Letter from Florence Nightingale 'going on about eggs' worth hundreds

Florence Nightingale came to prominence as a nurse during the Crimean War where she improved the supply of food for the ill and improved cleanliness

A letter about eggs written by Florence Nightingale is expected to sell for hundreds of pounds at auction.

The surprised owner, who did not wish to be named, said he had never noticed the famous nurse's signature on the note, which was penned in 1899.

He said: "I always wondered why someone in my family had decided to keep a letter from someone going on about eggs."

Nightingale is credited with introducing practices still used today.

Nightingale was recently chosen as the namesake for the first of the emergency field hospitals set up to help coronavirus victims

The note, written years after she had returned to the UK a hero for her work in the Crimean War, is signed and dated March 6, 1899, and written on headed paper.

It reads: "To the Aylesbury Dairy Co. Would you be so very good as to send me at once six eggs, if possible, laid this morning (or less than six if laid this morning) with the dark brown shells, for a gentleman very ill indeed, who fancies them - and to supply me with the same every morning for the gentleman who likes your eggs, and takes hardly anything.

"I will send them to him at once. Yours faithfully, Florence Nightingale. I shall be so much obliged to you."

The auctioneers said it was good to be, "reminded of Florence Nightingale" as the NHS deals with coronavirus

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The letter was taken to Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire before the lockdown came in to force and is due to be sold after the restrictions are lifted.

Auctioneers expect it to sell for between £500 and £600.