for the comfort he enjoys, the sufferers in our hospital wards have trained nurses through her initiative, the sick poor are cared for in their own homes, and the paupers humanely tended in the workhouse, asa direct result of reforms which her example or counsel prompted. No honour or title can ennoble the name of Florence Nightingale; it is peerless by virtue of her heroic deeds.
In Memoriam
The death of Miss Nightingale occurred somewhat suddenly on the afternoon of August 13th, 1910, at her residence 10, South Street, Park Lane. The cause of death was heart failure. She sank peacefully to rest in the presence of two of her relatives. Until the day before her death she was in her usual health and bright spirits. In the previous May she celebrated her ninetieth birthday, spending the day quietly with her household. On that occasion she was the recipient of many congratulations from her friends, and her room was gay with spring flowers. The King, in the midst of his own bereavement, in the recent death of hisfather, was not unmindful of the heroine of the Crimea, and sent her the following message:
“To Miss Florence Nightingale, O.M.“On the occasion of your Ninetieth Birthday, I offer you my heartfelt congratulations and trust that you are in good health.“(Signed)George R. & I.”
“To Miss Florence Nightingale, O.M.
“On the occasion of your Ninetieth Birthday, I offer you my heartfelt congratulations and trust that you are in good health.
“(Signed)George R. & I.”
On receiving the tidings of Miss Nightingale’s death, the King sent the following telegram from Balmoral to herrelatives:—
“The Queen and I have received with deep regret the sad news of the death of Miss Florence Nightingale, whose untiring and devoted services to the British soldiers in the Crimea will never be forgotten, and to whose striking example we practically owe our present splendid organisation of trained nurses. Please accept the expression of our sincere sympathy.“George R.I.”
“The Queen and I have received with deep regret the sad news of the death of Miss Florence Nightingale, whose untiring and devoted services to the British soldiers in the Crimea will never be forgotten, and to whose striking example we practically owe our present splendid organisation of trained nurses. Please accept the expression of our sincere sympathy.
“George R.I.”
Amongst the soldier heroes in St. Paul’s, or with the great ones in Westminster Abbey, would have been the fitting burial place for our greatest national heroine, whose deeds will live for ever in the records of our country. But she ever shunned publicity,and in deference to her wishes her funeral was not of a public character. The offer of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster of a burial place in the Abbey was declined by her executors. She was quietly laid to rest on Saturday, August 20th, in the little churchyard of East Wellow, Hampshire, near to her old home of Embley Park, and within sight of the hills where, as a child, she found her first patient in the old shepherd’s dog.
An impressive Memorial Service for those wishing to pay a tribute of love and honour to the heroine of the Crimea was held on the day of the funeral, in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
“On England’s annals, through the longHereafter of her speech and song,A light its rays shall castFrom portals of the past.“A lady with a lamp shall standIn the great history of the land,A noble type of good,Heroic womanhood.”
“On England’s annals, through the longHereafter of her speech and song,A light its rays shall castFrom portals of the past.“A lady with a lamp shall standIn the great history of the land,A noble type of good,Heroic womanhood.”
“On England’s annals, through the longHereafter of her speech and song,A light its rays shall castFrom portals of the past.
“On England’s annals, through the long
Hereafter of her speech and song,
A light its rays shall cast
From portals of the past.
“A lady with a lamp shall standIn the great history of the land,A noble type of good,Heroic womanhood.”
“A lady with a lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good,
Heroic womanhood.”
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