12 MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN 



and makes you grow,' he used to say. And the 

 stripes were not altogether wasted, for the dunce, 

 though still very ' raw,' made progress with his 

 studies. It was known, moreover, that he was 

 going to sea, always a ground of pre-eminence with 

 schoolboys ; and in his case the glory was not 

 altogether future, it wore a present form when he 

 came driving to Rye behind four horses in the same 

 carriage with an Admiral. ' I was not a little 

 proud, you may believe,' says he. 



In 1814, when he was thirteen years of age, he 

 was carried by his father to Chichester to the 

 Bishop's Palace. The Bishop had heard from his 

 brother the Admiral that Charles was likely to do 

 well, and had an order from Lord Melville for the 

 lad's admission to the Royal Naval College at 

 Portsmouth. Both the Bishop and the Admiral 

 patted him on the head and said, ' Charles will 

 restore the old family ' ; by which I gather with 

 some surprise that, even in these days of open house 

 at Northiam and golden hope of my aunt's fortune, 

 the family was supposed to stand in need of restora- 

 tion. But the past is apt to look brighter than 

 nature, above all to those enamoured of their 

 genealogy ; and the ravages of Stephen and Thomas 

 must have always given matter of alarm. 



What with the flattery of bishops and admirals, 

 the fine company in which he found himself at 

 Portsmouth, his visits home, with their gaiety and 



