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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
152
In
1866
Jenkin
was
appointed
to
the
professorship
of
Engineering
in
University
College,
London.
Two
years
later
his
prospects
suddenly
improved;
the
partnership
began
to
pay,
and
he
was
selected
to
fill
the
Chair
of
Engineering,
which
had
been
newly
established,
in
Edinburgh
University.
What
he
thought
of
the
change
may
be
gathered
from
a
letter
to
his
wife:
'With
you
in
the
garden
(at
Claygate),
with
Austin
in
the
coach-house,
with
pretty
songs
in
the
little
low
white
room,
with
the
moonlight
in
the
dear
room
upstairs--ah!
it
was
perfect;
but
the
long
walk,
wondering,
pondering,
fearing,
scheming,
and
the
dusty
jolting
railway,
and
the
horrid
fusty
office,
with
its
endless
disappointments,
they
are
well
gone.
It
is
well
enough
to
fight,
and
scheme,
and
bustle
about
in
the
eager
crowd
here
(in
London)
for
awhile
now
and
then;
but
not
for
a
lifetime.
What
I
have
now
is
just
perfect.
Study
for
winter,
action
for
summer,
lovely
country
for
recreation,
a
pleasant
town
for
talk.'
The
liberality
of
the
Scotch
universities
allowed
him
to
continue
his
private
enterprises,
and
the
summer
holiday
was
long
enough
to
make
a
trip
round
the
globe.
The
following
June
he
was
on
board
the
Great
Eastern
while
she
laid
the
French
Atlantic
cable
from
Brest
to
St.
Pierre.
Among
his
shipmates
were
Sir
William
Thomson,
Sir
James
Anderson,
C.
F.
Varley,
Mr.
Latimer
Clark,
and
Willoughby
Smith.
Jenkin's
sketches
of
Clark
and
Varley
are
particularly
happy.
At
St.
Pierre,
where
they
arrived
in
a
fog,
which
lifted
to
show
their
consort,
the
William
Cory,
straight
ahead,
and
the
Gulnare
signalling
a
welcome,
Jenkin
made
the
curious
observation
that
the
whole
island
was
electrified
by
the
battery
at
the
telegraph
station.
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