44 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. 



Lady Flower says of this time, " One of the great 

 pleasures during this, our first journey together, was 

 the beauty of the spring flowers abroad, where all 

 the fruit-trees were in blossom, and listening to the 

 birds in full song. My husband knew the notes of 

 all, and delighted in teaching me to learn the different 

 sounds or to identify their flight and movements. 

 Our visits to the old historic towns, in which his 

 interest in architecture, history, and the paintings of 

 the old masters had full play, were equally delightful. 

 His appreciation of these subjects remained and 

 grew all his life, side by side with his master passion 

 for science." 



Thus began the new era. Flower wrote of his 

 marriage as " the most important and happiest event 

 of my life," a feeling to which he remained constant 

 to the last, and to which a faithful and touching 

 tribute will be found in every line of the last 

 chapter of this memoir. 1 



The dedication of his last book, the Essays on 

 Museums, published in 1898, is written in the 

 following words : 



To her who for forty years has been my never-failing counsellor 

 and support in all difficulties and perplexities this collection of 

 fugitive thoughts upon subjects closely associated with the greater 

 part of our joint life's work is lovingly dedicated. 



It was on May 19, 1858, that they came back 

 to England, and arrived at 15 Queen Anne Street, 



1 By Lady Flower. 



