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Key Performance
Indicators
 Key Performance
Indicators
Developing, Implementing,
and Using Winning KPIs
Second Edition

DAVID PARMENTER

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright

C 2010 by David Parmenter. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108
of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written
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Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at
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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have

used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or
warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this
book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or
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representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained
herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a
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for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited
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For general information on our other products and services or for technical
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information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Parmenter, David.
Key performance indicators : developing, implementing, and using winning
KPIs / David Parmenter.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-54515-7 (cloth)
1. Performance technology. 2. Performance standards. 3. Organizational
effectiveness. I. Title.
HF5549.5.P37P37 2010
658.4 013–dc22
2009035911

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 Contents

Preface ix
Acknowledgments xix

CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1

Key Result Indicators 2

Performance and Result Indicators 3
Key Performance Indicators 4
Management Models that Have a Profound
Impact on KPIs 16
Definitions 24
Notes 27

CHAPTER 2 Foundation Stones for Implementing Key

Performance Indicators 29

Four Foundation Stones Guiding the

Development and Use of KPIs 29
Defining Vision, Mission, and Strategy 37
Note 39

CHAPTER 3 Developing and Using KPIs: A 12-Step Model 41

Step 1: Senior Management Team Commitment 41

Step 2: Establishing a Winning KPI
Project Team 51
Step 3: Establishing a “Just Do It” Culture
and Process 55

v
 Contents

Step 4: Setting Up a Holistic KPI

Development Strategy 62
Step 5: Marketing the KPI System to
All Employees 67
Step 6: Identifying Organization-Wide
Critical Success Factors 74
Step 7: Recording Performance Measures
in a Database 74
Step 8: Selecting Team-Level Performance
Measures 77
Step 9: Selecting Organizational
Winning KPIs 86
Step 10: Developing the Reporting
Framework at All Levels 88
Step 11: Facilitating the Use of
Winning KPIs 96
Step 12: Refining KPIs to Maintain Their
Relevance 101
Notes 105

CHAPTER 4 KPI Team Resource Kit 107

Using This Resource Kit 107

Step 1 Worksheet: Senior Management
Team Commitment 108
Step 2 Worksheet: Establishing a Winning
KPI Team 115
Step 3 Worksheet: Establish a “Just Do It”
Culture and Process for This Project 119
Step 4 Worksheet: Setting Up a Holistic
KPI Development Strategy 122
Step 5 Worksheet: Marketing the KPI
System to All Employees 125

vi
Contents

Step 6 Worksheet: Identifying

Organization-wide CSFs 132
Step 7 Worksheet: Comprehensive Recording
of Measures within the Database 132
Step 8 Worksheet: Selecting Team
Performance Measures 133
Step 9 Worksheet: Selecting
Organization-wide Winning KPIs 141
Step 10 Worksheet: Developing Display,
Reporting, and Review Frameworks
at All Levels 143
Step 11 Worksheet: Facilitating the Use
of KPIs 146
Step 12 Worksheet: Refining KPIs to
Maintain Their Relevance 146

CHAPTER 5 Templates for Reporting Performance

Measures 155

Reporting Key Result Indicators in a

Dashboard to the Board 155
Reporting Performance Measures
to Management 163
Reporting Performance Measures to Staff 169
Graph Format Examples 172
Notes 184

CHAPTER 6 Facilitator’s Resource Kit 185

Remember the Fundamentals 185

KPI Typical Questions and Answers 187

CHAPTER 7 Critical Success Factors Kit 199

Benefits of Understanding Your

Organization’s CSFs 200

vii
 Contents

Relevant Success Factors 204

Step 6: Identifying Organization-wide Critical
Success Factors 205
Finding the CSFs through a Relationship
Mapping Process 212
How I Organize the Critical Success Factor
Workshop 213
Note 222
Appendix 7A: Where to Look for Your
Success Factors 222
Appendix 7B: Letter Invite from the CEO 224
Appendix 7C: Success Factors Workshop
Planning Checklist 225
Appendix 7D: Workshop Instructions 227
Appendix 7E: Success Factor Matrix 233

CHAPTER 8 Brainstorming Performance Measures 241

CHAPTER 9 Implementation Variations for

Small-to-Medium Enterprises and
Not-for-Profit Organizations 243

Small-to-Medium Enterprises 243

Not-for-Profit Organizations 246

CHAPTER 10 Implementation Lessons 253

How to Implement Winning KPIs

in 16 Weeks 253
Notes 265

Epilogue: Electronic Media Available to You 267

Appendix: Performance Measures Database 269

Index 295

viii
 Preface

P erformance measurement is failing organizations all around

the world, whether they are multinationals, government de-
partments, or small local charities. The measures that have been
adopted were dreamed up one day without any linkage to the
critical success factors of the organizations. These measures are
frequently monthly or quarterly. Management reviews them and
says, “That was a good quarter” or “That was a bad month.”
Performance measures should help your organization align
daily activities to strategic objectives. This book has been written
to assist you in developing, implementing, and using winning
KPIs—those performance measures that will make a profound
difference. This book is also aimed at providing the missing
link between the balanced scorecard work of Robert Kaplan and
David Norton and the reality of implementing performance mea-
surement in an organization. The implementation difficulties
were first grasped by a key performance indicator (KPI) manual
developed by Australian Government Department “AusIndus-
tries” as part of a portfolio of resources for organizations pur-
suing international best practices. This book has adopted many
of the approaches of the KPI manual, which was first published
in 1996, and has incorporated more implementation tools, the
balanced scorecard philosophy, the author’s work on winning
KPIs, and many checklists to assist with implementation.

ix
 Preface

Embarking on a KPI/Balanced Scorecard Project

The goal of this book is to help minimize the risks that working
on a KPI/balanced scorecard project encompasses. It is designed
for the project team, senior management, external project facil-
itators, and team coordinators whose role it is to steer such
a project to success. The roles they play could leave a great
legacy in the organization for years to come or could amount
to nothing by joining the many performance measurement ini-
tiatives that have failed. It is my wish that the material in this
book, along with the workshops I deliver around the world,
will increase the likelihood of success.
In order for both you and your project to succeed, I suggest
that you:

Read Chapters 1 and 2 carefully, a couple of times.

Visit my Web site, www.davidparmenter.com, for other use-
ful information.

Scan the material in subsequent chapters so you know what
is there.

Begin Step 1 in Chapter 3 by setting up the focus group
one-day workshop.

Listen to my webcasts on www.bettermanagement.com;
webcast support is available for most chapters of this book.

Seek an outside facilitator who will help guide/mentor you
in the early weeks of the project.

Begin the KPI project team-building exercises, and under-
take any training to plug those identified skill gaps in the
KPI project team.

Letter to the Chief Executive Officer

Due to the workload of chief executive officers (CEOs), few will
have the time to read much of this book. I have thus written a

x
Preface

letter to the CEO of your organization to help explain his or her

involvement. It is important that the CEO knows:

The content of Chapters 1 and 2

The seven characteristics of KPIs

The difference between success factors and critical success
factors

The extent of his or her involvement, and the risks the
project faces if the CEO does not actively support the KPI
team

The content of my “Introduction to Winning KPIs” and
“Implementing Critical Success Factors” webcasts on www.
bettermanagement.com

Using Chapter 1: Introduction

For years, organizations that have had what they thought were
KPIs have not had the focus, adaptability, innovation, and prof-
itability that they were seeking. KPIs themselves were misla-
beled and misused. Examine a company with over 20 KPIs and
you will find a lack of focus, lack of alignment, and under-
achievement. Some organizations try to manage with over 40
KPIs, many of which are not actually KPIs. This chapter ex-
plains a new way of breaking performance measures into key
result indicators (KRIs), result indicators (RIs), performance in-
dicators (PIs), and key performance indicators (KPIs). It also
explains a significant shift in the way KPIs are used to ensure
they do not create dysfunctional behavior.

Using Chapter 2: Foundation Stones for Implementing

Key Performance Indicators
Effective organizational change relies heavily on creating
appropriate people practices as the centerpiece of a new

xi
 David Parmenter
Writer, Speaker, Facilitator
Helping organizations measure, report, and
improve performance
PO Box 10686, Wellington, New Zealand (+ 64 4) 499 0007
[email protected] www.davidparmenter.com
January 31, 2010
Dear CEO,
Invitation to put winning KPIs in your organization
I would like to introduce you to a process that will have a pro-
found impact on your organization. It will link you to the key activities
in the organization that have the most impact on the bottom line. If im-
plemented successfully, it will have a profound impact, enabling you to
leave a major legacy.
I would like to wager that you have not carried out an exercise to
distinguish those critical success factors (CSFs) from the many success
factors you and your senior management team talk about on a regular
basis. I would also point out that much of the reporting you receive,
whether it is financial or on performance measures, does not aid your
daily decision-making process. I know this because much of the informa-
tion you receive is monthly data received well after the horse has bolted.
Whereas this book is principally an implementation guide and thus is
suitable for advisors, facilitators, and implementation staff, I recommend
that you read these sections:

Chapter 1, which explains the background to this breakthrough

Chapter 2, which emphasizes the four foundation stones you need
to put in place and ensure they are not compromised at any time

Chapter 7, on finding your critical success factors
Armed with this information, I trust that you will support the winning
KPI project with commitment and enthusiasm.
By the time you read it, this work will have received international
acceptance. The first edition of this book is a best seller in performance
measurement.
I ask that you spare 45 minutes of your time and listen to my we-
bcast “An Introduction to Winning KPIs” on www.bettermanagement.
com.
I am hopeful that this book, with the support material available on
my Web site, www.davidparmenter.com, will help you and your organi-
zation achieve a significant performance improvement. I look forward to
hearing about your progress.
Kind regards,
David Parmenter
[email protected]

xii
Preface

workplace culture. In this context, the introduction of KPIs must

be achieved in a way that supports and extends the idea of a co-
operative partnership in the workplace—a partnership among
employees, management, suppliers, customers, and the commu-
nities in which the organization operates. This chapter advances
four general principles, called the four foundation stones:

1. Partnership with the staff, unions, key suppliers, and key

customers
2. Transfer of power to the front line
3. Measuring and Reporting only what happens
4. Linkage of performance measures to strategy through the
CSFs

Using Chapter 3: Developing and Using KPIs: A 12-Step Model

When you are ready to introduce performance measures (in-
cluding result indicators, performance indicators, and KPIs) into
your organization, we anticipate that you will want to broadly
follow the 12-step approach outlined in this chapter. This chap-
ter analyzes each step in detail, its purpose, the key tasks to
be carried out, implementation guidelines, and a checklist to
ensure that you undertake the key steps.

Using Chapter 4: KPI Team Resource Kit

This chapter provides the KPI team with useful tools for gath-
ering information. For many of the steps, a questionnaire has
been included and, in some cases, a worksheet that needs to
be completed by the project team or by the teams developing
their performance measures. For all key workshop sessions, a
program has been developed based on successful ones run by
the author. Electronic templates of all checklists can be acquired
from www.davidparmenter.com (for a small fee).

xiii
Other documents randomly have
different content
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MISS NIGHTINGALE (From a photograph) Frontispiece
PAGE
LEA HURST, DERBYSHIRE 16
EMBLEY PARK, HAMPSHIRE 32
MISS NIGHTINGALE (From a drawing) 48
PASTOR FLIEDNER 55
MISS NIGHTINGALE (From a bust at Claydon) 61
SIR WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL 80
SIDNEY, LORD HERBERT OF LEA 96
MR. PUNCH’S CARTOON OF “THE LADY-BIRDS” 113
THE BARRACK HOSPITAL AT SCUTARI 125
BOULOGNE FISHERWOMEN CARRYING THE LUGGAGE OF
MISS NIGHTINGALE AND HER NURSES 128
THE LADY-IN-CHIEF IN HER QUARTERS AT THE BARRACK
HOSPITAL 133
MISS NIGHTINGALE IN THE HOSPITAL AT SCUTARI 144
MISS NIGHTINGALE AND THE DYING SOLDIER—A SCENE AT
SCUTARI HOSPITAL WITNESSED BY M. SOYER 176
LADY HERBERT OF LEA 192
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AS A GIRL 208
THE NIGHTINGALE JEWEL 237
THE CARRIAGE USED BY MISS NIGHTINGALE IN THE CRIMEA 240
MISS NIGHTINGALE AFTER HER RETURN FROM THE CRIMEA 272
PARTHENOPE, LADY VERNEY 288
MRS. DACRE CRAVEN (née FLORENCE LEES) 304
CLAYDON HOUSE, THE SEAT OF SIR EDMUND VERNEY, 320
 WHERE THE “FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE” ROOMS ARE
PRESERVED
SPECIMEN OF MISS NIGHTINGALE’S HANDWRITING 335
MISS NIGHTINGALE’S OLD ROOM AT CLAYDON 336
MISS NIGHTINGALE 340
 THE LIFE OF
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
 CHAPTER I
BIRTH AND ANCESTRY

Birth at Florence—Shore Ancestry—Peter Nightingale of Lea—

Florence Nightingale’s Parents.

We are born into life—it is sweet, it is strange,

We lie still on the knee of a mild mystery
Which smiles with a change;
But we doubt not of changes, we know not of spaces,
The heavens seem as near as our own mother’s face is,
And we think we could touch all the stars that we see.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Thought and deed, not pedigree, are the passports to

enduring fame.—General Skobeleff.

A T a dinner given to the military and naval officers who had

served in the Crimean War, it was suggested that each guest
should write on a slip of paper the name of the person whose
services during the late campaign would be longest remembered by
posterity. When the papers were examined, each bore the same
name—“Florence Nightingale.”
The prophecy is fulfilled to-day, for though little more than fifty
years have passed since the joy-bells throughout the land
proclaimed the fall of Sebastopol, the majority of people would
hesitate if asked to name the generals of the Allied Armies, while no
one would be at a loss to tell who was the heroine of the Crimea. Her
deeds of love and sacrifice sank deep into the nation’s heart, for they
were above the strife of party and the clash of arms. While Death
has struck name after name from the nation’s roll of the great and
famous, our heroine lives in venerated age to shed the lustre of her
name upon a new century.
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12th, 1820, at the Villa
Colombaia near Florence, where her parents, Mr. and Mrs. William
Shore Nightingale, of Lea, Derbyshire, were staying.
“What name should be given to the baby girl born so far away
from her English home?” queried her parents, and with mutual
consent they decided to call her “Florence,” after that fair city of
flowers on the banks of the Arno where she first saw the light. Little
did Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale then think that the name thus chosen
was destined to become one of the most popular throughout the
British Empire. Every “Florence” practically owes her name to the
circumstances of Miss Nightingale’s birth.
It seemed as though the fates were determined to give an
attractive designation to our heroine. While “Florence” suggested the
goddess of flowers, “Nightingale” spoke of sweet melody. What could
be more beautiful and euphonious than a name suggesting a song-
bird from the land of flowers? The combination proved a special joy
to Mr. Punch and his fellow-humorists when the bearer of the name
rose to fame.
However, Miss Nightingale’s real family name was Shore. Her
father was William Edward Shore, the only son of William Shore of
Tapton, Derbyshire, and he assumed the name of Nightingale, by the
sign manual of the Prince Regent, when he succeeded in 1815 to
the estates of his mother’s uncle, Peter Nightingale of Lea. This
change took place three years before his marriage, and five before
the birth of his illustrious daughter.
Through her Shore ancestry Miss Nightingale is connected with
the family of Baron Teignmouth. Sir John Shore, Governor-General
of India, was created a baron in 1797 and took the title of
Teignmouth. Another John Shore was an eminent physician at Derby
in the reign of Charles II., and a Samuel Shore married the heiress of
the Offleys, a Sheffield family.
 It is through her paternal grandmother, Mary, daughter of John
Evans of Cromford, the niece and sole heir of Peter Nightingale, that
Florence Nightingale is connected with the family whose name she
bears. Her great-great-uncle, Peter Nightingale, was a typical
Derbyshire squire who more than a century ago lived in good style at
the fine old mansion of Lea Hall. Those were rough and roystering
days in such isolated villages as Lea, and “old Peter” had his share
of the vices then deemed gentlemanly. He could swear with the best,
and his drinking feats might have served Burns for a similar theme to
The Whistle. His excesses gained for him the nickname of “Madman
Nightingale,” and accounts of his doings still form the subject of local
gossip. When in his cups, he would raid the kitchen, take the
puddings from the pots and fling them on the dust-heap, and cause
the maids to fly in terror. Nevertheless, “old Peter” was not
unpopular; he was good-natured and easy going with his people,
and if he drank hard, well, so did his neighbours. He was no better
and little worse than the average country squire, and parson too, of
the “good old times.” His landed possessions extended from Lea
straight away to the old market town of Cromford, and beyond
towards Matlock. It is of special interest to note that he sold a portion
of his Cromford property to Sir Richard Arkwright, who erected there
his famous cotton mills. The beautiful mansion of Willersley Castle,
which the ingenious cotton-spinner built, and where he ended his
days as the great Sir Richard, stands on a part of the original
Nightingale property. When “old Peter” of jovial memory passed to
his account, his estates and name descended to his grand-nephew,
William Edward Shore.
The new squire, Florence Nightingale’s father, was a marked
contrast to his predecessor. He is described by those who remember
him as a tall, slim, gentlemanly man of irreproachable character. He
had been educated at Edinburgh and Trinity College, Cambridge,
and had broadened his mind by foreign travel at a time when the
average English squire, still mindful of the once terrifying name of
“Boney,” looked upon all foreigners as his natural enemies, and
entrenched himself on his ancestral acres with a supreme contempt
for lands beyond the Channel. Mr. Nightingale was far in advance of
the county gentry of his time in matters of education and culture.
Sport had no special attraction for him, but he was a student, a lover
of books and a connoisseur in art. He was not without a good deal of
pride of birth, for the Shores were a very ancient family.
As a landlord he had a sincere desire to benefit the people on
his estates, although not perhaps in the way they most appreciated.
“Well, you see, I was not born generous,” is still remembered as Mr.
Nightingale’s answer when solicited for various local charities.
However, he never begrudged money for the support of rural
education, and, to quote the saying of one of his old tenants, “Many
poor people in Lea would not be able to read and write to-day, if it
had not been for ‘Miss Florence’s’ father.” He was the chief supporter
of what was then called the “cheap school,” where the boys and
girls, if they did not go through the higher standards of the present-
day schools, at least learned the three R’s for the sum of twopence a
week. There was, of course, no compulsory education then, but the
displeasure of the squire with people who neglected to send their
children to school was a useful incentive to parents. Mr. Nightingale
was a zealous Churchman, and did much to further Christian work in
his district.
Florence Nightingale’s mother was Miss Frances Smith,
daughter of William Smith, Esq., of Parndon in Essex, who for fifty
years was M.P. for Norwich. He was a pronounced Abolitionist, took
wide and liberal views on the questions of the time, and was noted
for his interest in various branches of philanthropy. Mrs. Nightingale
was imbued with her father’s spirit, and is remembered for her great
kindness and benevolence to the poor. She was a stately and
beautiful woman in her prime and one of the fast-dying-out race of
gentlewomen who were at once notable house-keepers and
charming and cultured ladies. Her name is still mentioned with
gratitude and affection by the old people of her husband’s estates.
It was from her mother, whom she greatly resembles, that
Florence Nightingale inherited the spirit of wide philanthropy and the
desire to break away, in some measure, from the bonds of caste
which warped the county gentry in her early days and devote herself
to humanitarian work. She was also fortunate in having a father who
believed that a girl’s head could carry something more than elegant
accomplishments and a knowledge of cross-stitch. While our
heroine’s mother trained her in deeds of benevolence, her father
inspired her with a love for knowledge and guided her studies on
lines much in advance of the usual education given to young ladies
at that period.
Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale had only two children—Frances
Parthenope, afterwards Lady Verney, and Florence, about a year
younger. Both sisters were named after the Italian towns where they
were born, the elder receiving the name of Parthenope, the classic
form of Naples, and was always known as “Parthe,” while our
heroine was Florence.
 CHAPTER II
EARLIEST ASSOCIATIONS

Lea Hall first English Home—Neighbourhood of Babington Plot

—Dethick Church.

... Those first affections,

Those shadowy recollections,
Which be they what they may,
Are yet the fountain light of all our day,
Are yet a master light of all our seeing.
Wordsworth.

W HEN Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale returned from abroad with

their two little daughters, they lived for a time at the old
family seat of Lea Hall, which therefore has the distinction of being
the first English home of Florence Nightingale, an honour generally
attributed to her parents’ subsequent residence of Lea Hurst.
Lea Hall is beautifully situated high up amongst the hills above
the valley of the Derwent. I visited it in early summer when the
meadows around were golden with buttercups and scented with
clover, and the long grass stood ready for the scythe. Wild roses
decked the hedgerows, and the elder-bushes, which grow to a great
size in this part of Derbyshire, made a fine show with their white
blossoms. Seen then, the old grey Hall seemed a pleasant country
residence; but when the north wind blows and snow covers the
hillsides, it must be a bleak and lonely abode. It is plainly and solidly
built of grey limestone from the Derbyshire quarries, and is of good
proportions. From its elevated position it has an imposing look, and
forms a landmark in the open country. Leading from it, the funny old
village street of Lea, with its low stone houses, some of them very
ancient, curls round the hillside downwards to the valley. The butcher
proudly displays a ledger with entries for the Nightingale family since
1835.
The Hall stands on the ancient Manor of Lea, which includes the
villages of Lea, Dethick, and Holloway, and which passed through
several families before it became the property of the Nightingales.
The De Alveleys owned the manor in the reign of John and erected a
chapel there. One portion of the manor passed through the families
of Ferrar, Dethwick, and Babington, and another portion through the
families of De la Lea, Frecheville, Rollestone, Pershall, and
Spateman to that of the Nightingales.
The house stands a little back from the Lea road in its own
grounds, and is approached by a gate from the front garden. Stone
steps lead up to the front door, which opens into an old-fashioned
flag-paved hall. Facing the door is an oak staircase of exceptional
beauty. It gives distinction to the house and proclaims its ancient
dignity. The balustrade has finely turned spiral rails, the steps are of
solid oak, and the sides of the staircase panelled in oak. One may
imagine the little Florence making her first efforts at climbing up this
handsome old staircase.
In a room to the left the date 1799 has been scratched upon one
of the window-panes, but the erection of the Hall must have been
long before that time. For the rest, it is a rambling old house with
thick walls and deep window embrasures. The ceilings are
moderately high. There is an old-fashioned garden at the back, with
fruit and shady trees and a particularly handsome copper beech.
The Hall has long been used as a farmhouse, and scarcely one
out of the hundreds of visitors to the Matlock district who go on
pilgrimages to Lea Hurst knows of its interesting association. The old
lady who occupied it at the time of my visit was not a little proud of
the fact that for forty-four years she had lived in the first English
home of Florence Nightingale.
The casual visitor might think the district amid which our
heroine’s early years were spent was a pleasant Derbyshire wild and
nothing more, but it has also much historic interest. Across the
meadows from Lea Hall are the remains of the stately mansion of
Dethick, where dwelt young Anthony Babington when he conspired
to release Mary Queen of Scots from her imprisonment at Wingfield
Manor, a few miles away. Over these same meadows and winding
lanes Queen Elizabeth’s officers searched for the conspirators and
apprehended one at Dethick. The mansion where the plot was
hatched has been largely destroyed, and what remains is used for
farm purposes. Part of the old wall which enclosed the original
handsome building still stands, and beside it is an underground
cellar which according to tradition leads into a secret passage to
Wingfield Manor. The farm bailiff who stores his potatoes in the cellar
has not been able to find the entrance to the secret passage, though
at one side of the wall there is a suspicious hollow sound when it is
hammered.
The original kitchen of the mansion remains intact in the bailiff’s
farmhouse. There is the heavy oak-beamed ceiling, black with age,
the ponderous oak doors, the great open fireplace, desecrated by a
modern cooking range in the centre, but which still retains in the
overhanging beam the ancient roasting jack which possibly cooked
venison for Master Anthony and the other gallant young gentlemen
who had sworn to liberate the captive Queen. In the roof of the
ceiling is an innocent-looking little trap-door which, when opened,
reveals a secret chamber of some size. This delightful old kitchen,
with its mysterious memories, was a place of great fascination to
Florence Nightingale and her sister in their childhood, and many
stories did they weave about the scenes which transpired long ago in
the old mansion, so near their own home. It was a source of peculiar
interest to have the scenes of a real Queen Mary romance close at
hand, and gave zest to the subject when the sisters read about the
Babington plot in their history books.
Dethick Church, where our heroine attended her first public
service, and continued to frequently worship so long as she lived in
Derbyshire, formed a part of the Babingtons’ domain. It was
originally the private chapel of the mansion, but gradually was
converted to the uses of a parish church. Its tall tower forms a
picturesque object from the windows of Lea Hall. The church must
be one of the smallest in the kingdom. Fifty persons would prove an
overflowing congregation even now that modern seating has utilised
space, but in Florence Nightingale’s girlhood, when the quality sat in
their high-backed pews and the rustics on benches at the farther end
of the church, the sitting room was still more limited. The interior of
the church is still plain and rustic, with bare stone walls, and the bell
ropes hanging in view of the congregation. The service was quaint in
Miss Nightingale’s youth, when the old clerk made the responses to
the parson, and the preaching sometimes took an original turn. The
story is still repeated in the district that the old parson, preaching one
Sunday on the subject of lying, made the consoling remark that “a lie
is sometimes a very useful thing in trade.” The saying was often
repeated by the farmers of Lea and Dethick in the market square of
Derby.
Owing to the fact that Dethick Church was originally a private
chapel, there is no graveyard. It stands in a pretty green enclosure
on the top of a hill. An old yew-tree shades the door, and near by are
two enormous elder-bushes, which have twined their great branches
together until they fall down to the ground like a drooping ash,
forming an absolutely secluded bower, very popular with lovers and
truants from church.
The palmy days of old Dethick Church are past. No longer do the
people from the surrounding villages and hamlets climb its steep
hillside, Sunday by Sunday, for, farther down in the vale, a new
church has recently been built at Holloway, which, if less
picturesque, is certainly more convenient for the population. On the
first Sunday in each month, however, a service is still held in the old
church where, in days long ago, Florence Nightingale sat in the
squire’s pew, looking in her Leghorn hat and sandal shoes a very
bonny little maiden indeed.
 CHAPTER III
LEA HURST

Removal to Lea Hurst—Description of the House—Florence

Nightingale’s Crimean Carriage preserved there.

L o! in the midst of Nature’s choicest scenes,

E mbosomed ’mid tall trees, and towering hills,
A gem, in Nature’s setting, rests Lea Hurst.

H ome of the good, the pure at heart and beautiful,

U ndying is the fame which, like a halo’s light,
R ound thee is cast by the bright presence of the holy Florence
S aint-like and heavenly. Thou hast indeed a glorious fame
T ime cannot change, but which will be eternal.
Llewellyn Jewett.

W HEN Florence Nightingale was between five and six years

old, the family removed from Lea Hall to Lea Hurst, a house
which Mr. Nightingale had been rebuilding on a site about a mile
distant, and immediately above the hamlet of Lea Mills. This delightful
new home is the one most widely associated with the life of our
heroine. To quote the words of the old lady at the lodge, “It was from
Lea Hurst as Miss Florence set out for the Crimea, and it was to Lea
Hurst as Miss Florence returned from the Crimea.” For many years
after the war it was a place of pilgrimage, and is mentioned in almost
every guidebook as one of the attractions of the Matlock district. It
has never been in any sense a show house, and the park is private,
but in days gone by thousands of people came to the vicinity, happy if
they could see its picturesque gables from the hillside, and always
with the hope that a glimpse might be caught of the famous lady who
lived within its walls. Miss Nightingale remains tenderly attached to
Lea Hurst, although it is eighteen years since she last stayed there.
After the death of her parents it passed to the next male heir, Mr.
Shore Smith, who later assumed the name of Nightingale.

LEA HURST, DERBYSHIRE.

(Photo by Keene, Derby.)
[To face p. 16.

Lea Hurst is only fourteen miles from Derby, but the following
incident would lead one to suppose that the house is not as familiar in
the county town as might be expected. Not long ago a lady asked at
a fancy stationer’s shop for a photograph of Lea Hurst.
“Lea Hurst?” pondered the young saleswoman, and turning to her
companion behind the counter, she inquired, “Have we a photograph
of Lea Hurst?”
“Yes, I think so,” was the reply.
 “Who is Lea Hurst?” asked the first girl.
“Why, an actor of course,” replied the second.
There was an amusing tableau when the truth was made known.
Miss Nightingale’s father displayed a fine discrimination when he
selected the position for his new house. One might search even the
romantic Peak country in vain for a more ideal site than Lea Hurst. It
stands on a broad plateau looking across to the sharp, bold
promontory of limestone rock known as Crich Stand. Soft green hills
and wooded heights stud the landscape, while deep down in the
green valley the silvery Derwent—or “Darent,” as the natives call it—
makes music as it dashes over its rocky bed. The outlook is one of
perfect repose and beauty away to Dove’s romantic dale, and the
aspect is balmy and sunny, forming in this respect a contrast to the
exposed and bleak situation of Lea Hall.
The house is in the style of an old Elizabethan mansion, and now
that time has mellowed the stone and clothed the walls with greenery,
one might imagine that it really dated from the Tudor period. Mr.
Nightingale was a man of artistic tastes, and every detail of the house
was carefully planned for picturesque effect. The mansion is built in
the form of a cross with jutting wings, and presents a picture of
clustering chimneys, pointed gables, stone mullioned windows and
latticed panes. The fine oriel window of the drawing-room forms a
projecting wing at one end of the house. The rounded balcony above
the window has become historic. It is pointed out to visitors as the
place where “Miss Florence used to come out and speak to the
people.” Miss Nightingale’s room opened on to this balcony, and after
her return from the Crimea, when she was confined to the house with
delicate health, she would occasionally step from her room on to the
balcony to speak to the people, who had come as deputations, while
they stood in the park below. Facing the oriel balcony is a gateway,
shadowed by yew-trees, which forms one of the entrances from the
park to the garden.
In front of the house is a circular lawn with gravel path and flower-
beds, and above the hall door is inscribed N. and the date 1825, the
year in which Lea Hurst was completed. The principal rooms open on
to the garden or south front, and have a delightfully sunny aspect and
a commanding view over the vale. From the library a flight of stone
steps leads down to the lawn. The old schoolroom and nursery where
our heroine passed her early years are in the upper part of the house
and have lovely views over the hills.
In the centre of the garden front of the mansion is a curious little
projecting building which goes by the name of “the chapel.” It is
evidently an ancient building effectively incorporated into Lea Hurst.
There are several such little oratories of Norman date about the
district, and the old lady at Lea Hurst lodge shows a stone window in
the side of her cottage which is said to be seven hundred years old. A
stone cross surmounts the roof of the chapel, and outside on the end
wall is an inscription in curious characters. This ancient little building
has, however, a special interest for our narrative, as Miss Nightingale
used it for many years as the meeting place for the Sunday afternoon
Bible-class which she held for the girls of the district. In those days
there was a large bed of one of Miss Nightingale’s favourite flowers,
the fuchsia, outside the chapel, but that has been replaced by a
fountain and basin, and the historic building itself, with its thick stone
walls, now makes an excellent larder.
The gardens at Lea Hurst slope down from the back of the house
in a series of grassy terraces connected by stone steps, and are still
preserved in all their old-fashioned charm and beauty. There in spring
and early summer one sees wallflowers, peonies, pansies, forget-me-
nots, and many-coloured primulas in delightful profusion, while the
apple trellises which skirt the terraces make a pretty show with their
pink blossoms, and the long border of lavender-bushes is bursting
into bloom. In a secluded corner of the garden is an old summer-
house with pointed roof of thatch which must have been a delightful
playhouse for little Florence and her sister.
The park slopes down on either side the plateau on which the
house stands. The entrance to the drive is in the pleasant country
road which leads to the village of Whatstandwell and on to Derby.
This very modest park entrance, consisting of an ordinary wooden
gate supported by stone pillars with globes on the top, has been
described by an enthusiastic chronicler as a “stately gateway” with
“an air of mediæval grandeur.” There is certainly no grandeur about
Lea Hurst, either mediæval or modern. It is just one of those pleasant
and picturesque country mansions which are characteristic of rural
England, and no grandeur is needed to give distinction to a house
which the name of Florence Nightingale has hallowed.
Beyond the park the Lea woods cover the hillside for some
distance, and in spring are thickly carpeted with bluebells. A long
winding avenue, from which magnificent views are obtained over the
hills and woodland glades for many miles, skirts the top of the woods,
and is still remembered as “Miss Florence’s favourite walk.”
The chief relic preserved at Lea Hurst is the curious old carriage
used by Miss Nightingale in the Crimea. What memories does it not
suggest of her journeys from one hospital to another over the heights
of Balaclava, when its utmost carrying capacity was filled with
comforts for the sick and wounded! The body of the carriage is of
basket-work, and it has special springs made to suit the rough
Crimean roads. There is a hood which can be half or fully drawn over
the entire vehicle. The carriage was driven by a mounted man acting
as postilion.
It seems as though such a unique object ought to have a
permanent place in one of our public museums, for its interest is
national. A native of the district, who a short time ago chanced to see
the carriage, caught the national idea and returned home lamenting
that he could not put the old carriage on wheels and take it from town
to town. “There’s a fortune in the old thing,” said he, “for most folks
would pay a shilling or a sixpence to see the very identical carriage in
which Miss Florence took the wounded about in those Crimean times.
It’s astonishing what little things please people in the way of a show.
Why, that carriage would earn money enough to build a hospital!”
 CHAPTER IV
THE DAYS OF CHILDHOOD

Romantic Journeys from Lea Hurst to Embley Park—George

Eliot Associations—First Patient—Love of Animals and Flowers
—Early Education.

The childhood shows the man,

As morning shows the day.
Milton.

There is a lesson in each flower;

A story in each stream and bower;
On every herb o’er which you tread
Are written words which, rightly read,
Will lead you from earth’s fragrant sod,
To hope and holiness and God.
Allan Cunningham.

T HE childhood of Florence Nightingale, begun, as we have

seen, in the sunny land of Italy, was subsequently passed in
the beautiful surroundings of her Derbyshire home, and at Embley
Park, Hampshire, a fine old Elizabethan mansion, which Mr.
Nightingale purchased when Florence was about six years old.
The custom was for the family to pass the summer at Lea Hurst,
going in the autumn to Embley for the winter and early spring. And
what an exciting and delightful time Florence and her sister Parthe
had on the occasions of these alternative “flittings” between
Derbyshire and Hampshire in the days before railroads had
destroyed the romance of travelling! Then the now quiet little town of
Cromford, two miles from Lea Hurst, was a busy coaching centre,
and the stage coaches also stopped for passengers at the village inn
of Whatstandwell, just below Lea Hurst Park. In those times the
Derby road was alive with the pleasurable excitements of the
prancing of horses, the crack of the coach-driver’s whip, the shouts
of the post-boys, and the sound of the horn—certainly more inspiring
and romantic sights and sounds than the present toot-toot of the
motor-car, and the billows of dust-clouds which follow in its rear.
Sometimes the journey from Lea Hurst was made by coach, but
more frequently Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale with their two little girls
drove in their own carriage, proceeding by easy stages and putting
up at inns en route, while the servants went before with the luggage
to prepare Embley for the reception of the family.
How glorious it was in those bright October days to drive through
the country, just assuming its dress of red and gold, or again in the
return journey in the spring, when the hills and dales of Derbyshire
were bursting into fresh green beauty. The passionate love for nature
and the sights and sounds of rural life which has always
characterised Miss Nightingale was implanted in these happy days
of childhood. And so, too, were the homely wit and piquant sayings
which distinguish her writings and mark her more intimate
conversation. She acquired them unconsciously, as she encountered
the country people.
In her Derbyshire home she lived in touch with the life which at
the same period was weaving its spell about Marian Evans, when
she visited her kinspeople, and was destined to be immortalised in
Adam Bede and The Mill on the Floss. Amongst her father’s tenants
Florence Nightingale knew farmers’ wives who had a touch of Mrs.
Poyser’s caustic wit, and was familiar with the “Yea” and “Nay” and
other quaint forms of Derbyshire speech, such as Mr. Tulliver used
when he talked to “the little wench” in the house-place of the ill-fated
Mill on the Floss. She met, too, many of “the people called
Methodists,” who in her girlhood were establishing their preaching-
places in the country around Lea Hurst, and she heard of the fame of
the woman preacher, then exercising her marvellous gifts in the
Derby district, who was to become immortal as Dinah Morris. In
Florence Nightingale’s early womanhood, Adam Bede lived in his
thatched cottage by Wirksworth Tape Mills, a few miles from Lea
Hurst, and the Poysers’ farm stood across the meadows.
The childhood of our heroine was passed amid surroundings
which proved a singularly interesting environment. Steam power had
not then revolutionised rural England: the counties retained their
distinctive speech and customs, the young people remained on the
soil where they were born, and the rich and the poor were thrown
more intimately together. The effect of the greater personal
intercourse then existing between the squire’s family and his people
had an important influence on the character of Florence Nightingale
in her Derbyshire and Hampshire homes. She learned sympathy with
the poor and afflicted, and gained an understanding of the workings
and prejudices of the uneducated mind, which enabled her in after
years to be a real friend to those poor fellows fresh from the
battlefields of the Crimea, many of whom had enlisted from the class
of rural homes which she knew so well.
When quite a child, Florence Nightingale showed characteristics
which pointed to her vocation in life. Her dolls were always in a
delicate state of health and required the utmost care. Florence would
undress and put them to bed with many cautions to her sister not to
disturb them. She soothed their pillows, tempted them with imaginary
delicacies from toy cups and plates, and nursed them to
convalescence, only to consign them to a sick bed the next day.
Happily, Parthe did not exhibit the same tender consideration for her
waxen favourites, who frequently suffered the loss of a limb or got
burnt at the nursery fire. Then of course Florence’s superior skill was
needed, and she neatly bandaged poor dolly and “set” her arms and
legs with a facility which might be the envy of the modern miraculous
bone-setter.
The first “real live patient” of the future Queen of Nurses was
Cap, the dog of an old Scotch shepherd, and although the story has
been many times repeated since Florence Nightingale’s name
became a household word, no account of her childhood would be
complete without it. One day Florence was having a delightful ride
over the Hampshire downs near Embley along with the vicar, for
whom she had a warm affection. He took great interest in the little
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