CLAYGATE Ixix 



incompetent ; but a correction accepted by Darwin, and a whole 

 review borrowed and reprinted by Matthews Duncan, are com- 

 pliments of a rare strain, and to a man still unsuccessful must 

 have been precious indeed. There was yet a third of the same 

 kind in store for him ; and when Munro himself owned that 

 he had found instruction in the paper on Lucretius, ws may say 

 that Fleeming had been crowned in the oapitol of reviewing. 



Croquet, charades, Christmas magic lanterns for the village 

 children, an amateur concert or a review article in the evening ; 

 plenty of hard work by day ; regular visits to meetings of the 

 British Association, from one of which I find him characteristi- 

 cally writing : ' I cannot say that I have had any amusement 

 yet, but I am enjoying the dulness and dry bustle of the whole 

 thing ' ; occasional visits abroad on business, when he would 

 find the time to glean (as I have said) gardening hints for him- 

 self, and old folksongs or new fashions of dress for his wife ; 

 and the continual study and care of his children : these were the 

 chief elements of his life. Nor were friends wanting. Captain 

 and Mrs. Jenkin, Mr. and Mrs. Austin, Clerk Maxwell, Miss Bell 

 of Manchester, and others came to them on visits. Mr. Hertslet 

 of the Foreign Office, his wife and his daughter, were neighbours 

 and proved kind friends; in 1867 the Howitts came to Clay gate 

 and sought the society of ' the two bright, clever young 

 people ' ; l and in a house close by Mr. Frederick Ricketts 

 came to live with his family. Mr. Ricketts was a valued friend 

 during his short life ; and when he was lost with every circum- 

 stance of heroism in the La Plata, Fleeming mourned him 

 sincerely. 



I think I shall give the best idea of Fleeming in this time Letters 

 of his early married life, by a few sustained extracts from his ciaygate. 

 letters to his wife, while she was absent on a visit in 1864. 



1 Nov. 11. Sunday was too wet to walk to Isleworth, for 

 which I was sorry, so I staid and went to Church and thought 

 of you at Ardwick all through the Commandments, and heard 



Dr. , expound in a remarkable way a prophecy of St. 



Paul's about Roman Catholics, which mutatis mutandis would 

 1 Reminiscences of My Later Life:, by Mary Howitt, Good Words, May 1886. 



