household of meagre revenue, among foreign surroundings, and under
the influence of an imperious drawing-room queen; from whom he
learned a great refinement of morals, a strong sense of duty, much
forwardness of bearing, all manner of studious and artistic
interests, and many ready-made opinions which he embraced with a
son's and a disciple's loyalty.



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 and
came to Manchester, where Fleeming was entered in Fairbairn'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 '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 practice frugality, only
lamented that it should be needful; and Mrs. Jenkin, who was always
complaining of 'those dreadful bills,' was 'always a good deal