Collections were made for the ‘fund’ in churches and chapels of varying creeds in all parts of the country, and concerts and sales of work were got up by enthusiastic ladies to help the subscriptions. As in the dark winter of 1854–5 everybody was doing their part to strengthen Miss Nightingale’s hands by supplying her with comforts and necessaries for the soldiers, so in the joyous winter of 1855–6 people gave of their time and money to present the heroine with means for inaugurating a scheme which should revolutionise the nursing methods of the civil and military hospitals, and render impossible the suffering and misery among the sick soldiers which had characterised the late war. There were no more enthusiastic and grateful supporters of the Nightingale Fund than the brave “boys” of the Services. The officers and men of nearly every regiment and many of the vessels contributed a day’s pay. Books were opened by the principal bankers throughout the kingdom, and a very handsome gift to the fund came from M. and Madame Goldschmidt (Jenny Lind), who gave a concert at Exeter Hall on March 11th, 1856, which realised nearly £2,000. M. and Madame Goldschmidt defrayed all the expenses of the concert, amounting to upwards of £500, and gave the gross receipts to the Committee. In recognition of their generosity a gift was made to M and Madame Goldschmidt of a marble bust of Queen Victoria, the result of a private subscription. In course of time the Nightingale fund reached £44,000, and in evidence of the widespread interest which it evoked the detailed statement of the honorary secretaries may be quoted:-- GENERAL ABSTRACT OF SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE NIGHTINGALE FUND £ _s._ _d._