xxviii MEMOIR 



CHAPTER II. 



1833-1851. 



Birth and Childhood Edinburgh Frankfort-on-the-Main Paris The Kevo- 

 lution of 1848 The Insurrection Flight to Italy Sympathy with Italy 

 The Insurrection in Genoa A Student in Genoa The Lad and his 

 Mother. 



Birth and HENRY CHARLES FLEEMING JENKIN (Fleeming, pronounced Flem- 

 ming, to his friends and family) was born in a Government 

 building on the coast of Kent, near Dungeness, where his father 

 was serving at the time in the Coastguard, on March 25, 1833, 

 and named after Admiral Fleeming, one of his father's protectors 

 in the navy. 



His childhood was vagrant like his life. Once he was left 

 in the care of his grandmother Jackson, while Mrs. Jenkin 

 sailed in her husband's ship and stayed a year at the Havannah. 

 The tragic woman was besides from time to time a member of 

 the family ; she was in distress of mind and reduced in fortune 

 by the misconduct of her sons ; her destitution and solitude made 

 it a recurring duty to receive her, her violence continually 

 enforced fresh separations. In her passion of a disappointed 

 mother, she was a fit object of pity ; but her grandson, who 

 heard her load his own mother with cruel insults and reproaches, 

 conceived for her an indignant and impatient hatred, for which 

 he blamed himself in later life. It is strange from this point of 

 view to see his childish letters to Mrs. Jackson ; and to think 

 that a man, distinguished above all by stubborn truthfulness, 

 should have been brought up to such dissimulation. But this 

 is of course unavoidable in life ; it did no harm to Jenkin ; and 

 whether he got harm or benefit from a so early acquaintance 

 with violent and hateful scenes, is more than I can guess. The 



