THE LIFE OF
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
Mrs. Nightingale and her daughters
1828
from a water-colour drawing in the possession of Mrs. Cunliffe
THE LIFE
OF
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
BY
SIR EDWARD COOK
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
(1820–1861)
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1913
COPYRIGHT
PREFACE
Men and women are divided, in relation to their papers,into hoarders and scatterers. Miss Nightingale was ahoarder, and as she lived to be 90 the accumulation ofpapers, stored in her house at the time of her death, wasvery great. The papers referring to years up to 1861 hadbeen neatly done up by herself, and it was evident that noteverything had been kept. After that date, time andstrength to sort and weed had been wanting, and MissNightingale seems to have thrown little away. Evensoiled sheets of blotting-paper, on which she had madenotes in pencil, were preserved. By a Will executed in1896 she had directed that all her letters, papers, andmanuscripts, with some specific exceptions, should bedestroyed. By a Codicil executed in the following year sherevoked this direction, and bequeathed the letters, papers,and manuscripts to her cousin, Mr. Henry Bonham Carter.After her death the papers were sorted chronologically byhis direction, and they have formed the principal foundationof this Memoir.
Of expressly autobiographical notes, Miss Nightingaleleft very few. At the date of the Codicil above mentionedshe seems to have contemplated the probability of someauthoritative record of her life; for in that year she wrotea short summary of what she called “My Responsibility toIndia,” detailing her relations with successive Secretariesof State, Governors-General, and other administrators.Her memory in these matters was still accurate, for thesummary is fully borne out by letters and other papersof the several dates: it adds some personal details. Inprivate letters she sometimes recounted, at later times,episodes or experiences in her life, but such references are[vi]few. Nor, except for a few years, did Miss Nightingalekeep any formal diary; and during the Crimean episodeshe was too incessantly busy with her multitudinous dutiesto find time for many private notes.
The principal authority for Miss Nightingale's Life isthus the collection of papers aforesaid, and these are verycopious in information. The records, in one sort or another,of her earlier years are full. The papers relating to her workduring the Crimean War are voluminous, and I have supplementedthe study of these by consulting the official documentsconcerning Miss Nightingale's mission which arepreserv