| Sender Location | Lea Hurst, Cromford, Derby |
| Administrative History | - Maria Elizabeth Brooks, born 1860, daughter of William and Ellen Brooks, sometimes employed by Florence Nightingale as a domestic servant
- Eliza Limb, born about 1830, living at Up Hollow, Holloway: she had several daughters
- Harriet Broomhead, born about 1823, living in Holloway
- Mary Gregory, born about 1805, living at Commonside, Holloway (1871 only)
Sources: Civil registration indexes, 1871 and 1881 census |
| Transcript or Index | Lea Hurst
Cromford . Derby
Oct 10/78
My dear Sir
Would you be so good as to come & see Lizzie Brooks? I don't suppose there is much the matter: but she complains of pain in the back & chest. & Menstruation should have been a day or two ago. & was not. You will smile. I should not be uneasy about her but that she had an extremely sharp fit of Indigestion in London, owing, I am ashamed to say to over-eating & over-drinking & too little work. The Physician who attended her said he had never seeen so foul a tongue. And this, the fetid breath & fetid odour in her bed makes her a rather anxious inmate for me. He strictly forbade Beer, heavy breakfasts & suppers, butter, Pork etc - in short, all that the kitchen most loves. & put her on a mild nourishing diet with milk etc & Lime Water. And I look after this as much as I can. & by this means keep the enemy, the dreadful smell, in abeyance.
She always struck me: like an animal that has been starved & feeds voraciously.
And I am rather glad to bring her under good Medical care again.
(I was obliged to have a Dentist to her in London & put her mouth entirely to rights.)
Excuse haste. & believe me
yrs sincerely
F. Nightingale
C.B.N. Dunn Esq.
Widow Limb's daughter with the Quinsy says she has caught cold again: I suppose it is only trifling. Poor Mrs Broomhead seems sadly suffering: she can hardly lie down, she says, in bed. Widow Gregory I have moved down stairs: according to your orders. |