A most obliging disposition; a sensitiveness well nigh feminine in its nature; a keen perception of the ludicrous; a ready hand at turning a pun or an epigram; and a happy way of rendering the anecdotes, wherewith his memory was copiously stored, made Mark Antony Lower always a welcome companion in the social circle.[1] But less bright days came upon him. His closing years were darkened by impaired health, the sun of fortune shone but fitfully upon him, and continuous literary labour became at length an impossibility. The once robust figure had fallen away to such an extent, that some who knew him intimately, but who had not seen him for an interval of twelve months or more, failed to recognise at once their old friend in the wasted form before them. The date of his passing away has already been given. It may truly be added, that the void left in the ranks of Archæology by his death, cannot, in the many-sided gifts with which he was endowed, be easily filled up.
Mr. Lower was for several years a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He was Master of Arts of one of the United States Universities; a "Fellow of the Societies of Antiquaries of Normandy, America, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and a Member of the Academy of Sciences of Caen."
Thanks are especially due to Mr. John Dudeney, of Milton House, Lewes, as also to Mr. W. de Warenne Lower, second son of Mr. Lower, for their important assistance in furnishing materials for the foregoing memoir; as also to Mr. Lower's old pupil, Mr. J. E. Price, F.S.A.; to Mr. Joseph Ellis, and to Mr. John Russell Smith.
- ↑ His old associate, Mr. Charles Roach Smith, F.S.A. thus writes of him: "During our alliance in excavating at Pevensey, I saw much of him, He was full of spirits, with an endurable flow of humour and wit, earnest, and open-hearted." For the important part this eminent antiquary took in raising the fund for Mr. Lower's behoof, alluded to in a previous page, as well as the high esteem in which he held him, see Gent. Mag., June, 1867. H.C.
