'
On leaving Fairbairn's he was engaged for a time on a survey for the
proposed Lukmanier Railway, in Switzerland, and in 1856 he entered the
engineering works of Mr. Penn, at Greenwich, as a draughtsman, and was
occupied on the plans of a vessel designed for the Crimean war. He did
not care for his berth, and complained of its late hours, his rough
comrades, with whom he had to be 'as little like himself as possible,'
and his humble lodgings, 'across a dirty green and through some half-
built streets of two-storied houses.... Luckily,' he adds, 'I am fond of
my profession, or I could not stand this life.' There was probably no
real hardship in his present situation, and thousands of young engineers
go through the like experience at the outset of their career without a
murmur,' and even with enjoyment; but Jenkin had been his mother's pet
until then, with a girl's delicate training, and probably felt the
change from home more keenly on that account. At night he read
engineering and mathematics, or Carlyle and the poets, and cheered his
drooping spirits with frequent trips to London to see his mother.
Another social pleasure was his visits to the house of Mr. Alfred
Austin, a barrister, who became permanent secretary to Her Majesty's
Office of Works and Public Buildings, and retired in 1868 with the title
of C.
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