LIFE OF FLOWER 7 



idle months with the Depot Battalion then stationed at 

 Templemore, in Ireland, he was gazetted as Assistant- 

 Surgeon to the 63rd (now the First Battalion of the Man- 

 chester) Regiment ; and in July 1854 embarked with his 

 regiment at Cork for Constantinople. On its arrival in the 

 east the regiment was at once hurried up to join the main 

 army at Varna, whence it proceeded to take part in the 

 expedition to the Crimea, where both officers and men 

 suffered severely from exposure to the inclemencies of 

 the climate and an insufficient commissariat during 

 the early months of the campaign. For ten weeks 

 together, it is reported, neither officers or men took off 

 their clothes, either by night or by day, and for the first 

 three weeks all ranks were compelled to get such sleep 

 as they could obtain on the bare ground. Flower, who 

 was present at the battles of the Alma, of Inkerman, and 

 of Balaclava, as well as at the fall of Sebastopol, under- 

 went many and thrilling experiences during the campaign, 

 alike in the field and in the hospital. The hardships 

 and privations which caused the strength of his regiment 

 to be reduced by nearly one-half within the short period 

 of four months, could not but tell severely on the 

 constitution of the young surgeon, which was never 

 very robust ; and from some of the effects of these 

 he suffered throughout his life. Nevertheless, in spite 

 of all this, in the intervals of duty, Flower, with but 

 scant materials at his disposal, managed to find time and 

 energy sufficient to make a considerable number of 

 vivid pen-and-ink, or dashes of ink-and-water, sketches 

 of his surroundings, including one of his own tent 

 overturned by the terrible snow-storm of 1 4th Novem- 

 ber 1854, anc ^ a secon d of the wrecked condition of the 



