Autograph Letter Signed ('F Barham Zincke') from the antiquary and radical Foster Barham Zincke to 'My dear Mr Flower' [Sir William Henry Flower], regarding the latter's five-month stay in Egypt.

4pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of stub adhering to margin. He has received Flower's 'catalogue'. 'I was sure you wd. be delighted with Egypt. It has so much to tell us about man & nature. The early stages of mans progress, & the variety of nature.' Zincke would like 'time to look into things & to think about them': he was in Egypt 'only as many weeks as you were months'. He own 'book' grew out of 'the little story of the girl at Bethany which I wrote in a letter from the amusement of a Nile dinner party in London to which I had been asked, but was unable to attend, & out of what I say in the first Chapter about the geology of the Nile Valley which I wrote in reply to some inquiries addressed to me by Sir Charles Lyall on that subject'. He is 'very glad to get the Boulac Catalogue. This is the first I have seen of it. When I was in Cairo I thrice visited the museum, but without a Catalogue, & have never since been able to get it.' He is sorry that Flower is 'not so strong as your friends wd. wish you to be'. Zincke hopes to be in London in two weeks' time, 'when I shall make a point of seeing you & Mrs Flower, & shall try to persuade you to come from here & have a good talk about "Egyptiaca". He hopes Flower 'paid some little attention to the fish of the Nile. What Herodotus says of their abundance & of the variety of species - & the recollections the <?> Hebrews had of them, make this an interesting Egyptian subject.' For health reasons Flower was granted a six months' leave of absence in 1873, and spent five of them in Egypt.