The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 09Stevenson, Robert Louis
General
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 09
Stevenson, Robert Louis
English literature -- 19th century
In 1845, while still lieutenant, Charles Jenkin acted as Admiral Pigot's
flag-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 merchant vessel, whose
cargo of combustibles had taken fire and was smouldering under hatches;
his sailors were in the hold, where the fumes were already heavy, and
Jenkin was on deck directing operations, when he found his orders were
no longer answered from below: he jumped down without hesitation and
slung up several insensible men with his own hand. For this act he
received a letter from the Lords of the Admiralty expressing a sense of
his gallantry; and pretty soon after was promoted Commander, superseded,
and could never again obtain employment.
In 1828 or 1829 Charles Jenkin was in the same watch with another
midshipman, Robert Colin Campbell-Jackson, who introduced him to his
family in Jamaica. The father, the Honourable Robert Jackson, Custos
Rotulorum of Kingston, came of a Yorkshire family, said to be originally
Scottish; and on the mother's side, counted kinship 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 himself, and
taught enough pride to his family, for any station or descent in
Christendom. He had four daughters. One married an Edinburgh writer, as
I have it on a first account--a minister, according to another--a man at
least of reasonable station, but not good enough for the Campbells of
Auchenbreck; and the erring one was instantly discarded. Another married
an actor of the name of Adcock, whom (as I receive the tale) she had
seen acting in a barn; but the phrase should perhaps be regarded rather
as a measure of the family annoyance than a mirror of the facts. The
marriage was not in itself unhappy; Adcock was a gentleman by birth and
made a good husband; the family reasonably prospered, and one of the
daughters married no less a man than Clarkson Stanfield. But by the
father, and the two remaining Miss Campbells, people of fierce passions
and a truly Highland 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
name of Mrs. Adcock was proscribed, nor did it again pass her sister's
lips, until the morning when 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 themselves in marriage; the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account