CHAPTER III. 



1851-1858. 



Return to England Fleeming at Fairbairn's Experience in a Strike Dr. 

 Bell and Greek Architecture The Gaskells Fleeming at Greenwich 

 The Austins Fleeming and the Austins His Engagement Fleeming 

 and Sir W. Thomson. 



IN 1851, the year of Aunt Anna's death, the family left Genoa Return to 

 and came to Manchester, where Fleeming was entered in Fair- g an ' 

 bairn's works as -an apprentice. From the palaces and Alps, 

 the Mole, the blue Mediterranean, the humming lanes and the 

 bright theatres of Genoa, he fell and he was sharply conscious 

 of the fall to the dim skies and the foul ways of Manchester. 

 England he found on his return f a horrid place,' and there is 

 no doubt the family found it a dear one. The story of the 

 Jenkin finances is not easy to follow. The family, I am told, 

 did not practise frugality, only lamented that it should be 

 needful ; and Mrs. Jenkin, who was always complaining of 

 1 those dreadful bills,' was l always a good deal dressed.' But 

 at this time of the return to England, things must have gone 

 further. A holiday tour of a fortnight, Fleeming feared would 

 be beyond what he could afford, and he only projected it ' to 

 have a castle in the air.' And there were actual pinches. Fresh 

 from a warmer sun, he was obliged to go without a greatcoat, 

 and learned on railway journeys to supply the place of one with 

 wrappings of old newspaper. 



From half-past eight till six, he must ( file and chip vigorously Fleeming 

 in a moleskin suit and infernally dirty.' The work was not J* j^J" 

 new to him, for he had already passed some time in a Genoese 

 shop ; and to Fleeming no work was without interest. What- 

 ever a man can do or know, he longed to know and do also. 



