Penn's at Greenwich,
where he was engaged as draughtsman. There in 1856, we find him in
'a terribly busy state, finishing up engines for innumerable gun-
boats and steam frigates for the ensuing campaign.' From half-past
eight in the morning till nine or ten at night, he worked in a
crowded office among uncongenial comrades, 'saluted by chaff,
generally low personal and not witty,' pelted with oranges and
apples, regaled with dirty stories, and seeking to suit himself
with his surroundings or (as he writes it) trying to be as little
like himself as possible. His lodgings were hard by, 'across a
dirty green and through some half-built streets of two-storied
houses'; he had Carlyle and the poets, engineering and mathematics,
to study by himself in such spare time as remained to him; and
there were several ladies, young and not so young, with whom he
liked to correspond. But not all of these could compensate for the
absence of that mother, who had made herself so large a figure in
his life, for sorry surroundings, unsuitable society, and work that
leaned to the mechanical.
Pages:
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99