July 26, 2025 • 17 mins
Explore the extraordinary life of Florence Nightingale through the eyes of renowned journalist and author, Sarah Tooley. Known for her biographies, including that of Queen Victoria, Tooley provides a captivating insight into Nightingales life. Published originally in 1904, the biography details the life of Nightingale, hailed as the founder of modern nursing. Beyond nursing, Nightingale was an accomplished statistician, social reformer, feminist, and author. This comprehensive biography is as riveting as it is educational, with Tooleys expert storytelling making it a must-listen.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eighteen of the Life of Florence Nightingale by Sarah Tully.
The Slebrivox recording is in the public domain. Stricken by fever,
continued visitation of hospitals, sudden illness, conveyed to sanatorium, visit
of Lord Raglan, convalescence, accepts offer of Lord Ward's yacht.
(00:23):
Returns to Scuderi Memorial to fallen heroes, know how sublime
a thing it is to suffer and be strong, longfellow.
Nothing Daunted by the fatiguing journey to the camp hospitals
at Headquarters related in the last chapter, Miss Nightingale, although
she was feeling indisposed, set out the next morning to
(00:46):
visit the General hospital at Balaklava and the sanatorium. She
was accompanied by the ubiquitous Monsieur Soyer, who was carrying
out his culinary campaign at the Crimean Hospitals, and attended
by her faithful boy To. After spending several hours inspecting
the wards of the general hospital, Miss Nightingale proceeded to
(01:06):
the Sanatorium, a collection of huts perched on the Genoese Heights,
nearly eight hundred feet above the sea. She was escorted
by mister Bracebridge, doctor Sutherland and a sergeant's guard. The
weather was intensely hot, as is usual in the Crimea
during the month of May, and the journey following on
the fatigue of the previous day proved a trying. One
(01:30):
half way up the heights, Miss Nightingale stopped to visit
a sick officer in one of the doctor's huts, and
afterwards proceeded to inspect the sanatorium. She returned to Balaklava
and next day went to install three nurses in the sanatorium,
and on her way up again visited the invalid officer
in his lonely hut. During the succeeding days she continued
(01:52):
her inspection of the hospitals in Balaklava, and also removed
her quarters to the London. As the Robert Lowe in
which she sailed was ordered home. It was went on
board the London while she was transacting business with one
of her nursing staff that Miss Nightingale was suddenly seized
with alarming illness. The doctors pronounced it to be the
(02:14):
worst form of crimean fever and ordered that she should
be immediately taken up to the sanatorium. She was laid
on a stretcher and tenderly carried by sad eyed soldiers
through Balaklava and up the mountain side amid general consternation.
Her own private nurse, missus Roberts, attended her, A friend
(02:34):
held a large white umbrella to protect her face from
the glaring sun, and poor Thomas, the page boy, who
had proudly called himself Miss Nightingale's man, followed his mistress,
crying piteously. So great was the lamenting crowd that it
took an hour to get the precious burden up to
the heights. A hut was selected near a small stream,
(02:56):
the banks of which were gay with spring flowers, and
there for the next few days Florence Nightingale lay in
a most critical condition, assiduously nursed by Missus Roberts and
attended by doctors Henderson and Hadley. It seemed strange to
everyone that Miss Nightingale, after passing unscathed through her hard
(03:16):
labors at Scudery, when she had been in daily contact
with cholera and fever, should have succumbed to disease at Balaklava.
But the fatigues of the past days, undertaken during excessive heat,
accounted largely for the seizure, and some of her friends
thought also that she had caught infection when visiting the
sick officer on her way up to the sanatorium. Alarmist
(03:39):
reports quickly spread, and at Balaklava it was currently reported
that Florence Nightingale was dying. The sad tidings were told
at the barrack hospital at Scudery. Amidst the most pathetic scenes,
the sick men turned their faces to the wall and
cried like children. The news in due time reached and
(04:01):
the leading articles in the papers of the time show
that the public regarded the possible death of our heroine
as a great national calamity. Happily, the suspense was brief,
and following quickly on the mournful tidings came the glad
news that the worst symptoms were passed and that, in
all human probability, the precious life would be spared. Miss Nightingale,
(04:25):
in a touching bit of autobiography, attributes her first step
towards convalescence to the joy caused on receiving a bunch
of wildflowers. During the time that Miss Nightingale lay in
her hut on the Genoese Heights, some very sharp skirmishes
were taking place between the Allied troops and the enemy,
and it was reported that the Russians were likely to
(04:46):
attack Balaklava by the Kamara side. Miss Nightingale's hut, being
nearest to that point, would, in the event of such
a plan being carried out, have been the first to
be attacked. Thomas the Page constituted himself guard of his
beloved mistress, and was ready to die valiantly in her defense.
(05:07):
It would, however, be an injustice to the Russian troops
to imply that they would knowingly have harmed even a
hair of Florence Nightingale's head. Her person was sacred to
friend and foe alike. Lord Raglan was deeply concerned at
Miss Nightingale's illness, and as soon as he heard from
the doctor's in attendance that he might visit her, rode
(05:29):
over from headquarters for the purpose. Missus Roberts, the nurse,
thus related to Monsieur Soyer the account of the Commander
in chief's unexpected call. It was about five o'clock in
the afternoon when he came. Miss Nightingale was dozing after
a very restless night. We had a storm that day
(05:50):
and it was very wet. I was in my room
sewing when two men on horseback, wrapped in large guttapercha
cloaks and dripping wet, knocked at the door. I went out,
and one inquired in which hut, Miss Nightingale resided. He
spoke so loud that I said, hist, hist, don't make
such a horrible noise as that, my man, at the
(06:13):
same time making a sign with both hands for him
to be quiet. He then repeated his question, but not
in so loud a tone. I told him this was
the hut, all right, said he jumping from his horse,
and he was walking straight in when I pushed him back,
asking what he meant and whom he wanted. Miss Nightingale
(06:34):
said he, and pray, who are you? Oh? Only a
soldier was the reply. But I must see her. I
have come a long way. My name is Raglin. She
knows me very well. Miss Nightingale overhearing him, called me in, saying, oh,
this is Roberts. It is Lord Raglin. Pray tell him
(06:55):
I have a very bad fever, and it will be
dangerous for him to come near me. I have no
fear of fever or anything else, said Lord Ragland, and
before I had time to turn round. In came his lordship.
He took up a stool, sat down at the foot
of the bed, and kindly asked Miss Nightingale how she was,
(07:15):
expressing his sorrow at her illness, and thanking and praising
her for the good she had done for the troops.
He wished her a speedy recovery and hoped that she
might be able to continue her charitable and invaluable exertions,
so highly appreciated by every one, as well as by himself.
He then bade Miss Nightingale good bye and went away.
(07:38):
As he was going out, I said I wish to apologize. No, no,
not at all, my dear lady, said, Lord Ragland, you
did very right, for I perceived that Miss Nightingale has
not yet received my letter in which I announced my
intention of paying her a visit to day, having previously
inquired of the doctor if she could be seen. Miss
(07:59):
knight Ightingale became convalescent about twelve days after her seizure,
and doctors were urgent that she should immediately sail for England.
This our heroine steadfastly declined to do, feeling that her
mission was not accomplished and that she could not desert
her post. Although in a state of extreme weakness and exhaustion,
(08:20):
she felt that time would accomplish her recovery, and she
decided to return in the meantime to Scutery, with the
intention of coming back to the Crimea to complete her work.
A berth was arranged for her in the Jura, and
Miss Nightingale was brought down from the sanatorium upon a stretcher,
carried by eight soldiers and accompanied by Doctor Hadley, Missus Roberts,
(08:43):
the nurse, several sisters of Charity, and other friends. When
the procession reached the Jura, tackle was attached to the
four corners of the stretcher and the invalid was thus
swung on deck by means of pulleys. She was carefully
carried to the chief cabin and it was hoped that
she would now accomplish the voyage in comfort. Unfortunately, a
(09:05):
disagreeable smell was discovered to pervade the Jura, caused by
a number of horses which had recently been landed from it,
and shortly after being brought aboard, Miss Nightingale fainted. The
Page Thomas was dispatched to recall doctor Hadley, who when
he arrived, ordered that the illustrious patient should at once
be conveyed to another vessel. Miss Nightingale was temporarily taken
(09:30):
to the Baraguaya Illiers until an order could be procured
from the Admiral for another vessel. Meantime. Lord Ward, afterwards,
Earl of Dudley and father of the present Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland, who had been active in sending help to
the sick and wounded, heard with great concern of the
inconvenience and indeed danger to life, which Miss Nightingale was suffering,
(09:53):
and at once offered her the use of his yacht,
the New London, to take her to Scoonery. Lord Ward
further arranged that the yacht should be at her entire disposal,
and no one should be on board except his medical
man and those whom she chose to take with her.
Miss Nightingale was pleased to accept Lord Ward's offer, and
she was accordingly conveyed to the yacht and established in
(10:16):
great ease and comfort. Besides her personal attendance, Miss Nightingale
was accompanied by mister Bracebridge and Monsieur Soyer. Before her departure,
Lord Ragland visited Miss Nightingale on board the New London.
But little did she think that in a few short
weeks the brave Commander would have passed to the great Majority.
(10:37):
He had shown himself most sympathetic to her mission to
the East, and had received her letters in regard to
reforms in the hospitals with attention, while in his dispatches
to the government he had paid the highest tribute to
the value of her work amongst the six soldiers. During
the period of Miss Nightingale's convalescence, he sent frequent inquiries
(10:57):
after her health time. Lord Ragland's difficulty as commander in
chief of the British forces were daily increasing. On June eighteenth,
eighteen fifty five, the Allied armies were to make the
general assault on Sebastopol. Lord Ragland had proposed to preface
the assault by a two hours cannonade to silence the
(11:19):
guns remounted by the enemy during the night, but Pelissier,
the French commander, pressed for an immediate attack at daybreak,
and Lord Ragland yielded rather than imperil the Alliance. The
result was disastrous, ending in the terrible assault and repulse
of the British troops at the Ridawn. The Commander in
(11:39):
chief felt the failure deeply, and it was to announce
this defeat that he wrote his last dispatch to the
Government June twenty sixth. On the twenty eighth, he breathed
his last, worn out and disheartened by the gigantic task
with which he had been called to grapple. Miss Nightingale,
in her own weakened condition, was deeply affected by Lord
(12:03):
Ragland's death. He was a man of charming and benevolent disposition,
and thoroughly straightforward in all his dealings. Wellington described him
as a man who wouldn't tell a lie to save
his life. He had served under that great commander during
half his career, and was proud to the last when
(12:23):
he had to contend with much adverse criticism that he
had enjoyed the confidence of Wellington. Lord Ragland was blamed
for not visiting the camps during the earlier stages of
the Crimean War and ascertaining the condition of his soldiers,
whereby much of the sickness and misery might have been obviated,
but his biographers say that this charge, though not groundless,
(12:47):
was exaggerated. Lord Ragland was a rough and ready soldier
who disliked ostentation, and in this way many of his
visits to the camp passed almost unnoticed. The impromptu call
which he made at Miss Nightingale's hut, already related, was
thoroughly characteristic of Lord Ragland's methods. Miss Nightingale returned to
(13:10):
Scudery a little more than a month after she had
left for the Crimea, and was received on landing by
Lord William Pollett, Commandant, Doctor Cumming, Inspector General and Doctor
mc gregor, Deputy Inspector, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. The Ambassador
offered her the use of the British Palace at Pera,
but Miss Nightingale preferred to use the house of the Chaplain,
(13:33):
the Reverend Mister Sabin, and there she made a good
recovery under the care of solicitous friends. Often, in these
days of returning strength, she would stroll beneath the trees
of the Cemetery of Scuterery, where so many of our
brave men lay. It is situated on a promontory high
above the sea, with a fine outlook over the Bosphorus.
(13:56):
Flowers planted by loving hands were decking the graves of
many of her friends who had passed away during the winter,
and the grasses had begun to wave above the deep
pits where the soldiers lay in a nameless grave. During
these walks, Miss Nightingale gathered a few flowers here, a
bunch of grasses there, and pressed and dried them to
(14:18):
keep in loving memory of the brave dead. They eventually
formed a part of a collection of Crimean mementos, which
she arranged after her return home to lee Hurst. This
burying ground was really a portion of the ancient cemetery
of Scuderi, the most sacred and celebrated in the Ottoman Empire.
(14:38):
Travelers have described the weird effect of the dense masses
of cypress trees, which bend and wave over three miles
of unnumbered tombs, increasing each year. In extent, the Turks
never disturbed their dead and regard a burying ground with
great veneration. Hence the ancient and yet modern character of
(14:59):
the sk Goodery cemetery and the great extents of the
graves over the wide solitude. So thick are the cypress
trees that even the oriental sun does not penetrate their shade.
Byron has described the scene as the place of thousand
tombs that shine beneath, while dark above, the sad but
(15:21):
living cypress glooms and withers, not though branch and leaf
are stamped by an eternal grief. According to a poetic legend,
myriads of strange birds hover over the tombs or flit
noiselessly from the black sea to the fairer one of Marmara.
When they turn and retrace their flight, these birds have
(15:44):
never been known to stop or feed, and never heard
to sing. They have a dark plumage in unison with
the somber cypress trees over which they incessantly flit. When
there is a storm on the Bosphorus, they send up
sharp cry of agony. The Turks believe that the weird
birds are condemned souls who have lived an evil life
(16:07):
in this world and are not permitted to rest in
a tomb, and so in a spirit of unrest, they
wander over the tombs of others. One of the most
beautiful monuments in the vast cemetery is the one which
marks the grave of Sultan Mahmoud's favorite horse. The Turkish
government gave a piece of ground adjacent to the sacred
(16:29):
cemetery to serve as a burying place for the British
soldiers who fell in the Crimea, and it was at
the instance of Miss Nightingale that a memorial was erected
there to the fallen heroes. She started the scheme during
her period of convalescence at Scuderi, and it was completed
after the conclusion of the war. Some four thousand British
(16:51):
soldiers lie in the cemetery, and in the midst of
the nameless graves rises a gleaming column of marble. The
shaft is supported by four angels with drooping wings. On
each side of the base is inscribed in four different languages.
This monument was erected by Queen Victoria and her people.
(17:13):
End of Chapter eighteen.
Chapter eighteen of the Life of Florence Nightingale by Sarah Tully.
The Slebrivox recording is in the public domain. Stricken by fever,
continued visitation of hospitals, sudden illness, conveyed to sanatorium, visit
of Lord Raglan, convalescence, accepts offer of Lord Ward's yacht.
(00:23):
Returns to Scuderi Memorial to fallen heroes, know how sublime
a thing it is to suffer and be strong, longfellow.
Nothing Daunted by the fatiguing journey to the camp hospitals
at Headquarters related in the last chapter, Miss Nightingale, although
she was feeling indisposed, set out the next morning to
(00:46):
visit the General hospital at Balaklava and the sanatorium. She
was accompanied by the ubiquitous Monsieur Soyer, who was carrying
out his culinary campaign at the Crimean Hospitals, and attended
by her faithful boy To. After spending several hours inspecting
the wards of the general hospital, Miss Nightingale proceeded to
(01:06):
the Sanatorium, a collection of huts perched on the Genoese Heights,
nearly eight hundred feet above the sea. She was escorted
by mister Bracebridge, doctor Sutherland and a sergeant's guard. The
weather was intensely hot, as is usual in the Crimea
during the month of May, and the journey following on
the fatigue of the previous day proved a trying. One
(01:30):
half way up the heights, Miss Nightingale stopped to visit
a sick officer in one of the doctor's huts, and
afterwards proceeded to inspect the sanatorium. She returned to Balaklava
and next day went to install three nurses in the sanatorium,
and on her way up again visited the invalid officer
in his lonely hut. During the succeeding days she continued
(01:52):
her inspection of the hospitals in Balaklava, and also removed
her quarters to the London. As the Robert Lowe in
which she sailed was ordered home. It was went on
board the London while she was transacting business with one
of her nursing staff that Miss Nightingale was suddenly seized
with alarming illness. The doctors pronounced it to be the
(02:14):
worst form of crimean fever and ordered that she should
be immediately taken up to the sanatorium. She was laid
on a stretcher and tenderly carried by sad eyed soldiers
through Balaklava and up the mountain side amid general consternation.
Her own private nurse, missus Roberts, attended her, A friend
(02:34):
held a large white umbrella to protect her face from
the glaring sun, and poor Thomas, the page boy, who
had proudly called himself Miss Nightingale's man, followed his mistress,
crying piteously. So great was the lamenting crowd that it
took an hour to get the precious burden up to
the heights. A hut was selected near a small stream,
(02:56):
the banks of which were gay with spring flowers, and
there for the next few days Florence Nightingale lay in
a most critical condition, assiduously nursed by Missus Roberts and
attended by doctors Henderson and Hadley. It seemed strange to
everyone that Miss Nightingale, after passing unscathed through her hard
(03:16):
labors at Scudery, when she had been in daily contact
with cholera and fever, should have succumbed to disease at Balaklava.
But the fatigues of the past days, undertaken during excessive heat,
accounted largely for the seizure, and some of her friends
thought also that she had caught infection when visiting the
sick officer on her way up to the sanatorium. Alarmist
(03:39):
reports quickly spread, and at Balaklava it was currently reported
that Florence Nightingale was dying. The sad tidings were told
at the barrack hospital at Scudery. Amidst the most pathetic scenes,
the sick men turned their faces to the wall and
cried like children. The news in due time reached and
(04:01):
the leading articles in the papers of the time show
that the public regarded the possible death of our heroine
as a great national calamity. Happily, the suspense was brief,
and following quickly on the mournful tidings came the glad
news that the worst symptoms were passed and that, in
all human probability, the precious life would be spared. Miss Nightingale,
(04:25):
in a touching bit of autobiography, attributes her first step
towards convalescence to the joy caused on receiving a bunch
of wildflowers. During the time that Miss Nightingale lay in
her hut on the Genoese Heights, some very sharp skirmishes
were taking place between the Allied troops and the enemy,
and it was reported that the Russians were likely to
(04:46):
attack Balaklava by the Kamara side. Miss Nightingale's hut, being
nearest to that point, would, in the event of such
a plan being carried out, have been the first to
be attacked. Thomas the Page constituted himself guard of his
beloved mistress, and was ready to die valiantly in her defense.
(05:07):
It would, however, be an injustice to the Russian troops
to imply that they would knowingly have harmed even a
hair of Florence Nightingale's head. Her person was sacred to
friend and foe alike. Lord Raglan was deeply concerned at
Miss Nightingale's illness, and as soon as he heard from
the doctor's in attendance that he might visit her, rode
(05:29):
over from headquarters for the purpose. Missus Roberts, the nurse,
thus related to Monsieur Soyer the account of the Commander
in chief's unexpected call. It was about five o'clock in
the afternoon when he came. Miss Nightingale was dozing after
a very restless night. We had a storm that day
(05:50):
and it was very wet. I was in my room
sewing when two men on horseback, wrapped in large guttapercha
cloaks and dripping wet, knocked at the door. I went out,
and one inquired in which hut, Miss Nightingale resided. He
spoke so loud that I said, hist, hist, don't make
such a horrible noise as that, my man, at the
(06:13):
same time making a sign with both hands for him
to be quiet. He then repeated his question, but not
in so loud a tone. I told him this was
the hut, all right, said he jumping from his horse,
and he was walking straight in when I pushed him back,
asking what he meant and whom he wanted. Miss Nightingale
(06:34):
said he, and pray, who are you? Oh? Only a
soldier was the reply. But I must see her. I
have come a long way. My name is Raglin. She
knows me very well. Miss Nightingale overhearing him, called me in, saying, oh,
this is Roberts. It is Lord Raglin. Pray tell him
(06:55):
I have a very bad fever, and it will be
dangerous for him to come near me. I have no
fear of fever or anything else, said Lord Ragland, and
before I had time to turn round. In came his lordship.
He took up a stool, sat down at the foot
of the bed, and kindly asked Miss Nightingale how she was,
(07:15):
expressing his sorrow at her illness, and thanking and praising
her for the good she had done for the troops.
He wished her a speedy recovery and hoped that she
might be able to continue her charitable and invaluable exertions,
so highly appreciated by every one, as well as by himself.
He then bade Miss Nightingale good bye and went away.
(07:38):
As he was going out, I said I wish to apologize. No, no,
not at all, my dear lady, said, Lord Ragland, you
did very right, for I perceived that Miss Nightingale has
not yet received my letter in which I announced my
intention of paying her a visit to day, having previously
inquired of the doctor if she could be seen. Miss
(07:59):
knight Ightingale became convalescent about twelve days after her seizure,
and doctors were urgent that she should immediately sail for England.
This our heroine steadfastly declined to do, feeling that her
mission was not accomplished and that she could not desert
her post. Although in a state of extreme weakness and exhaustion,
(08:20):
she felt that time would accomplish her recovery, and she
decided to return in the meantime to Scutery, with the
intention of coming back to the Crimea to complete her work.
A berth was arranged for her in the Jura, and
Miss Nightingale was brought down from the sanatorium upon a stretcher,
carried by eight soldiers and accompanied by Doctor Hadley, Missus Roberts,
(08:43):
the nurse, several sisters of Charity, and other friends. When
the procession reached the Jura, tackle was attached to the
four corners of the stretcher and the invalid was thus
swung on deck by means of pulleys. She was carefully
carried to the chief cabin and it was hoped that
she would now accomplish the voyage in comfort. Unfortunately, a
(09:05):
disagreeable smell was discovered to pervade the Jura, caused by
a number of horses which had recently been landed from it,
and shortly after being brought aboard, Miss Nightingale fainted. The
Page Thomas was dispatched to recall doctor Hadley, who when
he arrived, ordered that the illustrious patient should at once
be conveyed to another vessel. Miss Nightingale was temporarily taken
(09:30):
to the Baraguaya Illiers until an order could be procured
from the Admiral for another vessel. Meantime. Lord Ward, afterwards,
Earl of Dudley and father of the present Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland, who had been active in sending help to
the sick and wounded, heard with great concern of the
inconvenience and indeed danger to life, which Miss Nightingale was suffering,
(09:53):
and at once offered her the use of his yacht,
the New London, to take her to Scoonery. Lord Ward
further arranged that the yacht should be at her entire disposal,
and no one should be on board except his medical
man and those whom she chose to take with her.
Miss Nightingale was pleased to accept Lord Ward's offer, and
she was accordingly conveyed to the yacht and established in
(10:16):
great ease and comfort. Besides her personal attendance, Miss Nightingale
was accompanied by mister Bracebridge and Monsieur Soyer. Before her departure,
Lord Ragland visited Miss Nightingale on board the New London.
But little did she think that in a few short
weeks the brave Commander would have passed to the great Majority.
(10:37):
He had shown himself most sympathetic to her mission to
the East, and had received her letters in regard to
reforms in the hospitals with attention, while in his dispatches
to the government he had paid the highest tribute to
the value of her work amongst the six soldiers. During
the period of Miss Nightingale's convalescence, he sent frequent inquiries
(10:57):
after her health time. Lord Ragland's difficulty as commander in
chief of the British forces were daily increasing. On June eighteenth,
eighteen fifty five, the Allied armies were to make the
general assault on Sebastopol. Lord Ragland had proposed to preface
the assault by a two hours cannonade to silence the
(11:19):
guns remounted by the enemy during the night, but Pelissier,
the French commander, pressed for an immediate attack at daybreak,
and Lord Ragland yielded rather than imperil the Alliance. The
result was disastrous, ending in the terrible assault and repulse
of the British troops at the Ridawn. The Commander in
(11:39):
chief felt the failure deeply, and it was to announce
this defeat that he wrote his last dispatch to the
Government June twenty sixth. On the twenty eighth, he breathed
his last, worn out and disheartened by the gigantic task
with which he had been called to grapple. Miss Nightingale,
in her own weakened condition, was deeply affected by Lord
(12:03):
Ragland's death. He was a man of charming and benevolent disposition,
and thoroughly straightforward in all his dealings. Wellington described him
as a man who wouldn't tell a lie to save
his life. He had served under that great commander during
half his career, and was proud to the last when
(12:23):
he had to contend with much adverse criticism that he
had enjoyed the confidence of Wellington. Lord Ragland was blamed
for not visiting the camps during the earlier stages of
the Crimean War and ascertaining the condition of his soldiers,
whereby much of the sickness and misery might have been obviated,
but his biographers say that this charge, though not groundless,
(12:47):
was exaggerated. Lord Ragland was a rough and ready soldier
who disliked ostentation, and in this way many of his
visits to the camp passed almost unnoticed. The impromptu call
which he made at Miss Nightingale's hut, already related, was
thoroughly characteristic of Lord Ragland's methods. Miss Nightingale returned to
(13:10):
Scudery a little more than a month after she had
left for the Crimea, and was received on landing by
Lord William Pollett, Commandant, Doctor Cumming, Inspector General and Doctor
mc gregor, Deputy Inspector, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. The Ambassador
offered her the use of the British Palace at Pera,
but Miss Nightingale preferred to use the house of the Chaplain,
(13:33):
the Reverend Mister Sabin, and there she made a good
recovery under the care of solicitous friends. Often, in these
days of returning strength, she would stroll beneath the trees
of the Cemetery of Scuterery, where so many of our
brave men lay. It is situated on a promontory high
above the sea, with a fine outlook over the Bosphorus.
(13:56):
Flowers planted by loving hands were decking the graves of
many of her friends who had passed away during the winter,
and the grasses had begun to wave above the deep
pits where the soldiers lay in a nameless grave. During
these walks, Miss Nightingale gathered a few flowers here, a
bunch of grasses there, and pressed and dried them to
(14:18):
keep in loving memory of the brave dead. They eventually
formed a part of a collection of Crimean mementos, which
she arranged after her return home to lee Hurst. This
burying ground was really a portion of the ancient cemetery
of Scuderi, the most sacred and celebrated in the Ottoman Empire.
(14:38):
Travelers have described the weird effect of the dense masses
of cypress trees, which bend and wave over three miles
of unnumbered tombs, increasing each year. In extent, the Turks
never disturbed their dead and regard a burying ground with
great veneration. Hence the ancient and yet modern character of
(14:59):
the sk Goodery cemetery and the great extents of the
graves over the wide solitude. So thick are the cypress
trees that even the oriental sun does not penetrate their shade.
Byron has described the scene as the place of thousand
tombs that shine beneath, while dark above, the sad but
(15:21):
living cypress glooms and withers, not though branch and leaf
are stamped by an eternal grief. According to a poetic legend,
myriads of strange birds hover over the tombs or flit
noiselessly from the black sea to the fairer one of Marmara.
When they turn and retrace their flight, these birds have
(15:44):
never been known to stop or feed, and never heard
to sing. They have a dark plumage in unison with
the somber cypress trees over which they incessantly flit. When
there is a storm on the Bosphorus, they send up
sharp cry of agony. The Turks believe that the weird
birds are condemned souls who have lived an evil life
(16:07):
in this world and are not permitted to rest in
a tomb, and so in a spirit of unrest, they
wander over the tombs of others. One of the most
beautiful monuments in the vast cemetery is the one which
marks the grave of Sultan Mahmoud's favorite horse. The Turkish
government gave a piece of ground adjacent to the sacred
(16:29):
cemetery to serve as a burying place for the British
soldiers who fell in the Crimea, and it was at
the instance of Miss Nightingale that a memorial was erected
there to the fallen heroes. She started the scheme during
her period of convalescence at Scuderi, and it was completed
after the conclusion of the war. Some four thousand British
(16:51):
soldiers lie in the cemetery, and in the midst of
the nameless graves rises a gleaming column of marble. The
shaft is supported by four angels with drooping wings. On
each side of the base is inscribed in four different languages.
This monument was erected by Queen Victoria and her people.
(17:13):
End of Chapter eighteen.
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