Appointment to the General Board of Health. Letter to Lord Morpeth. Work at Whitehall with Lord Ashley and Mr Chadwick. Cholera epidemic of 1848-49. System of "house-to-house visitation." Lord Brougham's comments on it. Cholera Report. Quarantine Report. Interment Report. Attacks on the Board in Parliament. Fear of centralisation. Triumph of the sanitary principle, but to be carried out by local authorities. Lord Palmerston's letter of thanks 127 CHAPTER IX. RETIREMENT FROM PUBLIC LIFE--ST GEORGE'S HILL, WEYBRIDGE, 1854-1860. "The Pines," Weybridge. Happiness in its beauty. Need of rest. Study of modern physiology for new edition of the 'Philosophy of Health.' Publication of 'Results of Sanitary Improvement.' Lectures in Edinburgh on "Epidemics." Visit to Alnwick. Happiness in the work of his granddaughters Miranda and Octavia Hill. Appreciation of former fellow-labourers. "Recognition." His words of thanks. Joy in the success of his great cause 139 CHAPTER X. THE SUNSET OF LIFE--ITALY, 1861. Visit to Milan. Death of his second wife at "The Pines." Florence. Sunset from Ponte Vecchio. Last illness. Death. Porta Pinti. "A Knight-Errant" 147 CHAPTER XI. THE AFTERGLOW. Spread of the social reforms Dr Southwood Smith originated. Improvement in the public health and saving of life. Memorial bust in the National Portrait Gallery. Lines upon it. A people's gratitude 153 APPENDICES. I. LETTER FROM MR TAYLOR, ASSISTANT RETURNING OFFICER OF THE WHITECHAPEL UNION 159 II. RECOGNITION OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES OF DR SOUTHWOOD SMITH 164 INDEX 167 ILLUSTRATIONS. PORTRAIT OF DR SOUTHWOOD SMITH _Frontispiece_ (_From a chalk drawing by Miss Margaret Gillies._) DR SOUTHWOOD SMITH AND HIS GRANDCHILD GERTRUDE 2 OLD WOMAN CARRYING COAL 72 CHILDREN AT WORK 74 WOMAN DRAWING TRUCK 74 CHARLES DICKENS'S LETTER _Facsimile_ 84 FIRST MEETING OF THE HEALTH OF TOWNS ASSOCIATION 106 (_From an old print._) VIEW FROM PORTA PINTI, FLORENCE, 1861 152 INTRODUCTION. RECOLLECTIONS OF MY GRANDFATHER. My first recollection of my grandfather is of him in his study. As a little child my bed stood in his room, and when he got up, as he used to do in the early mornings, to write, he would take me in his arms, still fast asleep, carry me down-stairs to his study with him, and lay me on the sofa, wrapped in blankets which had been arranged for me overnight. So when first I opened my eyes in the silent room I saw him there, a man of some fifty years, bending over a table covered with papers, the light of his shaded reading-lamp shining on his forehead and glancing down upon the papers as he leant over his writing, and the firelight flickering on the other parts of the room.