points of more immediate importance. I shall be obliged for any hints." Miss Nightingale responded by sending him papers enough to occupy all his time on the voyage. She seems at this time to have entertained some hope that her health would permit her, when the Report was out, to visit India in person; for one of Sir Charles's letters refers to such a visit, and expresses the pleasure which it would give to Lady Trevelyan and himself to receive her as their guest, and in every way to assist her mission. But this was not to be. Her knowledge of India and Indian questions was already great, and presently it became so minute as to encourage a legend that she herself had once been there.[15] But she never saw the country. It is not always either the "life-long resident," or, on the other hand, "Padgett, M.P.," who is better qualified than the student to perceive and serve a country's need. [12] A true prediction: see Sir Bartle Frere's saying, below, p. 158. [13] The inscription is: "To Miss Florence Nightingale in recollection of the greatest and best of Princes from the beloved Prince's broken-hearted Widow, Victoria R. Osborne, Jan. 13, 1863." [14] He had been recalled from Madras in 1860. [15] "It will be remembered that Miss Florence Nightingale came to this country and was impressed with the idea that if India needed anything it was village sanitation. She collected a mass of facts and has since been agitating in England": _Amrita Bazar Patrika_ (Calcutta), June 29, 1892, reprinted in the _Indian Spectator_, July 10.