Florence Nightingale’s walk home ‘could be a myth’
By ANIThursday, August 12, 2010
LONDON - Florence Nightingale’s famous lone walk home under the cover of darkness after the Crimean War may never have happened, a local historian has claimed.
According to the historian, who bases his doubt on a newspaper article he uncovered, the tale of the nurse’s two-mile walk along the Cromford Canal in Derbyshire carrying a heavy valise to her family home in Leahurst, Holloway could be myth.
According to The Telegraph, John Slaney found the article in Derby’s local studies department and it reports that Miss Nightingale was “met on the platform and greeted” by Lady Auckland.
Auckland was a local dignitary who lived near Whatstandwell station, where the nurse alighted her train from London on Aug 7, 1856.
Slaney claimed that the wealthy family may have taken Miss Nightingale home by horse and carriage and train timetables suggested she arrived in the late afternoon.
“All the facts about her solitary walk across the fields carrying a heavy valise in fading light are completely wrong,” said Slaney. (ANI)
