the
Court of Chancery, Brunswick Herald, and Usher of the Black Rod, and
secondly to Admiral Buckner, she was denied issue in both beds, and
being very rich--she died worth about L60,000, mostly in land--she was
in perpetual quest of an heir. The mirage of this fortune hung before
successive members of the Jenkin family until her death in 1825, when it
dissolved and left the latest Alnaschar face to face with bankruptcy.
The grandniece, Stephen's daughter, the one who had not "married
imprudently," appears to have been the first; for she was taken abroad
by the golden aunt, and died in her care at Ghent in 1792. Next she
adopted William, the youngest of the five nephews; took him abroad with
her--it seems as if that were in the formula; was shut up with him in
Paris by the Revolution; brought him back to Windsor, and got him a
place in the King's Body Guard, where he attracted the notice of George
III. by his proficiency in German. In 1797, being on guard at St.
James's Palace, William took a cold which carried him off; and Aunt Anne
was once more left heirless. Lastly, in 1805, perhaps moved by the
Admiral, who had a kindness for his old midshipman, perhaps pleased by
the good looks and the good nature of the man himself, Mrs. Buckner
turned her eyes upon Charles Jenkin. He was not only to be the heir,
however; he was to be the chief hand in a somewhat wild scheme of
family farming. Mrs. Jenkin, the mother, contributed 164 acres of land;
Mrs. Buckner, 570, some at Northiam, some farther off; Charles let
one-half of Stowting to a tenant, and threw the other and various
scattered parcels into the common enterprise; so that the whole farm
amounted to near upon a thousand acres, and was scattered over thirty
miles of country. The ex-seaman of thirty-nine, on whose wisdom and
ubiquity the scheme depended, was to live in the meanwhile without care
or fear. He was to check himself in nothing; his two extravagances,
valuable horses and worthless brothers, were to be indulged in comfort;
and whether the year quite paid itself or not, whether successive years
left accumulated savings or only a growing deficit, the fortune of the
golden aunt should in the end repair all.

On this understanding Charles Jenkin transported his family to Church
House, Northiam: Charles the second, then a child of three, among the
number. Through the eyes of the boy we have glimpses of the life that
followed: of Admiral and Mrs. Buckner driving up fr