VII DEAN STANLEY'S DEATH 91 



figuration aloud to him, and Newman's " Lead, 

 Kindly Light." The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. 

 Vaughan, and Canon Farrar were present, together 

 with Flower, when the Dean passed away. "My 

 husband," says Lady Flower, "was so greatly im- 

 pressed by the last scenes of Stanley's life that he 

 always said that it was ' one of the chief privileges * 

 of his own life to have been permitted to pass these 

 hours with him." 



The earnestness which marked the whole of 

 Flower's life and actions was not merely the out- 

 come of a firm sense of duty, any more than his 

 strong family affection was a mere impulse. He 

 was by conviction and disposition religious. His 

 early environment, though full of positive goodness, 

 was very far from being such as was likely to assist 

 in the development of a mind which found its 

 religious expression in the writings of F. D. 

 Maurice, Charles Kingsley, the Rev. Llewelyn 

 Davies, Dean Church, and Dean Stanley, and the 

 most congenial companionship and comprehension 

 in the region of spiritual matters in their society. 

 The early history of his own family was strictly 

 Puritan, and in strong natural opposition to the 

 prescriptive teachings of the Church. It would be 

 difficult to find a more interesting example of the 

 survival of political Puritanism than in the person 

 of his grandfather, Mr. Richard Flower, of Marden 

 Hill, near Hertford. 



He was a man far in advance of his time, full of 



