xii WHITE WHALE IN LONDON 171 



sperm whale had been stranded some time before 

 on the foreshore of Sir Clifford Constable's 

 property. 



Writing to his mother, June 15, 1865, he said : — 



My Yorkshire expedition was very successful. I did all I 

 wanted and the weather was magnificent, luckily for me, as the 

 Burton Constable whale was in the open air, and a shower of 

 rain would have greatly interfered with my proceedings. ... It 

 was very pleasant, sitting among the beautiful trees of the park, 

 drawing and measuring the great whale's skeleton, with the birds 

 singing all around, and the red deer looking on with much 

 surprise, and the full moon rising up while the sun went down. 

 There was a starling's nest with five young ones comfortably 

 lodged in the whale's brain cavity. 



In July 1875 a grampus was caught at Sidlesbarn, 

 near Chichester, and taken alive to the Brighton 

 Aquarium, where it lived only a few hours. 

 Flower, " the most eminent living authority on the 

 Cetacea," to quote a contemporary notice, examined 

 and measured it, and also identified the species. 



In 1877 a white whale was brought alive to 

 the Westminster Aquarium, but it also died. 



Referring to this loss, Frank Buckland paid a 

 tribute to Flower's ungrudging willingness to teach 

 all and sundry what he knew : — 



I was aware (he wrote) that had the whale not died. Professor 

 Flower would probably have consented to give a lecture to 

 working people on the structure and movements of the whale, 

 with the living illustration before him, as he sometimes explains 

 to parties of working men the specimens in the Museum of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons. To listen to our greatest authority 



