Excerpt from The Scottish Women's Hospital at the French Abbey of Royaumont

So impressed was the writer on his first visit to the Abbey of St. Louis by its architecture, history, and romantic surroundings, that he determined to create spare moments in his own Red Cross work in France and compile a brochure on the distinguished habitation of the Scottish Women at Royaumont. Particularly did the idea include (for the reader) a reconstruction from ancient plans and documents of the superb Abbey Church demolished by order of the Commune in the year 1791.

Subsequent visits brought him into contact with the Hospital there established, and this created an instant diversion. Familiarity with the perplexities of transformation, an intimacy with the numerous patients, and an ultimate comprehension of the remarkable scientific, administrative, and benevolent achievements of the Staff, dimmed earlier interests, made clearly imperative a history of what had been accomplished by the first hospital in France conducted entirely by women.

The necessary material has been contributed by Dr. Agnes Savill, without whose valuable and varied help a record of the Hospital could not have been undertaken.

This finished, the original impulse of compiling a history of the Abbey returned with all the force of suspended intention, and with the added necessity of framing the Hospital in its own surroundings.

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