Part 1 (2/2)

What with the flattery of bishops and admirals, the fine company in which he found hireatness of life, his visits to Mrs Buckner (soon a ) at Windsor, where he had a pony kept for him, and visited at Lord Melville's and Lord Harcourt's and the Leveson-Gowers, he began to have 'bumptious notions,'

and his head was 'somewhat turned with fine people'; as to sohout his innocent and honourable life

In this frame of mind the boy was appointed to the _Conqueror_, Captain Davie, humorously known as Gentle Johnnie The captain had earned this naured well in the pages of Marryat: 'Put the prisoner's head in a bag and give him another dozen!' survives as a specimen of his commands; and the men were often punished twice or thrice in a week On board the shi+p of this disciplinarian, Charles and his father were carried in a billy-boat from Sheerness in December, 1816: Charles with an outfit suitable to his pretensions, a twenty-guinea sextant and 120 dollars in silver, which were ordered into the care of the gunner 'The old clerks andthe shi+p in a billy-boat, and when they found I was froler

This to my pride, you will believe, was not a little offensive'

The _Conqueror_ carried the flag of Vice-Ad at the Cape and St Helena; and at that all-ishi+p of Sir Pulteney Malcol too late for the epic of the French wars, played a sraceful afterpiece of St Helena Life on the guard-shi+p was onerous and irksouns were silent; none was allowed on shore except on duty; all day the nalled to and fro; all night the boats rowed guard around the accessible portions of the coast This prolonged stagnation and petty watchfulness in what Napoleon himself called that 'unchristian' climate, told cruelly on the health of the shi+p's co to O'Meara, the _Conqueror_ had lost one hundred and tenmore than a third of her co midshi+pman so much as once set eyes on Bonaparte; and yet in other ways Jenkin was more fortunate than some of his comrades He dreater-colour; not so badly as his father, yet ill enough; and this art was so rare aboard the _Conqueror_ that even his humble proficiency marked him out and procured him some alleviations Admiral Plampin had succeeded Napoleon at the Briars; and here he had young Jenkin staying with him to make sketches of the historic house One of these is before e notion of the arts in our old English Navy Yet it was again as an artist that the lad was taken for a run to Rio, and apparently for a second outing in a ten-gun brig These, and a cruise of six weeks to ard of the island undertaken by the _Conqueror_ herself in quest of health, were the only breaks in three years of murderous inaction; and at the end of that period Jenkin was invalided ho 'lost his health entirely'

As he left the deck of the guard-shi+p the historic part of his career came to an end For forty-two years he continued to serve his country obscurely on the seas, sometimes thanked for inconspicuous and honourable services, but denied any opportunity of serious distinction He was first two years in the _Larne_, Captain Tait, hunting pirates and keeping a watch on the Turkish and Greek squadrons in the Archipelago Captain Tait was a favourite with Sir Tho Toe in the _Larne_ King Tom knew every inch of the Mediterranean, and was a terror to the officers of the watch He would coht; and with his broad Scotch accent, 'Well, sir,' he would say, 'what depth of water have ye? Well now, sound; and ye'll just find so or so ht be; and the obnoxious passenger was generally right On one occasion, as the shi+p was going into Corfu, Sir Thoallows

'Banghaham-'where the devil is that other chap? I left four fellows hanging there; now I can only see three Mind there is another there to-ling the next day 'Captain Hamilton, of the _Cambrian_, kept the Greeks in order afloat,' writesTom ashore'

From 1823 onward, the chief scene of Charles Jenkin's activities was in the West Indies, where he was engaged off and on till 1844, now as a subaltern, now in a vessel of his own, hunting out pirates, 'then very notorious' in the Leeward Islands, cruising after slavers, or carrying dollars and provisions for the Government While yet a midshi+pht of Bolivar In the brigantine _Griffon_, which he commanded in his last years in the West Indies, he carried aid to Guadeloupe after the earthquake, and twice earned the thanks of Governua to extort, under threat of a blockade, proper apologies and a su an insurrection in San Doo, for the rescue of certain others from a perilous imprisonment and the recovery of a 'chest of money' of which they had been robbed

Once, on the other hand, he earned his share of public censure This was in 1837, when he co in the inner harbour of Havannah The _Romney_ was in no proper sense a man-of-war; she was a slave-hulk, the bonded warehouse of the Mixed Slave Coroes, captured out of slavers under Spanish colours, were detained provisionally, till the Commission should decide upon their case and either set them free or bind them to apprenticeshi+p To this shi+p, already an eye-sore to the authorities, a Cuban slave made his escape

The position was invidious; on one side were the tradition of the British flag and the state of public sentiment at home; on the other, the certainty that if the slave were kept, the _Romney_ would be ordered at once out of the harbour, and the object of the Mixed Commission compromised Without consultation with any other officer, Captain Jenkin (then lieutenant) returned the man to shore and took the Captain-General's receipt Lord Palmerston approved his course; but the zealots of the anti-slave trade movement (never to be named without respect) were much dissatisfied; and thirty-nine years later, the ain canvassed in Parliament, and Lord Palmerston and Captain Jenkin defended by Admiral Erskine in a letter to the _Times_ (March 13, 1876)

In 1845, while still lieutenant, Charles Jenkin acted as Ad captain in the Cove of Cork, where there were some thirty pennants; and about the same time, closed his career by an act of personal bravery

He had proceeded with his boats to the help of a o of co under hatches; his sailors were in the hold, where the fu operations, when he found his orders were no longer answered fro up several insensible men with his own hand For this act, he received a letter froallantry; and pretty soon after was proain obtain employment

In 1828 or 1829, Charles Jenkin was in the same watch with another midshi+pman, Robert Colin Campbell Jackson, who introduced him to his family in Jamaica The father, the Honourable Robert Jackson, Custos Rotuloruinally Scotch; and on the mother's side, counted kinshi+p with some of the Forbeses The mother was Susan Campbell, one of the Campbells of Auchenbreck Her father Colin, a merchant in Greenock, is said to have been the heir to both the estate and the baronetcy; he claimed neither, which casts a doubt upon the fact, but he had pride enough hih pride to his family, for any station or descent in Christendoh writer, as I have it on a first account-ato another-a h for the Ca one was instantly discarded Another married an actor of the name of Adcock, who in a barn; but the phrase should perhaps be regarded rather as a measure of the fae was not in itself unhappy; Adcock was a gentleood husband; the fahters married no less a man than Clarkson Stanfield But by the father, and the two re Miss Cahland pride, the derogation was bitterly resented For long the sisters lived estranged then, Mrs Jackson and Mrs Adcock were reconciled for a moment, only to quarrel the more fiercely; the naain pass her sister's lips, until thewhen she announced: 'Mary Adcock is dead; I saw her in her shroud last night' Second sight was hereditary in the house; and sure enough, as I have it reported, on that very night Mrs Adcock had passed away Thus, of the four daughters, two had, according to the idiotic notions of their friends, disgraced thee; the others supported the honour of the fanates of whom, I believe, the world has never heard and would not care to hear: So strange a thing is this hereditary pride Of Mr Jackson, beyond the fact that he was Fleeht His wife, as I have said, was a woman of fierce passions; she would tie her house slaves to the bed and lash theoing sons, was a mixture of almost insane self-sacrifice and wholly insane violence of tehter Two of the sons went utterly to ruin, and reduced their mother to poverty The third went to India, a slie of his relatives that he was thought to be long dead Years later, when his sister was living in Genoa, a red-bearded th and stature, tanned by years in India, and his hands covered with barbaric ge the piano, lifted her from her seat, and kissed her It was her brother, suddenly returned out of a past that was never very clearly understood, with the rank of general, ems, uerreotype of an Indian prince hom he had hter, Henrietta Camilla, became the wife of the midshi+pman Charles, and theJenkin She was a woher gift, the art of see so; played the part of a belle in society, while far lovelier woe had ency and the charm that mark that character She drew naturally, for she had no training, with unusual skill; and it was fro inherited his eye and hand She played on the harp and sang with soe of seventeen, she heard Pasta in Paris; flew up in a fire of youthful enthusias, all alone and without introduction, found her way into the presence of the _pri, kissed her when she had done, and though she refused to be her mistress, placed her in the hands of a friend Nor was this all, for when Pasta returned to Paris, she sent for the girl (once at least) to test her progress But Mrs Jenkin's talents were not so reth of will; and it was in an art for which she had no natural taste (the art of literature) that she appeared before the public Her novels, though they attained and land, are a e They were a task, not a beloved task; they ritten for money in days of poverty, and they served their end In the least thing as well as in the greatest, in every province of life as well as in her novels, she displayed the sa infinite pains, which descended to her son When she was about forty (as near as her age was known) she lost her voice; set herself at once to learn the piano, working eight hours a day; and attained to such proficiency that her collaboration in chamber music was courted by professionals And ht have been seen dauntlessly beginning the study of Hebrew This is thein the room, a married man, had seduced her maid, Mrs Jenkin mounted her horse, rode over to the stable entrance and horsewhipped the man with her own hand

How a irl and the young midshi+pman, is not very I easy to conceive Charles Jenkin was one of the finest creatures breathing; loyalty, devotion, simple natural piety, boyish cheerfulness, tender and manly sentiment in the old sailor fashi+on, were in hi, or injustice He looked, as he was, every inch a gentle handso; not so much that of a sailor, you would have said, as like one of those gentle and graceful soldiers that, to this day, are the h he was in these ways noble, the dunce scholar of Northiaenius Upon all points that a allant, affectionate and dead to self, Captain Jenkin wasa thousand; outside of that, his ely blank He had indeed a simplicity that came near to vacancy; and in the first forty years of his rew es had been the rule; but neither Jenkin nor Campbell had ever entered into a ood looks, we ained for him this elevation; and in some ways and for many years of his life, he had to pay the penalty His wife, impatient of his incapacity and surrounded by brilliant friends, used hi partner; the life was hers, not his; after his retirement they lived much abroad, where the poor captain, who could never learn any language but his own, sat in the corner htthe treasures of simple chivalry that lay buried in the heart of his father Yet it would be an error to regard this h to justify itself in a beautiful and touching epilogue, but it gave to the world the scientific work and what (while tihtful qualities of Fleeenerous to a fault and far froiven the father, an extreme example of its humble virtues On the other side, the wild, cruel, proud, and souard stock of the Scotch Campbell-Jacksons, had put forth, in the person of the e fell in evil days In 1823, the bubble of the Golden Aunt's inheritance had burst She died holding the hand of the nephew she had so wantonly deceived; at the last she drew him down and see; for when the as opened, there was not found so much as the mention of his name He was deeply in debt; in debt even to the estate of his deceiver, so that he had to sell a piece of land to clear himself 'My dear boy,' he said to Charles, 'there will be nothing left for you I aest part of this story From the death of the treacherous aunt, Charles Jenkin, senior, had still some nine years to live; it was perhaps too late for hi, and perhaps his affairs were past restoration But his family at least had all this while to prepare; they were still young men, and knehat they had to look for at their father's death; and yet when that happened in Septe Poor John, the days of his whips and spurs, and Yeomanry dinners, were quite over; and with that incredible softness of the Jenkin nature, he settled down for the rest of a long life, into so not far re had been saved out of the wreck; and here he built himself a house on the Mexican athering dung with his own hands upon the road and not at all abashed at his employment In dress, voice, and manner, he fell into mere country plainness; lived without the least care for appearances, the least regret for the past or discontentment with the present; and when he ca that he had had a coo One would think there was little active virtue to be inherited from such a race; and yet in this sa Jenkin was already half developed The old e, ill-spelled, unpunctuated correspondence is full (when he does not drop into cookery receipts) of puhs, and stea's word that what he did was full of ingenuity-only, as if by some cross destiny, useless These disappointood humour, but rejoiced with a particular relish over his nephew's success in the salory in the professor,' he wrote to his brother; and to Flee himself, with a touch of simple drollery, 'I was much pleased with your lecture, but why did you hit me so hard with Conisure's'

(connoisseur's, _quasi_ a? Oh, what presuure, this of uncle John, with his dung cart and his inventions; and the romantic fancy of his Mexican house; and his craze about the Lost Tribes which seemed to the worthy man the key of all perplexities; and his quiet conscience, looking back on a life not altogether vain, for he was a good son to his father while his father lived, and when evil days approached, he had proved himself a cheerful Stoic

It followed fro up the estate fell into the hands of Charles He ht be expected of a sailor ashore, saved a bare livelihood for John and nothing for the rest Eight months later, he ht in so of the little fareat an extent, the Captain htful pride: 'A Court Baron and Court Leet are regularly held by the Lady of the Manor, Mrs

Henrietta Ca his wife, was the most solid benefit of the investment; for the purchase was heavily encu till some years before their death In the meanwhile, the Jackson faente nearer and nearer to beggary; and thus of two doo houses, the subject of this memoir was born, heir to an estate and to no money, yet with inherited qualities that were to make him known and loved

CHAPTER II 18331851

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

HENRY CHARLES FLEEMING JENKIN (Flee, to his friends and fa on the coast of Kent, near Dungeness, where his father was serving at the tiuard, on March 25, 1833, and na, one of his father's protectors in the navy

His childhood was vagrant like his life Once he was left in the care of his grandmother Jackson, while Mrs Jenkin sailed in her husband's shi+p and stayed a year at the Havannah The tragic woman was besides from time to time a member of the family she was in distress of mind and reduced in fortune by the misconduct of her sons; her destitution and solitudeduty to receive her, her violence continually enforced fresh separations In her passion of a disappointed randson, who heard her load his own mother with cruel insults and reproaches, conceived for her an indignant and impatient hatred, for which he blae from this point of view to see his childish letters to Mrs Jackson; and to think that a uished above all by stubborn truthfulness, should have been brought up to such dissimulation

But this is of course unavoidable in life; it did no harot harm or benefit from a so early acquaintance with violent and hateful scenes, is uess The experience, at least, was forotten

But Mrs Jackson was not the only stranger in their gates; the Captain's sister, Aunt Anna Jenkin, lived with them until her death; she had all the Jenkin beauty of countenance, though she was unhappily deforentle and ineffectual family in all amiable qualities So that each of the two races fro, had an outpost by his very cradle; the one he instinctively loved, the other hated; and the life-long war in his un thus early by a victory for as best

We can trace the family from one country place to another in the south of Scotland; where the child learned his taste for sport by riding home the pony froe as this about a Hallowe'en observance: 'I pulled a old about it No witches would run afterether very comfortably to the end of their lives, and when mamma put hers in which were meant for herself and papa they blazed away in the like manner' Before he was ten he could write, with a really irritating precocity, that he had been ' some pictures from a book called ”Les Francais peints par euxmemes”It is full of pictures of all classes, with a description of each in French The pictures are a little caricatured, but not much' Doubtless this was only an echo from his mother, but it shows the ate for this art critic to be the play, and to sup with her fa himself attached some value to this early and friendly experience of another class