Death of Miss Nightingale's mother--Illness--Visits to the seaside and Claydon. II. The elections of 1880--Her special preoccupations and general work at this period--Visit to St. Thomas's Hospital. III. Friendship with General Gordon and his cousin, Mrs. Hawthorn--Inquiry into nursing by Orderlies in military hospitals--Letters from General Gordon. IV. Lord Ripon's Indian policy--Miss Nightingale's enthusiasm--Her efforts to support Lord Ripon--Interviews with Indian officials and politicians--Her interest in Indian agriculture and education--The Indian Civil servants at Oxford: suggestions to Arnold Toynbee--Her paper on Lord Ripon's Bengal Land Tenure Bill. V. The Egyptian campaign of 1882--Miss Nightingale and the return of the Guards--Her appearances in public--Defects in hospital arrangements in South Africa and Egypt (1880-82)--Miss Nightingale's representations--Committee of Inquiry--Miss Nightingale and Lord Wantage. VI. Royal Red Cross conferred on her (1883)--Correspondence with the Queen--The Ilbert Bill--The hospital corps--Reforms in accordance with the Committee's recommendations--Lord Wolseley and the female nurses. VII. Progress of Lord Ripon's reforms--His resignation--Miss Nightingale's interview with his successor, Lord Dufferin--Mr. Gladstone and India--Lord Ripon's return. VIII. The Soudan expedition--Miss Nightingale and the war nurses--Reminiscences of Sister Philippa--Letters to Miss Williams--Miss Nightingale's meditations--Death of old friends 323 CHAPTER VII "THE NURSES' BATTLE"; AND HEALTH IN THE VILLAGE (1885-1893)