Meanwhile, Miss Nightingale was suffering from nervous collapse, and the doctors ordered sea air. She went for three weeks to the Granville Hotel, Ramsgate, but the change did her little good. "The doctors tell me," she wrote to Miss Pringle (March 28), "I must be 'free' for at least a year 'from the responsibilities which have been forced upon me' (and which, they might say, I have so ill fulfilled) and from 'letters.' But when is that year to come? I believe, however, I must go away again for a time, if only to work up the arrears of my Indian work, which weigh heavily on my mind." She went in April for a few weeks to Seaton, where Lady Ashburton had placed Seaforth Lodge at her disposal. She was not to be disturbed, but her hostess came from Melchet for a few days, and had, as she wrote, "the deep joy of communion with my beloved." In the following month Miss Nightingale spent some days at Claydon, where in subsequent years she often stayed for a longer time, taking much interest in local affairs there. Her sister was now and henceforth an invalid, suffering sadly from rheumatic arthritis. Nothing cheered her so much, said Sir Harry Verney, as her sister's society, and now that Mrs. Nightingale's death made visits to Lea Hurst less imperative they hoped that Florence "would treat Claydon more as a home" than heretofore. She did as she was bidden, and for several years paid an annual visit to Claydon, where "Florence Nightingale's room" is still shown. For the rest, Miss Nightingale's life continued on the old lines,[195] and whether at Claydon or in South Street the Sabbatical year of freedom from responsibilities, letters, interviews, and Blue-books did not come. [195] Except that in March 1881 she spent ten days at the Seaford Bay Hotel. II