 Section 8 of Some Famous Women by Louise Creighton. In and round Norwich have gathered for a long time many of the chief families belonging to the Society of Friends, the religious body whose members are commonly called Quakers. It was founded by an earnest Christian preacher in the seventeenth century who taught men to lead a true and simple Christian life, to have nothing to do with what he considered vain pleasures such as music and dancing, to dress very simply, to worship in silence without any set prayers or any ordained minister waiting for the spirit to move one of the members to pray or address the meeting. The Gurneys were one of the chief families belonging to the Society of Friends, and John Gurney, who lived at Earlham, a nice country place near Norwich, was the father of seven daughters and four sons. The third of these daughters, Elizabeth, was born in 1780, and when she was only twelve years old her mother died, leaving Catherine the eldest child who was not quite seventeen to take her place as well as she could. The Gurneys were a very happy, lively family. They did not follow the Quaker rule strictly. They rode about the country on their ponies, dressed in scarlet habits, and loved dancing and singing and gaiety of all kinds. But they were carefully educated and brought up to take a deep interest in religion. Elizabeth was delicate and could not study much. Neither did she often go to meeting as the Friends call their religious gathering, partly because she was not strong, and partly because it bored her. One day when she was eighteen she had gone to meeting wearing some very smart boots, which pleased her very much. They were purple, laced with scarlet. She was restless and sat and looked at her boots. But presently a stranger began to preach, a visitor from America. She was forced to listen and was so moved with what she heard that she began to weep. This was the beginning of a great change in her. She awoke to the reality of religion and began to feel that she must become what was called a plain friend, one who followed the rules of the society in every particular. But first she wished to know more of the world, and with her father's consent she paid a visit to London, where she shared in a great deal of gaiety. Still her determination to give it all up only grew stronger. Her sisters, though they dearly loved her, did not share her ideas, and grieved when she would not join their amusements. She found some satisfaction in teaching poor children in Norwich, for whom there were no schools in those days. At last many of her difficulties were settled by her marriage, when she was twenty with Mr. Joseph Frye, who was also a plain friend. His family were so strict that amongst her new relations Elizabeth found herself the gay one of the family, instead of the strict one, as she had been in her own home. The Fryes lived in London, in the city, as businessmen then did. Later they lived also at Plasket House and Essex, then a beautiful country place, but now covered by the crowded populations of East Ham. They had a large family, eleven children in all, and Mrs. Frye was devoted to her husband and her children, but from the first she did not feel that on that account she must give up all work for others. She visited the poor and helped the suffering wherever she could. She was naturally timid and unwilling to put herself forward. Amongst friends it is the constant habit to trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit to show both what should be done and to gain strength to do it. As a young woman Mrs. Frye had felt shy even at reading the Bible at family prayers in her own house. As she grew older she began to feel that it might be her duty to speak at the friend's meetings. She seemed at last to be driven by the Holy Spirit to do so, and though frightened beforehand when once she had begun all was easy. The meeting which she attended was pleased with her speaking and chose her for one of their regular ministers. This was when she was thirty-one and already the mother of seven children. After this she was a frequent speaker at friend's meetings all over the country. The friends as a body were always anxious to help suffering in misery of every kind. Some gentlemen well known to Mrs. Frye, having learned of the miserable condition of the women in Newgate, then one of the chief prisons in London, asked her to visit them one winter to see if she could not do something to improve their condition. It was a terrible scene that Mrs. Frye found when alone with one other lady she entered Newgate prison in January 1813. In four rooms were crowded nearly three hundred women and with them many children. Those who had been tried and those who had not yet been tried were all herded together whether guilty of grave or trifling crimes. There was no woman to take care of them. Day and night they were under the charge of one man and his son. They had no employment of any kind. They had no clothing but what they had on when they came. In rags and dirt they slept on the filthy floor without any bedding and they cooked, and slept in the same rooms. When strangers visited them as seems to have been allowed they all started begging and when they were given any money they at once bought drink which could be got in the prison. Their language and their conduct were alike terrible and the governor of the prison himself feared to go amongst them. He begged Mrs. Frye and her companion to remove the watches which hung at their sides lest they should be snatched from them by the women, but they paid no heed to his warning. The two ladies brought with them a supply of warm garments which they distributed amongst the wretched prisoners and before leaving each said a few words of prayer which moved some of their listeners to tears. Mrs. Frye did not forget what she had seen at Newgate but it was four years before she was able to do anything more for the prisoners. She was much taken up with family matters and she was often ill. She had her own large family and besides her many brothers and sisters, most of them with families of their own, who all wished her to share their joys and troubles. She was devoted in her care of her children, nursed them when they were ill, and was so gentle and loving in her ways that all little children loved her. But the cares of a large household were burdensome to her and she was glad to give over the management of the house to her daughters as they grew old enough. At Christmas, 1816, she again visited Newgate and this time she asked to be left alone with the women for some hours. She read to them out of the Bible and explained what she had read. The children of the wretched women, half-naked and pining for want of proper food and exercise, especially called forth her pity. She spoke to the mothers about the terrible dangers of their growing up in such a place and said that if they were willing to help she would get permission to start a school for the children. The mothers agreed with tears of joy. The governor of the prison had not much hope that anything would come of the experiment but he agreed to allow an empty cell to be used as his school. A teacher was found amongst the prisoners, young woman, Mary Conner, who was in prison for stealing a watch. Next day the school was opened and so many wished to learn that room could not be found for all in the cell. For fifteen months Mary Conner taught the prison school with much devotion. Then she was given a free pardon but died of consumption shortly afterwards. Mrs. Frye and a little group of ladies whom she interested in the work helped her constantly. One of these described her first visit to the prison by saying that she felt as if she were going into a den of wild beasts. The half-naked women, begging at the top of their voices, struggled together to get to the front of the railing which divided the room. The ladies as they passed through to the school were horrified at the conduct of these poor women, who spent their time in gaming, bedding, swearing, fighting, singing and dancing. At first it seemed as if the only thing that could be done would be to choose out the least vicious and to try by keeping them apart to bring them to a better life. No one thought it possible to do anything for the most degraded. But Mrs. Frye, as she talked with them and got to know them, could not give up hope of being able in some way to be of use to all. She wanted at least to teach them some sort of work, but the officers of the prison assured her that they would only destroy or steal any materials she might give them. Still she was determined to find a way, and a few weeks later she wrote, A way has very remarkably been open for us, beyond all expectations, to bring into order the poor prisoners. She was able to form a small association of ladies for the improvement of the female prisoners at Newgate, and the city magistrates gave her permission to introduce order and work into the prison if it could be done. She and her fellow workers made their plans, and drew up a set of rules for the life of those prisoners who had been tried. They then gathered the women together, told them what they intended to do for them, and read the rules one by one to them, asking whether they would keep them. All held up their hands in sign of approval after each rule was read, and in the same way they chose monitors amongst themselves to see that the rules were kept. Each day before work was begun, one of the ladies read the Bible and prayed with the women. All went on so smoothly and well that everyone was amazed. After six months the untried prisoners begged that they too might have work provided for them which was done. By degrees in spite of her desire to keep it quiet, people all over the country began to hear of the work that Mrs. Fry was doing at Newgate, and wrote to ask her advice to help them to improve the condition of other prisons. The House of Commons was led to take interest in the state of the prisons, and invited Mrs. Fry to tell what she knew about them to a committee chosen to look into the matter. It was not only the bad condition of the prisons that troubled her, but the nature of the law, which then punished with death not only as at present the crime of murder, but also forgery and various kinds of stealing. Mrs. Fry saw many women condemned to death, and was especially troubled by the case of one young woman who had passed some forged notes at the request of the man she loved. She tried in vain to obtain her pardon, and her fate determined her not to rest until the law were changed. In those days persons guilty of serious crime who were not condemned to death were sent as convicts to some of the distant colonies. They were taken to the docks through the streets in open wagons, shouting to the crowd as they passed and behaving with the utmost disorder. Mrs. Fry set herself to change. She asked that the women might be taken in covered carriages, and promised them that if they would behave quietly she and some of the ladies would come to see them off. Her own carriage followed the long line of coaches which took the women, one hundred and twenty-eight in number, with their children to the docks. When she reached the ship she was dismayed at the miserable arrangements made for the convicts, who were herded together with no one to care for them and nothing to do. She succeeded in dividing them into classes of twelve with a monitor to keep order over each, and found a corner of the ship where a school could be arranged for the children with one of the convicts as teacher. To get occupation for the women she collected great quantities of scraps of cloth of all kinds, and set them to make patchwork quilts which he heard would easily be sold in the colonies. In this way they were able to earn a little money to help them when they came to settle in the new land. She gave bibles and prayer books to the monitors for the use of their classes, and made arrangements for those who wished to learn to read. When the day came for the ship to sail Mrs. Fry was there to say a last goodbye. She stood at the door of the cabin with her friends and the captain. The women were gathered in front of her. Many of the sailors had climbed into the rigging so as to see better what was going on. Even the crews in neighboring ships lent over the sides to watch. Mrs. Fry opened her Bible and amidst profound silence read some verses in her beautiful clear voice. Then she paused for a moment, knelt down on the deck and prayed for God's blessing whilst many of the women wept. After this a boat carried her to the shore and the women strained their eyes to see her as long as possible. Mrs. Fry's work at Newgate was talked about everywhere. People of all kinds, bishops, ministers of religion, great nobles and smart ladies, even members of the royal family, came to Newgate to hear Mrs. Fry teach and pray with the prisoners. It became a fashionable amusement, but the solemn scene could not fail to affect even the most frivolous. As they listened to Mrs. Fry's winning voice with its beautiful silvery tones, they forgot to think of the prisoners and thought only of the way in which the words she had spoken touched their own lives. The silence that followed used to be broken by sobs from prisoners and visitors alike. Mrs. Fry gave her mind not only to teaching the prisoners and trying to lessen their sufferings, but to studying the whole question of prison reform. She wished to see things so changed that prisons might become places where criminals should not only be punished, but help to become better. She traveled all over the country sometimes with her husband, sometimes with her brothers, who were also zealous workers in prison reform, visiting the different prisons. Journeys were sometimes undertaken also to visit friends' meetings and speak to them. But wherever she went, she always tried to inspect the prison, to form ladies' committees, to visit the prisons, and to persuade the authorities to improve their arrangements. She tried to be of use to other people also. There was a great deal of smuggling in those days, and there had to be many stations of coast guards to watch for smugglers. Mrs. Fry was sorry for the dull and lonely lives lived by many of these men, and with the help of her friends provided for their use, libraries of books, at all the coast guard stations. She went to Ireland also to visit the prisons with her brother, who was deeply interested in the same work, and later they visited Jersey. Whenever she was in London, she paid a weekly visit to Newgate, and she sometimes visited the men as well as the women. The Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, was full of admiration for her work, and helped her to get improvements made in the care of the women and children on the convict ships. Mrs. Fry's fame had spread over Europe, and when she was already fifty-nine, with many grandchildren growing up around her, she decided to visit France and study French prisons. Wherever she went, she was received with much enthusiasm. Some of the prisons that she saw she admired very much, but another she noticed much to criticize, and she always freely expressed her opinions. In some towns in France, she was able to form committees of ladies to visit the prisons. After a second visit, she prepared a long report for the French government about the prison she had seen, and the reforms she thought desirable. Repeated requests came to her to visit new places, and she made a third journey to the continent with her brother when they got as far as Berlin. In Prussia she was treated with much honor by the King and Queen and by many members of the royal family. The following year the King of Prussia came to England, and one of the things he was most anxious to do whilst in London was to be present at one of Mrs. Fry's visits to Newgate. He came to the prison accompanied by the Lord Mayor and many gentlemen. There in one of the wards Mrs. Fry and some of the ladies were gathered with about sixty of the poor women. She told them that the presence of such distinguished visitors must not be allowed to distract their attention, and she read the Bible and prayed with them as usual. The same day the King drove out to see her at her own house in the country, and she presented to him her large family, sons and daughters with their wives and twenty-five grandchildren. She writes of the day, Our meal was handsome and fit for a King, yet not extravagant, everything most complete and nice. I sat by the King, who appeared to enjoy his dinner, perfectly at ease and very happy with us. Once more after this Mrs. Fry visited France, but she was growing feeble and tired out with her many labours. She had to suffer some months of illness during which her daughters tended her with the greatest devotion. She wrote herself that she was much struck in her illness with the manner in which her children had been raised up as her helpers. Many sorrows came to her in her last years from the death of her relations, but suffering and sorrow did not shake her faith. She had the comfort during the last years of her life of hearing of all the improvements that were being made in the prisons to reform which she had done so much. To the last she shared all the joys and sorrows of her children and of the other members of her large family. For about two years she led more or less the life of an invalid and died in October 1845 at the age of 65. It has only been possible to tell a very little of all the work she did for others during the years of her busy life. But whilst she did all this public work and influenced kings and governments in favor of reforms and ministered herself to the needs of the sinful and the suffering, she never forgot her duties as a devoted wife and the mother of a large family of children who loved her with the deepest tenderness. Neither did she neglect her brothers and sisters and their children. Her public work, though it absorbed much time and thought, did not take her away from her other duties. She remains an example of what a woman can do who feels the call to serve others and who does not believe that she can refuse to obey that call even though she has a family and a husband to care for. CHAPTER VII Mary Somerville Mary Fairfax, who grew up to be the most learned woman of her day, was born in Scotland in 1780. Her father was a captain in the navy, and whilst he was away with his ship, her mother, who was not at all well off, lived quietly with her children at Burnt Island, a small seaport on the coast of Fife. She did not take much trouble about Mary's education. In those days it was not thought necessary that girls should learn much. Mary was taught to read the Bible and to say her prayers morning and evening, but otherwise was allowed to grow up a wild creature. As a little girl of seven or eight, she pulled the fruit for preserving, shelled the peas and beans, fed the poultry, and looked after the dairy. She did not care for dolls and had no one to play with her, for her only brother was some years older, but she was very happy in the garden and loved to watch the birds and learn to know them by their flight. When her father came home from sea, he was shocked to find Mary, who was then nearly nine years old such a savage. She had not yet been taught to write, but she used to read the Arabian Nights, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim's Progress. He was horrified too at her strong scotch accent, and made her read aloud to him that he might correct it. This she found a great trial, but she delighted in helping her father in the care of his garden to which he was devoted. He at last felt that something more must be done to educate her, and said to her mother, Mary must at least know how to write and keep accounts. So at ten years old she was sent to a boarding school. The change from her wild free life made her wretched, and she spent her days in tears. They were very particular in those days that a girl's figure should be straight and used strange means to ensure this. Mary was perfectly straight and well-made, but she was enclosed in stiff stays with a steel busk, bands were fastened over her frock to make her shoulder blades meet at the back, and a sort of steel collar was put under her chin, supported on a rod which was fastened to the busk in her stays. Under these uncomfortable conditions she and the other girls of her age had to do their lessons. These lessons were far from interesting. The chief thing she had to do was to learn by heart a page of Johnson's dictionary so as to be able not only to spell all the words and give their meaning, but to repeat the page quickly. She also learned to write and was taught a little French and English grammar. A year at this school was supposed to finish her education, and it is not surprising that when she got home again at the age of eleven she could not write a tidy letter. She was reproached with not having profited better by the money spent on keeping her at an expensive school. Her mother said that she would have been content had she only learnt to write well and to keep accounts as that was all a woman was expected to know. Mary was delighted to be free again and felt like a wild animal escaped out of a cage. She spent hours on the seashore studying the shells and the stones and watching the crabs and jellyfish. When bad weather kept her indoors she read every book she could find and especially delighted in Shakespeare. But an aunt who visited them found fault with her mother for letting her spend so much time in reading and she was sent to the village school to learn plain sewing. She soon made a fine linen shirt for her brother so well that she was taken away from school and given the charge of all the house linen which she had to make and to mend. But she was vexed that people should find fault with her reading and thought it unjust that women should have been given a desire for knowledge if it were wrong for them to acquire it. Every opportunity for study was used by her and when a cousin lent her a French book she set to work with the help of a dictionary and the little grammar she had learnt at school to make out the sense of it. There were two small globes in the house and her mother allowed the village schoolmaster to come during a few weeks in the winter evenings to teach her how to use them. She loved to watch the stars from her bedroom window and to find out their names on the celestial globe. When Mary was thirteen her mother spent a winter in Edinburgh and then at last Mary went to a school where she learnt the little arithmetic and to write properly. An uncle gave her a piano and she had lessons in playing it. When they got back to Burnt Island she used to spend four or five hours daily at her piano. She also began to teach herself Latin but did not dare to tell this to anyone till she went to stay with an uncle who was very kind to her. She told him what she was doing and he encouraged her by telling her about learned women in the past and what was more read Virgil with her in his study every morning for an hour or two. While staying with another uncle in Edinburgh she attended a dancing school and learnt to dance minuettes and reels. Party politics were violent in those days and Mary's father and uncle were strong Tories. She heard such bitter abuse of the Liberals that her sense of justice was revolted and she adopted liberal opinions which she stuck to all her life. Very Fairfax was probably about fifteen when one day a friend showed her a monthly magazine containing coloured pictures of ladies dresses and puzzles. She was surprised to see strange lines mixed up with letters in the puzzles in a way that she could not understand and asked her friend what they were. She was told that they were a kind of arithmetic called algebra but her friend could not tell her what algebra was. On going home she looked amongst the family books to see if there was one which would explain algebra. She could only find one about navigation which she studied though she could but dimly understand it. She had no one of whom she could ask questions and knew that she would only be laughed at if she spoke of her desire for knowledge so that she often felt sad and forlorn. But she managed to teach herself enough Greek to read Xenophon and Herodotus. The next winter she spent in Edinburgh again and was sent to a drawing school and got on well with drawing but it was not till the following summer when her youngest brother was studying with a tutor that she ventured to ask the tutor to get her books about algebra and Euclid and she was able to begin the studies which were to make her famous as a mathematician. She worked very hard for she had many household duties to perform and to spend much time on music and painting which were the only studies of which her mother approved. She could only study mathematics by sitting up late at night and burned so many candles that the servants complained to her mother and her candle was ordered to be taken away when she went to bed. Then she used to keep up her studies by going over in the dark what she had already learnt. By this time Mary was grown up and was a remarkably pretty girl, very small and delicate looking. She began to go out to parties in Edinburgh which she much enjoyed and where she was much admired but all the time she never lost sight of what she felt to be the main purpose of her life, the pursuit of her studies. She painted at the art school, she practiced her piano for five hours every day, she made all her own dresses, even her ball dresses. She spent her evenings working and talking with her mother. To get time for her other studies she used to rise at daybreak and after dressing wrapped herself in a blanket to keep warm and read algebra or classics till breakfast time. So amidst difficulties of all kinds she struggled on with her studies. No one except her uncle Dr. Somerville ever gave her any help or encouragement. When she was twenty-four Mary Fairfax married her cousin Samuel Greek and went to live in London. Her husband was out at his work all day and she had plenty of time for her studies. But though he did not interfere with what she did he gave her no help or encouragement. He knew nothing of science himself and did not believe that women were capable of intellectual work. She struggled on as best she could and took lessons in French so as to learn to speak it. After three years her husband died, leaving her with two little boys, one of whom did not live to grow up. Mary went back to live with her parents. She cared for her children with the utmost tenderness but she still devoted herself to her mathematical studies and she was able to get advice and help from a professor in Edinburgh. To get time to study she still rose early for during most of the day she was busy with her children and the evening she devoted to her father. People thought her queer and foolish because she did not go into society but she did not care for their criticisms and made real progress in her studies. She had several proposals of marriage but refused them all till in 1812 she agreed to marry her cousin Dr. William Somerville, son of the uncle who had been the only person to help her in her studies when she was a girl. When her engagement was known one of Dr. Somerville's sisters who was younger than herself and unmarried wrote to her saying she hoped she would give up her foolish manner of life and studies and make a respectable and useful wife to her brother. This made Dr. Somerville very indignant and he wrote a severe and angry letter to his sister. After this none of her family dared to interfere with his wife again. His father was delighted with his choice for he understood and loved his niece. Some of the family were much astonished when in the summer after the marriage they were staying together in the lakes and one of them fell ill and expressed a wish for current jelly to find that Mrs. Somerville in spite of her learning was able at once to make some excellent jelly. The marriage was an absolutely happy one. Dr. Somerville loved and admired his wife and was very proud of her learning. For the first time she had encouragement to pursue her studies instead of having obstacles thrown in her way. At first they lived in Edinburgh but in 1816 Dr. Somerville received an appointment in London and they moved there and settled in Hanover Square. Many friends gathered round them and Mrs. Somerville enjoyed intercourse with other learned people, especially with Sir William Herschel, the great astronomer. She not only went on with her scientific studies but she took lessons in painting. She and her husband enjoyed making together a collection of minerals. They added to it on their travels in France and Italy which were an immense delight to her. Several children were born to Mrs. Somerville but only one son of her first marriage and two daughters of her second marriage lived to grow up. She was a devoted mother and gave much time to the care of her children. She gave her morning hours to domestic duties and was determined that her daughters should not suffer as she had done from want of a good education. She taught them herself all the subjects she was able to teach, giving three hours to their lessons every morning. Her house was carefully managed and she used to read the newspapers diligently as she was keenly interested in politics. She read to all the most important new books on all kinds of subjects. Science was her special study but she loved poetry and read all the great authors in Latin and Greek as well as in French and Italian. She was very fond of music and devoted to painting and was very clever and neat with her needle and she also enjoyed society very much. Ms. Edgeworth, the novelist after meeting her in 1822 described her as small and slight with smiling eyes and a charming face, quiet and modest in her ways with a very soft voice and a pleasant scotch accent. She said of her while her head is among the stars, her feet are firm upon the earth. Mrs. Somerville never herself introduced learned subjects into general talk but when others did she spoke of them simply and naturally without assuming any superior knowledge. Yet of course other learned people soon found out how much she knew. When she was in Edinburgh, she had written at the request of the editor a learned article on comets for the quarterly review but she had no idea of writing any book till in 1827 a letter came from Lord Broome to Dr. Somerville asking whether Mrs. Somerville would write for a series he was interested in, a book on a very important French work about the stars written by the famous astronomer Laplace. Mrs. Somerville had met Laplace in Paris. He had said of her that she was the only woman who could understand his works and Lord Broome wrote that she was the only person who could write the book he wanted and if she would not write it, it must be left undone. Mrs. Somerville writes herself that she was surprised beyond expression by this letter. She thought Lord Broome must be mistaken as to her powers and that it would be very presumptuous in her to attempt to write on such a subject or indeed on any other. However Lord Broome called in person to press his request and at last she agreed on condition that no one should know what she was trying to do and that if she failed the manuscript she'd be put into the fire. She had now to try to make time for more work in her busy life. This she did by getting up earlier to see to her household duties but she was much disturbed by interruptions. People did not think that a woman was like a man and could have any real work to do. Frequently friends or relations would arrive when she was in the midst of a difficult problem and say, I have come to spend a few hours with you. She had no other room to work in but the drawing room and as soon as the bell warned her of a visitor she used to cover up her books and papers with a piece of muslin so that no one should know what she was doing. She learned by habit to put up with interruptions and to go back at once when alone again to the point where she had left off. She did her work in the same room where her children prepared their lessons after she had taught them and she was never impatient when they brought their little difficulties to her but answered them quickly and quietly and went back to her own work. She could so abstract her mind that even talking or practicing on the piano did not disturb her. When the book was finished and sent to be looked at Mrs. Summerville felt very nervous as to what might be thought of it. It made her very happy and proud when the great astronomer Sir John Herschel wrote to say that he had read it with the highest admiration and added, go on thus and you will leave a memorial of no common kind to posterity and what you will value far more than fame you will have accomplished a most useful work. Her book was received with immense praise. The scientific societies hastened to show her honor. Her bust was ordered to be executed by the great sculptor Chantry and placed in the Hall of the Royal Society of London and at the Prime Minister's request the King granted her a pension of 200 pounds a year. The relations who had found fault with her ways were now astonished at her success and were loud in her praise but most of all she valued the deep delight of her husband who had always encouraged her and whose pride in her knew no bounds. After the success other scientific books were written by Mrs. Somerville. Much of her work was done in Italy where they went on account of Dr. Somerville's health. In Rome as in London Mrs. Somerville never allowed anything to interfere with her morning's work but in the afternoon she enjoyed keenly going about to see the wonderful sights of the city or making excursions into the country. She wrote to her son in 1841 that she had undertaken a book more fit for the combination of a society than for a single hand to accomplish. This was her book on physical geography with which she was at first so dissatisfied that she wished to burn it but her husband begged her to send it to Sir John Herschel who advised that it should be published and it went through six editions. In 1860 Mrs. Somerville had the great sorrow of losing her husband who died in Florence at the age of 89. One who knew them well and had only lately seen them together spoke of them as giving the most beautiful instance of united old age. Mrs. Somerville continued to live in Italy with her two daughters first at Spezia and afterwards in Naples. To the last she worked on writing a new book, bringing out new editions of her old books and working at them so as to include in them the latest scientific discoveries. She used to study in bed every day from eight in the morning until 12 or one o'clock. A little bird, a mountain sparrow was her constant companion for eight years and would sit and even go to sleep on her arm while she wrote. It was a real sorrow when one day it disappeared and was found, drowned in a water jug. She still painted and enjoyed sketching the beautiful view that could be seen from her windows. In 1869 there was an agitation in England to gain for women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Mrs. Somerville thought decidedly that women ought to have the vote and signed petitions for it and she felt it to be an honor to be put on the general committee for women's suffrage in London. She thought that in many ways the laws were unjust to women and also that there was still a strong prejudice against the higher education of women. She was much interested in all that was being done in England to improve girls' education, remembering well her own difficulties as a girl and heard with much delight of the establishment of the women's colleges at Cambridge. After her death one of the first women's colleges at Oxford was named after her Somerville College. In 1868 she was much interested in a tremendous eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the volcano which he could see from her windows on the other side of the Bay of Naples. Day after day she watched with a telescope the glowing streams of lava and the flame and smoke which burst from the mountain, carrying with it great rocks into the air. It was a great pleasure to her to see some distinguished men of science who came from England to see the eruption and who spent an evening with her during which she enjoyed much scientific conversation. Mrs Somerville lived to a great old age. When she was 90 her eyesight and the powers of her mind were still perfectly good. She still studied science and the higher mathematics in the early morning hours. Afterwards she would read Shakespeare or Dante or Homer in the original. She regularly read the newspapers and enjoyed a cheerful novel in the evening or a game of physique with her daughters. It was for her a constant joy to watch the sunsets over the Bay of Naples, the flowers or seaweeds which her daughters brought in from their walks or the tame birds she had in her room were always at the light. She had ever been deeply religious and everything in nature spoke to her of the great God who had created all things whilst the laws which were revealed to her in her scientific studies gave her ever new cause to love and adore her heavenly father. Friends from England and Italy came often to see her for she was much beloved. Her only infirmity was that she was very deaf but no one young or old thought a hardship to sit by the little sweet frail old lady and tell her about the things that were going on in the world outside in which she still took so keen an interest. Even when she was ninety-two she would drive out sometimes for several hours. She often forgot recent events and the names of people but she wrote herself at the age of ninety-two I am still able to read books on the higher algebra for four or five hours in the morning and even to solve the problems. Sometimes I find them difficult but my old obstinacy remains for if I do not succeed today I attack them again on the morrow. I also enjoy reading about all the new discoveries and theories in the scientific world and in all branches of science. She thought much of the last journey that lay before her but wrote that it did not disturb her tranquility for although deeply sensible of her utter unworthiness she trusted in the infinite mercy of her almighty creator. Tended by the loving care of her daughters she was perfectly happy. Her beautiful life ended in perfect peace and her pure spirit passed away so gently that those around her scarcely perceived that she had left them. She died in her sleep one morning at the age of ninety-two. End of section nine. Section ten of Some Famous Women by Louise Creighton. This Librovox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter eight, Julia Selina, English. There were many brave English women in India during the terrible days of the Indian mutiny. Many is brave as Mrs. English but we are able to know what she went through at the time because of the diary which she kept in which she wrote down what happened day after day and in reading about her adventures we can imagine something of what others suffered. She was the daughter of a great lawyer who became Lord Chancellor and the first Lord Chemsford and when she was twenty-eight she married Colonel English, a brave soldier and went out with him to India. Six years afterwards the mutiny broke out caused by the discontent of the native troops who turned upon their English officers. Lucknow was in the heart of the most disaffected district. Lieutenant Colonel English had gone there with his regiment the 32nd in January 1857. His wife and their three little boys were with him and they lived together in a pleasant little bungalow. Sir Henry Lawrence was the commissioner as the governor of a district of India was called. He was very anxious about the state of affairs and as the months passed and news came to Lucknow of the outbreak of the mutiny in other parts he daily expected that the native troops in Lucknow with mutiny also. On the 16th of May they heard that the great city of Delhi was in the hands of the mutineers. Then Sir Henry Lawrence ordered that the wives and children of the officers at Lucknow should leave their own houses and come into the residency, the place in the center of the city where the commissioner lived and near which the troops were quartered. This he thought he could defend against the natives if they should mutiny. He invited the ladies belonging to this 32nd regiment to stay in his house that they might be near their husbands. Mrs. English got herself and her children ready as quickly as possible and then rode up and down the road outside her house waiting for the officer who was to escort them. It was an hour before Colonel Case arrived with a troop of cavalry. He rode in front and Mrs. English followed on her pony with the other ladies and the children behind them. The city was as quiet as if it were asleep and they reached Sir Henry Lawrence's house in safety. Mrs. English writes, I think it was the longest day I ever passed as of course we could settle to nothing. John, her husband, came in the evening and read the service with me. He told me he did not think we should ever return to our house. At dinner she sat next to Sir Henry who was very grave and silent. About 130 English women and children took refuge in the residency and were given rooms in the different houses and offices there. In Sir Henry Lawrence's house there were 11 ladies and 15 children and in spite of all he had to do he took endless trouble to make them comfortable. Mrs. English had a small room for herself and her three children. Colonel English had to stay with his soldiers and she used to drive with her friend, Mrs. Case, to camp that they might spend a little time each day with her husbands. These visits were a great treat to them but they had to return before dusk and even so driving through the city was not very prudent as there were many ill looking men about. Mrs. English drove her pony herself and went at a very good pace. At first she was cheerful enough and inclined to laugh at the absurd reports that reached them till her husband checked her saying, it's no laughing matter. The most dreadful reports reach us daily. From that moment she realized the true seriousness of their position. The very next day she was just going to bed when a gentleman knocked at her door and bade her bring her children and come up to the top of the house immediately. She dressed them as quickly as possible and hurried to the roof and found all the inmates of the house gathered together looking toward the camp where many fires were blazing. The chaplain offered prayer and the men prepared to defend the position in case they were attacked. At midnight a note came to Mrs. English from her husband and everyone crowded round her to hear the news. He said that for the moment the rising was over and he did not think that it had been general. Then they all lay down to rest. But at noon the next day they heard of a rising all over the city and everyone was bitten to come to the residency for safety. There was terrible confusion and excitement, everyone fearing the worst. A few minutes talk with her husband who came in the evening was a great comfort to Mrs. English. She had to share her small room now with her friend Mrs. Case and her sister. Everything possible was done to strengthen their position. About 765 native troops had remained faithful and they with 927 European troops were quartered in houses all round the residency which were connected by a hastily built wall. Many native servants were faithful to their masters and Mrs. English had a devoted native butler and nurse who did all they could to help her. Her husband had a little room in the house so that she could see him sometimes for a few minutes but he was terribly busy. Morning and evening the chaplain read prayers and every Sunday there were services which were a great comfort. On June 13th Mrs. English asked her husband if he thought the enemy would attack them and if they would be able to hold out. He answered that he believed that they would be attacked, that their position was a bad one and they would have a hard struggle. She says she was glad to know what to expect as it enabled her to prepare for the worst. She describes their life as most wearisome. The heat was very great, it was impossible to read much but they occupied their time in making clothes for the refugees and this employment was a comfort. She always slept with her children on the roof of the house and the nights in the open air were very pleasant. The view of the city and the country around was very beautiful and so calm and peaceful that it was impossible to think that it could be the scene of war. Colonel Inglis slept in the garden with the soldiers. Occasionally he managed to come during the day into his wife's room for a few minutes. She never left the house except once for a walk with the chaplain to see the fortifications. The church was used for service for the last time on June 14th. After that it was turned into a storehouse for grain. Mrs. Inglis herself laid in all the store she could get sugar, arrowroot, beer, wine and food for the goats who supplied milk for the children. About this time Mrs. Inglis began to feel ill and it was discovered that she had the smallpox. She wished to be moved to a tent so as not to expose others to infection but it was decided that the risk would be too great for it was known that a great force of rebels were approaching the city and that they would soon be besieged. All the troops in Lucknow were now brought in from the camp and stationed in and about the residency and a fort nearby. Then on June 30th some of them were ordered out to meet and drive back the rebels. But the natives with the guns proved faithless and deserted the English so that the force had to retreat. Mrs. Inglis, ill though she was could not stay in bed and posted herself at the window to see the sad sight of the troops straggling back in twos and threes. She and her friend Mrs. Case were in terrible anxiety about their husbands. Just then Colonel Inglis came in. He was crying and after kissing his wife he turned to Mrs. Case and said, poor Case. Mrs. Inglis writes that never will she forget the shock of his words nor the cry of agony from his widow. Colonel Inglis had to leave them at once. In all the horror of the moment there was no time for thought. The rebels were firing heavily on the residency and the room was not safe. Hasteily collecting a few necessities Mrs. Inglis and her children took refuge with the other ladies in a room below which was almost underground. The shot was flying about so quickly that they could not venture out and not long after they had left their room upstairs a shell fell into it. Fortunately her native servants were faithful and brought them food during the day. At night the firing grew less and Colonel Inglis came in to take them over to a room he had prepared for them in a building which had been the jail and which was fairly safe. It was only 12 feet by six and there she and her children stayed with Mrs. Case and her sister. They were all so worn out with wretchedness that they slept that night. Next day they did what they could to make their room comfortable. It had neither doors nor windows only open arches and they hung up curtains to make some sort of privacy. Though the smallpox was then at its height Mrs. Inglis suffered no harm from the anxieties of that terrible day but she was alarmed lest her children should catch the disease as she could not keep them from her bed. But fortunately they did not take any harm and she seems to have recovered quickly. There were two wells in their courtyard so that they had a plentiful supply of water and for the moment there was plenty of food. The next day another terrible attack was made by the rebels. As they sat trembling in the midst of the heavy cannonading feeling sure that the enemy must get in, Mrs. Case proposed that they should say the litany which they did. She and her sister kneeling by Mrs. Inglis's bed. Mrs. Inglis writes that the soothing effect was marvelous, they grew calm in spite of their alarm. Next morning Sir Henry Lawrence was wounded by a shell that burst into his room. There was no hope of his recovery and after three days of awful suffering nobly born he died leaving the entire command to Colonel Inglis. Day after day one or other of the little garrison or of the women were hit by shells. The chaplain was shot whilst shaving one morning. Mrs. Inglis watched anxiously over her children who grew pale and thin from the confinement and the terrible heat. July 16th was her little boy's birthday and she thought sadly of the other children of his father's regiment who on that day used to have a dinner and a dance in his honor. She did not know that on that very day those other poor children were murdered by the rebels at Kanpur. Every day the anxiety grew. They had hoped before this to hear of English troops coming to relieve them but no news came. There was nothing to be done but to wait and try to keep back the rebels whose attacks were constant. Death was always near. One evening Mrs. Inglis was standing outside the door with her baby in her arms when she heard something whizz past her ears. She rushed inside and afterwards found a piece of shell buried in the ground just where she had been standing. Her children were her greatest comfort and as she had them to amuse and look after she never had an idle moment. Sometimes she tried to read aloud but it was impossible for them to fix their minds on a book. In their games the children would imitate what was going on around them. They made balls of earth and threw them against the wall saying that they were shells bursting. Johnny, the eldest boy, would hear where a bullet fell and run and pick it up whilst it was still warm. They slept through all the firing and never seemed frightened. Sunday services were regularly held and again and again at the worst moments prayer was their only support. Mrs. Inglis used to visit the other ladies as much as she could and being of a hopeful nature herself managed to raise their spirits. Her own best moment in the day was in the early morning when her husband used to come to see her and sit outside her door drinking his tea. One day a shell burst in their own courtyard. The children were playing about and for a moment her anxiety was intense till she saw that they were all safe. Tales of harebreath escapes were heard daily. One doctor had his pillow under his head shot without his being hurt. But there were many who did not escape and the condition of the wounded in the heat and the crowded hospital left little hope of recovery. Anxiety and constant work turned Colonel Inglis's hair gray during the long suspense. Their position was growing desperate. He knew that General Halflock was trying to fight his way through the rebels and come to their help for a native spy carried letters between the two commanders written in Greek characters and rolled up and hidden in a quill. General Halflock wished Colonel Inglis to be ready to help his approach by an attack from inside. But Colonel Inglis was obliged to write on August 16th after more than six weeks of siege that this was impossible owing to the weak condition of his shattered force. Food was growing scarce and there was much sickness. On one evening five babies were buried. It was not till near the end of September that the sound of distant guns struck Mrs. Inglis's ear one day and told her that relief was near. Each boom seemed to her to say, we are coming to save you. Five days afterwards on September 25th at six in the evening, she heard tremendous cheering and knew that the relief had come. She was standing outside her door when the soldier came rushing up to fetch the Colonel's sword which he had not worn since the siege began. A few minutes afterwards the Colonel himself entered bringing with him Colonel Halflock, a short gray-haired man. He had fought his way in with the relief force. He shook hands with Mrs. Inglis saying that he feared that she had suffered a great deal. She could hardly speak to answer him and only long to be alone with her husband. Colonel Inglis felt the same and after taking Halflock out, returned in a few minutes and kissing her exclaimed, thank God for this. For a brief moment there was unmixed happiness. Then the thought rushed into her mind of all the others whose lot was so different from hers and whose dear ones had perished in the siege. A moment later a messenger came asking if they had any cold meat for starving officers and very soon Mrs. Inglis learned how severely those who had come to their rescue had suffered as they fought their way in through the narrow streets of the town. She also heard of the wonderful scene when they had at last got in and met the besieged. On all sides were handshakeings and warm greetings, the relieving soldiers lifting the children of the besieged in their arms and kissing them. But little by little Mrs. Inglis realized that though relieved they were not rescued. The soldiers who had fought their way in under Utrim and Halflock were not enough to drive back the enemy or even to take the women and children safely out of Lucknow. They were only able to help them to resist the besiegers and their presence increased the anxiety about the supply of food which was getting very low and had to be used with the greatest care. The number of wounded was also terribly increased and the state of the overcrowded hospital and the want of all the things needed for the care and comfort of the patients added greatly to their suffering. The only chance now was to hold out till the coming of Sir Colin Campbell with more troops and meanwhile the attacks of the enemy increased in fury. There was constant firing and no place was really safe so that Mrs. Inglis was never easy if her children were out of her sight. During the siege Mrs. Inglis had found a little white hen which used to stay about their room and be fed by her children. When food grew scarce they decided to kill and eat it but that very morning Johnny ran in exclaiming, oh mama the white hen has laid an egg. One of the officers whose leg had been cut off was very ill and weak and Mrs. Inglis at once took the egg a great luxury in those days to him. The hen laid an egg for him every day till he died and then ceased for the rest of the siege but they could not kill it after that. It was not till the middle of November, seven weeks after the coming of Havlock that they knew that Sir Colin Campbell was near. It was Colonel Inglis's birthday and they invited another officer to dinner and actually had a fruit tart for dinner. A luxury which Mrs. Inglis would not have dreamt of had not her hope of relief been high. Little Johnny ran out to call their guest screaming at the top of his voice, come to dinner we've got a pudding. It was November 17th, a most anxious, exciting day when Sir Colin Campbell at last reached Lucknow. He did not come inside the entrenchments and when Colonel Inglis arrived very late to dinner it was with the bad news that they were all to leave the residency the next evening. Sir Colin did not think he was strong enough to recapture the town and felt that the utmost he could do was to carry off in safety the garrison and the women and children. It was a bitter blow to Colonel Inglis to be told that he must leave in the hands of the enemy the place which he had so long defended at such terrible loss. He offered to stay and hold it if one thousand men could be left to him and the women and children be moved but it was not allowed and there was nothing to do but to obey. There was a hurried packing of all such things as could be taken with them. The women and children started late on the afternoon of November 19th to leave the place where they had been closely besieged for nearly five months. The road by which they were led out of the town was considered safe except in three places on which the enemy were firing at intervals. There an officer carried the children and they all ran as fast as they could but Mrs. Inglis did not feel in the least afraid. In a large garden in the outskirts of the town they found the other women and children and the officers of Sir Colin Campbell's force who were almost kind and feasted them with tea and bread and butter which were great luxuries. Sir Colin came and talked to Mrs. Inglis for some time and was most attentive but she said that all the while she knew that he was wishing them very far away and no wonder for without the women and children to take care of he would have been free to attack the enemy. It was 10 at night before they started on their journey with an escort of soldiers. Mrs. Inglis with her three children and three other ladies and another child were squeezed tightly together in one bullock wagon. She had only just got her baby to sleep when the word halt was called. Silence was ordered and all lights were put out. Clearly an attack was feared and she was terrified lest her baby should begin crying again and betray where they were. After waiting in absolute silence for a quarter of an hour the order was given to move on and in two hours they reached a camp where tents had been got ready for them and food prepared and they could lie down and sleep. Next morning some of the officers invited Mrs. Inglis and her friends to breakfast and she writes that though she hopes she was not very greedy she much appreciated the good things with which their table was loaded. The next day she had the great joy of receiving the home letters from her mother and friends in England which had been accumulating for five months and she was able to write home herself. Colonel Inglis had been left behind to bring out the garrison which he did at night without the loss of any men. It was an immense relief to Mrs. Inglis when he reached the camp in safety. The next day they started on their march the great procession of carriages and carts with the women and children and luggage guarded by the soldiers. They could only move very slowly and often had to stop because the carriages and carts got hemmed together. Several days were spent in this way. Mrs. Inglis could not see her husband every day and great was her joy when he could visit her for a few minutes. She tells how on Sundays if he came they read the service together and how at another time she could have a quiet walk and talk with him. They passed through Kanpur where a bright moon shown on the ruined houses and everything reminded them of the horrors that had taken place there a few months before when their fellow countrywomen with their children had been cruelly butchered by the rebels. Eighteen days after leaving Lucknow they reached the railway. It had been a most trying and fatiguing journey especially for the sick and wounded over rough roads and crowded jolting carts. The train took them to Allahabad where they were received with enthusiastic cheering from the crowds gathered to greet them a reception which Mrs. Inglis felt most overpowering. At last they were in a safe place and could rest. By degrees steamers carried them down the Ganges to Calcutta. Mrs. Inglis was glad to linger amongst the last for her husband was at Kanpur with the troops and at Allahabad she could hear daily from him. She begged him to let her stay where she was instead of going back to England but he would not consent. As she traveled down the Ganges to Calcutta a weary some journey of three weeks in an overcrowded steamer she heard from her fellow passengers the stories of their hardships and losses. It was wonderful to think that she and her husband and three children were all safe. Strangely enough their dangers were not over yet for the steamer that was taking them from Calcutta to England struck a rock and the passengers had to make their escape in small boats through the heavy surf. The waves were very high and seemed as if they would swamp them but little Johnny laughed merrily each time they broke over the boat. Fortunately they were picked up by a passing ship and ultimately reached England in safety. Colonel Inglis stayed for some months in Kanpur but then his health broke down which was not surprising after the terrible time he had been through. He was forced to ask for leave and was able to join his wife in England. End of Section 10 Section 11 of Some Famous Women by Louise Creighton this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 9, Florence Nightingale, Part 1 Florence Nightingale who has done so much to improve the nursing of the sick was born on May 12th, 1820 at Florence in Italy and was named after her birthplace. Her parents soon went back to live in England where her father owned a country house called Leehurst in Derbyshire. They spent their summers in Derbyshire and in the autumn moved to Embly Park in Hampshire, another house belonging to Mr. Nightingale. Florence grew up loving the country and the country people who lived around her home. As a little girl she was very fond of dolls and used to pretend that they were ill and nurse them and bandaged their broken limbs with the greatest care and skill. She was devoted to animals and had many pets for whom she cared tenderly. Once when she was out riding on her pony she came upon an old shepherd whose dog had had his leg hurt by some mischievous boys. The shepherd thought that there was nothing to be done but to kill the dog to put it out of its misery. But Florence begged to be allowed to try to cure it. The leg proved not to be broken and Florence poltest it so cleverly that the dog was soon well again. Florence was educated at home. Her father was very particular about her studies and she learned well and quickly. Even as a child she loved to visit sick people and as soon as she was grown up she spent most of her time in the cottages and in the village school. The old and the sick loved her visits and her gentle clever ways did much to ease their suffering. For the children she invented all kinds of amusements and delighted in playing with them. She also held a Bible class for the elder girls. So far her life had been spent much like that of many other English girls. She was pretty and charming and known to be very clever. She had traveled a good deal and her home life with parents who delighted in her and one sister to whom she was devoted was absolutely happy. But every year her interest in nursing the sick grew stronger. She had been much impressed by meeting Elizabeth Fry and by hearing from her of the Institute of Kaiser's Vet in Germany where deaconesses were trained for nursing the sick poor. In order to find out how the sick were nursed in her own country, she visited some of the chief hospitals and was grieved to find what ignorant rough women the nurses were. They had no training and did little for the comfort of the patients. The hospitals were dirty and badly kept and the nurses were much given to drinking. Miss Nightingale also traveled in France, Germany and Italy to visit the hospitals. There she found things on the whole much better as the nursing was mostly done by nuns or sisters of charity, religious women who had given their lives for the service of their fellow creatures. When she was 29, Miss Nightingale decided to go herself to Kaiser's Vet to study nursing. She spent only a few months there but she was delighted with what she saw and learned. Many years afterwards she wrote, never have I met with a higher love a pure devotion than there. There was no neglect, the food was poor, no coffee but bean coffee, no luxury but cleanliness. She was much loved at Kaiser's Vet and an English lady who was there 11 years afterwards was told that many of the sick remembered much of her teaching and some died happily, blessing her for having led them to Jesus. Miss Nightingale wrote a little book about Kaiser's Vet in which she urged that women should be encouraged to work and should be trained properly for their work. She herself had first used the knowledge that she had gained in tending the poor who lived near her own home. After a while she moved to London that she might be able to help in other charitable work. She was interested in a home that had been started for sick governesses which she heard was in a very unsatisfactory condition and went to live there herself, shutting herself off from all society that she might care for the sick women in the house and arrange for its proper management. She was not at all strong and after a time grew ill from the strain of too much work and had to go back to the country to rest. It was about this time that England and France declared war on Russia and the Crimean War began. England had not been at war for 40 years and the army was in no way well prepared. The country rejoiced to hear of the victory of the Alma won over the Russians, but people learned with indignation of the sufferings of the soldiers after the battle. Nothing was ready for the care of the wounded. Even food and clothing were scarce. Letters from the Crimea told terrible stories of the sufferings of the men. The French had 50 sisters of mercy to tend their sick, but the English had no female nurses. In the Times newspaper, a long letter giving an account of the terrible state of things was published which ended with these words. Are there no devoted women amongst us able and willing to go forth to minister to the sick and suffering soldiers of the East and the hospitals at Skatari? Are none of the daughters of England at this extreme hour of need ready for such a work of mercy? Many were stirred by this appeal and sent in offers of help to the war office. Mr. Sidney Herbert, the minister for war, was eager to send the needed help, but he felt that to send out women not trained for such work would be useless. He knew Miss Nightingale intimately and it seemed to him that she was the one woman in England whose character and training fitted her to take the lead in this matter. He got the permission of the government to ask her to undertake the post of superintendent of nurses for the Crimea. Then he wrote to her to tell her the state of affairs. A large barrack hospital had been set apart for the sick and wounded soldiers at Skatari on the Bosphorus. Here the wounded were brought by ship from the Crimea. Masses of stores were being sent out, but there were no female nurses and as women had never been employed to nurse soldiers there were no experienced nurses ready to go, though many devoted women had offered their services. Mr. Herbert felt that there would be great difficulty in ruling the band of untrained nurses and in making the new arrangements work smoothly with the medical and military authorities. He told Miss Nightingale that if she would go, she would have full authority over the nurses and the support of the government in all she might wish to do. He said that the whole success of the plan depended upon her willingness to go and that her experience, her knowledge, her place in society gave her the power to do this work which no one else possessed. In those days it was quite a new thing to think of a lady being a nurse at all and quite an unheard of thing that a lady should go to nurse soldiers. Mr. Herbert thought that if this new plan succeeded it would do an enormous amount of good both then and afterwards. Miss Nightingale too had read the letter in the times and was thinking over it in her home in the country. Before Mr. Herbert's letter reached her, she wrote to him of her own accord offering her services to go as nurse to the hospitals at Skatari. The moment had come for which unconsciously she had been long preparing and she was ready for the work which came to her. Her letter crossed Mr. Herbert's. It was written on October 15th, 1854 and immediately it was announced in the times that Miss Nightingale had been appointed superintendent of nurses at Skatari. She had once set to work to collect the band of 38 nurses whom she was to take out with her. There were a few institutions in existence for training nurses and to these Miss Nightingale appealed for volunteers. 24 of those she took out came from such places. Six days after she had made her offer to go she was ready to start with her band complete. They crossed the channel to Boulogne where the people had heard of their coming. The fish wives turned out to meet them and insisted on carrying their bags from the boat to the train. They too were interested in the war where English and French soldiers were fighting side by side and as they walked with them they begged the nurses to take care of any of their dear ones should they meet them. With tears and warm shakes of the hand they bade farewell to them crying. Long live the sisters as the train carried them away. On November 4th Miss Nightingale and her nurses reached Skatari where the poor men in hospital had heard of their coming but could not believe the good news. One man cried when he saw them exclaiming. I can't help it when I see them. Only think of English women coming out here to nurse us. It seems so home like and comfortable. It was a terrible state of things that Miss Nightingale found in the hospitals. The filth, misery and disorder were indescribable. In long corridors the wounded men lay crowded together. Many of them had not even had their wounds dressed nor their broken limbs set. There were no vessels for water, no towels or soap, no hospital clothes. The men lay in their uniforms stiff with blood. The beds were reeking with infection and rats and vermin of every kind swarmed over them. There was no time to plan reforms or to bring any order into the hospital before more wounded from the Battle of Inkerman arrived in terrible numbers, only 24 hours after Miss Nightingale had come. End of Section 11 Section 12 of Some Famous Women by Louise Creighton This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 9 Florence Nightingale, Part 2 Her courage rose to the occasion terrible though it was and inspired her companions. Whilst they all worked without ceasing to do what they could to help the worst suffering, she in the midst of all her labors thought out what could be done to bring order into the awful confusion. She had to see that proper supplies of all the things needed for the comfort of the soldiers were sent out from England and to make arrangements for the distribution of the stores when they arrived. Her energy and her disregard of some of the rules laid down by the military authorities about the distribution of the stores made some people very angry and there was a good deal of grumbling at what they considered her unnecessary haste and her interference. But Miss Nightingale cared for nothing so long as she could do the task for which she had been sent out. She set up a kitchen where food could be cooked for the sick and wounded and a laundry where their clothes could be washed and disinfected. She wrote to England clear accounts of the state of things she had found without any grumbling but pointed out what had to be done for the proper care of the men. Opposition to her ways disappeared as it became clear how admirable were the results of her work. She won the orderlies to work with the utmost patience and devotion under the direction of the lady nurses so that she could say that not one of them failed her in obedience, thoughtful attention and considerate delicacy. They were rough ignorant men but in the midst of scenes of loathsome disease and death they showed to Miss Nightingale and her nurses the most courteous chivalry and constant gentleness and she never heard from them a word that could shock her. The gratitude and devotion of the patients to her knew no bounds. At nights she used to pass through the long corridors and the endless wards. There were four miles of wards in the hospital carrying a little lamp in her hand so as to see that all was well and from this the patients learned to call her the lady of the lamp. They felt that she was their good angel and one of them said afterwards describing the comfort it was even to see her pass she would speak to one and another and nod and smile to many more but she could not do it to all for we lay there by hundreds but we would kiss her shadow as it fell and lay our heads on the pillow again content. Huddled together in two or three damp rooms in the basement of the hospital Miss Nightingale found a great number of poor women the wives of the soldiers with their babies living in the utmost misery and discomfort. She did not rest till she had arranged better quarters for them. Some ladies were found to befriend them. Those whose husbands had been killed in the war were sent back to England. Many were given work in the laundry which Miss Nightingale had started and a school was opened for the children. When the winter came on the sufferings of the soldiers increased. The army was engaged in the siege of Sevastopol and Miss Nightingale described the sufferings endured by the soldiers there in a letter to a friend. Fancy working five nights out of seven in the trenches. Fancy being thirty-six hours in them at a stretch with no food but raw salt pork sprinkled with sugar, rum and biscuit, nothing hot. Fancy through all this the army preserving their courage and patience as they have done. There is something sublime in the spectacle. The hospitals were crowded with men brought in ill from the results of this exposure. Early in 1855 fifty more trained nurses were sent out from England and they came in time to help in a terrible outbreak of cholera which filled the hospital with new patients, most of whom died after a few hours of suffering. Frost-bitten men were brought in too from Sevastopol and of all these sufferers at least half died in spite of the care of the nurses. Again and again it was Miss Nightingale who comforted the dying and received from them the last message to be sent to the dear ones at home. She wrote down their words and took care of their watches or other possessions which they wished to send home. The hearts of people in England were stirred by all they heard of the sufferings of the soldiers and of the devotion of the nurses. Supplies of every kind were sent out in great quantities and all that was needed was that their use should be wisely organized. Miss Nightingale was much helped by the arrival of Monsieur Swayet, the famous French cook, who came out at his own expense to organize cooking in the hospitals. He introduced new stoves and many reforms in the kitchens and was a most devoted admirer of the lady-in-chief as Miss Nightingale was called. After six months' work at Skatari, Miss Nightingale set out to visit the hospitals in the Crimea itself. Monsieur Swayet and several of her nurses went with her. She rode to the camp near Balaklava, where she could hear the thunder of the guns which besieged Sevastopol. As she passed through the camp, some of the men who had been her patients at Skatari recognized her and greeted her with a hearty cheer. The hundreds of sick in the field hospital were delighted to receive a visit from the lady of whom they had heard so much. Afterwards, she rode right up into the trenches outside Sevastopol so that the sentry was alarmed at her daring. Next day, she visited another hospital at Balaklava and left some of her nurses to work there. She was on board the ship which was to take her back to Skatari when she was suddenly seized with a very bad attack of Crimean fever. The doctors said that she must at once be taken to the sanatorium at Balaklava. Laid on a stretcher, she was carried by the soldiers up the mountainside. For a few days it was thought that she was dying but presently the joyful news was spread that she was better. She herself says that the first thing that helped her to recover was her joy over a bunch of wildflowers that had been brought to her. Whilst she lay ill, she was visited by Lord Raglan, the commander in chief of the army who wished to thank her for all she had done for the troops. She would not hear of going back to England after her illness as her friends wished but as soon as possible returned to Skatari. In the autumn, Savasta pole fell and this brought the war to an end. But Miss Nightingale would not return home as the hospitals were still full of sick and wounded who could not be moved. She paid another visit to the hospitals in the Crimea and traveled from one place to another over the bad mountain roads in a carriage which had been specially made for her. She did much for the comfort of the soldiers who had to stay on in the Crimea and started libraries for them and reading huts where they could go to sit and read. Lectures and classes were also provided for them and arrangements made to enable them to send home easily money and letters to their families. Before she left the Crimea, Miss Nightingale set up at her own cost a white marble cross 20 feet high as a monument to the dead. It was dedicated to the memory of the soldiers who had perished and to the nurses who had died intending them and on it was written in English and Russian, Lord have mercy upon us. From all sides she received tributes for her services. The Sultan gave her a diamond bracelet. Queen Victoria sent her a beautiful jewel specially designed by Prince Albert. Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord Ellesmere said, The hospitals are empty, the angel of mercy still lingers to the last on the scene of her labors, but her mission is all but accomplished. Those long arcades of skitari in which dying men sat up to catch the sound of her footstep or the flutter of her dress and fell back on the pillows content to have seen her shadow as it passed her 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. This was just what Miss Nightingale wished to do. The government offered to bring her home in a manna war, but she traveled quietly back under the name of Miss Smith so that her uncommon name might not attract attention to her. When she got to her own home she went in by the back door. Crowds of people used to gather around the park in the following weeks in the hope of seeing her, but she refused to receive any sort of public welcome. As soon as the war came to an end before Miss Nightingale had returned home, a movement was started to give her a testimonial from the nation. Her friends had said that the only testimonial she would accept would be one which would help on the cause of providing trained nurses for the hospitals, and a Nightingale hospital fund was started to be given to her on her return to start a work of reform. Public meetings were held in support of this fund, and when Miss Nightingale got back it had reached 48,000 pounds. With the help of friends she considered how best this money could be used. She was too ill to undertake herself as she had intended to manage the new institute for training nurses or to do more than advise from her sick room what had best be done. She had hoped that rest would completely restore her health and even wished to go out to India to nurse when the mutiny broke out in 1857. But this was impossible. After her return from the Crimea she led almost continuously an invalid life, but it was not an idle life. She directed all the arrangements for using the Nightingale fund, which was chiefly devoted to starting a school for training nurses at St. Thomas Hospital in London. The Nightingale nurses will always keep alive the memory of her name. In all other matters connected with nursing she always took an active interest, especially in the health of the soldiers and in nursing in the army and also in starting district nurses to nurse the sick poor in their own homes. Her advice was constantly sought and she wrote many papers about nursing which were most useful, especially a very popular little book called Notes on Nursing. But for more than 50 years since her wonderful work in the Crimea she has lived a secluded life as an invalid though it has been a life full of work and a thought for the service of others. She is still living in 1909 but is a complete invalid. The great lesson of her life is that she had prepared herself so well that when the opportunity for doing a great piece of work came to her she was able to use it. She had learnt and studied and when the need came she was ready. End of section 12. Section 13 of Some Famous Women by Louise Creighton. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 10 Isabella Byrd afterwards Mrs. Bishop, Part 1. Isabella Byrd who afterwards became famous as a traveler was the daughter of a clergyman. She was born in 1831 and spent her childhood in a country village in Cheshire of which her father was vicar. She was a frail, delicate child and as it was good for her to be as much in the open air as possible her father used to put her on a cushion before him when he rode round his parish. As soon as she was old enough she rode a horse of her own going with her father wherever he went. He made her notice everything that passed on the way and questioned her about all that she saw. In after years she looked back to these early days as having taught her to be perfectly at home on a horse to observe accurately everything that she saw to love the flowers and the plants and to know their names and uses to measure distances with her eye and to watch the signs of the seasons. She was educated by her mother and said that no one could teach her as her mother did since she made everything so wonderfully interesting. By the time she was seven Isabella was an eager reader of books of all kinds even of serious history. When she was 11 her father moved to a parish in Birmingham and there she soon became a keen Sunday school teacher and worker in the parish. Later her father again had a country living in Huntingtonshire. Isabella was not strong and the doctor recommended a sea voyage so when she was 23 she made her first journey going to Canada and America. She wrote such interesting letters home describing all that she saw that her father urged her to make a book out of them and soon after she came home her first book The English Woman in America appeared and it was much praised. It was a bitter grief to Isabella when her father died in 1858. She spoke of him as the mainspring and object of her life. Her mother now settled in Edinburgh and Isabella paid frequent visits to the Highlands and the Hebrides and interested herself much in the condition of the Highlanders who were then very poor. She helped many to emigrate and worked hard to provide outfits for them. She was often ill but wrote a great deal whilst lying on her sofa. She brought out another book about America and sent many articles to magazines. Writing was very easy to her. After some years in Edinburgh, Mrs. Bird died, a crushing sorrow to her two daughters. Isabella wrote, she has been my one object for the eight years of her widowhood. Isabella sought comfort in working for the poor people in Edinburgh and tried to do something to get rid of the miserable slums in that city. She wrote a book about them to rouse people to a sense of shame. Her hard work was often interrupted by distressing illness. She suffered a great deal from her spine but even when ill, she managed to read and study. The doctors recommended a voyage for her health and parting with much sorrow from her sister, she started in 1872 for New York and went on from there to New Zealand and then to the Sandwich Islands. She loved the sea and wrote that it was like living in a new world. It was so free, so fresh, so careless, so unfettered. The beauty of the Sandwich Islands fascinated her and the book she wrote about her visit to them helped others to enjoy what she had seen. She went next to America, determined to explore the Rocky Mountains which were then much less known than they are now. Her journey amongst the mountains was made on horseback. Her habit of riding since her childhood and her intimate knowledge of horses enabled her to spend with real enjoyment long days riding through the mountains on steep and difficult paths and sometimes in wild snowstorms. She rode a stride like a man in a dress which she had devised for herself consisting of full Turkish trousers with frills reaching to her boots over them a skirt which came down to her ankles and a loose jacket. She stayed in log huts with settlers in the mountains helping them with their work and much interested in watching the kind of life they led. The scenery was magnificent and the fine air and the free open life suited her and made her feel well and strong. She spent some time with some settlers in a high valley amongst the mountains sleeping alone in a log hut. She used to ride out with the men to help them drive in the cattle which had strayed on the mountains and managed so well that they called her a good cattleman. Toward the end of October she started on a long ride through the mountains alone. She had luggage for some weeks including a black silk dress packed behind her saddle and felt very independent. The greater part of her journey was through a white world for the mountains were covered with snow and the nights were intensely cold. The nights she passed generally in log huts with the settlers who were always glad to show her hospitality. Some of the men were very wild and rough but they always behaved well to her and she came to trust and admire many of the men of the mountains and loved to hear their talk about the wonderful world of nature in which they lived. The newspapers wrote about the strange English woman and her lonely ride through the mountains and often when she reached a new place she found that the people had already heard of her. One man she came across who was known as Mountain Jim was leading a very wild life but had been a gentleman of good birth and education. Meeting her and writing about with her brought out all that was good in him. He gave up his evil habits of drinking, swearing and fighting and became a changed man. He was bitterly grieved at parting from her but promised to keep straight and his letters to her showed that he did. Unfortunately, not many months afterwards he was shot by another man in a fit of passion. Miss Bird got back to her sister in Edinburgh after nearly two years traveling and set to work to make a book out of her letters home. She could never stay quiet for long and traveled about in England, Scotland and Switzerland and when in Edinburgh was busy with all kinds of work for others. Soon she began to dream of another long journey. This time it was Japan she wished to visit. She dreaded parting from her sister but she was always better traveling than when at home and hoped that another journey would still more improve her health. She started for Japan in 1878 when she was 47 years old determined not to go to the well-known places but to the almost unknown interior of the country. She was told that the difficulties in the way of such a journey would be very great and that no English lady had as yet traveled to the interior. When she reached Japan many tried to dissuade her from her plans but she engaged a Japanese servant and made her preparations for her journey in spite of feeling a little nervous. She was afraid of being afraid but very soon she could laugh at her fears and misfortunes though she had endless discomforts to put up with. Everywhere there were fleas and mosquitoes and as strangers were seldom seen in the interior she was tormented by the crowds who turned out to see her and allowed her no privacy. Still she found that the Japanese crowds were quiet and gentle and did not press rudely upon her. As she got further inland the villages became horribly dirty and the women were filthy and hardly clothed. Her servant was deeply grieved that she should see such things and once sat on a stone with his face buried in his hands he was so distressed. Her journey was made fatiguing by bad horses and by very bad weather. Rain fell in torrents and she was glad to use one of the straw rain cloaks which the Japanese women wear but she was not discouraged by the difficulties of her first journey and determined to visit Yeizo the island north of Japan where live a wild people known as the Harry Ainos. In order really to study the ways of these people she spent three days and two nights in the hut of their chief sleeping in a sort of bunk in the wall with a mat hung in front of her. The men of the place used this hut as a club and crowded in at night to sit round the fire piled up with logs. She wrote, I never saw such a magnificent sight as that group of magnificent savages with the fitful firelight on their faces and the row of savage women in the background. They were very kind and courteous to her. She was treated as an honored guest in every house she entered and she returned their kindness by attending to the sick. It was with real regret that she left the friendly gentle Ainos after carefully studying their habits in manner of life. She returned to Tokyo, the capital of Japan and stayed two months with the British minister studying Japanese ways and making excursions into the neighborhood. From there she sailed to Hong Kong and then to Canton and the Melee States and then turned homewards stopping at Cairo on the way where she fell very ill. Her travels in the East had not suited her health but they had filled her with new interests and taught her many things. Her books about her travels were better written after this and attracted much admiration and interest. She was becoming a famous woman. But all the enjoyment of her success was spoiled to her by the serious illness of her beloved sister who died the year after Miss Bird's return. End of section 13. Section 14 of Some Famous Women by Louise Creighton. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 10 Isabella Bird afterwards Mrs. Bishop, part two. Miss Bird was now alone in the world but she had a devoted friend in Dr. Bishop who had for some years attended her sister and was with her in her last illness. He had several times asked Miss Bird to marry him but she had always said that her heart was given to her sister. Now in her loneliness he repeated his request and she at last consented and they were married in the spring after her sister's death. She was 50, 10 years older than her husband. He promised that when the need of travel awoke in her she should go to whatever end of the earth beckoned to her. He used to say that the only rival he had in her heart was the high table land of Central Asia. As it turned out she never left him for long. He became ill soon after their marriage and was almost a complete invalid till his death five years afterwards. Dr. Bishop was a man of noble character and Mrs. Bishop was devoted to him and mourned him all her life. She was now altogether alone except for her friends and there was no one to keep her from the long and dangerous journeys in wild countries which she loved. She who was always ill when in civilized countries often spending weeks on her sofa because of pains in her back seemed to be able to endure anything when she was traveling and leading a wild free life. One thing that helped her was that she was able to eat anything. Dr. Bishop said that she had the appetite of a tiger and the digestion of an ostrich. At first after her husband's death she busied herself with bringing out her books of travel and with caring for the poor people amongst whom her sister had worked. She also wished to learn nursing and spent three months in London in the surgical wards of a hospital. Dr. Bishop had been much interested in medical missions and she decided to found a mission hospital in his memory. It was nearly three years after his death when she started on her next long journey going first to India and on to Kashmir where she thought of founding her hospital. In her early days Mrs. Bishop had felt no interest in missions indeed she rather disliked them. She thought it a mistake to interfere with the ways and beliefs of other people and on her travels used to try to avoid mission houses. Dr. Bishop's influence had changed her opinion by first giving her an interest in medical missions. What she saw afterwards in Eastern countries turned her into a warm friend of all Christian missions. She made great friends with Dr. Neve, the medical missionary of the Church Missionary Society in Kashmir and with him arranged for the building of the John Bishop Memorial Hospital at Islamabad. It was a great pleasure to her that Dr. Neve had been a student under her husband. When this was settled she was glad to escape from the crowds of Anglo-Indians who haunted Kashmir and whose hubbub she found intolerable for a ride of 28 days through the Himalayas to Lesser Tibet as far as Leh, traveling alone with native servants and camping out at night. When she got back to India she found it possible to carry out a long cherished plan and make a journey into Persia. Before she started she visited several mission stations and founded another hospital in memory of her sister called the Henrietta Bird Hospital which also was under the care of an old pupil of her husband's. The journey through Persia began at Baghdad and lasted nearly a year. The first part lay through wild lonely mountains where no English lady had ever been. Here she had the companionship of an English officer who was traveling for scientific purposes. It was an awful journey and she would never have undertaken it had she known the hardships she would have to face. The long marches, the wretched food, the abominable accommodation, the brutal barbarism of the people. The weather was terrible, ceaseless rain or deep snow in the high mountains. The nights had to be spent in cold filthy caravancerize as the rough ends of the east are called. Mere shelters, which three or 400 mules and their drivers often shared with Mrs. Bishop's party. There was constant danger from robbers and everywhere curious crowds surrounded her allowing her no rest or peace. They used to feel and pull her hair to finger all her things and examine her clothes when she hung them up at night. They brought their sick in crowds to her to be healed. One evening when she had got a mud hobble to herself and was suffering from a severe chill, lying down covered with blankets, she heard a noise and looking up saw the room thronged with men, women and children covered with sores and suffering from all kinds of diseases. She had to get up and listen for two hours to their tales of suffering interpreted to her by her servant. It was painful indeed to be able to do but little for them. The next morning they were all there again. She could only give them ointments for their sores, lotions for their eyes were some few simple medicines and had to send most of them sadly away. The cold was so bitter and the storm so terrible in crossing the mountains that it was a wonder that Mrs. Bishop and her whole party did not perish. She felt that they would never have got through had it not been for the splendid Arab horses which carried them with unfailing spirit through all the difficult places. Forty-six days brought them to Teheran, one of the chief cities of Persia, and here she rested in comfort for three weeks in the house of the English minister and then they started for another and longer journey of exploration among the mountains. Again, terrible hardships and dangers were endured. Every day after the fatigues of the journey diseased and infirm people crowded her camp and she did all she could to help them. One of the chiefs came to her one day for medicine and as he lingered watching her care for the people he asked her why she took so much trouble for people unknown to her. She answered by telling him through her interpreter the story of Jesus Christ. When he had heard what she had to say he said sadly, he is the Hakim, doctor for us, send us such a one as he was. These people are Mohammedans and seeing the little help and comfort their religion gave to them and the miserable lives to which it condemned their women made Mrs. Bishop still more keen about Christian missions. In the larger towns she often visited the houses of the chiefs and went into the women's quarters where the many wives of the chief and his children lived shut up together. They were never allowed to go out and spent their days in quarrelling, eating sweetmeats and dressing and dyeing their hair. They asked her for love potions and charms and wondered why she did not dye her hair and for what purpose she could be traveling. For the last part of her journey Mrs. Bishop was quite alone with her servants as the English officer had to go elsewhere. Her chief companion was the Arab horse on which she rode, which she called boy and which was as gentle and affectionate as a child. He often slept in her tent and would come and rub his nose against her face to attract her attention. He carried her safely from Burjurid in the center of Persia to Trebizand on the shores of the Black Sea, a journey of four months. In dangers and hardships her courage never failed. She was robbed of most of her traveling necessaries and had to do without them as she could not replace them. She had strange food and often had to do without food at all and yet she got safely through though she was a small delicate woman, 59 years of age. In all she traveled 2,500 miles since she started on her journey through Persia. Wherever there were mission stations she enjoyed the hospitality of the missionaries and she was much impressed by their self-denying work. The last part of her journey was through Armenia where she saw with much sympathy the courage and endurance of the Christian Armenians, poor ignorant people who clung to their ancient faith in spite of cruel persecution. They begged her to send them teachers for their own priests were poor and ignorant because they could not afford to go away to study. One of the priests said to her, beseech for a teacher to come and sit among us and lighten our darkness. England he thought could send teachers for he said England is very rich. From Trebizond Mrs. Bishop traveled quickly back to England and was soon very busy preparing a book with an account of her travels. She found time to speak at many missionary meetings so anxious was she to plead the cause of the poor people whom she had seen. Her pleasant voice and way of speaking and all the interesting things she had to tell made people eager to hear her and she spoke also to gatherings of learned men. She was considered one of the greatest of missionary advocates and an address in which she pleaded for the poor secluded women in Eastern lands was printed and sent all over the world. She spoke of the terrible sins of the non-Christian lands in the East and of the degradation of the women and said she would give all she had to help them. As usual when at home Mrs. Bishop was constantly ill and only three years passed before she started on another journey. She longed for the East and wished to visit China and Japan. Whilst she was at home she had taken lessons in photographing that she might be able to take better photographs on her travels. She improved immensely and after this her books were always illustrated by her own beautiful photographs. She first went to Korea, the strange country which lies between China and Japan in which both those countries desired to possess. At first she did not like Korea nor its people but she soon grew to love them and especially enjoyed the beautiful sunny climate. She wrote that she felt this journey to be more absorbing in its interest than any she had yet had. During the three years that she now spent in the East she paid three visits to Korea in order that she might thoroughly study the land and its people. She had a great many hardships to go through in some parts of her journey. Once after riding for 11 hours under a hot sun she found the only nights lodging she could get was in a filthy fishing village full of the vilest smells. Her room in the inn was such an awful black hole full of vermin and rats that when her Chinese servant left her for the night he said, I hope you won't die. In other places she was annoyed by the crowds who came to stare at her never having seen an English woman before. Once her servant had his arm broken by a fall from his horse and she was obliged to set it herself. He was so touched with her care of him that in spite of his pain he somehow managed to do his work just as usual and said, the foreign woman looked so sorry and touched my arm as if I had been one of her own people. I shall do my best. Between her visits to Korea Mrs. Bishop went back to Japan and also traveled to China. Her first object was to visit the mission stations in China and she was much interested in all she saw especially in the medical missions and was full of admiration for the missionaries. On a second visit to China she made a long journey into the interior going up first by boat on the river Yangtze for 300 miles and then alone 300 more miles into the country in a carrying chair born by Chinese the only way of traveling. Far in the interior she visited the missionaries of the China inland mission and there she gave money to found a hospital to be called the Henrietta Bird Hospital after her sister. Wherever she went she photographed undisturbed by the curious crowds who gathered round her. Once as she was being carried along the people got so angry because she would not stop her chair to let them have a good look at her that they threw stones at her and one hit her a sharp blow on the head from which she suffered for a long time. In 1897 after an absence of over three years Mrs. Bishop came back to London. She had accomplished these long and tiring journeys at the age of 66. She brought back with her a beautiful collection of photographs which she had taken and materials for writing two books one on Korea and one on her travels in China. She busied herself with writing her books lecturing about her travels and speaking at missionary meetings and doing all she could for the cause of missions. She tried to settle down in a house and took first one in London and then one in the country but never stayed anywhere along and was as usual always ill as soon as she tried to live in a civilized country. So after a while she went off to Morocco and there at the age of 70 she traveled through the wild parts of the country riding a stride on a superb horse and camping out at night. This was her last journey. After she got back to England she still lectured and spoke for missions and studied photography. She began to plan another journey to China but she fell ill in Edinburgh. For some months she was confined to bed but still saw her friends and was full of eager interest in everything that happened. She was not afraid to die and waited patiently for the end saying that she was going home. She died in March 1904 at the age of 71. Those who wish to know about her travels and the wonderful things she saw must read her many books which are full of life and adventure and enable us to share her experiences and admire her pluck and energy. End of section 14.