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WILLIAMSON: JOHN WILLIAMSON. 
months at Scarbroug-h. Already the taste which has determined my 
career in life, had developed itself ; the museum was to me the most 
attractive of the many interests of the place, and I very soon made 
friends with its curator, your father. I was even then an 
ardent collector, and of course I brought the fossils which 
I found in the cHffs, or the butterflies caught in the neigh- 
bouring fields and lanes to compare with those in the museum, 
and get them named. Once, upon a day never to be forgotten, I 
picked up a dead Guillemot upon the beach. It was in perfect 
plumage, and I carried it off to the nmseum, where, in his work-room 
in the basement, your father skinned and stuffed it before my 
wondering and admiring eyes. This was my first lesson in taxidermy 
an art over which I afterwards wasted many a day and night, with 
great enjoyment if perhaps little profit, it has, however, given me 
the power of appreciating good work of the kind in others, and of 
being made miserable by the far more frequent sight of bad. I well 
remember, as if it were yesterday, the delight with which I follow- 
ed, and the kindness with which Mr. Williamson explained to me 
the various stages of the process, and as one of those things, which 
for some inexplicable cause stand out clearly in the memory amid a 
surrounding- haze. I have still a most vivid presentment of the 
string with sharp iron hook at end, which hung from a beam in the 
ceiling, over the table, and to which he fixed up the body while 
peeling off the skin from the breast and neck of the bird. I have 
never visited Scarborough since, nor did I ever see your father again ; 
but I owe much to him for the kindly encouragement he gave to the 
boy who went to him with no introduction but his love for the 
objects among which the good old man lived and worked. 
Beheve me, 
Yours very faithfully, 
W. H. FLOWER. 
It will readily be seen that Mr. WilHamson could not live upon 
the small stipend he received as keeper of the museum. On his 
return from the north, my mother resumed her old occupation as a 
milliner and dressmaker, and aided by a considerable staff of young 
people, she brought a substantial addition to the family finances. 
