This most useful institution continues its efforts for the relief of sick ladies with unabated vigour, under the able Lady Superintendent, Miss Tidy, who has laboured at her post now for fourteen years. The home looks so bright and cheerful that it must have a very beneficial effect on the minds of those suffering women who seek its shelter. In the pretty reception-room stands the old-fashioned mahogany escritoire which Miss Nightingale used more than fifty years ago, when she voluntarily performed the drudgery of superintending the home. It was at this house in Harley Street that she stayed while organising her nursing band for the Crimea, and from it she set forth for her journey to the East. [Illustration: MISS NIGHTINGALE’S OLD ROOM AT CLAYDON. (_Photo by Payne, Aylesbury._) [_To face p. 336._ ] In April, 1902, Margaret, Lady Verney laid the foundation stone of a new public library and village hall at Steeple Claydon. The cost of £1,500 was defrayed by Sir Edmund Verney. Miss Nightingale was much interested in the project and sent the following message to Sir Edmund and Lady Verney:-- “So glad the foundation stone is being laid of the Steeple Claydon Public Library. I do with all my heart wish it success, and think a public library is good for body and soul. That God’s blessing may rest upon it is the fervent wish of “FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.” Miss Nightingale also sent £50 for the purchase of books for the library. The institution of the Royal Pension Fund for Nurses, in which Queen Alexandra has taken such an active interest, was a subject of satisfaction to Miss Nightingale, as helping to improve the position of the sisterhood which she has so much at heart. She was deeply interested in hearing accounts of the garden-parties given by the Queen, as Princess of Wales, to the nurses in the grounds of Marlborough House, and also of the reception of the nurses by the Queen after the King’s accession. CHAPTER XXV _AT EVENTIDE_ Miss Nightingale to-day--Her Interest in Passing Events--Recent Letter to Derbyshire Nurses--Celebrates Eighty-fourth Birthday--King confers Dignity of a Lady of Grace--Appointed by King Edward VII. to the Order of Merit--Letter from the German Emperor--Elected to the Honorary Freedom of the City of London--Summary of her Noble Life. The golden evening brightens in the west; Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest. DR. WALSHAM HOW.