If study was made a serious business, the sisters enjoyed to the full the healthy advantages of country life. They scampered about the park with their dogs, rode their ponies over hill and dale, spent long days in the woods amongst the bluebells and primroses, and in summer tumbled about in the sweet-scented hay. During the summer at Lea Hurst, lessons were a little relaxed in favour of outdoor life, but on the return to Embley for the winter, schoolroom routine was again enforced on very strict lines. Mrs. Nightingale supervised the domestic side of her little girls’ education, and before Florence was twelve years old she could hemstitch and seam, embroider bookmarkers, and had worked several creditable samplers. Her mother trained her too in matters of deportment, and nothing was omitted in her early years which would tend to mould her into a graceful and accomplished girl. CHAPTER V _THE SQUIRE’S DAUGHTER_ An Accomplished Girl--An Angel in the Homes of the Poor--Children’s “Feast Day” at Lea Hurst--Her Bible-Class for Girls--Interests at Embley--Society Life--Longing for a Vocation--Meets Elizabeth Fry--Studies Hospital Nursing--Decides to go to Kaiserswerth. God made her so, And deeds of week-day holiness Fall from her gentle as the snow; Nor hath she ever chanced to know That aught were easier than to bless. LOWELL. When Florence Nightingale reached her seventeenth year she began to take her place as the squire’s daughter, mingling in the county society of Derbyshire and Hampshire and interesting herself in the people and schools of her father’s estates. She soon acquired the reputation of being a very lovable young lady as well as a very talented one. She had travelled abroad, could speak French, German, and Italian, sang very sweetly, and was clever at sketching, and when the taking of photographs became a fashionable pastime, “Miss Florence” became an enthusiast for the art. There were no hand-cameras in those days and no clean and easy methods for developing, and young lady amateur photographers were obliged to dress for their work. Nothing daunted “Miss Florence,” and she photographed groups on the lawn and her pet animals to the admiration of her family and friends, if sometimes to the discoloration of her dainty fingers. She was also a skilful needlewoman, and worked cushions and slippers, mastered the finest and most complicated crochet patterns, sewed delicate embroideries, and achieved almost invisible hems on muslin frills. At Christmas-time her work-basket was full of warm comforts for the poor. She was invaluable at bazaars, then a newly introduced method of raising money for religious purposes, and was particularly happy at organising treats for the old people and children.