212 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. 



the Earl of Tankerville at Chillingham, ended the 

 summer by taking his youngest boy, Victor, to 

 Winchester. In 1890 he began one of his most 

 popular series of lectures, those on Saturday after- 

 noons at the Royal Institution. The subject was 

 the " Natural History of the Horse and its Extinct 

 Allies." These were very largely attended. The 

 treatment of the subject was new to his hearers, 

 while his great knowledge of the present structure 

 of the horse and of its evolution was very welcome 

 to all classes and sexes interested in riding, driving, 

 training, and breeding all kinds from "Shires" to 

 Shetland ponies. 



On April 30 the Civil Service dinner was held, 

 at which Lord Wolseley was in the chair and 

 Flower Vice-chairman. Flower responded for the 

 Civil Service in one of the brightest speeches 

 which he ever made, and before a highly critical 

 audience. He declared that he was "almost the 

 youngest member of the Service there, having been 

 only appointed six years, but that he brought to it 

 the proverbial zeal of those converted late in life. 

 Instead of devoting his time to the study of 

 mammals and the craniology of Andaman Islanders, 

 he had found a far higher vocation, the study of 

 man in his highest development, whose habits and 

 idiosyncrasies had to be studied, whether engaged 

 as colleagues at the Natural History Museum 

 or in the Dread Department (i.e. the Treasury), 

 the name of which must not pass his lips, which 



