SOURCE: "Florence Nightingale, 1820-1910," in The Great Victorians, edited by H. J. Massingham and Hugh Massingham, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1932, pp. 319-30.

In the following essay, Housman considers Nightingale's exploits within the context of women's traditional roles in the Victorian age.

An iridescent medallion under glass, of a red cross surmounted by a crowned monogram of crystals, in a bed of lilies, and encircled by a blue band bearing the words "Blessed are the merciful," drew me in early years to the name—already sacred in legend—of Florence Nightingale, This medallion, the central ornament of a drawing-room table, formed the chief and most attractive art object of my young days. It combined in its gaudy setting—a brass tazza of florid scrollwork—beauty, religion, and patriotic sentiment; it also had the flavour of royalty, for the Prince Consort himself had designed it.

The original, then made popular...