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In 1879, ‘
The school is closed this week owing to the increased spread of measles. There are 45 children at home from this cause
.’
    While infectious disease was no respecter of class or status, in other places, the Dringhouses school log book points to the differences between the children of the two schools. In January 1870, ‘
Mr Ackeroyd, Lady Meek’s Steward, called to pay for Agnes Armison and three of Mr Forth’s children’
. And while the girls at Middlethorpe were learning French from Mademoiselle Laurency, the Dringhouses school children were learning about The Pronoun in their grammar lesson, the Shape of the Earth in Geography, and the names of 36 vegetables in Spelling.
    In the very comfortable surroundings of Middlethorpe Hall, Florence may have been at least partly insulated from her father’s financial embarrassment in London. Her 14 year old sister Urith was also not at home with their parents in early 1881: she was boarding with Miss Katherine Walker, and another boarder, 16 year old Letitia Beasley, in Ecclesall, Sheffield. Their older brother Offley, now 18, was a gentleman cadet at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, preparing for his military career. Ten years later, he would be followed there by his cousin, Clarence Hobkirk, the younger son of Margaret Hobkirk, Florence’s maternal aunt. In 1876, Clarence and his older brother Stuart had been left fatherless when John Hobkirk died at the age of just 51, when the boys were aged eight and seven. They may have been particularly close to their Shore cousins, as, many years later, Florence would make provision for both of them in her Will.
    Meanwhile, Florence’s father was still trying to make money. Following his bankruptcy, he had set off on a new venture, going to Iceland to invest in borax – a naturally-occurring mineral used in detergents, cosmetics and enamel glazes, which was greatly in demand at the end of the 19 th century. Unfortunately, like Offley’s other ventures, this one did not succeed. The children were beginning to think about ways to earn their own livings. In 1882, Offley junior had passed out from Sandhurst and was set on a military career. He wrote to his father about his younger sisters’ ideas:
    â€˜Urith seemed to think that if obliged to ‘go out’ she would take to music more readily than anything else … Florence quite likes the Children’s Hospital idea and is going to write Florence Nightingale … I fear it’s a poor concern she is going for, as regards pay, and will tax her growing strength … I said nothing at all about the possibility of the success of this Borax rendering them free of the necessary [sic] to work for themselves …’
    Florence, now aged 17, also wrote rather wistfully to her father in Iceland:
    â€˜I only knew yesterday that you had gone back to Iceland … I hope that you will be well rewarded for your long journey and almost banishment from home. I trust that you will be able to find a good estate which may bring you good return.’
    Urith, the youngest daughter, who seems to have spent little time at home with her family, wrote simply:
    â€˜I hope you are getting on successfully at Iceland … Aunt and Uncle are still very kind.’
    Offley Shore’s financial difficulties were to continue for years; but in spite of his ‘banishment’ from the family, his son in particular continued to write affectionately to him. In 1883, he wrote;
    â€˜I am grieved to hear you are in such a devil of a fix … would like to know what you intend doing in case the worst should come to the worst’; and three years later: ‘I am so sorry to hear of your financial worries dear Father and sincerely trust you will not be obliged to leave your club which will indeed be a blow to you .. I hear Florrie has been offered a place at £40 a year: is it true?’ and ‘So awfully distressed to hear