Editing Fleeming Jenkin (section)

===Background and childhood===
Generally called Fleeming Jenkin, named after [[Charles Elphinstone Fleeming|Admiral Fleeming]], one of his father's patrons, he was born to an old and eccentric family in a government building near [[Dungeness (headland)|Dungeness]], [[Kent]], England. His father, Captain Charles Jenkin, was at that time being in the coast-guard service.<ref name="rls" /> His mother, [[Henrietta Camilla Jenkin|Henrietta Camilla (Cora) Jenkin (born Jackson)]] was a published author.<ref>[[s:Jenkin, Henrietta Camilla (DNB00)|Henrietta Jenkin]], Wikisource</ref> His mother was responsible for Jenkin's education. She took him to the south of Scotland, where, chiefly at [[Barjarg Tower|Barjarg]], she taught him drawing and allowed him to ride his pony on the moors.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} He went to school at [[Jedburgh]], [[Scottish Borders|Borders]], and afterwards to the [[Edinburgh Academy]], where he won many prizes. Among his school fellows were [[James Clerk Maxwell]] and [[Peter Guthrie Tait]].<ref name="rls">Robert Louis Stevenson, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/698/698-h/698-h.htm Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin], (1901), New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, Chapter II. 1833–1851.</ref>

On his father's retirement in 1847, the family moved to [[Frankfurt]], partly from motives of economy and partly for the boy's education. Here Jenkin and his father spent a pleasant time together, sketching old castles, and observing the customs of the peasantry. At thirteen, Jenkin had produced a [[romanticism|romance]] of three hundred lines in [[heroic couplet]]s, a novel, and a large number of poems, none of which are now extant. He learned German in Frankfurt and, on the family migrating to Paris the following year, he studied French and mathematics under a M. Deluc. While there, Jenkin witnessed the outbreak of the [[The Revolutions of 1848 in France|Revolution of 1848]] and heard the first shot, describing the action in [[s:Fleeming Jenkin account of the 1848 Revolution in Paris|a letter written to an old schoolfellow]].

The Jenkins left Paris, and went to [[Genoa]], where they experienced [[The Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states|another revolution]], and Mrs. Jenkin, with her son and sister-in-law, had to seek the protection of a British vessel in the harbour, leaving their house stored with the property of their friends, and guarded by Captain Jenkin. At Genoa, Jenkin attended the [[University of Genoa]], being its first [[Protestant]] student. Father Bancalari, the professor of [[natural philosophy]], lectured on [[electromagnetism]], his physical laboratory being the best in Italy. Jenkin took the degree of M.A. with first-class honours, his special subject having been electromagnetism. The questions in the examinations were in Latin, and had to be answered in Italian. Fleeming also attended an art school in the city, and gained a silver medal for a drawing from one of [[Raffaello Santi|Raphael]]'s [[cartoon]]s. His holidays were spent in sketching, and his evenings in learning to play the piano or, when permissible, at the theatre or opera-house. He had conceived a taste for acting. He attended the University of Edinburgh in 1851.<ref name="rls"/>