Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin
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MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN
[Author's Edition]
MEMOIR
OF
FLEEMING JENKIN
BY
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1899
PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.
ON the death of Fleeming Jenkin, his family and friends determined to publish a selection of his various papers; by way of introduction, the following pages were drawn up; and the whole, forming two considerable volumes, has been issued in England. In the States, it has not been thought advisable to reproduce the whole; and the memoir appearing alone, shorn of that other matter which was at once its occasion and its justification, so large an account of a man so little known may seem to a stranger out of all proportion. But Jenkin was a man much more remarkable than the mere bulk or merit of his work approves him. It was in the world, in the commerce of friendship, by his brave attitude towards life, by his high moral value and unwearied intellectual effort, that he stuck the minds of his contemporaries. His was an individual figure, such as authors delight to draw, and all men to read of, in the pages of a novel. His was a face worth painting for its own sake. If the sitter shall not seem to have justified the portrait, if Jenkin, after his death, shall not continue to make new friends, the fault will be altogether mine.
R. L. S.
Saranac, Oct., 1887.
CONTENTS
The Jenkins of Stowting—Fleeming's Grandfather—Mrs. Buckner's Fortune—Fleeming's Father; Goes to Sea; at St. Helena; Meets King Tom; Service in the West Indies; End of his Career—The Campbell-Jacksons—Fleeming's Mother— Fleeming's Uncle John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
1 | |
CHAPTER II. 1833–1852. | ||
Birth and Childhood—Edinburgh—Frankfort-on-the-Main — Paris—The Revolution of 1848—The Insurrection—Flight to Italy—Sympathy with Italy—The Insurrection in Genoa —A Student in Genoa—The Lad and his Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
34 | |
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
71 | |
Chapter IV. 1859-1868. | ||
Fleeming's Marriage—His Married Life—Professional Difficulties—Life at Claygate—Illness of Mrs. F. Jenkin; and of Fleeming—Appointment to the Chair at Edinburgh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
101 | |
Chapter V. | ||
Notes of Telegraph Voyages, 1858 to 1873 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
123 | |
Chapter VI. 1869-1885. | ||
Edinburgh—Colleagues—Farrago Vitaz—I. The Family Circle—Fleeming and his Sons—Highland Life—The Cruise of the Steam Launch—Summer in Styria—Rustic Manners — II. The Drama— Private Theatricals—III. Sanitary Associations—The Phonograph—IV. Fleeming's Acquaintance with a Student—His late Maturity of Mind—Religion and Morality—His Love of Heroism —Taste in Literature—V. His Talk—His Late Popularity—Letter from M. Trelat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
198 | |
Chapter VII. 1875-1885. | ||
Mrs. Jenkin's Illness—Captain Jenkin—The Golden Wedding — Death of Uncle John—Death of Mr. and Mrs. Austin—Illness and Death of the Captain—Death of Mrs. Jenkin—Effect on Fleeming—Telpherage—The End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
257 | |
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277 |
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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