“Instant in season and out of season,” this very trip in the south of England produced another good work.  She, with her husband and daughter, returned home by way of North Devon, Somerset, and Wiltshire.  At Amesbury she tarried long enough to learn something of the mental destitution of the shepherds employed on Salisbury Plain, and set her fertile brain to contrive a scheme for the supply of the necessary books.  She communicated her desires and intentions to the clergyman of the parish, and Sir Edward and Lady Antrobus, who unitedly undertook to furnish a librarian.  A short note from this individual, addressed to Mrs. Fry some few months after, proved how well the thing was working.  In it he said:  “Forty-five books are in constant circulation, with the additional magazines.  More than fifty poor people read them with attention, return them with thanks, and desire the loan of more, frequently observing that they think it a very kind thing indeed that they should be furnished with so many good books, free of all costs, so entertaining and instructive, these long winter evenings.”

About the same period Mrs. Fry formed a Servants’ Society for the succor and help of domestic servants.  She had known instances wherein so many of this class had come to sorrow, in every sense, for the lack of temporary refuge and assistance, that she alone undertook to found this institution.  In an entry made in her journal in 1825, we find the following reference to this matter:—­

The Servants’ Society appears gradually opening as if it would be established according to my desire.  No one knows what I go through in forming these institutions; it is always in fear, and mostly with many misgivings, wondering at myself for doing it.  I believe the original motive is love to my Master and love to my fellow-creatures; but fear is so predominant a feeling in my mind that it makes me suffer, perhaps unnecessarily, from doubts.  I felt something like freedom in prayer before making the regulations of the Servants’ Society.  Sometimes my natural understanding seems enlightened about things of that kind, as if I were helped to see the right and useful thing.

In closing this chapter, some allusion must be made to her latest effort.  It dates from 1840, and owed its foundation principally to her.  It was that of the “Nursing Sisters,” an order called into existence by the needs of every-day life.  As she visited in sick-chambers, or ministered to the needs of the poor, she felt the want of efficient skilled nurses, and, with the restless energy of a true philanthropist, set about remedying the want.  Her own leisure would not admit of training a band of nurses, but her desire was carried into effect by Mrs. Samuel Gurney, her sister-in-law.  Under this lady’s supervision, and the patronage of the Queen Dowager, Lady Inglis, and other members of the nobility, a number of young women were selected, trained, and taught to fulfil the duties of nurses.  They