the Government near Dungeness, his father at that time being on the
coast-guard service. His versatility was evidently derived from his
mother, who, owing to her husband's frequent absence at sea and his
weaker character, had the principal share in the boy's earlier training.

Jenkin was fortunate in having an excellent education. His mother took
him to the south of Scotland, where, chiefly at Barjarg, she taught
him drawing among other things, and allowed him to ride his pony on the
moors. He went to school at Jedburgh, and afterwards to the Edinburgh
Academy, where he carried off many prizes. Among his schoolfellows were
Clerk Maxwell and Peter Guthrie Tait, the friends of his maturer life.

On the retirement of his father the family removed to Frankfort in 1847,
partly from motives of economy and partly for the boy's instruction.
Here Fleeming and his father spent a pleasant time together, sketching
old castles, and observing the customs of the peasantry. Fleeming was
precocious, and at thirteen had finished a romance of three hundred
lines in heroic measure, a Scotch novel, and innumerable poetical
fragments, none of which are now extant. He learned German in Frankfort;
and on the family migrating to Paris the following year, he studied
French and mathematics under a certain M. Deluc. While here, Fleeming
witnessed the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848, and heard the first
shot. In a letter written to an old schoolfellow while the sound still
rang in his ears, and his hand trembled with excitement, he gives a
boyish account of the circumstances. The family were living in the Rue
Caumartin, and on the evening of February 23 he and his father were
taking a walk along the boulevards, which were illuminated for joy at
the resignation of M. Guizot. They passed the residence of the Foreign
Minister, which was guarded with troops, and further on encountered a
band of rioters marching along the street with torches, and singing the
Marseillaise. After them came a rabble of men and women of all sorts,
rich and poor, some of them armed with sticks and sabres. They turned
back with these, the boy delighted with the spectacle, 'I remarked to
papa' (he writes),'I would not have missed the scene for anything. I
might never see such a splendid one; when PONG went one shot. Every face
went pale: R--R--R--R--R went the whole detachment [of troops], and
the whole crowd of gentlemen and ladies turned and cut. Such a
scene!---ladies,