•NOT THE WOMAN'S PLACE' 229 



of faintness during emotional crises ; but these were 

 all exceptions. In other sports — shooting, rowing, 

 boat-sailing — ^the rule required no proving, which 

 was fortunate, as I think there were no exceptions. 

 In art, a tepid water-colour or so was tolerated ; 

 elegant volumes of " Keepsakes " received the over- 

 flowings of the feminine literary fount in contribu- 

 tions that ran smoothly in the twin channels of 

 knightly heroism and female fidelity, varied perhaps 

 by a dirge for a departed ring-dove or a sob for a 

 faded rosebud. 



Even in philanthropy, in whose domain the con- 

 ventional Ministering Angel might have been assigned 

 a place, " The Woman " was assured that she had 

 none. I have been privileged to meet one of Miss 

 Florence Nightingale's contemporaries and acquaint- 

 ances, an old lady of over ninety, with whom to 

 speak was as though one had leaped backwards 

 through the rushing years and landed in a peaceful 

 backwater of earliest Victorian times. 



" Florence Nightingale ? " said this little old lady, 

 buried in a big chair, looking like a tiny, shrivelled 

 white mouse with bright blue eyes and grey mittens. 

 " Ah ! yes, I knew her well. A beautiful woman, 

 my dear ; but she had that curious fancy for washing 

 dirty men ! " — which, no doubt, expressed a very 

 general view of the life-work of the Lady with the 

 Lamp. 



Probably when the history is written of how The 

 Woman's place in the world came to include " All 

 out-doors " (as they say in America), as well as 

 what has been called in Ireland, " the work that is 

 within," it will be acknowledged that sport. Lawn 

 Tennis, Bicycling, and Hunting, played quite as 

 potent a part as education in the emancipation 

 that has culminated in the Representation of the 



