The greater masters of the commonplace,

Rembrandt and good Sir Walter—only these

Could paint her all to you: experienced ease

And antique liveliness and ponderous grace;

The sweet old roses of her sunken face;

The depth and malice of her sly, grey eyes;

The broad Scots tongue that flatters, scolds, defies;

The thick Scots wit that fells you like a mace.

These thirty years has she been nursing here,

Some of them under Syme, her hero still.

Much is she worth, and even more is made of her.

Patients and students hold her very dear.

The doctors love her, tease her, use her skill.

The say 'The Chief' himself is half-afraid of her.

William Ernest Henley,

London Voluntaries, 1898.