=The Queen's Care of her Men.=

The care of the Queen for her soldiers and sailors in those early days,
which she has continued with wonderful tact and tenderness throughout
her long and glorious reign, was of untold advantage. Her sympathy
showed the nation where its heart should go and where its hand should
help.

The send-off from the courtyard of Buckingham Palace; the review of the
battle-worn heroes in the Palace itself, when she decorated them with
their well-earned honours; her constant visits to the hospitals, were
incidents which the nation could not forget. In them, as in so many
other ways, she awakened her people from their apathy, and by her
example led them to a higher and more Christian patriotism.


=The Netley and Herbert Hospitals.=

There was also the noble man whose monument adorns the Quadrangle of the
War Office, who was War Minister at the time. But perhaps foremost of
all, save the Queen herself, was the 'Lady of the Lamp,' who,
surrendering the comfort of a refined and beautiful home, went out to
the hospitals at Scutari to minister to the wounded and the
fever-stricken, and found in doing so a higher comfort, a comfort which
is of the soul itself. These two--Florence Nightingale and Sydney
Herbert--the one in guiding the Administration, the other inspiring the
nation, did imperishable good.

The Herbert and the Netley Hospitals were the first embodiment of the
nation's sympathy expressed in terms of official administration--palaces