18 JULY 1931, Page 16

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SLR,—In your last issue reference was made both to Florence Nightingale and to Sir Neville Lyttelton. That -is perhaps an excuse for recalling a description of Florence Nightingale, given to the General by an old Chelsea Pensioner, and quoted in his book, Eighty Years : " She gave me my first hot meal. She was a fine woman. She had no thoughts of marriage. She wore a black silk dress and the rustle of it frightened away the rats from eating the linseed poultices."

_Could Tacitus have described with more comprehensive terse- ness the woman and the horrors of Scutari ?—I am, Sir, &c., C.