She went down
to the New Forest, armed with the plan of the proposed hospital
and all the relevant information, stayed the night at Lord
Palmerston's house, and convinced him of the necessity of
rebuilding Netley. 'It seems to me,' Lord Palmerston wrote to
Lord Panmure, 'that at Netley all consideration of what would
best tend to the comfort and recovery of the patients has been
sacrificed to the vanity of the architect, whose sole object has
been to make a building which should cut a dash when looked at
from the Southampton river... Pray, therefore, stop all further
progress in the work until the matter can be duly considered.'
But the Bison was not to be moved by one peremptory letter, even
if it was from the Prime Minister. He put forth all his powers of
procrastination, Lord Palmerston lost interest in the subject,
and so the chief military hospital in England was triumphantly
completed on insanitary principles, with unventilated rooms, and
with all the patients' windows facing northeast.
But now the time had come when the Bison was to trouble and to be
troubled no more. A vote in the House of Commons brought about
the fall of Lord Palmerston's Government, and, Lord Panmure found
himself at liberty to devote the rest of his life to the Free
Church of Scotland. After a brief interval, Sidney Herbert became
Secretary of State for War.
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