1853-1859] Florence Nightingale 159 



where she was staying: "I am sorry we lose Emma and 

 Charles to-day. Charles is uncommonly agreeable, fresh and 

 sparkling as the purest water." 



Fanny Allen in many letters during these years ^ gives 

 expression to her intense admiration for Florence Nightingale 

 and her work in the Crimea. She wrote during a visit to the 

 Hensleigh Wedgwoods in London (Oct., 1856) : " Sam Smith 1 

 called one morning this week and gave some details of 

 Florence N.'s visit to the Queen. He said no one could be 

 kinder than the Queen was. Flo was particularly im- 

 pressed by Prince Albert's understanding. Every question 

 he put was to the purpose, and he seemed to have under- 

 stood the details better than all the officials, as if he had 

 read everything. She had an immense mass of work to get 

 through, and she is still far from restored." 



December 3rd, 1856. 



The Nightingale meeting was successful, I think, on 

 the whole. There did not seem to be much enthusiasm 

 among them, but the time is too far gone for that, and 

 there is a more enduring stamp on Flo and her work which 

 no time will change. Sidney Herbert's speech pleased me 

 most. Those three touching anecdotes of her influence over 

 the minds of the soldiers are beautiful, particularly the one 

 of the soldiers kissing her shadow as it passed over their 

 beds. What woman ever took so high a position as she 

 does now ! I was dreaming of her all last night. 



April 15th [1357]. 



I fear from a line in one of the newspapers that Florence 

 Nightingale's life is approaching its end, as Mrs Rich would 

 say. I have been deeply impressed by her life these last 

 few days, which in respect of mine, forms but a fragment in 

 regard of time, and what she has accomplished ! I remem- 

 ber her a little girl of 3 or 4 years, then the girl of 1 6 of high 

 promise when I next met her at Geneva, and which she has 

 most faithfully kept. A high mission has been given her, 

 which has cost her her life to fulfil, and now when I look 



1 Uncle of Florence Nightingale. 



