LIFE OF FLOWER 21 



The excellent little volume on The Horse in Sir 

 John Lubbock's (Lord Avebury) Modern Science Series, 

 published in 1891, and the Essays on Museums 

 (1898), also appeared during this portion of Flower's 

 career. 



Although so largely occupied in the study of 

 mammals and other creatures from distant parts of the 

 world, Sir William never travelled much, and never 

 visited little known regions or did any important 

 collecting abroad. In addition to his Crimean ex- 

 periences, and the journeys in Holland, France, and the 

 Rhine country, to which allusion has been already made, 

 his foreign tours appear to have been but few. In the 

 winter of 1873-74 he was, however, enabled to enjoy a 

 trip up the Nile in company with Mrs. Flower, and he 

 visited Biarritz in 1892. During the former excursion 

 he made a number of sketches which bear ample 

 testimony to his powers as an artist. With his great 

 knowledge of anatomy, it may be here mentioned, 

 coupled with his skill with the pencil, he enjoyed a 

 great advantage over many contemporary zoologists in 

 being able to draw accurate and life-like portraits of the 

 animals he loved so well. Nevertheless, if only from 

 lack of time, he never attempted to illustrate with 

 his own hand any of his numerous scientific contributions 

 at all events in later years. Owing to need for com- 

 plete rest, after a short sojourn in the early part of 1897 

 at Marazion, on the south coast of Cornwall, he spent 

 much of the following winter abroad ; and after his 

 resignation of the Directorship of the Museum in 1898, 

 he spent the following winter at San Remo, from which 

 he returned less than two months before his death. 



