Edward and Catherine Stanley : a Memoir. By A. P.
Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster. Second Edition, with a Supplement. (John Murray.)—The " Supplement " to the second edition of the memoir of Edward and Catherine Stanley contains a brief but vivid outline of the story of the life of a daughter of the Bishop, Mary Stanley, and forms a very touching addition to the delightful and instructive volume which was reviewed in these columns upwards of a year ago. In Mary Stanley, the enthusiasm of humanity burnt with a steadfast and ever-increasing ardour. Her father's right hand in all his pro- jects of benevolence in Norwich, establishing there savings' clubs, schools for lace, and other wisely charitable institutions, she trans- ferred to Westminster the same untiring energy and philanthropy which had characterised her in her former home, and secured for her the confidence, and affection, and gratitude of hundreds of the strug- gling poor ; and when, in the autumn of 1854, after the battle of the Alma, tidings reached England of the grievous need of skilful and experienced nursing which existed among the sick and wounded soldiers of our Crimean army; Mary Stanley readily obeyed the sum- mons of Mr. Sidney Herbert to superintend a second detachment of fifty nurses, to follow in the wake of those who had already been de- spatched under the care of Florence Nightingale. Her devotion and organising faculty were only second—if indeed, only second—to those of Miss Nightingale, and her letters from the scenes of her labours on the shores of the Bosphorus have a very special interest. They tell us, in her own always unobtrusive way, how much touched the soldiers were by her visitations, how childlike the brave fellows
were in listening to her instructions, how more than resigned they were in having suffered for their Queen, and bow deeply the love of their mothers or sisters in old England dwelt in their hearts. Miss Stanley became a member of the Roman Com- munion in 1858, but the change did not in the least "affect her natural :sincerity," or lessen her interest in the Church to which her father and brother belonged ; and, according to her own wish her mortal body was laid to rest in the old churchyard of Alderley, the Doan of Westminster, her brother-in-law the Dean of Llandaff, and the rector of the parish sharing the funeral service between them. Requiescat in pace. Well may those words be engraved on the white marble cross erected over her remains :—
"Here rests Mary Eitaniev. Died November 20th, 1876, Aged 04.1. ' Never weary in well-doing.'—Gal. vi. 10."
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