126 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER chap. 



post might be in some measure a rival to his 

 own. 



The following letter from Sir Edward, then Chief 

 Librarian of the British Museum, a post which 

 was and is equivalent to that of head of the great 

 national institution, was received on June 22, 1884 : — 



Dear Professor Flower — I have the great pleasure of 

 reporting that I obtained the Archbishop's signature to your 

 appointment as Superintendent of the Natural History Museum 

 this afternoon, and that I expect to have the addition of the 

 Chancellor's name to-morrow. The appointment cannot be 

 acted upon until Treasury sanction has been received for its 

 being made, under Clause VII. of the Order of Council providing 

 for the case, and I hope to obtain on Saturday morning instruc- 

 tions from the Trustees to apply for it. 



I need hardly add that the completion of the appointment 

 will be a matter of the utmost gratification to me personally, and 

 I fully believe to all who take interest in the Museum. — Very 

 truly yours, Edw. A. Bond. 



The proposal that the Director should have a 

 house attached to the Museum was partly due to 

 the advantage which every one had noted in the fact 

 of Flower's residence next door to his work in 

 Lincoln's Inn Fields. He was able to step into the 

 Museum at all hours, and often almost lived there. 

 The idea was placed before the Government not by 

 Mr. Childers but by Lord Sherbrooke, but was 

 negatived by Mr. Gladstone, who, in an elaborate 

 and curiously didactic letter, dated from his own 

 official residence in Downing Street, proved con- 

 vincingly the iniquity of granting official residences 



