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Undergraduate Topics in Computer
Science

Series Editor
Ian Mackie
University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

Advisory Editors
Samson Abramsky
Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Chris Hankin
Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, UK

Mike Hinchey
Lero – The Irish Software Research Centre, University of Limerick,
Limerick, Ireland

Dexter C. Kozen
Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

Andrew Pitts
Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of
Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Hanne Riis Nielson

Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical
University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

Steven S. Skiena
Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook,
NY, USA
Iain Stewart
Department of Computer Science, Durham University, Durham, UK

‘Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science’ (UTiCS) delivers high-

quality instructional content for undergraduates studying in all areas of
computing and information science. From core foundational and
theoretical material to final-year topics and applications, UTiCS books
take a fresh, concise, and modern approach and are ideal for self-study
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The UTiCS concept relies on high-quality, concise books in softback
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to which we refer potential authors.
More information about this series at https://​link.​springer.​com/​
bookseries/​7592
K. Erciyes

Algebraic Graph Algorithms

A Practical Guide Using Python
1st ed. 2021
K. Erciyes
Software Engineering Department, Maltepe University, Maltepe,
Istanbul, Turkey

ISSN 1863-7310 e-ISSN 2197-1781

Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science
ISBN 978-3-030-87885-6 e-ISBN 978-3-030-87886-3
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87886-3

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the

Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned,
specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other
physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks,

service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the
absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the
relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general
use.

The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the
advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate
at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer
Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham,
Switzerland
To my parents for taking so much effort to raise a large family
Preface
Graphs are discrete structures that find many applications such as
modeling computer networks, social networks and biological networks.
Graph theory is centered around studying graphs and there has been an
unprecedented growth in this branch of mathematics over the last few
decades, mainly due to the realization of numerous applications of
graphs in real-life.
This book is about the design and analysis of algebraic algorithms to
solve graph problems. The algebraic way of analyzing graph problems
can be viewed from the angles of group theory and linear algebra. We
will mostly use linear algebraic methods which commonly make use of
matrices associated with graphs in search of suitable graph algorithms.
There are few benefits to be gained by this approach; first of all, many
results from matrix algebra theory become readily available, for matrix
analysis of graphs. Secondly, various matrix algorithms such as matrix
multiplication are readily available, enabling easiness in coding.
Moreover, methods for parallel matrix computations are well known
and various libraries for this purpose are available which provides a
convenient way for parallelizing the algorithms.
The algebraic nature of graphs is a vast theoretical topic with many
new and frequent results. For this reason, the level of exposure
required careful consideration while forming the detailed topics of the
book. At one end; we have rich, resourceful and sometimes quite
complicated matrix algebra theory that can be used in the analysis of
graphs which does not always result in practical graph algorithms; and
at the other extreme, one can frequently devise an algebraic version of
a classical graph algorithm by using the matrices that represent graphs.
We tried to stay somewhere in between by reviewing main algebraic
results that are useful in designing practical graph algorithms and on
the other hand, mostly using graph matrices to solve graph problems.
The extent of exposure to parallel processing was another decision and
after briefly reviewing the basic theory on parallel processing, we
provide practical hints for parallel processing associated with algebraic
algorithms where possible. Matrix multiplication is at the core of
majority of algebraic graph algorithms and any such algorithm may be
parallelized conveniently, at least partly, using parallel matrix
multiplication methods we describe. Thus, obtaining parallel version of
the algorithms reviewed becomes a trivial task in most cases. In
summary, the focus of the book is on practical algebraic graph
algorithms using results from matrix algebra rather than algebraic
study of graphs.
The intended audience for this book is the senior/graduate students
of computer science, electrical and electronic engineering,
bioinformatics, and any researcher or a person with background in
discrete mathematics, basic graph theory and algorithms. There is a
Web page for the book to keep errata Python code and other material
at: http://​ube.​ege.​edu.​tr/​~erciyes/​AGA/​erciyes/​AGA/​.

Python Implementation

For almost all algorithms, we provide Python programming language

code that can be modified and tested for various inputs. Python is
selected for its simplicity, efficiency and rich library routines and
hence the name of the book. The code for an algorithm is not
optimized and brevity is forsaken for clarity in many cases. In
various algorithms, we use different data structures and methods for
similar problems to show alternative implementations. The codes
are tested for various sample graphs, however; as it frequently
happens with any software, errors are possible and I would be happy
to know any bugs by e-mail at [email protected].

I would like to thank senior/graduate students at Ege University,

University of California Davis, California State University San Marcos,
Izmir Institute of Science and Technology, Izmir University, Ü skü dar
University and Maltepe University in chronological order, who have
taken courses related to graph theory and algorithms, sometimes under
slightly different names, for their valuable feedback when parts of the
material covered in the book was presented during lectures. I would
also like to thank Springer senior editor Wayne Wheeler for his
continuous help and encouragement throughout the writing of the
book.
K. Erciyes
Maltepe, Turkey
Contents
1 Introduction
1.​1 Graphs
1.​2 Matrices
1.​3 Algebraic Graph Algorithms
1.​4 Python Language
1.​5 Challenges
1.​6 Outline of the Book
1.​6.​1 Background
1.​6.​2 Basic Graph Algorithms
References
Part I Background
2 A Short Review of Python
2.​1 Introduction
2.​2 Data Structures
2.​2.​1 Strings
2.​2.​2 Lists
2.​2.​3 Tuples
2.​2.​4 Arrays
2.​2.​5 Dictionaries
2.​2.​6 Sets
2.​3 Flow Control
2.3.1 The if Statement
2.​3.​2 Loops
2.​4 Functions
2.​5 Modules
 2.​6 Chapter Notes
Reference
3 Basic Matrix Computations
3.​1 Introduction
3.​2 Matrix Operations
3.​3 Transpose of a Matrix
3.​4 Matrix Properties
3.​5 Types of Matrices
3.​5.​1 Diagonal Matrix
3.​5.​2 Identity Matrix
3.​5.​3 Triangular Matrix
3.​6 Matrix Multiplication
3.​6.​1 Vector-Vector Multiplication
3.​6.​2 Matrix-Vector Multiplication
3.​6.​3 Matrix-Matrix Multiplication
3.​6.​4 Boolean Matrix Multiplication
3.​7 Determinant of a Matrix
3.​8 Matrix Inverse
3.​9 Rank Computation
3.​9.​1 Powers of a Matrix
3.​10 Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors
3.​11 Block Matrices
3.​12 Chapter Notes
Reference
4 Graphs, Matrices and Matroids
4.​1 Introduction to Graphs
 4.​1.​1 Degree of a Vertex
4.​1.​2 Subgraphs
4.​2 Graph Operations
4.​3 Types of Graphs
4.​3.​1 Digraph
4.​3.​2 Complete Graphs
4.​3.​3 Weighted Graphs
4.​3.​4 Bipartite Graphs
4.​3.​5 Regular Graphs
4.​3.​6 Graph Isomorphism
4.​4 Walks, Paths, Cycles
4.​5 Graphs and Matrices
4.​5.​1 Adjacency Matrix
4.​5.​2 Adjacency List
4.​5.​3 Incidence Matrix
4.​5.​4 Cycle Matrix
4.​5.​5 Path Matrix
4.​5.​6 The Laplacian
4.​6 Python Graphs
4.​7 Matroids
4.​7.​1 The Basic Matroid
4.​7.​2 The Graphic Matroid
4.​7.​3 Weighted Matroid
4.​7.​4 Graphs, Matroids and Matrices
4.​8 Chapter Notes
References
5 Parallel and Sparse Matrix Computations
5.​1 Parallel Processing
5.​1.​1 Architectures
5.​1.​2 Basic Communications
5.​1.​3 Performance
5.​1.​4 Parallel Matrix Computations
5.​2 Parallel Computations with Python
5.2.1 Process-Based Model with Multiprocessing
5.2.2 Message Passing Interface mpi4py
5.​3 Sparse Matrix Algorithms
5.​3.​1 Sparsity Calculation
5.​3.​2 Sparse Matrix Representations
5.​3.​3 Sparse Matrix Multiplication
5.​4 Chapter Notes
References
Part II Graph Algorithms
6 Trees
6.​1 Introduction
6.​2 Spanning Tree Construction
6.​3 Minimum Spanning Trees
6.​3.​1 Jarnik-Prim Algorithm
6.​3.​2 Kruskal’s Algorithm as a Matroid
6.​3.​3 Boruvka’s Algorithm
6.​4 Chapter Notes
References
7 Shortest Paths
 7.​1 Introduction
7.​2 Breadth-First-Search
7.​2.​1 The Classical Algorithm
7.​2.​2 The Algebraic Algorithm
7.​3 Dijkstra’s Algorithm
7.​4 Bellman-Ford Algorithm
7.​5 Floyd-Warshall Algorithm
7.​6 Transitive Closure
7.​7 Chapter Notes
References
8 Connectivity and Matching
8.​1 Connectivity
8.​1.​1 Theory
8.​1.​2 Undirected Graph Connectivity
8.​1.​3 Directed Graph Connectivity
8.​2 Matching
8.​2.​1 Unweighted Matching
8.​2.​2 Weighted Matching
8.​2.​3 Rabin-Vazirani Algorithm
8.​3 Chapter Notes
9 Subgraph Search
9.​1 Independent Sets
9.​1.​1 A Greedy Algorithm
9.​1.​2 Lowest Degree First Algorithm
9.​1.​3 Luby’s Algorithm
9.​2 Dominating Sets
Other documents randomly have
different content
 [To face p. 208.

“Miss Nightingale overhearing him, called me in, saying, ‘Oh!

Mrs. Roberts, it is Lord Raglan. Pray tell him 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 Raglan.
“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, 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. As he
was going out, I said I wished ‘to apologize.’
“‘No! no! not at all, my dear lady,’ said Lord Raglan; ‘you did very
right; for I perceive 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 Nightingale became convalescent about twelve days after
her seizure, and the 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, she felt that time would accomplish her recovery,
and she decided to return in the meantime to Scutari, 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 Dr. Hadley, Mrs. Roberts (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 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 Dr. Hadley, who,
when he arrived, ordered that the illustrious patient should at once
be conveyed to another vessel.
Miss Nightingale was temporarily taken to the Baraguay
a’Hilliers, 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, and at once offered her the use of his yacht, the New
London, to take her to Scutari. 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
great ease and comfort. Besides her personal attendants Miss
Nightingale was accompanied by Mr. Bracebridge and M. Soyer.
Before her departure Lord Raglan 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. 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
sick soldiers. During the period of Miss Nightingale’s convalescence,
he sent frequent inquiries after her health.
Meantime, Lord Raglan’s difficulties as Commander-in-Chief of
the British forces were daily increasing. On June 18th, 1855, the
allied armies were to make the general assault on Sebastopol. Lord
Raglan had proposed to preface the assault by a two hours’
cannonade to silence the guns remounted by the enemy during the
night, but Pélissier, the French commander, pressed for an
immediate attack at daybreak, and Lord Raglan yielded rather than
imperil the alliance. The result was disastrous, ending in the terrible
assault and repulse of the British troops at the Redan. The
Commander-in-Chief felt the failure deeply, and it was to announce
this defeat that he wrote his last dispatch to the Government, June
26th. On the 28th 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 Raglan’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 he had to contend
with much adverse criticism, that he had enjoyed the confidence of
Wellington.
Lord Raglan 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, was exaggerated. Lord Raglan 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 Raglan’s methods.
Miss Nightingale returned to Scutari a little more than a month
after she had left for the Crimea, and was received on landing by
Lord William Paulet, Commandant, Dr. Cumming, Inspector-General,
and Dr. Macgregor, 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, the Rev.
Mr. 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 Scutari, 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. 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 keep in
loving memory of the brave dead. They eventually formed part of a
collection of Crimean mementoes which she arranged after her
return home to Lea Hurst.
This burying-ground was really a portion of the ancient cemetery
of Scutari, the most sacred and celebrated in the Ottoman Empire.
Travellers 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 disturb their
dead, and regard a burying-ground with great veneration, hence the
ancient and yet modern character of the Scutari cemetery, and the
great extent 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 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
Marmora, when they turn and retrace their flight. These birds have
never been known to stop or feed, and never heard to sing. They
have a dark plumage, in unison with the sombre cypress-trees over
which they incessantly flit. When there is a storm on the Bosphorus,
they send up sharp cries of agony. The Turks believe that the weird
birds are condemned souls who have lived an evil life 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 favourite horse.
The Turkish Government gave a piece of ground adjacent to the
sacred 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 Scutari, and it was
completed after the conclusion of the war. Some four thousand
British 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.”
 CHAPTER XIX
CLOSE OF THE WAR

Fall of Sebastopol—The Nightingale Hospital Fund—A Carriage

Accident—Last Months in the Crimea—“The Nightingale Cross”—
Presents from Queen Victoria and the Sultan—Sails for Home.

How many now are left of those whose serried ranks

Were first to land on Eupatoria’s hostile shore;
Who rushed victoriously up the Alma’s banks,
And won the primal honours of that mighty war?

Theirs were the fadeless laurels!—yet not theirs alone,

Who bore the stern privations of that Eastern camp:—
Scutari’s coronet of glory is thine own,
O Florence Nightingale, dear
Lady with the Lamp.
Major A. St. John Seally.

T HE autumn of 1855 brought the final act in the great drama of

the Crimean War. On the morning of September 8th the allied
armies before Sebastopol were ready for the final assault. The day
dawned gloriously, and by five o’clock the guards were on the march
for the besieged city, and troops from all quarters pressed silently in
the same direction. The supreme moment had come; the long
tension of the siege was broken, and each man braced him to the
fight and looked for death or glory.
The elements seemed to voice the situation. A brilliant sky gave
the promise of victory, then suddenly changed to storm-clouds which
burst in a furious tempest as the batteries opened fire upon the
doomed city. The earth groaned and shook with the noise of cannon
and the air was filled with the rattle of musketry. An hour elapsed,
and then came the first shouts of victory. The French allies had
captured the Malakhoff and the British had taken the Redan, the fort
which three months before had repulsed the attacking force with
fearful carnage and brought Lord Raglan to a despairing death. The
fight raged fiercely until nightfall and ere another day dawned the
Russians had retreated, leaving Sebastopol in flames.
On the morning of September 9th the tidings spread far and
wide that the mighty stronghold had fallen and the power of the
enemy was broken. The news was received in London with a
universal outburst of rejoicing. The Tower guns proclaimed the
victory, every arsenal fired its salute, and the joy-bells rang from
cathedral minster to the humblest village church as the tidings
spread through the land. The long night of War was over, and white-
robed Peace stood on the threshold.
With the plaudits that rang through the land in honour of the
victorious armies, the name of Florence Nightingale was mingled on
every hand. The nation was eager to give our heroine a right royal
welcome home, but she sought no great ovation, no public
demonstration, and her home-coming was not to be yet. The war
had ended, but the victims still remained in hospital ward and lonely
hut, and as long as the wounded needed her care Florence
Nightingale would not leave her post.
Meanwhile, however, the Queen and all classes of her people
were eager to give proof of the nation’s gratitude to the noble
woman who had come to the succour of the soldiers in their dire
need. Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Herbert were approached on the matter
by Mrs. S. C. Hall as to what form of testimonial would, be most
acceptable to Miss Nightingale, and Mrs. Herbert replied:—

“49, Belgrave Square,

July, 1855.
“Madam,—
 “There is but one testimonial which would be accepted
by Miss Nightingale.
“The one wish of her heart has long been to found a hospital
in London and to work it on her own system of unpaid nursing,
and I have suggested to all who have asked for my advice in this
matter to pay any sums that they may feel disposed to give, or
that they may be able to collect, into Messrs. Coutts’ Bank,
where a subscription list for the purpose is about to be opened,
to be called the ‘Nightingale Hospital Fund,’ the sum subscribed
to be presented to her on her return home, which will enable
her to carry out her object regarding the reform of the nursing
system in England.”

A Committee to inaugurate such a project was formed. It was

presided over by His Royal Highness the late Duke of Cambridge,
and included representatives of all classes. The Hon. Mr. Sidney
Herbert and Mr. S. C. Hall acted as honorary secretaries, and the
latter summarised the variety of interests represented when he
described the Committee as having “three dukes, nine other
noblemen, the Lord Mayor, two judges, five right honourables,
foremost naval and military officers, physicians, lawyers, London
aldermen, dignitaries of the Church, dignitaries of Nonconformist
Churches, twenty members of Parliament, and several eminent men
of letters.” While no state party was omitted, none was unduly
prominent. It was resolved by the Committee to devote the money
subscribed to the Nightingale Fund to founding an institute for the
training, sustenance, and protection of nurses and hospital
attendants, to embrace the paid and the unpaid, for whom a home
should be provided and a retreat for old age. A copy of the
resolution was forwarded to Miss Nightingale at Scutari and she
replied to Mrs. Herbert in the following letter:—
“Exposed as I am to be misinterpreted and misunderstood, in a
field of action in which the work is new, complicated, and distant
from many who sit in judgment on it, it is indeed an abiding support
to have such sympathy and such appreciation brought home to me
in the midst of labours and difficulties all but overpowering. I must
add, however, that my present work is such I would never desert for
any other, so long as I see room to believe that which I may do here
is unfinished. May I then beg you to express to the Committee that I
accept their proposals, provided I may do so on their understanding
of this great uncertainty as to when it will be possible for me to carry
it out?”
The gift, indeed, gave Florence Nightingale a further task to
perform on her return home, but as Mr. Sidney Herbert said: “Miss
Nightingale looks to her reward from this country in having a fresh
field for her labours, and means of extending the good that she has
already begun. A compliment cannot be paid dearer to her heart
than in giving her more work to do.”
A public meeting was held at Willis’s Rooms on November 29th,
1855, to inaugurate the scheme. It was presided over by the Duke
of Cambridge and addressed by the venerable Lord Lansdowne, Sir
John Pakington (Lord Hampton), Monckton-Milnes (Lord Houghton),
Lord Stanley (Earl of Derby), the Lord Mayor, the Marquis of Ripon,
Rev. Dr. Cumming, and Dr. Gleig, the Chaplain-General. All paid
eloquent tributes to the work accomplished by Miss Nightingale, but
the most touching incident of the meeting was when Mr. Sidney
Herbert read a letter from a friend who said: “I have just heard a
pretty account from a soldier describing the comfort it was even to
see Florence pass. ‘She would speak to one and another,’ he said,
‘and nod and smile to many more, but she could not do it to all, you
know, for we lay there by hundreds; but we could kiss her shadow
as it fell, and lay our heads on the pillow again content.’” That story
brought £10,000 to the Nightingale Fund, and the soldier who had
related it out of the fulness of his heart must have felt a proud man.
Public meetings in aid of the scheme were held during the
ensuing months in all the principal cities and towns throughout the
kingdom, and also in all parts of the Empire, including India and the
colony in China. Never, I believe, has the work of any British subject
been so honoured and recognised in every part of our vast
dominions as that of Florence Nightingale.
Collections were made for the ‘fund’ in churches and chapels of
varying creeds in all parts of the country, and concerts and sales of
work were got up by enthusiastic ladies to help the subscriptions. As
in the dark winter of 1854–5 everybody was doing their part to
strengthen Miss Nightingale’s hands by supplying her with comforts
and necessaries for the soldiers, so in the joyous winter of 1855–6
people gave of their time and money to present the heroine with
means for inaugurating a scheme which should revolutionise the
nursing methods of the civil and military hospitals, and render
impossible the suffering and misery among the sick soldiers which
had characterised the late war.
There were no more enthusiastic and grateful supporters of the
Nightingale Fund than the brave “boys” of the Services. The officers
and men of nearly every regiment and many of the vessels
contributed a day’s pay.
Books were opened by the principal bankers throughout the
kingdom, and a very handsome gift to the fund came from M. and
Madame Goldschmidt (Jenny Lind), who gave a concert at Exeter
Hall on March 11th, 1856, which realised nearly £2,000. M. and
Madame Goldschmidt defrayed all the expenses of the concert,
amounting to upwards of £500, and gave the gross receipts to the
Committee. In recognition of their generosity a gift was made to M
and Madame Goldschmidt of a marble bust of Queen Victoria, the
result of a private subscription.
In course of time the Nightingale fund reached £44,000, and in
evidence of the widespread interest which it evoked the detailed
statement of the honorary secretaries may be quoted:—

General Abstract of Subscriptions to

the Nightingale Fund

£ s. d.
From Troops or all arms in various parts of the
8,952 1 7
world, including the Militia
From the officers and men of sixty-one ships of
758 19 8
Her Majesty’s Navy
From the officers and men of the Coastguard
155 9 0
service, thirty-nine stations
From the officers and men of Her Majesty’s
29 6 4
Dockyards at Woolwich and Pembroke
From East and West Indies, Australia, North
4,495 15 6
America, and other British possessions
From British residents in foreign countries,
transmitted through their respective 1,647 16 10
ambassadors, consuls, etc
From provincial cities and towns, collected and
5,683 15 4
forwarded by local committees
From church or parish collections in other towns
and villages, transmitted by the clergy and 1,162 4 9
ministers of various denominations
From merchants, bankers, etc, connected with
3,511 13 6
the City of London
Carried forward 26,397 2 6
Brought forward 26,397 2 6
From other general subscriptions not included
under the above heads, made up of separate 15,697 14 10
sums from one penny to five hundred pounds
The contribution of M. and Madame Goldschmidt,
being the gross proceeds of a concert given by 1,872 6 0
them at Exeter Hall
Proceeds of sale of the “Nightingale Address” (a
lithographic print and poem published at one 53 0 0
shilling), received from Mrs. F. P. B. Martin
Proceeds of a series of “Twelve Photographic
Views in the Interior of Sebastopol,” by G. 18 18 0
Shaw-Lefevre, Esq.
 Total £44,039 1 4

There is little doubt that the fund would have reached the
£50,000 which the Committee had set itself to obtain if Miss
Nightingale, after her return home, had not herself brought the
subscription list to a close in order that public benevolence might be
diverted to the fund raised to help the victims of the devastating
inundations in France in 1857. Miss Nightingale had seen with great
admiration the self-sacrificing work of French ladies and sisters
amongst the soldiers in the Crimea, and had been supported in her
own efforts by the sympathy of commanding officers of the French
troops, so that it gave her peculiar pleasure to promote a fund for
helping our late allies when distress came upon their country.
Meantime, the heroine whose work had evoked the great
outburst of national gratitude of which the Nightingale Fund was the
expression, still remained in the East, to complete her work, for
though the fall of Sebastopol had brought the war to an end, the
sick and wounded soldiers still lay in the hospitals, and there was an
army of occupation in the Crimea pending the conclusion of the
peace negotiations. None knew better than Miss Nightingale the evils
which beset soldiers in camp when the exigencies of active warfare
no longer occupy them, and she now divided her attention between
administering to the sick and providing recreation and instruction for
the convalescents and the soldiers in camp.
As soon as her health was sufficiently established after the
attack of fever, she again left Scutari for the Crimea. Two new camp
hospitals, known as the “Left Wing” and the “Right Wing,” consisting
of huts, had been put up on the heights above Balaclava, not far
from the Sanatorium, and Miss Nightingale established a staff of
nurses there, and took the superintendence of the nursing
department. She lived in a hut consisting of three rooms with a
medical store attached, situated by the Sanatorium and conveniently
near the new camp hospitals.
 Three of the Roman Catholic sisters who had been working at
Scutari accompanied Miss Nightingale to the Crimea, and writing
from the hut encampment there to some of the sisters who
remained at Scutari, she says: “I want my ‘Cardinal’ (a name
bestowed on a valued sister) very much up here. The sisters are all
quite well and cheerful, thank God for it! They have made their hut
look quite tidy, and put up with the cold and inconveniences with the
utmost self-abnegation. Everything, even the ink, freezes in our hut
every night.”
The sisters and their Chief had a rough experience on these
Balaclava heights. One relates that their hut was far from weather-
proof, and on awakening one morning they found themselves
covered with snow, which had fallen heavily all night. They were
consoled for those little discomforts by the arrival of a gentleman on
horseback “bearing the princely present of some eggs, tied up in a
handkerchief.” The benefactor was the Protestant chaplain, and the
sisters returned his kindness by washing his neckties. But alas! there
was no flat iron available, and the sisters, not to be beaten,
smoothed out the clerical lawn with a teapot filled with boiling
water!
One of the sisters was stricken by fever, and Miss Nightingale
insisted on nursing her herself. While watching over the sick bed one
night, she saw a rat upon the rafters over the sister’s head, and
taking an umbrella, knocked it down and killed it without disturbing
her patient.
Strict Protestant as Miss Nightingale was, she maintained the
most cordial relations with the Roman Catholic nurses, and was
deeply grateful for the loyal way in which they worked under her.
When the Rev. Mother who had come out with the sisters to Scutari
returned in ill-health to England, Miss Nightingale sent her a letter of
farewell in which she said: “You know that I shall do everything I
can for the sisters whom you have left me. I will care for them as if
they were my own children. But it will not be like you. I do not
presume to express praise or gratitude to you, Rev. Mother, because
it would look as though I thought you had done this work, not unto
God, but unto me. You were far above me in fitness for the general
superintendency in worldly talent of administration, and far more in
the spiritual qualifications which God values in a superior; my being
placed over you was a misfortune, not my fault. What you have
done for the work no one can ever say. I do not presume to give you
any other tribute but my tears. But I should be glad that the Bishop
of Southwark should know, and Dr. Manning [afterwards Cardinal],
that you were valued here as you deserve, and that the gratitude of
the army is yours.”
The roads over this mountain district where Miss Nightingale was
located in the Crimea were very uneven and dangerous, and one day
while driving to the hospitals she met with an accident. Her carriage
was drawn by a mule, and being carelessly driven by the attendant
over a large stone, was upset. Miss Nightingale suffered some injury,
and one of the Sisters accompanying her was severely wounded.
To prevent the repetition of such an accident, Colonel Macmurdo
presented Miss Nightingale with a specially constructed carriage for
her use. It is described as “being composed of wood battens framed
on the outside and basket-work. In the interior it is lined with a sort
of waterproof canvas. It has a fixed head on the hind part and a
canopy running the full length, with curtains at the side to enclose
the interior. The front driving seat removes, and thus the whole
forms a sort of small tilted waggon with a welted frame, suspended
on the back part, on which to recline, and well padded round the
sides. It is fitted with patent breaks to the hind wheels so as to let it
go gently down the steep hills of the Turkish roads.” This is the
carriage which after many vicissitudes is now preserved at Lea
Hurst.
The carriage was one of the most interesting exhibits in the
Nursing Section of the Victorian Era Exhibition at Earl’s Court. Its
preservation and removal to this country are due to the excellent M.
Soyer, who on the eve of his departure from the Crimea rescued it
from the hands of some Tartar Jews. Miss Nightingale had left it
behind, doubtless thinking that it had served its purpose, and being
too modest to imagine that it would be of special interest to her
fellow-countrymen. M. Soyer, however, saw in that old battered
vehicle a precious relic for future generations, and hearing that some
Jews were going to purchase it next day, along with a lot of common
carts and harness, he obtained permission from Colonel Evans of the
Light Infantry to buy the carriage. He afterwards sent it to England
by the Argo. The sketch reproduced was taken by Mr. Landells, the
artist representing The Illustrated London News in the Crimea. The
carriage was an object of great public interest when it arrived at
Southampton on the Argo. The Mayor took charge of it until the
arrival of M. Soyer, who had the extreme pleasure of restoring it to
its famous owner.
After Miss Nightingale received the gift of this convenient
vehicle, she redoubled her exertions on behalf of the soldiers still
remaining in the Crimea. The winter was severe and snow lay thick
on the ground, but it did not deter her from constantly visiting the
camp hospitals, and she was known to stand for hours at the top of
a bleak rocky mountain near the hospitals, giving her instructions
while the snow was falling heavily. Then in the bleak dark night she
would return down the perilous mountain road with no escort save
the driver. Her friends remonstrated and begged her to avoid such
risk and exposure, but she answered by a smile, which seemed to
say, “You may be right, but I have faith.” M. Soyer was so impressed
by the danger that Miss Nightingale was incurring, that he
addressed, as he relates, “a letter to a noble duchess, who I knew
had much influence with her.” I am afraid, however, that neither the
solicitous M. Soyer nor the “noble duchess” deterred Miss
Nightingale from following what she felt to be the path of duty.
During this period she was much engaged in promoting schemes
for the education and recreation of the convalescent soldiers and
those forming the army of occupation. She formed classes,
established little libraries or “reading huts,” which were supplied with
books and periodicals sent by friends at home. Queen Victoria
contributed literature and the Duchess of Kent sent Miss Nightingale
a useful assortment of books for the men. All the reading huts were
numerously and constantly attended, and Miss Nightingale remarked
in her after report that the behaviour of the men was “uniformly
quiet and well-bred.”
Lectures and schoolrooms were established for the men, both at
Scutari and in the Crimea, by various officers and chaplains, and in
these Miss Nightingale took a deep interest and was herself
instrumental in establishing a café at Inkerman, to serve as a
counter-attraction to the canteens where so much drunkenness
prevailed. As she had ministered to the bodily needs of the men
while sickness reigned, now she tried to promote their mental and
moral good by providing them with rational means of occupation and
amusement.
With solicitous womanly thought for the wives and mothers at
home, Miss Nightingale had from the first encouraged the men to
keep up communication with their families by supplying those in
hospital with stationery, and stamps and writing materials were now
at her instance supplied to the convalescent and other reading huts.
In the first months of the war the men had been allowed to send
any letters to Miss Nightingale’s quarters in the Barrack Hospital to
be stamped, and many a reckless lad who had run away and
enlisted was by her gentle persuasions prevailed upon to write home
and report himself.
Often she herself had the painful duty of writing to wives and
mothers to tell of the death of their dear ones, and several of these
letters were published by the recipients in journals of the time, and
are full of that thoughtful practical help which distinguished all the
Lady-in-Chief’s efforts. She would send home little mementoes, the
last book perhaps which the dying man had read, and would tell the
bereaved women how to apply for their widow’s allowance, send
papers for them to fill up, and in cases of doubtful identity would sift
matters to the bottom to discover whether such or such a man was
among the slain.
 Another matter of concern with Miss Nightingale was to induce
the men to send their pay home to their families. For this purpose
she formed at Scutari an extempore money order office in which she
received, four afternoons in the month, the money of any soldier
who desired to send it home to his family. Each month about £1,000
was sent home in small sums of twenty or thirty shillings, which
were, by Post Office orders obtained in England, sent to their
respective recipients. “This money,” as Miss Nightingale says, “was
literally so much rescued from the canteen and drunkenness.”
Following her initiative, the Government during the last months
that the army remained in the East established money order offices
at Constantinople, Scutari, Balaclava and headquarters, Crimea, and
in the course of about six months, from January 30th to July 26th,
1856, no less than £71,000 was sent home by the men. “Who will
say after this,” writes Miss Nightingale, “that the soldier must needs
be reckless, drunken, or disorderly?” But it may be added that Miss
Nightingale’s presence in the Crimea during the months which
followed victory, when “Tommy” was in an exulting state of mind and
ready to drink healths recklessly, and make each day an anniversary
of the fall of Sebastopol, had a great moral effect on the men.
The Treaty of Peace was signed at Paris on March 30th, 1856,
and the final evacuation of the Crimea took place on the following
July 12th, on which day General Codrington formally gave up
Sebastopol and Balaclava to the Russians. Not until all the hospitals
were closed, and the last remnant of the British army was under
sailing orders for home, did Florence Nightingale quit the scene of
her labours. Just before leaving the Crimea, she was amazed to find
that some fifty or sixty women, who had followed their husbands to
the Crimea without leave, but had been allowed to remain because
they were useful, were actually left behind before Sebastopol when
their husbands’ regiments had sailed. The poor women gathered
around Miss Nightingale’s hut in great distress, and she managed to
induce the authorities to send them home on a British ship.
 Miss Nightingale’s last act before leaving the Crimea was to
order, at her own expense, the erection of a monument to the dead.
It took the form of a monster white marble cross twenty feet high,
and was placed on the peak of a mountain near the Sanatorium
above Balaclava, and dedicated to the memory of the fallen brave,
and to those sisters of her “Angel Band” who slept their last sleep in
that far-away Eastern land. She caused it to be inscribed with the
words,
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Gospodi pomilori nass.
The “Nightingale Cross,” as the monument came to be called,
strikes the eye of the mariner as he crosses the Black Sea, and to
the British sailor it must ever be an object to stir a chivalrous feeling
for the noble woman who thus honoured the brave dead.
On her way home from the Crimea, Miss Nightingale called at
Scutari, that place of appalling memories, and saw the final closing
of the hospitals. The Barrack Hospital had now been taken back by
the Turkish authorities, but the suite of rooms which Miss
Nightingale had occupied in the southern tower were preserved as
she left them, and kept so for some years.
The Sultan had been an admiring witness of Miss Nightingale’s
labours, and presented her with a magnificent diamond bracelet as a
farewell gift and a mark of his estimation of her devotion.
Before leaving the Crimea Miss Nightingale had received from
Queen Victoria a beautiful jewel, for which the Prince Consort made
the design. It consists of a St. George’s Cross in red enamel, on a
white field, representative of England. On the cross are the letters
V.R., surmounted by a crown in diamonds. A band of black enamel,
inscribed in gold letters with the words “Blessed are the merciful,”
surrounds the cross. Palm leaves, in green enamel, form a
framework for the shield, and on the blue enamel ribbon which
confines the palms is inscribed in letters of gold “Crimea.” On the
back of the jewel is an inscription written by Queen Victoria,
recording that the gift was made in memory of services rendered to
her “brave army” by Florence Nightingale. The following letter
accompanied the gift.

“Windsor Castle,
“January 1856.
“Dear Miss Nightingale,—You
are I know, well aware of the
high sense I entertain of the
Christian devotion which you
have displayed during this great
and bloody war, and I need
hardly repeat to you how warm
my admiration is for your
services, which are fully equal to
those of my dear and brave
soldiers, whose sufferings you
have had the privilege of
alleviating in so merciful a
manner. I am, however, anxious
of marking my feelings in a THE NIGHTINGALE JEWEL
manner which I trust will be
agreeable to you, and therefore send you with this letter a
brooch, the form and emblems of which commemorate your
great and blessed work, and which I hope you will wear as a
mark of the high approbation of your Sovereign!
“It will be a very great satisfaction to me when you return at
last to these shores, to make the acquaintance of one who has
set so bright an example to our sex. And with every prayer for
the preservation of your valuable health, believe me, always,
yours sincerely,
“Victoria R.”
 The Government did not forget to officially acknowledge the
work of the Lady-in-Chief, and when the Treaty of Peace was under
consideration in the spring of 1856, Lord Ellesmere paid the
following eloquent tribute to her services:—
“My Lords, the agony of that time has become a matter of
history. The vegetation of two successive springs has obscured the
vestiges of Balaclava and of Inkerman. Strong voices now answer to
the roll-call, and sturdy forms now cluster round the colours. The
ranks are full, the hospitals are empty. The angel of mercy still
lingers to the last on the scene of her labours; but her mission is all
but accomplished. Those long arcades of Scutari, in which dying
men sat up to catch the sound of her footstep or the flutter of her
dress, and fell back on the pillow content to have seen her shadow
as it passed, are now comparatively deserted. She may be thinking
how to escape, as best she may, on her return, the demonstration of
a nation’s appreciation of the deeds and motives of Florence
Nightingale.”
Lord Ellesmere had correctly guessed Miss Nightingale’s desire to
escape a public demonstration. She declined the Government’s offer
of a British man-of-war to convey her home, and, embarking at
Scutari on a French vessel, sailed for Marseilles. She passed through
France at night, halted in Paris to visit her old friends, the Sisters of
St. Vincent de Paul, and then, accompanied by her aunt, Mrs. Smith,
and travelling incognito as “Miss Smith,” proceeded to Boulogne and
sailed for dear old England. What a life-time of memories had been
crowded into those twenty-one months which had elapsed since she
had left on her great mission!
 CHAPTER XX
THE RETURN OF THE HEROINE

Arrives Secretly at Lea Hurst—The Object of Many

Congratulations—Presentations—Received by Queen Victoria at
Balmoral—Prepares Statement of “Voluntary Gifts”—Tribute to
Lord Raglan.

Then leave her to the quiet she has chosen; she demands
No greeting from our brazen throats and vulgar clapping hands.
Leave her to the still comfort the saints know that have striven.
What are our earthly honours? Her honours are in heaven.
Punch.

F LORENCE NIGHTINGALE, under a carefully preserved incognito,

arrived quietly at Whatstandwell, the nearest station to her
Derbyshire home, on August 8th, 1856, and succeeded in making
her way unrecognised to Lea Hurst. According to local tradition she
entered by the back door, and the identity of the closely veiled lady
in black was first discovered by the old family butler. The word
quickly circulated round Lea and the adjacent villages that “Miss
Florence had come back from the wars,” and dearly would the good
people have liked to light a bonfire on Crich Stand or some other
available height to testify their joy, but all demonstration was
checked by the knowledge that Miss Florence wanted to remain
quiet.
During the ensuing weeks hundreds of people from the
surrounding towns of Derby, Nottingham, and Manchester, and from
more distant parts, crowded the roads to Lea Hurst and stood in
groups about the park, hoping to catch a glimpse of the heroine. “I
remember the crowds as if it was yesterday,” said an old lady living
by the park gate, “it took me all my time to answer them. Folks
came in carriages and on foot, and there was titled people among
them, and a lot of soldiers, some of them without arms and legs,
who had been nursed by Miss Florence in the hospital, and I
remember one man who had been shot through both eyes coming
and asking to see Miss Florence. But not ten out of the hundreds
who came got a glimpse of her. If they wanted help about their
pensions, they were told to put it down in writing and Miss
Florence’s maid came with an answer. Of course she was willing to
help everybody, but it stood to reason she could not receive them
all; why, the park wouldn’t have held the folks that came, and
besides, the old squire wouldn’t have his daughter made a staring
stock of.”

THE CARRIAGE USED BY MISS NIGHTINGALE IN THE CRIMEA.

[To face p. 240.
 London shared the disappointment of Derbyshire in not being
permitted to give Florence Nightingale a public welcome, but the
situation was realised by the genial Mr. Punch in the sympathetic
lines quoted at the heading of this chapter.
Punch had had his joke when the “dear Nightingales” first went
to the succour of the soldiers, but the day for raillery was past; a
great humanitarian work had been accomplished, which the genial
humorist was quick to acknowledge on the return of the heroine in a
cartoon showing “Mr. Punch’s design for a statue to Miss
Nightingale.” It represented her in nurse’s dress, wearing the badge
“Scutari” across her breast, and holding a wounded soldier by the
hand. Below was a scene portraying the good Samaritan.
The public interest in Miss Nightingale was testified in many
ways. Not only did platforms all over the land resound with her
praises, but her portrait became a popular advertisement for
tradesmen. I have seen preserved in the Derby Town Library paper
bags used in the shops of Henry Calvert, grocer, Hulme, the
tobacconist, and Bryer, provision merchant, Derby, decorated with
portraits of Florence Nightingale. Playbills displayed the heroine’s
name, beside Romeo and Juliet, songs and musical compositions
were dedicated to the “good angel of Derbyshire.” There was the
“Nightingale Varsoviana” and “The Song of the Nightingale,”
published with a full-page picture of the heroine on the cover.
Almanacks displayed her portrait and ballads innumerable told of her
gentle deeds. Street minstrels found a Nightingale song the most
remunerative piece in their repertoire, and people who had hitherto
been guiltless of versifying were compelled to satisfy an importunate
muse by writing verses on Florence Nightingale. Broadsheet ballads
were sung and sold in the streets, and the following extract is from
one emanating from Seven Dials:—
 When sympathy first in thy fair breast did enter,
The world must confess ’twas a noble idea,
When through great danger you boldly did venture,
To soothe the afflicted in the dread Crimea.
No female on earth sure could ever be bolder;
When death and disease did you closely surround,
You administered comfort to the British soldier—
You soothed his sorrows and healed his wounds.

Before her return home Miss Nightingale’s services had been

recognised by an influential meeting at St. George’s Hospital,
presided over by the late Duke of Cambridge. It was moved by
Viscount Chelsea that “Miss Nightingale should be elected an
honorary Governor of St. George’s Hospital in testimony of the
respectful admiration felt by the supporters of this charity for her
self-denial and disinterestedness and her devoted heroism.” The
Duke of Cambridge spoke of what he had himself seen of Miss
Nightingale’s work amongst the sick and wounded soldiers during his
stay at Scutari, and said that her name was revered alike by English,
French, Turks, and Russians.
Letters of congratulation and expressions of esteem from all
sorts and conditions of people poured in upon Miss Nightingale after
it was known that she was settled in her Derbyshire home, and
public associations and societies sent deputations. If Florence
Nightingale could have been persuaded to hold a reception, it would
have been attended by delegates from every representative body in
the kingdom; but while such a national appreciation of her labours
was very gratifying to our heroine, her chief desire now was to
escape publicity, and her enfeebled health made quietude a
necessity.
She was specially pleased by an address sent by the workmen of
Newcastle-on-Tyne, and replied in the following beautiful letter:—
 “August 23rd, 1856.
“My Dear Friends,—
“I wish it were in my power to tell you what was in my
heart when I received your letter.
“Your welcome home, your sympathy with what has been
passing while I have been absent, have touched me more than I
can tell in words. My dear friends, the things that are the
deepest in our hearts are perhaps what it is most difficult for us
to express.
“‘She hath done what she could.’ These words I inscribed on
the tomb of one of my best helpers when I left Scutari. It has
been my endeavour, in the sight of God, to do as she has done.
“I will not speak of reward when permitted to do our
country’s work—it is what we live for; but I may say to receive
sympathy from affectionate hearts like yours is the greatest
support, the greatest gratification, that it is possible for me to
receive from man.
“I thank you all, the eighteen hundred, with grateful, tender
affection. And I should have written before to do so, were not
the business, which my return home has not ended, been
almost more than I can manage. Pray believe me, my dear
friends, yours faithfully and gratefully.
“Florence Nightingale.”

The working men of Sheffield subscribed a testimonial to Miss

Nightingale and presented her with a case of cutlery. Each blade,
instead of bearing the maker’s name in the customary way, was
stamped with the words “Presented to Florence Nightingale, 1857.”
The oak case containing the cutlery was bound in silver, and the top
inlaid with a device representing the “Good Samaritan,” and
inscribed with the words “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”
 Another very interesting and tenderly prized gift was a writing-
desk, inlaid with pearl, presented to Miss Nightingale by her friends
in the neighbourhood of her Derbyshire home. On the front of the
desk was a silver plate inscribed with the words “Presented to
Florence Nightingale on her safe arrival at Lea Hurst from the
Crimea, August 8th, 1856, as a token of esteem from the inhabitants
of Lea, Holloway, and Crich.” Miss Nightingale, on being told that her
friends and neighbours wished to celebrate her home-coming by a
presentation, requested that it might be done as privately as
possible; accordingly a small deputation waited on her at Lea Hurst
a few weeks after her arrival and presented the desk.
Amongst other old friends whom Miss Nightingale received on
her return home was the late Duke of Devonshire, who drove over
from Chatsworth to Lea Hurst and presented his distinguished
neighbour with a silver owl and some other tokens of his esteem.
The duke caused a collection of press notices—there were no press
cutting agencies in those days—to be made with regard to Miss
Nightingale and her work and made into a scrap-book, which His
Grace eventually presented to the Derby Town Library.
During these weeks, in which Miss Nightingale was recruiting her
health at Lea Hurst, she entertained from time to time little parties
of her humble friends and neighbours, who enjoyed the privilege of
seeing the mementoes which she had brought from the Crimea.
There are still living a few old people in the neighbourhood of
Lea Hurst who recall the awe and wonder with which they regarded
cannon balls from Sebastopol, bullets taken from Balaclava heroes,
and other martial objects in Miss Florence’s collection, and the
emotion they felt at sight of the flowers and grasses which she had
gathered from the graves of the soldiers in the cemeteries of Scutari
and Balaclava. Then there was “Miss Florence’s Crimean dog,” a
large Russian hound which was the wonder of the countryside,
second only in interest to the drummer boy Thomas, who attended
his lady home from the war and was a very big person indeed as
“Miss Nightingale’s own man.” For graphic and thrilling narrative of
the fall of Sebastopol, Thomas could outvie the special
correspondent of The Times, and if he was unavoidably absent from
the Balaclava charge, he had the details of the engagement by
heart.
Queen Victoria had taken from the first a deep interest in Miss
Nightingale’s work, and was wishful to receive and thank her in
person, while the young Princesses were with natural girlish
enthusiasm eager to see the heroine of the war. Accordingly, it was
arranged that Miss Nightingale should proceed to Balmoral, where
the Queen and Prince Consort were spending the autumn. She
arrived in the middle of September, a month after her return from
the Crimea, and was privately received by the Queen. The
favourable impression made by Miss Nightingale on the royal circle is
recorded in the Life of the Prince Consort. One can imagine, too, the
emotions of the Crown Princess and Princess Alice, whose desire to
help the suffering soldiers had been fired by the visitor’s noble work.
Both these young Princesses were destined to experience the
anxiety of the soldier’s wife whose husband is at the front, and both
followed in the footsteps of Florence Nightingale in organising
hospital work in the Prussian War of 1866 and in the Franco-German
War of 1870, while tiny Princess Helena was to become in after
years an accomplished nurse, and an active leader in the nursing
movement of this country; and, alas! to yield her soldier son on the
fatal field of South Africa.
Miss Nightingale spent several weeks in the Highlands as a guest
at Birkhall, near Balmoral. She was present at a dance at the Castle,
and sat with the Royal Family at one end of the hall, and is described
as looking very graceful and pleasing. She wore a pretty lace cap to
conceal her short hair, her abundant tresses having been cut off
during her attack of Crimean fever. On Sundays Miss Nightingale
worshipped at the old church of Crathie, and her sweet, pale face
was affectionately regarded by the village congregation, for there
were many brave sons of Scotland whose pains she had soothed and
whose dying lips had blessed her.
 After leaving the Highlands, Miss Nightingale joined her family
for the customary stay at Embley Park, her Hampshire home, where
she was received by the people with many expressions of
congratulation. At Embley she was in the near vicinity of Wilton
House, the home of her friends, the Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Sidney
Herbert, with whom there was much to discuss regarding the
founding of the training home for nurses to which the Nightingale
Fund was to be devoted. The fund was the people’s gift to Florence
Nightingale, and continued to be enthusiastically supported by
private contributions, from the pennies of the poor to the cheques of
the rich, and by means of public entertainments throughout the
winter which succeeded the return of the heroine from the Crimea.
During the months which succeeded her return, Miss
Nightingale, with characteristic business promptitude, prepared a
clear and comprehensive statement regarding the “free gifts” which
had been sent to her for the sick and wounded, and in the latter
months of the war for the convalescent soldiers. One can read
between the lines of this report the general muddle which
characterised the transit of goods from London to the seat of war, in
consequence of which bales of things sent by benevolent people
made wandering excursions everywhere but to the Scutari hospitals
where they were so urgently wanted, and in some instances were
actually brought back to their donors unopened. This was owing to
the fact that from May, 1854, when our army first encamped at
Scutari, until March, 1855, no office for the reception and delivery of
goods had been established either at Scutari or Constantinople. In
consequence packages arriving by merchant vessels not chartered
by Government passed into the Turkish Custom House, from which
they were never extracted without delay and confusion, and many
were destroyed or lost. In cases of ships chartered by Government,
masses of goods were delayed, as Miss Nightingale wittily remarks,
by “an unnecessary trip to Balaclava and back” before they reached
her at Scutari.
In face of such confusion the task of giving a detailed account of
the “free gifts” would have hopelessly baffled a less clear head than
Miss Nightingale’s. “The Statement of the Voluntary Contributions”
which she had received for the hospitals in the East was published in
1857, and in it Miss Nightingale took occasion to pay a tribute to the
devotion and zeal of the medical officers in the hospitals, who had
been so handicapped by the lack of proper medical supplies and
comforts in the early part of the campaign. She also refers to the
liberality of the British Government and the support which she had
received from the War Office, and acknowledges the sympathy and
help received from various general and commanding officers, both
British and French, and pays the following tribute to her old friend
Lord Raglan, the Commander-in-Chief: “Miss Nightingale cannot but
here recall, with deep gratitude and respect, the letters of support
and encouragement which she received from the late Lord Raglan,
who invariably acknowledged all that was attempted for the good of
his men with the deepest feeling, as well as with the high courtesy
and true manliness of his character. No tinge of petty jealousy
against those entrusted with any commission, public or private,
connected with the army under his command, ever alloyed his
generous benevolence.”
At this period, though in weakened health, Miss Nightingale was
under the impression that she was still “good for active service.”
When the Indian Mutiny broke out, she wrote to her friend Lady
Canning, the wife of the Governor-General, offering to go out to
organise a nursing staff for the troops in India. Lady Canning writes,
November 14th, 1857: “Miss Nightingale has written to me. She is
out of health and at Malvern, but says she would come at twenty-
four hours’ notice if I think there is anything for her to do in her ‘line
of business.’” Lady Canning did not, however, encourage Miss
Nightingale to undertake a task for which she had not the strength,
neither did she at that time see the practicability of forming nursing
establishments in the up-country stations of India. That Miss
Nightingale made the offer is characteristic of her indomitable spirit.
 CHAPTER XXI
THE SOLDIER’S FRIEND AT HOME

Ill Health—Unremitting Toil—Founds Nightingale Training

School at St. Thomas’s Hospital—Army Reform—Death
of Lord Herbert of Lea—Palmerston and Gladstone pay
Tributes to Miss Nightingale—Interesting Letters—
Advises in American War and Franco-German War.

Her heart it means good—for no bounty she’ll take,

She’d lay down her life for the poor soldier’s sake,
She prays for the dying, she gives peace to the brave,
She feels that a soldier has a soul to be saved.
The wounded they love her, as it has been seen,
She’s the soldiers’ preserver, they call her their queen.
May God give her strength and her heart never fail!
One of Heaven’s best gifts is Miss Nightingale.
Ballad of the Time.

A FTER Miss Nightingale’s return from the Crimea it was expected

that she would become the active leader of the nursing
movement which her brilliant example had initiated. “We intend to
be merciless to Miss Nightingale in the future,” said Mr. Sidney
Herbert, “and see that her abilities are not allowed to slumber. The
diamond has shown itself and must not be allowed to return to the
mine. Miss Nightingale must be chained to the oar for the rest of her
life. It is hers to raise the system of nursing to a pitch of efficiency
never before known.”
Gladly indeed would Miss Nightingale have started on the great
work of nursing reform had her health permitted. The spirit was