Annie Matheson - Florence Nightingale: A Biography

The Lady with the Lamp.

(From the statuette in the Nightingale Home.)

It is hardly necessary to say that this little biographyis based mainly upon the work of others,though I hope and believe it is honest enough tohave an individuality of its own and it has certainlycost endless individual labour and anxiety.Few tasks in literature are in practice moreworrying than the responsibility of piecingtogether other peoples fragments, and thegreat unknown who in reviewing my Leavesof Prose thought I had found an easy wayof turning myself into respectable cement fora tessellated pavement made of other peopleschipped marble, was evidently a stranger to myparticular temperament. Where I have beenfree to express myself without regard to others,to use only my own language, and utter only myown views, I have had something of the feelingof a child out for a holiday, and of course thegreater part of the book is in my own words.But I have often, for obvious reasons, chosen thehumbler task, because, wherever it is possible, itis good that my readers should have their impressionsat first hand, and in regard to Kinglakeespecially, from whose non-copyright volumesI have given many a page, his masculine tributeto Miss Nightingale is of infinitely more valuethan any words which could come from me.

My publisher has kindly allowed me to leavemany questions of copyright to him, but I wish,not the lessrather the moreto thank all thoseauthors and publishers who have permitted useof their material and whose names will, in manyinstances, be found incorporated in the text or inthe accompanying footnotes. I have not thoughtit necessary in every instance to give a referenceto volume and page, though occasionally, forsome special reason of my own, I have done so.

Of those in closest touch with Miss Nightingaleduring her lifetime, whose help with originalmaterial has been invaluable, not more than onecan be thanked by name. But to Mrs. Tooleyfor her large-hearted generosity with regard toher own admirable biographyto which I owefar more than the mere quotations so kindly permitted,and in most cases so clearly acknowledgedin the textit is a great pleasure to express mythanksgiving publicly.

There are many others who have helped me, andnot once with regard to the little sketch have I metwith any unkindness or rebuff. Indeed, so variousare the acknowledgments due, and so sincere thegratitude I feel, that I scarcely know where to begin.

To Miss Rickards, for the pages from herbeautiful life of Felicia Skene, I wish to recordheartfelt thanks; and also to Messrs. Burns andOates with regard to lengthy quotations fromthe letters of Sister Aloysiusa deeply interestinglittle volume published by them in 1904,under the title of A Sister of Mercys Memoriesof the Crimea; to Dr. Hagberg Wright of theLondon Library for the prolonged loan of awhole library of books of reference and the helpalways accessible to his subscribers; and to thelibrarian of the Derby Free Library for aid inverifying pedigree. Also to Lord Stanmore forhis generous permission to use long extracts fromhis fathers Life of Lord Herbert, from whichmore than one valuable letter has been taken;and to Mr. John Murray for sanctioning thisand for like privileges in relation to the lives ofSir John MacNeill and Sir Bartle Frere. ToMessrs. William Blackwood, Messrs. Cassell,Messrs. G. P. Putnam and Sons, as well as tothe editors and publishers of the Times, DailyTelegraph, Morning Post, and Evening News, Iwish to add my thanks to those of my publisher.

To any reader of this book it will be clearhow great a debt I owe to General Evatt, andhe knows, I think, how sincerely I recognize it.Mr. Stephen Paget, the writer of the article onMiss Nightingale in the Dictionary of NationalBiography, has not only permitted me to quotefrom thata privilege for which I must alsothank Messrs. Smith Elder, and Sir Sidney Leebuthas, in addition, put me in the way of otherpriceless material wherewith to do honour to thesubject of this biography. I have long beengrateful to him for the inspiration and charm ofhis own Confessio Medicithere is now thisother obligation to add to that.

Nor can I forgo cordial acknowledgments tothe writer and also the publisher of the charmingsketch of Miss Nightingales Life published someyears ago by the Pilgrim Press and entitled TheStory of Florence Nightingale.

To my friend Dr. Lewis N. Chase I owe therare privilege of an introduction to Mr. Walker,the sculptor, who has so graciously permitted formy frontispiece a reproduction of the statue hehas just completed as a part of our nationalmemorial to Miss Nightingale.

I desire to thank Miss Rosalind Paget fordirecting me to sources of information and bestowingon me treasures of time and of memory,as well as Miss Eleanor F. Rathbone and thewriter of Sir John MacNeills Life for helpgiven by their books, and Miss Marion Holmesfor permission to quote from her inspiring monograph;and last, but by no means least, to expressmy sense of the self-sacrificing magnanimity withwhich Miss E. Brierly, the present editor ofNursing Notes, at once offered me and placed inmy handswhat I should never have dreamed ofasking, even had I been a friend of old standing,instead of a comparative strangereverything sheherself had gathered together and preserved asbearing on the life of Florence Nightingale.

When, under the influence of certain articlesin the Times, I undertook to write this volumefor Messrs. Nelson, I knew nothing of the otherbiographies in the field. Nor had I any ideathat an officially authorized life was about to bewritten by Sir Edward Cook, a biographer withan intellectual equipment far beyond my own,but who will not perhaps grudge me the nameof friend, since his courteous considerateness forall leads many others to make a like claim, andthe knowledge that he would put no obstacle inmy path has spared me what might have been aserious difficulty. Had I known all this, a decentmodesty might have prevented my undertaking.But in every direction unforeseen help has beenshowered upon me, and nothing but my own inexorablelimitations have stood in my way.

If there be any who, by their books, or in anyother way, have helped me, but whom by someunhappy oversight I have omitted to name inthese brief documentary thanks, I must earnestlybeg them to believe that such an error is contraryto my intention and goodwill.