EDWARD FITZGERALD AND "POSH""HERRING MERCHANTS"

INCLUDE A NUMBER OF LETTERSFROM EDWARD FITZGERALD TO JOSEPH FLETCHEROR "POSH, " NOT HITHERTO PUBLISHED

BYJAMES BLYTH

WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDONJOHN LONGNORRIS STREET, HAYMARKETMCMVIII

_Copyright by John Long, 1908__All Rights Reserved_

TOW. ALDIS WRIGHT, ESQ. , M. A. VICE-MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGEI DEDICATE THIS SKETCHWITH MOST SINCERE THANKS FOR HISINVALUABLE ASSISTANCE IN CONNECTION THEREWITHAND FOR HIS PERMISSION TO PRINTTHE LETTERS OF EDWARD FITZGERALDWHICH ARE NOW PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME

JAS. BLYTH

_March_, 1908

{"Posh" Fletcher in 1870. Taken for Edward FitzGerald: p0. Jpg}

PREFACE

There can be no better foreword to this little sketch of one of thephases of Edward FitzGerald's life than the following letter, written toThomas Carlyle in 1870, which was generously placed at my disposal by Dr. Aldis Wright while I was giving the sketch its final revision for thepress. The portrait referred to in the letter is no doubt thatreproduced as the photograph of 1870. 

 "DEAR CARLYLE, "Your 'Heroes' put me up to sending you one of mine--neither Prince, Poet, or Man of Letters, but Captain of a Lowestoft Lugger, and endowed with all the Qualities of Soul and Body to make him Leader of many more men than he has under him. Being unused to sitting for his portrait, he looks a little sheepish--and the Man is a Lamb with Wife, Children, and dumber Animals. But when the proper time comes--abroad--at sea or on shore--then it is quite another matter. And I know no one of sounder sense, and grander Manners, in whatever Company. But I shall not say any more; for I should only set you against him; and you will see all without my telling you and not be bored. So least said soonest mended, and I make my bow once more and remain your

 "Humble Reader, "E. FG. "

Too much has been made by certain writers, with more credulity thandiscretion, of some personal characteristics of a great-hearted man. Mypurpose in tendering this sketch to the lovers of FitzGerald is to showthat in many ways he has been calumniated. The man who could write theletters to his humble friend, which are here printed; the man who couldshow such consistent tenderness and delicacy of spirit to his fishermanpartner, and could permit the enthusiasm of his affection to blind him tothe truth, was no sulky misanthrope; but a man whose heart, whoseintensely human heart, was so great as to preponderate over hismagnificent intellect. Edward FitzGerald was a great poet, and a greatphilosopher. He was a still greater man. 

Therefore, my readers, if, during the perusal of these few letters, you"in your . . . Errand reach the spot"--whether it be at Woodbridge, Lowestoft, or in that supper-room in town "Where he made one"--". . . Turn down an empty glass" to his memory. 

For there is no _Saki_ to do it, either here or with the houris. 

JAMES BLYTH

INTRODUCTION

Towards the end of the summer of 1906 I received a letter from Mr. F. A. Mumby, of the _Daily Graphic_, asking me if I knew if Joseph Fletcher, the "Posh" of the "FitzGerald" letters, was still alive. All about mewere veterans of eighty, ay, and ninety! hale and garrulous as anylongshoreman needs be. But it had never occurred to me before thatpossibly the man who was Edward FitzGerald's "Image of the Mould that Manwas originally cast in, " the east coast fisherman for whom the greattranslator considered no praise to be too high, might be within easyreach. 

My first discovery was that to most of the good people of Lowestoft thename of the man who had honoured the town by his preference was unknown. A solicitor in good practice, a man who is by way of being an authorhimself, asked me (when I named FitzGerald to him) if I meant thatFitzGerald who had, he believed, made a lot of money out of salt! Aschoolmaster had never heard of either FitzGerald or Omar. 

It was plain that the educated classes of Lowestoft could help me in mysearch but little. So I went down to the harbour basins and the fishwharves, and asked of "Posh" and his "governor. "

Not a jolly boatman of middle age in the harbour but knew of both. "D'yemean Joe Fletcher, master?" said one of them. "What--old Posh? Why yes!Alive an' kickin', and go a shrimpin' when the weather serve. He live upin Chapel Street. Number tew. He lodge theer. "

So up I went to Chapel Street, one of those streets in the old North Townof Lowestoft which have seen better days. A wizened, bent, white-hairedold lady answered my knock, after a preliminary inspection from a third-floor window of my appearance. This, I learnt afterwards, was old Mrs. Capps, with whom Posh had lodged since the death of his wife, fourteenyears previously. 

"You'll find him down at the new basin, " said the old lady. "He's mostlythere this time o' day. "

But there was no Posh at the new basin. Half a dozen weather-beatenshrimpers (in their brown jumpers, and with the fringe of hair runningbeneath the chin from ear to ear--that hirsute ornament so dear to EastAnglian fishermen) were lounging about the wharf, or mending the small-meshed trawl-nets wherein they draw what spoil they may from the depletedroads. 

All were grizzled, most were over seventy if wrinkled skin and white hairmay be taken as signs of age. And all knew Posh, and (oh! shame to the"educated classes!") all remembered Edward FitzGerald. The poet, thelovable, cultured gentleman they knew nothing of. Had they known of hisincomparable paraphrase of the Persian poet, of his scholarship, hisintimacy with Thackeray, Tennyson, Carlyle, the famous Thompson, Masterof Trinity, they would have recked nothing at all. But they rememberedFitzGerald, who has been called by their superiors an eccentric, miserlyhermit. They remembered him, I say, as a man whose heart was in theright place, as a man who never turned a deaf ear to a tale of trouble. 

"Ah!" said one of them. "He was a _good_ gennleman, was old Fitz. " (Theyall spoke of him as "old Fitz. " They thought of him as a "mate"--as onewho knew the sea and her moods, and would put up with her vagaries evenas they must do. His shade in their memories was the shade of a friend, and a friend whom they respected and loved. ) "That was a good day forPosh when he come acrost him. Posh! I reckon you'll find him at BillHarrison's if he bain't on the market. "

"Posh" was no fancy name of the poet's for Joseph Fletcher, but theactual proper cognomen by which the man has been known on the coast sincehe was a lad. Most east coast fishermen have a nickname which supersedestheir registered name, and "Posh" (or now "old Posh") was JosephFletcher's. 

Bill Harrison's is a cosy little beerhouse in the lower North Town. Itis called Bill Harrison's because Bill Harrison was once its landlord. Poor Bill has left house and life for years. But the house is still"Bill Harrison's. "

Here I found Posh. At that time, little more than a year ago, I wrote ofhim as "a hale, stoutly-built man of over the middle height, his round, ruddy, clean-shaven face encircled by the fringe of iron-grey whiskersrunning round from ear to ear beneath the chin. His broad shoulders wereheld square, his back straight, his head poised firm and alert on asplendid column of neck. "

Alas! The description would fit Posh but poorly now. 

"Yes, " said he. "I was Mr. FitzGerald's partner. But I can't stop tomardle along o' ye now. I'll meet ye when an' where ye like. "

I made an appointment with him, which he failed to keep. Then another. Then another, and another. I lay wait for him in likely places. Istalked him. I caught stray glimpses of him in various haunts. But healways evaded me. 

I think old Mrs. Capps got tired of leaning her head out of the third-floor window of No. 2 Chapel Street, and seeing me waiting patiently onthe doorstep expectant of Posh. 

At length I cornered him (from information received) fairly and squarelyat the Magdala House, a beerhouse in Duke's Head Street, two minutes'walk from his lodgings. 

I got him on his legs and took him down Rant Score to Bill Harrison's. 

"Now look here, " said I. "What's the matter? You've made appointmentafter appointment, and kept none of them. Why don't you wish to see me?"

Posh shuffled his feet on, the sanded bricks. He drank from the measureof "mild beer" (twopenny), for which he will call in preference to anyother liquid. 

"Tha'ss like this here, master, " said he. "I ha' had enow o' folks acomin' here an' pickin' my brains and runnin' off wi' my letters andnever givin' me so much as a sixpence. "

"Oho!" I thought. "That's where the rub is. "

I gave him a trifling guarantee of good faith, and his face brightenedup. Gradually I overcame his reserve, and gradually I persuaded him thatI did not seek to rob him of anything. I'm a bit of a sailor myself, andI think a little talk of winds, shoals, seas, and landmarks did more thanthe trifling guarantee of good faith to establish friendly relations withthe old fellow. 

But he made no secret of his grievance, and I tell the tale as he toldit, without vouching for its accuracy, but confident that he believedthat he was telling me the truth. And, if he was, the man referred to inhis story, the man who robbed him to all intents and purposes, is herebyinvited to do something to purge his offence by coming forward and"behaving like a gennleman"--upon which I will answer for it that allwill be forgiven and forgotten by Posh. 

"Ye see, master, " said Posh, "that was a Mr. Earle" (I don't know if thatis the correct way of spelling the name, because Posh is no greatauthority on spelling; but that's how he pronounced it) "come here, that'll be six or seven year ago, and he axed me about the guv'nor, andfor me to show him any letters I had. He took a score or so away wi'm, and he took my phootoo and I told him a sight o' things, thinkin' he wasa gennleman. Well, he axed me round to Marine Parade, where he was astayin' with his lady, and he give me one drink o' whisky. And that'sall I see of him. He was off with the letters and all, and never gave mea farden for what he had or what he l'arnt off o' me. I heerd arterwardsas the letters was sold by auction for thutty pound. I see it in thepaper. If he'd ha' sent me five pound I'd ha' been content. But heniver give me nothin' but that one drink. And ye see, master, _I didn'tknow as yew worn't one o' the same breed_!"

I have endeavoured to trace these letters, and to identify this Mr. Earle. Mr. Clement Shorter has been kind enough to do his best to helpme. No record can be found. And to clinch matters, Dr. Aldis Wright(whom I cannot thank enough for all his kindness to me in connection withthis volume) tells me that he has never been able to find out where theletters are or who has them. One thing is certain: the person who tookadvantage of Posh's ignorance will not be able to publish his ill-gottengains in England so long as any copyright exists in the letters. For noletter of FitzGerald's can be published without the consent of Dr. AldisWright, and he is not the man to permit capital to be made out of sharppractice with his consent. I have heard rumours of certain letters toPosh being published in America, with a photograph of Posh and Posh's"shud. " They may have been published under the impression that they wereproperly in the possession of the person holding them. I know nothing ofthat, nor of what letters they are, nor who published them, nor when andwhere they were issued. But I do know what Posh has told me, and if thevolume (if there is one) was published in America by one innocent oftrickery, here is his chance to come forward and explain. 

I was glad to see that Posh no longer numbered me among "that breed. " ButI was no longer surprised at the difficulty I had experienced in gettingto close quarters with the man. From that time on he was theplain-speaking, independent, humorous, rough man that he is naturally. Hehas his faults. FitzGerald indicates one in several of his letters. Heis inclined to that East Anglian characteristic akin to Boer "slimness, "and it is easy enough to understand that the breach between him and his"guv'nor" was inevitable. The marvel is that the partnership lasted aslong as it did, and that that refined, honourable gentleman (and I doubtif any one was ever quite so perfect a gentleman as Edward FitzGerald)was as infatuated with the breezy stalwart comeliness of the man as hisletters prove him to have been. 

As all students of FitzGerald's letters know, the association betweenFitzGerald and Posh ended in a separation that was very nearly a quarrel, if a man like FitzGerald can be said to quarrel with a man like Posh. ButPosh never says a word against his old guv'nor's generosity and kindnessof heart. He puts his point of view with emphasis, but always maintainsthat had it not been for other "interfarin' parties" there would neverhave been any unpleasantness between him and the great man who loved himso well, and whom, I believe in all sincerity, he still loves as a kind, upright, and noble-hearted gentleman. 

And as Posh's years draw to a close (he was born in June, 1838) I thinkhis thoughts must often hark back to the days when he was all in all tohis guv'nor. For evil times have come on the old fellow. He is nolonger the hale, stalwart man I first saw at Bill Harrison's. 

A little before the Christmas of 1906 he was laid up with a severe cold. But he was getting over that well, when, one Sunday, a broken man, almostdecrepit, came stumbling to my cottage door. 

"The pore old lady ha' gorn, " he said. "She ha' gorn fust arter all. Pore old dare. She had a strook the night afore last, and was dead aforemornin'. "

Into the circumstances of his old landlady's death, of the action of herlegal personal representatives, I will not go here. It suffices to saythat Posh and the other lodgers in the house were given two days to"clear out" and that I discovered that the old fellow had been sleepingin his shed on the beach for two nights, without a roof which he couldcall his home. Thanks to certain readers of the _Daily Graphic_ and tothe members of the Omar Khayyam Club, I had a fund in hand for Posh'sbenefit, and immediately put a stop to his homelessness. Indeed, he knewof this fund, and that he could draw on it at need when he chose. But Ibelieve the old man's heart was broken. He has never been the same mansince. The last year has put more than ten years on the looks andbearing of the Posh whom I met first. But his memory is still good, andI was surprised to see how much he remembered of the people mentioned inthe letters published in this volume when I read them through to him theother day. He cannot understand how it is that these letters have anyvalue. He tells me he has torn up "sackfuls on 'em" and strewn them tothe winds. The actual letters have been sold for his benefit, and Ithink that FitzGerald would be pleased if he knew (as possibly he doesknow) that his letters to his fisherman friend, have proved a stay to hisold age. 

{Posh in 1907: p26. Jpg}

I have done my best to give approximate dates to the letters, and where Ihave succeeded in being absolutely correct I have to thank Dr. AldisWright, whose courtesy and kindliness, the courtesy and kindliness from aveteran to a tyro which is so encouraging to the tyro, have been beyondany expression of thanks which I can phrase. I hope that the letters andnotes may help to make a side of FitzGerald, the simple human manly side, better known, and to enable my readers to judge his memory from the pointof view of those old shrimpers by the new basin as a "_good_ gennleman, "as a noble-hearted, courageous man, as well as the more artificialscholar who quotes Attic scholiasts in a playful way as though they wereschool classics. Every new discovery of FitzGerald's life seems tocreate new wonder, new admiration for him; and there are, I hope, few whowill read without some emotion not far from tears the sentence in hissermon to Posh. 

"Do not let a poor, old, solitary, and sad Man (as I really am, in spiteof my Jokes), do not, I say, let me waste my Anxiety in vain. I thoughtI had done with new Likings: and I had a more easy Life perhaps on thataccount: _now_ I shall often think of you with uneasiness, for the veryreason that I had so much Liking and Interest for you. "

CHAPTER ITHE MEETING

The biography of a hero written by his valet would be interesting, and, according to proverbial wisdom, unbiased by the heroic repute of itssubject. But it would be artificial for all that. Even though the herobe no hero to his valet, the valet is fully aware of his master's fame;indeed, the man will be so inconsistent as to pride himself, and takepleasure in, those qualities of his master, the existence of which hewould be the first to deny. 

Where, however, a literary genius condescends to an intimacy with asimple son of sea and shore who is not only practically illiterate but isentirely ignorant of his patron's prowess, the opinions of the illiterateconcerning the personal characteristics of the genius obtain a veryremarkable value as being honest criticism by man of man, uninfluenced bythe spirit either of disingenuous adulation or of equally disingenuousdepreciation. That these opinions are in the eyes of a disciple of thegreat man quaint, almost insolently crude is a matter of course. Butwhen they tend to show the master not only great in letters but great inheart, soul, human kindness, and generosity, they form, perhaps, the mostnotable tribute to a great personality. 

{Cottage at corner of Boulge Park, where FitzGerald lived for many years:p30. Jpg}

With the exception of Charles Lamb, no man's letters have endeared hismemory to so many readers as have the letters of Edward FitzGerald. ButFitzGerald's friends (to whom most of the letters hitherto published wereaddressed) were cultured gentlemen, men of the first rank of the time, ofthe first rank of all time, men who would necessarily be swayed by thecharm of his culture, by the delicacy of his wit, by the refinement ofhis thoughts. 

In the case of "Posh, " however (that typical Lowestoft fisherman whosupplied "Fitz" with a period of exaltation which was as extraordinary asit was self-revealing), there were no extraneous influences at work. Poshknew the man as a good-hearted friend, a man of jealous affection, as afree-handed business partner, as a lover of the sea. He neither knew norcared that his partner (he would not admit that "patron" would be thebetter word!) was the author of undying verse. To this day it isimpossible to make him understand that reminiscences of FitzGerald are ofgreater public interest than any recollection of him--Posh. 

It was not easy to explain to him that it was his first meeting withEdward FitzGerald that was the thing and not the theft of his (Posh's)father's longshore lugger which led to that meeting. However, time andpatience have rendered it possible to separate the wheat from the taresof his narrative; and what tares may be left may be swallowed down withthe more nutritious grain without any deleterious effect. 

In the early summer of 1865 some daring longshore pirate made off withFletcher senior's "punt, " or longshore lugger, without saying as much as"by your leave. " The piracy (as was proper to such a deed of darkness)was effected by night, and on the following morning the coastguard werewarned of the act. These worthy fellows (and they are too fine a lot ofmen to be disbanded by any twopenny Radical Government) traced the boatto Harwich. Here the gallant rover had sought local and expert aid toenable him to bring up, had then raised an awning, as though he were tosleep aboard, and, after thus satisfying the local talent to whom he wasstill indebted for their services, had slunk ashore and disappeared. OldMr. Fletcher, on hearing the news, started off to Harwich in anothercraft of his, and (fateful fact!) took his son Posh with him. 

Both the Fletchers were known to Tom Newson, a pilot of Felixstowe Ferry, and they naturally looked him up. 

For years Edward FitzGerald had been accustomed to cruise about the Debenand down the river to Harwich in a small craft captained by one West. Butin 1865 he was the owner of a smart fifteen-ton schooner, which he hadhad built for him by Harvey, of Wyvenhoe, two years previously, and ofwhich Tom Newson was the skipper and his nephew Jack the crew. Accordingto Posh, the original name of this schooner was the _Shamrock_, but shehas become famous as the _Scandal_. It happened that when the Fletcherswere at Harwich in search of the stolen punt, Edward FitzGerald had comedown the river, and Newson made his two Lowestoft friends known to hismaster. 

There can be no doubt that at that time, when he was twenty-seven yearsof age, Posh was an exceptionally comely and stalwart man. And he was, doubtless, possessed of the dry humour and the spirit of simple jollitywhich make his race such charming companions for a time. At all eventshis personality magnetised the poet, then a man of fifty-six, already atrifle weary of the inanities of life. 

FitzGerald must have been tolerably conversant with the Harwich andFelixstowe mariners--with the "salwagers" of the "Ship-wash"--and thecharacters of the pilots and fishermen of the east coast. But Posh seemsto have come to him as something new. How it happened it is impossibleto guess. Posh has no idea. He has a more or less contemptuousappreciation of FitzGerald's great affection for him. But he cannot helpany one to get to the root of the question why FitzGerald should havesingled him out and set him above all other living men, as, for a briefperiod of exaltation, he certainly did. 

From the first meeting to the inevitable disillusionment FitzGeralddelighted in the company of the illiterate fisherman. Whether he tookhis protege cruising with him on the _Scandal_, or sat with him in hisfavourite corner of the kitchen of the old Suffolk Inn at Lowestoft, orplayed "all-fours" with him, or sat and "mardled" with him and his wifein the little cottage (8 Strand Cottages, Lowestoft) where Posh rearedhis brood, FitzGerald was fond even to jealousy of his new friend. Theleast disrespect shown to Posh by any one less appreciative of his meritsFitzGerald would treat as an insult personal to himself. On one occasionwhen he was walking with Posh on the pier some stranger hazarded a casualword or two to the fisherman. "Mr. Fletcher is _my_ guest, " saidFitzGerald at once, and drew away his "guest" by the arm. 

It must have been soon after their first meeting that FitzGerald wrote toFletcher senior, Posh's father:--

 "MARKETHILL, WOODBRIDGE, "March 1. 

 "MR. FLETCHER, "Your little boy Posh came here yesterday, and is going to-morrow with Newson to Felixtow Ferry, for a day or two. 

 "In case he is wanted at Lowestoft to attend a _Summons_, or for any other purpose, please to write him a line, directing to him at

 "Thomas Newson's, "Pilot, "Felixtow Ferry, "_Ipswich_. 

 "Yours truly, "EDWARD FITZGERALD. "

 {11 Market Hill, Woodbridge (showing tablet outside FitzGerald's old rooms): p36. Jpg}

At this time Posh was earning his living as the proprietor of a longshore"punt, " or beach lugger. In those days there were good catches of fishto be made inshore, and it was not unusual for a good day's long-lining(for cod, haddock, etc. ) to bring in seven or eight pounds. Shrimps andsoles fell victims to the longshoremen's trawls, and altogether therewere a hundred fish to be caught to one in these days. Moreover, beforesteam made coast traffic independent of wind, the sand-banks outside theroads were a great source of profit to the beach men, who went off intheir long yawls to such craft as "missed stays" coming through a "gat, "or managed to run aground on one of the sand-banks in some way or other. The methods of the beach men were sometimes rather questionable, andColonel Leathes, of Herringfleet Hall, tells a tale of a French brig, named the _Confiance en Dieu_, which took the ground on the Newcome Sandoff Lowestoft about the year 1850. The weather was perfectly calm, but acompany of beach men boarded her and got her off, and so established aclaim for salvage. As a result she was kept nine weeks in port, and herskipper, the owner, had to pay 1200 pounds to get clear. 

All things considered, it is probable that a Lowestoft longshoreman, inthe sixties and seventies of the nineteenth century, could make a verygood living of it, and even now, now when poverty has fallen on thebeach, no beach man, unspoilt by the curse of visitors' tips, would bowhis head to any man as his superior. 

FitzGerald always took a humorous delight in the business of "salwaging"(as the men call it), and in his _Sea Words and Phrases along the SuffolkCoast_ (No. II), he defines "Rattlin' Sam" as follows: "A term ofendearment, I suppose, used by Salwagers for a nasty shoal off the Cortoncoast. " In the same publication (I) he defines "saltwagin. " "Sopronounced (if not _solwagin_') from, perhaps, an indistinct implicationof _salt_ (water) and _wages_. _Salvaging_, of course. "

Posh tells how his "guv'nor" would clap him on the back and laughheartily over a "salwagin'" story. "You sea pirates!" he would say. "Yousea pirates!"

In the spring of 1866 FitzGerald stayed at 12 Marine Terrace, Lowestoft, in March and April, and passed most of his time with Posh. In theevenings he would sit and smoke a pipe, or play "all-fours. " In the dayhe liked to go to sea with Posh in the latter's punt, the _LittleWonder_. The _Scandal_ was not launched that year till June, andalthough he "got perished with the N. E. Wind" (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 101), he revelled in the rough work. 

{12 Marine Terrace, Lowestoft: p39. Jpg}

He must have been a quaint spectacle to the Lowestoft fishermen, for Poshassures me that he always went to sea in a silk hat, and generally wore a"cross-over, " or a lady's boa, round his neck. Now a silk hat and alady's boa aboard a longshore punt would be about as incongruous as acourt suit in a shooting field. But FitzGerald was not vain enough to beself-conscious. He knew when he was comfortable, and that was enough forhis healthy intelligence. Why should he care for the foolish trifles ofconvention? So to sea he went, top hat and all. And a good and hardysailor man he was, as all who remember his ways afloat will testify. 

Shortly before or after his visit to Lowestoft in the spring of 1866FitzGerald wrote to Posh:--

 "MARKETHILL, WOODBRIDGE, "Saturday. 

 "MY GOOD FELLOW, "When I came in from my Boat yesterday I found your Hamper of Fish. Mr. Manby has his conger Eel: I gave the Codling to a young Gentleman in his ninetieth year: the Plaice we have eaten here--very good--and the Skaite I have just sent in my Boat to Newson. I should have gone down myself, but that it set in for rain; but, at the same time, I did not wish to let the Fish miss his mark. Newson was here two days ago, well and jolly; his Smack had a good Thing on the Ship-wash lately; and altogether they have done pretty well this Winter. He is about beginning to paint my Great Ship. 

 "I had your letter about Nets and Dan. You must not pretend you can't write as good a Letter as a man needs to write, or to read. I suppose the Nets were cheap if good; and I should be sorry you had not bought more, but that, when you have got a Fleet for alongshore fishing, then you will forsake them for some Lugger; and then I shall have to find another Posh to dabble about, and smoke a pipe, with. George Howe's Schooner ran down the Slips into the Water yesterday, just as I was in time to see her Masts slipping along. In the Evening she bent a new Main-sail. I doubt she will turn out a dear Bargain, after all, as such Bargains are sure to. 

 "I was looking at the Whaleboat I told you of, but Mr. Manby thinks she would . . . You propose. 

 "Here is a long Yarn; but to-morrow is Sunday; so you can take it easy. And so 'Fare ye well. '

 "EDWARD FITZGERALD. "

The boat referred to in this letter was probably a small craft in whichFitzGerald had been in the habit of cruising up and down river with one"West. " It certainly was not the _Scandal_, for as transpires in theletter, that "Great Ship" was not yet painted for the yachting season. 

Mr. Manby was a ship agent at Woodbridge. 

The "Ship-wash" was, and is, the "Rattlin' Sam" of Felixstowe, and TomNewson, FitzGerald's skipper, had evidently had a good bit of"salwagin'. "

"Dan" is not the name of a man, but of a pointed buoy with a flag atopwherewith herring fishers mark the end of their fleets of nets, or (vide_Sea Words and Phrases_, etc. ). "A small buoy, with some ensign atop, tomark where the fishing lines have been _shot_; and the _dan_ is said to'watch well' if it hold erect against wind and tide. I have oftenmistaken it for some floating sea bird of an unknown species. "

The prophecy that as soon as Posh got his longshore fleet complete hewould wish to go on a "lugger, " that is to say, to the deep-sea fishing, was destined to be fulfilled, and that with the assistance of FitzGeraldhimself. But no one ever took Posh's place. FitzGerald's experience asa "herring merchant" began and ended with his intimacy with Posh. 

{Old Lowestoft herring-drifter with "Dan" fixed to stem: p43. Jpg}

George Howe, whose schooner was launched so that FitzGerald was just intime to see her masts slipping along, was one of the sons of "old JohnHowe, " who, with his wife, was caretaker of Little Grange for many years. The schooner was, Posh tells me, exceptionally cheap, and FitzGerald'sreference to her meant that she was too cheap to be good. 

Since Posh's letter-writing powers received praise from one so qualifiedto bestow it, there must have been a falling off from want of practice, or from some other cause, for the old man is readier with his cod linesthan with his pen by a very great deal, and it is difficult to believethat he ever wielded the pen of a ready writer. But perhaps FitzGeraldwas so fascinated by the qualities which did exist in his protege that hesaw his friend through the medium of a glamour which set up, as it were, a mirage of things that were not. Well, it speaks better for a man'sheart to descry non-existent merits than to imagine vain defects, and itwas like the generous soul of FitzGerald to attribute excellencies to hisfriend which only existed in his imagination. 

CHAPTER II"REMEMBER YOUR DEBTS"

In 1866 Posh became the owner of a very old deep-sea lugger named the_William Tell_, and, to enable him to acquire the nets and gear necessaryfor her complete equipment as a North Sea herring boat, he borrowed a sumof 50 pounds from Tom Newson, and a further sum of 50 pounds from EdwardFitzGerald. FitzGerald thought that Newson should have security for hisloan (vide _Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 104), but Newson refused to acceptany such thing. He, too, seems to have been under the influence ofPosh's fascination. On October 7th, 1866, FitzGerald wrote (_Two SuffolkFriends_, p. 105): "I am amused to see Newson's _devotion_ to his youngFriend. . . . He declined having any Bill of Sale on Posh's Goods forMoney lent; old as he is (enough to distrust all Mankind) . . . Hasperfect reliance on his Honour, Industry, Skill and Luck. "

About this time FitzGerald must have written the following fragment, inwhich he refers to Newson's loan:--

 "You must pay him his Interest on it when you can, and then I will take the Debt from him, adding it to the 50 pounds I lent you, and letting all that stand over for another time. 

 "My dear Posh, I write all this to you, knowing you are as honest a fellow as lives: but I never cease hammering into everybody's head Remember your Debts, Remember your Debts. I have scarcely ever [known?] _any one_ that was not more or less the worse for getting into Debt: which is one reason why I have scarce ever lent money to any one. I should not have lent it to _you_ unless I had confidence in you: and I speak to you plainly now in order that my confidence may not diminish by your forgetting _one farthing_ that you owe any man. 

 "The other day an old Friend sent me 10 pounds, which was one half of what he said he had borrowed of me _thirty years ago_! I told him that, on my honour, I wholly forgot ever having lent him any money. I could only remember once _refusing_ to lend him some. So here is _one_ man who remembered his Debts better than his Creditor did. 

 "I will ask Newson about the Cork Jacket. You know that I proposed to give you each one: but your Mate told me that no one would wear them. 

 "Yesterday I lost my purse. I did not know where: but Jack had seen me slip into a Ditch at the Ferry, and there he went and found it. So is this Jack's Luck, or mine, eh, Mr. Posh?

 "E. FG. "

The debt to Newson was subsequently taken over by FitzGerald, and a newarrangement made on the building of the _Meum and Tuum_ in the followingyear. But this fragment is important, in that it strikes a note ofwarning, which had to be repeated again and again during the partnershipbetween the poet and the fisherman. Posh was happy-go-lucky in hisaccounts. I believe he was perfectly honest in intention, but he did notunderstand the scrupulosity in book-keeping which his partner thoughtessential to any business concern. 

FitzGerald himself was very far from being meticulous where debts due tohim were concerned. Dr. Aldis Wright can remember more than one instancein which FitzGerald tore up an acknowledgment of a loan after two orthree years' interest had been paid. "I think you've paid enough, " or "Ithink he's paid enough, " would be his bland dismissal of the debt due tohim. Many Woodbridge people had good cause to know the generosity of theman as well as ever Posh had cause to know it. FitzGerald may not haveopened his heart to his Woodbridge acquaintance so freely as he did toPosh, but he was always ready to loosen his purse-strings. 

The cork jackets were afterwards supplied to the crew of the _Meum andTuum_, as will be apparent in the letters. 

"Jack, " who found the purse, was Jack Newson, Tom Newson's nephew, andthe "crew" of the _Scandal_. 

CHAPTER IIIA SERMON FOR SUNDAY

In 1867 Posh sold the old _William Tell_ to be broken up. She was barelyseaworthy and unfit to continue fishing. An agreement was entered intowith Dan Fuller, a Lowestoft boat-builder, for a new lugger to be built, on lines supplied by Posh, at a total cost (including spars) of 360pounds. FitzGerald had suggested that the boat should be built by a Mr. Hunt, of Aldeburgh, but Posh persuaded him to consent to Lowestoft andDan Fuller instead. "I can look arter 'em better, " said he, with someshow of reason. 

The agreement was, in the first instance, between Dan Fuller and Posh, but FitzGerald took a fancy to become partner with Posh in the boat andher profits. He was to find the money for the new lugger, and to let thesums already due from Posh remain in the partnership, while Posh was tobring in the nets and gear he had. 

But by this time FitzGerald had seen symptoms in Posh which caused himanxiety. He loved his humble friend, and his anxiety was on account ofthe man and not on account of the possibilities of pecuniary lossincurred through Posh's weakness. On December the 4th, 1866, he wrote toMr. Spalding, of Woodbridge: "At eight or half-past I go to have a pipeat Posh's, if he isn't half-drunk with his Friends" (_Two SuffolkFriends_, p. 107). 

On January 5th, 1867, he wrote to the same correspondent (_Two SuffolkFriends_, p. 108) referring to Posh: "This very day he signs an Agreementfor a new Herring-lugger, of which he is to be Captain, and to which hewill contribute some Nets and Gear. . . . I believe I have smoked mypipe every evening but one with Posh at his house, which his quiet littleWife keeps tidy and pleasant. The Man is, I do think, of a Royal Nature. I have told him he is liable to one Danger (the Hare with manyFriends)--so many wanting him _to drink_. He says it's quite true andthat he is often obliged to run away: as I believe he does: for his Houseshows all Temperance and Order. This little lecture I give him--to gothe way, I suppose, of all such Advice. . . . "

I fear that poor Posh's limbs soon grew too stiff to permit him to runaway from the good brown "bare. " But the lecture which FitzGeraldmentions so casually was surely one of the most delicately writtenwarnings ever penned. The sterling kindness of the writer is astransparent in it as is his tenderness to an inferior's feelings. No onebut a very paragon of a gentleman would have taken the trouble to writeso wisely, so kindly, so tenderly, and so earnestly. The appeal mustsurely have moved Posh, for the pathos of the reference to his patron'sloneliness could not but have its effect. 

But to touch on the sacred "bare" of a Lowestoft fisherman is alwaysdangerous. There are many teetotallers among them now, and they wouldresent any imputation on their temperance. But those who are notteetotallers would resent it much more. FitzGerald warned his friend inas beautiful a letter as was ever written. But Posh could never regardthe "mild bare, " the "twopenny" of the district, as an enemy. He rarelytouched spirits. Now, at the age of sixty-nine, he enjoys his mild beermore than anything and cares little for stronger stuff. But there is nodoubt that this same mild beer inserted the edge of the adze which was tosplit the partnership in a little more than three years' time--this andthe "interfarin' parties, " whom Posh blames for all the misunderstandingswhich were to come. 

 "MARKETHILL, WOODBRIDGE, _Thursday_. 

 "MY DEAR POSHY, "My Lawyer can easily manage the Assignment of the Lugger to me, leaving the Agreement as it is between you and Fuller. But you must send the Agreement here for him to see. 

 "As we shall provide that the Lugger when built shall belong to me; so we will provide that, in case of my dying _before_ she is built, you may come on my executors for any money due. 

 "I think you will believe that I shall propose, and agree to, nothing which is not for your good. For surely I should not have meddled with it at all, but for that one purpose. 

 "And now, Poshy, I mean to read you a short Sermon, which you can keep till Sunday to read. You know I told you of _one_ danger--and I do think the only one--you are liable to--_Drink_. 

 "I do not the least think you are _given_ to it: but you have, and will have, so many friends who will press you to it: perhaps _I_ myself have been one. And when you keep so long without _food_; _could_ you do so, Posh, without a Drink--of some your bad Beer [_sic_] too--now and then? And then, does not the Drink--and of bad Stuff--take away Appetite for the time? And will, if continued, so spoil the stomach that it will not bear anything _but_ Drink. And this evil comes upon us gradually, without our knowing how it grows. That is why I warn you, Posh. If I am wrong in thinking you want my warning, you must forgive me, believing that I should not warn at all if I were not much interested in your welfare. I know that you do your best to keep out at sea, and watch on shore, for anything that will bring home something for Wife and Family. But do not do so at any such risk as I talk of. 

 "I say, I tell you all this for your sake: and something for my own also--not as regards the Lugger--but because, thinking you, as I do, so good a Fellow, and being glad of your Company; and taking _Pleasure_ in seeing you prosper; I should now be sorely vext if you went away from what I believe you to be. Only, whether you do well or ill, _show me all above-board_, as I really think you have done; and do not let a poor old, solitary, and sad Man (as I really am, in spite of my Jokes), do not, I say, let me waste my Anxiety in vain. 

 "I thought I had done with new Likings: and I had a more easy Life perhaps on that account: _now_ I shall often think of you with uneasiness, for the very reason that I have so much Liking and Interest for you. 

 "There--the Sermon is done, Posh. You _know_ I am not against Good Beer while at Work: nor a cheerful Glass after work: only do not let it spoil the stomach, or the Head. 

 "Your's truly, "E. FG. "

CHAPTER IVTHE _MUM TUM_

FitzGerald having made up his mind to give Posh a lift by going intopartnership with him began by finding not only the money for the buildingof the boat but a name for her when she should be ready for sea. Itseemed to him that "Meum and Tuum" would be an appropriate name, and the_Mum Tum_ is remembered along the coast to this day as a queer, meaningless title for a boat. At a later date FitzGerald is reported tohave said that his venture turned out all Tuum and no Meum so far as hewas concerned. But it is possible that Posh dealt more fairly with himthan he thought. At all events Posh thinks he did. 

The boat was to be paid for in instalments. So much on laying the keel, so much when the deck was on, etc. , etc. , and FitzGerald took thegreatest interest in her building. He had first thought of christeningthe lugger "Marian Halcombe, " after Wilkie Collins's heroine in _TheWoman in White_, as appears from a letter to Frederic Tennyson, writtenin January, 1867 (_Letters_, II, 90, Eversley Edition):--

 "I really think of having a Herring-lugger I am building named Marian Halcombe. . . . Yes, a Herring-lugger; which is to pay for the money she costs unless she goes to the Bottom: and which meanwhile amuses me to consult about with my Sea-folks. I go to Lowestoft now and then by way of salutary Change; and there smoke a Pipe every night with a delightful Chap who is to be Captain. "

Again on June 17th (_Letters_, II, 94, Eversley Edition) he wrote to thelate Professor Cowell of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge:--

 "I am here in my little Ship" (the _Scandal_) "with no company but my crew" (Tom Newson and his nephew Jack) ". . . And my other--Captain of the Lugger now a-building: a Fellow I never tire of studying--If he _should_ turn out knave, I shall have done with all Faith in my own Judgment: and if he should go to the Bottom of the Sea in the Lugger--I shan't cry for the Lugger. "

There was some delay in getting the deck planks on the lugger, forFitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding on May 18th, 1867 (_Two SuffolkFriends_, p. 110), that she would be decked "next Week, " whereas herplanking was not finished till June, and, on a Friday in June, FitzGeraldwrote to Posh:--

 "WOODBRIDGE, _Friday_. 

 "MY DEAR POSHY, "I am only back To-day from London, where I had to go for two days: and I am very glad to be back. For the Weather was wretched: the Streets all Slush: and I all alone wandering about in it. So as I was sitting at Night, in a great Room where a Crowd of People were eating Supper, and Singing going on, I thought to myself--Well, Posh might as well be here; and then I should see what a Face he would make at all this--This Thought really came into my mind. 

 "I had asked Mr. Berry to forward me any Letters because I thought you might write to say the Lugger was planked. But now you tell me it is no such thing: well, there is plenty of time: but I wished not to delay in sending the Money, if wanted. I have seen, and heard, no more of Newson; nor of _his_ new Lugger from Mr. Hunt--I am told that one of the American yachts, _The Henrietta_, is a perfect Model: so I am going to have a Print of her that I may try and learn the Stem from the Stern of a Ship. If this North-Easter changes I daresay I may run to Lowestoft next week and get a Sail, but it is too cold for that now. 

 "Well, here is a letter, you see, my little small Captain, in answer to yours, which I was glad to see, for as I do not forget you, as I have told you, so I am glad that you should sometime remember the Old Governor and Herring-merchant

 "EDWARD FITZGERALD. "

It should be observed that in this letter, as in several of those writtento Posh, FitzGerald signed his name, "Edward FitzGerald, " in full, apractice from which he was averse owing to certain facts connected withanother Edward Fitzgerald. Those who have heard the story of thehistoric first meeting between the poet and the late Mr. Bernard Quaritchwill remember why _our_ FitzGerald disliked the idea of being confusedwith the other Edward Fitzgerald. 

{Posh and his old "Shud, " in which nets, etc. , belonging to thepartnership were stored, and where the letters now published were found:p62. Jpg}

The letter here given forces a delightful picture upon us. Itssimplicity makes it superbly graphic. Think of FitzGerald, refined infeature and reserved in manner, a little unconventional in dress, but notsufficiently so to be vulgarly noticeable--think of the man who has givenus the most poetical philosophy and the most philosophical poetry, all inthe most exquisite English, in our language, sitting probably at Evans's(it sounds like Evans's with the suppers and the music) and looking alittle pityingly at the reek about him like the "poor old, solitary, andsad Man as he really was in spite of his Jokes"; and then imaging in hismind's eye the handsome stalwart fisherman whom he loved so truly, andbelieving that he was as morally excellent as he was physically! "What aFace he would make at all this!" thought the poet. 

Five or six years ago a good friend of mine, the skipper of one of themost famous tugs of Yarmouth, had to go up to town on a salvage casebefore the Admiralty Court. With him as witnesses went one or two beachmen of the old school, wind-and sun-tanned old shell-backs, with voiceslike a fog-horn, and that entire lack of self-consciousness which ischaracteristic of simplicity and good breeding. My friend the skipperwas cultured in comparison with the old beach men, and he was a littlevexed when one old "salwager" insisted on accompanying him to the OxfordMusic Hall. All went well till some conjurers appeared on the stage. Then the skipper found that he had made a mistake in edging away from thebeach man. For that jolly old salt hailed him across the house. "Hi, Billeeoh! Bill Berry! Hi! Lor, bor, howiver dew they dew't? Howiverdew they dew't, bor? Tha'ss whoolly a masterpiece! Hi! Billeeoh! Theerthey goo agin!"

The skipper always ends the story there. He is as brave a man as any onthe coast. It was he who stood out in Yarmouth Roads all night to lookfor the Caistor life-boat the night of the disaster--a night when theroads could not be distinguished from the shoals, so broken into tossingwhite horses was the whole offing--but I believe he slunk down the stairsof the Oxford that night, and left the old beach man still expressing hisdelighted wonder. 

Perhaps FitzGerald thought that Posh would be as excited as the old beachman. 

"Mr. Berry" (as every one knows who knows anything about FitzGerald) wasthe landlord of the house on Markethill, Woodbridge, where the poetlodged. (By the way, he was, so far as I know, no relation of my BillBerry. ) A sum of 50 pounds was due to Dan Fuller on the planking beingcompleted, and FitzGerald was anxious to let Posh have the money as soonas it was needed. He "remembered his debts" even before they became due. 

I have already stated that Hunt was a boat-builder at Aldeburgh, and thatFitzGerald had, at first, wished Posh to employ him to build the _MumTum_, as the _Meum and Tuum_ was fated to be called. 

The kindly jovial relations between the "guv'nor" and his partner couldnot be better indicated than by the name FitzGerald gives himself at theclose, just before he once more signs his name in full. Well, perhapsthe legal luminary of Lowestoft would justify his inquiry if EdwardFitzGerald was the man who made a lot of money out of salt by saying, "Well, he called himself a herring-merchant. "

The schoolmaster who had never heard of either FitzGerald or Omar Khayyamwould (according to the nature of the breed) sniff and say "What? Aherring-merchant and a tent-maker! My boys are the sons of gentlemen. Ican't be expected to know anything about tradesfolk of that class. "

But Posh has a sense of humour, and he says, "Ah! He used to laugh aboutthat, the guv'nor did. He'd catch hold o' my jersey, so" (here Poshpinches up a fold of his blue woollen jersey), "and say, 'Oh dear! Ohdear, Poshy! Two F's in the firm. FitzGerald and Fletcher, herringsalesmen--when Poshy catches any, which isn't as often as it might be, you know, Poshy!' And then he'd laugh. Oh, he was a jolly kind-heartedman if ever there was one. "

And then Posh's eyes will grow moist sometimes, I think perhaps with thethought that he might--ah, well! It's too late now. 

Posh wishes me to give the dimensions of the lugger, as she was of hisown designing and proved a fast and stiff craft. He had given her twofeet less length than her beam called for, according to local ideas, andFitzGerald called her "The Cart-horse, " because she seemed broad andbluff for her length. She was forty-five feet in length, with a fifteen-foot beam and seven-foot depth. She was first rigged as a lugger, butaltered to the more modern "dandy" (something like a ketch but with morerake to the mizzen and with no topmast on the mainmast) before she wassold. Any one about the herring basins who has arrived at fisherman'smaturity (about sixty years) will remember the _Mum Tum_, and, so far asshe was concerned, the partnership was entirely successful, for no onehas a bad word to say for her. 

CHAPTER V"NEIGHBOUR'S FARE"

It is impossible to arrive at the exact sum of money which FitzGeraldbrought into the partnership between him and Posh, but it must have beensomething like five hundred pounds. The lugger cost 360 pounds to build, and, in addition, Posh was paid 20 pounds for his services (see_Letters_, p. 309), and various payments had to be made for "sails, cables, warps, ballast, etc. " Posh brought in what nets and gear he had, and his services. The first notion was that FitzGerald should be ownerof three-fourths of the concern; but on a valuation being made it wasfound that the nets and gear contributed by Posh were of greater valuethan had been supposed, and before the _Meum and Tuum_ put to sea it wasunderstood that Posh should be half owner with his "guvnor. " Posh isvery firm in his conviction that up to the return of the boat from herfirst cruise there had been no mention of any bill of sale, or mortgage, of the boat and gear to FitzGerald to secure the money he had found. According to him his partner was to be a sleeping partner and no more, and the entire conduct and control of the business were to be vested inPosh. The quarrels and misunderstandings which subsequently arose onthis point Posh attributes to certain "interfarin' parties" (andespecially to a Lowestoft lawyer), who were under the impression thatFitzGerald had not looked after himself so well as he might have done andwho thought that this omission should be remedied. Possibly they had anidea that they might "make somethin'" in the course of the remedialmeasures. 

Early in August Posh sailed north with his crew to meet the herring ontheir way down south. His luck was poor, and on August 26th FitzGeraldwrote him from Lowestoft:--

 "LOWESTOFT, _Monday_, _August_ 26. 

 "MY DEAR POSH, "As we hear nothing of you, we suppose that you have yet caught nothing worth putting in for. And, as I may be here only a Day longer, I write again to you: though I do not know if I have anything to say which needs writing again for. In my former letter, directed to you as this letter will be, I desired you to get a Life Buoy as soon as you could. _That_ is for the Good of your People, as well as of yourself. What I now have to say is wholly on your own Account: and that is, to beg you to take the Advice given by the Doctor to your Father: namely, _not_ to drink _Beer_ and _Ale_ more than you can help: but only _Porter_, and, every day, some Gin and Water. I was talking to your Father last Saturday; and I am convinced that you inherit a family complaint: if I had known of this a year ago I would not have drenched you with all the Scotch, and Norwich, Ale which I have given you. . . . Do not neglect this Advice, as being only an old Woman's Advice; you have, even at your early time of life, suffered from _Gravel_; and you may depend upon it that Gravel will turn to _Stone_, unless you do something like what I tell you, and which the Doctor has told your Father. And I know that there is no Disease in the World which makes a young Man _old_ sooner than Stone: No Disease that _wears_ him more. You should take plenty of _Tea_; some Gin and Water every night; and _no_ Ale, or Beer; but only Porter; and not much of that. If you do not choose to buy Gin for yourself, buy some for _me_: and keep it on board: and drink some every Day, or Night. Pray remember this: and _do it_. 

 "I have been here since I wrote my first Letter to Scarboro'; that is to say, a week ago. Till To-day I have been taking out some Friends every day: they leave the place in a day or two, and I shall go home; though I dare say not for long. Your wife seems nearly right again; I saw her To-day. Your Father has engaged to sell his Shrimps to Levi, for this season and next, at 4s. A Peck. Your old _Gazelle_ came in on Saturday with all her Nets gone to pieces; the Lugger _Monitor_ came in here yesterday to alter her Nets--from _Sunk_ to _Swum_, I believe. So here is a Lowestoft Reporter for you: and you may never have it after all. But, if you do, do not forget what I have told you. Your Father thinks that you may have missed the Herring by going _outward_, where they were first caught: whereas the Herring had altered their course to inshore. . . . Better to miss many Herrings than have the Stone. 

 "E. FG. "

Here, again, the delicate solicitude of this perfect gentleman isapparent. "If you do not choose to buy Gin for yourself, buy some for_me_: and keep it on board: and drink some every Day, or Night. " That isto say, "If you think that you cannot afford to buy gin for yourselfdon't worry about the expense. I'll see you are not put to any extracost. But I can't bear to think that you may suffer for the want of amedicine because of your East Anglian parsimony. "

It must be remembered that East Anglia was notorious for the frequency ofthe disease in question. The late William Cadge, of Norwich, probablythe finest lithotomist in the world (as Thompson was the greatestlithotritist), once told me that he had performed over four hundredoperations in the Norwich Hospital for this disease alone. 

But FitzGerald's fears concerning Posh were not realised. He seems tohave had an especial dread of the disease (as who has not?), for in aletter to Frederic Tennyson of January 29th previously (II, 89, EversleyEdition) he wrote (of Montaigne): "One of his Consolations for _TheStone_ is that it makes one less unwilling to part with Life. "

Levi was a Lowestoft fishmonger, referred to in the footnote of _TwoSuffolk Friends_, p. 108. 

The _Gazelle_ was the "punt" or longshore boat which Posh bought atSouthwold, and called (by reason of her splendid qualities) _The LittleWonder_. 

The difference between "sunk" and "swum" herring nets would beunintelligible to a modern herring fisher. Now the nets are thirty feetin depth, are buoyed on the surface of the sea, and are keptperpendicular (like a wall two miles long) by the weight of heavy cablesor "warps" which stretch along the bottom of the nets. I am, of course, referring to North Sea fishing only, and not to the longshore punts, whose nets are not half the depth of the North Sea fleets. 

In FitzGerald's time if the herring were expected to swim deep the netswere sunk _below_ the cables or warps which strung them together, and ifthey were thought to be swimming high they were buoyed above the warps, the system of fishing being called "sunk" in the former case and "swum"in the latter. Now _all_ nets are "swum, " that is to say, all are abovethe warps and are buoyed on the surface. But the depth has increased somuch (to what is technically known as "twenty-score mesh, " which comes toabout thirty feet) that there is no need to alter their setting. 

Posh's wife, whose state of health is referred to in this letter, survived till 1892, but for many years suffered from tuberculosis in thelungs. 

The _Monitor_ was a Kessingland craft, and belonged to one Hutton. 

But whether Posh fished with "sunk" or "swum" nets his luck was out forthe season of 1867. The fish as a rule get down to the Norfolk coastabout the beginning of October, and Posh had followed them down fromScarborough. About the end of September, or the beginning of October, FitzGerald wrote to his partner, addressing the letter to 8 StrandCottages, Lowestoft, in the expectation that the _Meum and Tuum_ had comesouth with the rest of the herring drifters, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Northand South Shields, and Scotch. 

{Strand Cottages, where Posh lived. No. 8, his cottage, is marked with awhite cross: p77. Jpg}

 "WOODBRIDGE, _Saturday_. 

 "DEAR POSH, "I write you a line, because I suppose it possible that you may be at home some time to-morrow. If you are not, no matter. I do not know if I shall be at Lowestoft next week: but you are not to suppose that, if I do do [_sic_] not go there just now I have anything to complain of. I am not sure but that a Friend may come here to see me, and also, unless the weather keep warmer than it was some days ago, I scarce care to sleep in my cabin: which has no fire near it as yours has. 

 "If I do not go to Lowestoft just yet, I shall be there before very long: at my friend Miss Green's, if my Ship be laid up. 

 "I see in the Paper that there have been some 40 lasts of Herring landed in your market during this last week: the Southwold Boats doing best. I began to think the Cold might keep the Fish in deep water, so that _swum_ nets would scarce reach them yet. But this is mere guess. I told you not to answer all my letters: but you can write me a line once a week to say what you are doing. I hope _our_ turn for "Neighbour's fare" is not quite lost, though long a coming. 

 "Newson and Jack are gone home for Sunday. To-night is a grand Horsemanship, to which I would make you go if you were here. Remember me to all your People and believe me yours

 "E. FG. 

 "I see that the . . . [illegible] vessel: and, as far as I see, deserved to do so. "

Miss Green was the landlady of the house at 12 Marine Terrace, Lowestoft, where FitzGerald usually stayed when he did not sleep aboard the_Scandal_. 

Up to the date of the letter, and, indeed, throughout the season of 1867, the _Meum and Tuum_ had bad luck. FitzGerald thought it was time thatthe luck should change, for "Neighbour's fare" is defined in _Sea Wordsand Phrases along the Suffolk Coast_ as "Doing as well as one'sneighbours. 'I mayn't make a fortune, but I look for "Neighbour's fare"nevertheless. '"

CHAPTER VITHE LUCK O' THE _MUM TUM_

"Neighbour's fare" was long in coming to FitzGerald in his venture as a"herring merchant. " But he was happy enough in the consciousness that hewas doing Posh a good turn. Whether or not Posh had a greater share ofthe earnings of the boat than he was entitled to I cannot say. Certainlyhe began to thrive exceedingly about this time, and, as an oldlongshoreman seven years Posh's senior, said to me the other day, "Hemight ha' been a gennleman! He used to kape his greyhounds, and he hadas pratty a mare as the' wuz in Lowestoft. Ah! Mr. FitzGerald was a_good_ gennleman to him--that he _wuz_!"

Once again the epithet "good, " which he so pre-eminently merited. 

But whether the year had been bad or good, it was necessary for thesleeping partner to look into the accounts of the firm. 

On Christmas Day of 1867, when the season was over and all the herringdrifters had "made up, " that is to say, had worked out their accounts andstruck a balance of profit or loss, Fitzgerald wrote to Posh:--

 "WOODBRIDGE, _Christmas Day_. 

 "DEAR CAPTAIN, "Unless I hear from you to-morrow that _you_ are coming over _here_, I shall most likely run over myself to Miss Green's at Lowestoft--by the Train which gets there about 2. 

 "I shall look in upon you in the evening, if so be that I do not see you in the course of the day. I say I shall look in upon [_sic_] _to- morrow_, I dare say:--But, as this is Christmas time and I suppose you have many friends to see, I shall not want you to be at school every evening. 

 "This is Newson's piloting week, so he cannot come. 

 "E. FG. "

Posh did not go to Woodbridge, so FitzGerald went to Miss Green's, whence, on December the 28th, he wrote one of his most characteristicletters (in that it embraced interests so widely different) to ProfessorCowell. The letter begins with a reference to M. Garcin de Tassy and his"annual oration, " and continues with some passages of great interestconcerning the _Rubaiyat_ and Attar's "Birds. " (Dr. Aldis Wright'sEversley Edition of _Letters_, II, 100. ) Then from a delicate and daintypiece of criticism the poet turns to his herring business. "I have comehere to wind up accounts for our Herring-lugger: much against us as theseason has been a bad one. My dear Captain [Posh], who looks in hisCottage like King Alfred in the Story, was rather saddened by all this, as he had prophesied better things. I tell him that if he is but what Ithink him--and surely my sixty years of considering men will not sodeceive me at last!--I would rather lose money with him than gain it withothers. Indeed I never proposed Gain, as you may imagine: but only tohave some Interest with this dear Fellow. "

Well, he had his wish, though Posh maintains that there _was_ gain in thebusiness at a certain time to be referred to hereafter, and that theremight have been plenty of gain but for the "interfarin' parties" beforementioned. 

From the first there was a difficulty in persuading Posh to keep anyaccounts of either outgoings or incomings. He seems to have paid a billwhen he thought of it, or when he had the money for it handy. But noidea of book-keeping, even in its most rudimentary form, was everentertained by him. 

And FitzGerald had, before ever the partnership was an accomplished fact, impressed on Posh the importance of remembering his debts. 

Before the spring fishing began in 1868 the question of accounts came tothe fore. On March the 29th the sleeping partner wrote from Woodbridge:--

 "DEAR POSHY, "I have your Letter of this Morning:--I suppose that you have got mine also. I hope that you understood what I said in it--about the Bills, I mean--that you should put down in writing _all_ outgoings, and in such a way as you, or I, might easily reckon them up: I mean, so as to see what _each_ amounts to--No man's Memory can be trusted in such matters; and I think that _your_ Memory (jostled about, as you say, with many different calls, [_sic_ no close to parenthesis] needs to have _writing_ to refer to. _Do not suppose for one moment_ that I do not trust you, my good fellow: nor that I think you have made any great blunder in what Accounts you _did_ keep last year. I only mean that a man ought to be able to point _out at once_, to himself or to others, all the items of an Account; to do which, you know, gave you great Trouble--You must not be too proud to learn a little of some one used to such business: _as Mr. Spalding_, for instance. 

 "If you think the Oil and _Cutch_ are as good, and as cheap, at Lowestoft as I can get them here, why not get them at once at Lowestoft? About that _green Paint_ for the Lugger's bottom:--Mr. Silver got some _so very good_ for _Pasifull's_ Smack last year that I think it might be worth while to get some, if we could, from _his_ Merchant. You told me that what _you_ got at Lowestoft was _not_ very good. 

 "I am _very glad_ that the Lugger is so well thought of that any one else wants to build from her. For she was _your_ child, you know. 

 "Mr. Durrant has never sent me the plants. I doubt he must have lost some more children. Do not go to him again, if you went before. I daresay I shall be running over to Lowestoft soon. But I am not quite well. 

 "E. FG. 

 "Remember me to your Family: you do not tell me if your Mother is better. "

The Mr. Spalding here referred to was at that time the manager for alarge firm of agricultural implement makers. Subsequently he became thecurator of the museum at Colchester, and the letters from FitzGerald tohim which were handed to Mr. Francis Hindes Groome formed the mostvaluable part of the second part of _Two Suffolk Friends_ called "EdwardFitzGerald. An Aftermath. "

"Oil" and "cutch" are preservatives for the herring nets. The oil islinseed, and the nets are soaked in it before they are tanned by thecutch. Cutch is a dark resinous stuff, which is thrown into a copperfull of water and boiled till it is dissolved. Then the liquid is thrownover the nets and permitted to soak in. After the nets are soaked inlinseed oil, and before they are tanned, they are hung up to dry in theopen air. The process has to be repeated several times during eachfishing, and those who are familiar with Lowestoft and Yarmouth must alsobe familiar with the sight and smell of the nets, hanging out onrailings, either on public open spaces or in private net yards. Whererails are not obtainable the nets are often spread on the ground, and aningenious idea for the quaint shape of Yarmouth (unique with its narrow"rows") is that the rows represent the narrow footpaths between thespaces on which the nets used to be laid to dry. 

"Pasifull" is sometimes called "Percival, " sometimes "Pasifall, " andsometimes as in this letter. His Christian name was Ablett, and he wasboth a fisherman and a yacht hand. 

Mr. Durrant was a market gardener and fruiterer in Lowestoft, and hissons carry on the same business in three shops in Lowestoft now. One ofthem remembers FitzGerald as a visitor and "a queer old chap, " and that'sall he knows about him. 

I do not think Posh troubled himself much about the accounts. But therewas another subject already broached which was to cause someunpleasantness between the partners. 

Some of FitzGerald's friends, both at Lowestoft and elsewhere, had becomeuneasy at the hold which Posh had obtained over him. They feared lest heshould become a baron of beef at which Posh could cut and come again. More than one advised him that he should have some better security than amere partnership understanding, that he should, in fact, insist on havinga bill of sale, or mortgage of the _Meum and Tuum_ and her gear to securethe money he had found. Possibly he was swayed by Posh's backwardness inthe matter of account. Certainly he came to the conclusion that hisfriends were right, and that he should have a charge on the boat and hergear. Now I believe that Posh tells the truth when he says that in thefirst instance there was no mention of any such charge. And he was not abusiness man enough to see the reasonableness of FitzGerald's demand. Hewas, moreover, urged by the secretiveness of his race, the love ofkeeping private affairs from outsiders, and he bitterly resented theproposition. Indeed, during the early months of 1868, there wereconstant semi-quarrels, which were as constantly patched up. FitzGeraldloved the man too well to quarrel with him definitely. Besides, Posh hadnot been well. In January FitzGerald wrote to Professor Cowell(_Letters_, II, 103, Eversley Edition): "I have spent lots of money on myHerring-lugger, which has made but a poor season. So now we are going(like wise men) to lay out a lot more for Mackerel; and my Captain (adear Fellow) is got ill, which is the worst of all. "

But in this first instance Posh gave way. On April 14th FitzGerald wroteMr. Spalding: "I believe that he and I shall now sign the Mortgage Papersthat make him owner of _Half Meum and Tuum_. I only get out of him thathe can't say he sees much amiss in the Deed. " But Posh is still bitterabout that deed, and still blames his old "guv'nor" for having listenedto the "interfarin' parties. " He does not know what was the matter withhim that spring. "I was quare, sir, " he says. "I don't know what tawas. But I was quare. "

He got well in time to go off after the spring mackerel, which used to bea regular fishing season off Lowestoft, though now mackerel are gettingas scarce as salmon off the Norfolk and Suffolk coast. But the _Meum andTuum's_ bad luck still followed her with the longer and bigger meshednets. On June 16th, 1868, FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (_Two SuffolkFriends_, p. 113):--

 "Mackerel still come in very slow, sometimes none at all: the dead calm nights play the deuce with the Fishing, and I see no prospect of change in the weather till the Mackerel shall be changing their Quarters. I am vexed to see the Lugger come in Day after day so poorly stored after all the Labour and Time and Anxiety given to the work by her Crew; but I can do no more, and at any rate take my share of the Loss very lightly. I can afford it better than they can. I have told Newson to set sail and run home any Day, Hour, or Minute, when he wishes to see his Wife and Family. "

Newson and Jack were down at Lowestoft with the _Scandal_, and it wascharacteristic of FitzGerald to give his skipper leave to run home whenhe wished. FitzGerald always liked the _Meum and Tuum_ to be in harbouron a Sunday so that the men could see their wives and families and have a"good hot dinner. "

CHAPTER VII"FLAGSTONE FITZGERALD"

Now that the _Meum and Tuum_ was ready for work FitzGerald's anxiety forthe lives of her crew made him insist upon their taking life-belts aboardwith them, although the mate had stated that no one would wear them. OnApril 24th a letter was written to Posh from Woodbridge. 

 "DEAR POSHY, "I hear from Mr. Birt this morning that the Life Belts were sent off to you yesterday--_directed to your house_. So I suppose they will reach you without your having to go look for them. But you can enquire at the Rail if they don't show up. 

 "Mr. Birt says that he makes the Belts of _two_ sizes for the Life Boat. But he has sent _all_ yours of the large size, except one for the Boy. I had told him I thought you were all of you biggish Men, except the Boy. I suppose I have blundered as usual. But if the Jackets are too big you must change some of them. That will only cost carriage; and that I must pay for my Blunder. 

 "I doubt you have been unlucky in your drying days--yesterday we had such violent showers as would have washed out your oil, I think. And it must have rained much last night. But you share in _my_ luck now, you know. 

 "But I am very glad the children are better. I thought it was bad weather for fever. There has been great sickness here, I think. Mr. Gowing and his house are as tedious as Mr. Dove and _my_ house; we must hope that does not mean to play as false. 

 "I am very sorry for your loss of lines and anchors. 

 "E. FG. "

Mr. Gowing was, so far as Posh can recollect, a Woodbridge builder, andMr. Dove was the Builder who altered Little Grange for FitzGerald. Whether or not the life-belts fitted or were ever used I can't ascertain. But I believe that one was in existence a year or so ago. The "lines andanchors" were, Posh thinks, lost from his old punt the _Gazelle_. 

For the sake of convenience I give a letter here which is somewhat out ofdate, but inasmuch as it has nothing to do with the fishing but only withthe trust which FitzGerald had in Posh it may very well come in here. 

 "MARKETHILL, WOODBRIDGE, _October_ 2_nd_. 

 "DEAR POSH, "I forgot to tell you that I had desired a Day and Night Telescope to be left _for me_ at the Lowestoft Railway Station--Please to enquire for it: and, if it be there, this Letter of mine may be sufficient Warrant for _you_ to take the Glass. 

 "Do not, however, take the Glass _out to sea_ till we have tried it. 

 "We got here yesterday. I shall not be at Lowestoft _this week_ at any rate. 

 "Yours, "EDWARD FITZGERALD. 

 "Please to send me word about the Glass. I left a note for you in George Howe's hands before we started. I was sorry not to see you; but you knew where to find me on Monday Evening. "

The glass was, Posh assures me, a good one. But no one knows what becameof it. Later FitzGerald again mentions the glass. 

 "WOODBRIDGE, _Monday_. 

 "DEAR POSH, "If I could have made sure from your letter that you were going to stop on shore this Day, I would have run over to see you. You tell me of getting a Job done: but I cannot be sure if you are having it done To-day: and I do not go to Lowestoft for fear you may be put to sea again. 

 "Of course you will get anything done to Boat or Net that you think proper. 

 "You did not tell me how the Spy-Glass answers. But do not trouble yourself to write. 

 "Yours truly, "FLAGSTONE FITZGERALD. "

{Woodbridge River (evening) where the "scandal" berthed: p97. Jpg}

As soon as I asked Posh the meaning of the signature "FlagstoneFitzGerald" he burst out laughing. "What!" said he. "Hain't yew niverheard about ole Flagstone? He was a retail and wholesale grocer andgin'ral store dealer at Yarmouth name ---" (well, we will say Smith forpurposes of reference. As the man's sons still carry on his old businesshere in Lowestoft it is as well not to give the true name. By the way, Ido not mean that the sons carry on the "flagstone" business), "and heowned tew or t'ree boots and stored 'em hisself. Well, when they come tomake up (and o' coorse he'd chudged the men for the stores, ah! andchudged 'em high!) they went t'rew the stores an' found as he'd weightedup the sugar and such like wi' flagstone! Well, they made it sa hot forhim at Yarmouth that he had ta mewve ta Lowestoft, and he was allustcalled Flagstone Smith arter that. I reckon as the Guv'nor heerd theyarn and liked it. Ha! Ha! Ha!"

And it isn't a bad yarn for one which is actually true in every respect. 

About the same time, or a little later (for it is impossible to fix thedate of these letters definitely), Fitzgerald wrote:--

 "WOODBRIDGE, _Saturday_. 

 "MY DEAR LAD, "I suppose the Lugger had returned, and that you had gone out in her again before my last Note, with Newson's Paper, reached you. I have a fancy that you will go home this evening. But whether you are not [_sic_] do not _stay_ at home to answer me. I have felt, as I said, pretty sure that the Boat was back from Harwich: and we have had no such weather as to make me anxious about you. One night it blew; but not a gale: only a strong Wind. 

 "I shall be expecting Newson up next week. 

 "I have thought of you while I have been walking out these fine moonlight nights. But I doubt your fish must have gone off before this. 

 "You see I have nothing to say to you; only I thought you might to [_sic_] hear from me whenever you should come back. 

 "E. FG. "

CHAPTER VIIIHOW FISHERS FISHED

The poor mackerel season ended in the second week of July. Why, whenmackerel were so scarce, the _Meum and Tuum_ did not give up the fishingand try for "midsummer herring" it is difficult to understand, and Poshdoes not remember the reason, if there was one. Possibly the change ofnets, etc. , etc. , was too much trouble. Anyhow, the season wasunprofitable for the mackerel boats. On Monday, July 13th, FitzGeraldwas still on the _Scandal_ at Lowestoft, and wrote from there to Mr. Spalding (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 113): "Posh made up and paid off onSaturday. I have not yet asked him, but I suppose he has just paid hisway, I mean so far as Grub goes. . . . Last night it lightened to theSouth, as we sat in the Suffolk Gardens--I, and Posh, and Mrs. Posh. . . . "

The "making up" may require some little explanation. The "drift"fishing--i. E. The herring and mackerel fishing (for though sprats andpilchards are caught by drift nets, it is unnecessary to consider themwhen dealing with the great North Sea drift fishing)--is carried on on asystem of sharing profits between owners and fishermen. Trawlers, i. E. Craft that fish with a "trawl" net for flat fish, haddocks, etc. , etc. , are managed differently. 

"Making up" is the technical term for balancing profit and loss of aseason, and ascertaining the sums which are due to owners and crewrespectively. 

In the days when Fitzgerald was a "herring merchant, " the systems ofYarmouth and Lowestoft were different. At Yarmouth the owner of the boattook nine shares out of sixteen, and bore all losses of damaged or lostnets, etc. , the remaining seven shares being divided among the crew invarying proportions. For instance, the skipper took 1. 75 or two shares, the mate 1. 25 or 1. 5, and so on down to the boy with his one-half orthree-eighths share. At Lowestoft the shares were also divided intosixteen; but the owner took only eight, and the crew the other eight. Thelosses of gear, nets, etc. , however, were borne equally between the twolots of eight shares, and, on the whole, I believe the Yarmouth systemwas more favourable to the men, though the Lowestoft system made theskipper and crew more careful of the nets and gear than they might havebeen did not they suffer for any loss of them. The introduction of steamdrifters has made the shares complicated in the extreme. The owners takeso much as owners of the boat, so much for the engines, etc. , etc. , and, in fact, the owners get the share of a very greedy lion. However, theprices rule so high nowadays, and the catches are occasionally so large(the other day a steam drifter brought in over 200 pounds worth of fishto Grimsby as the result of one night's fishing), that the greatMartinmas fishing of the east coast has become a gamble in which fortunesmay be made and lost. Many a boat earns over 2000 pounds from October toDecember. A lucky skipper may take 200 pounds for his share of the homefishing alone. But such figures would have sounded fantastic inFitzGerald's day, for I have been assured over and over again by herringfishers that in the sixties and seventies, ay, even in the eighties oflast century, 20 pounds was a "good season's share" for a prominent handof a successful drifter. 

Posh, as half owner, would take four-sixteenth shares, and as skipperwould probably take another two-sixteenths, so that he would draw morethan any one else. 

Some time during the spring or summer of 1868 there was great excitementamongst the fishing-boat owners of Lowestoft and other ports on accountof an Act just passed regulating the building of vessels, having especialregard to the ventilation of the cuddy, forecastle, or the men's sleepingquarters. Posh tells me that many owners of drifters considered that theAct applied to all craft, including fishing boats, and that great expensewas undergone by some over-conscientious owners in fitting ventilatingdrums and shafts in accordance with the Act. If the statute applied toany drifter it would apply to the _Meum and Tuum_, and FitzGeraldevidently thought that the intention of the Act was that fishing boatsshould be exempt. He proved to be right, for the regulations were neverenforced on fishing boats. He wrote to Posh:--

 "WOODBRIDGE, _Saturday_. 

 "DEAR POSH, "You must lay out three halfpence on the _Eastern Times_ for last Friday. In that Newspaper there is a good deal written about that Act for altering Vessels: the Writer is quite sure--that the Act does _not_ apply to Fishing craft; and he writes as if he knew what he was writing about. But most likely if he had written just the contrary, it would have seemed as right to me. Do you therefore fork out three halfpennies, as I tell you, and study the matter and talk it over with others. The owners of Vessels should lose no time in meeting, and in passing some Resolution on the Subject. 

 "I have not seen Newson, but West was down at the Ferry some days back and saw him. For a wonder, he [Newson] was _Fishing_!--for Codlings--for there really was nothing else to do: no Woodbridge Vessels coming in and out the Harbour, nor any work for the Salvage Smacks. He spoke of his Wife as much the same: Smith, the Pilot, thought her much altered when last he saw her. 

 "You will buy such things as you spoke of wanting at the Lowestoft Sales if they go at a reasonable price. As to the claim made by your Yawl, I suppose it will come down to half. The builders are coming to my house again next week, I believe, having left their work undone. 

 "Now, here is a Letter for your Mantelpiece to-morrow--Sunday--I don't think I have more to say. 

 "Yours E. FG. 

 "Mr. Durrant has never sent me the hamper of Flowers he promised. 

 "P. S. I post this letter before Noon so as you will receive it this evening: and can get the Newspaper I tell you of:

 "_Eastern Times_ for _Friday_ last sold at Chapman's. "

Posh does not remember whether he laid out the three halfpence or not. But he doubts it. "I knowed as that couldn't ha' nothin' ta dew along o'us, " says he. And he stuck to his guns and proved to be right. 

"West" has been mentioned before as being an old fellow with whomFitzGerald used to navigate the river Deben in a small boat before thebuilding of the _Scandal_. Newson's wife, like Posh's, was often ailing. Kind "Fitz" had written previously (July 25th, 1868; _Letters_, EversleyEdition, p. 106) to Professor Cowell:--

 ". . . I only left Lowestoft partly to avoid a Volunteer Camp there which filled the Town and People with Bustle: and partly that my Captain might see his Wife: who cannot last very much longer I think: scarcely through the Autumn, surely. She goes about, nurses her children, etc. , but grows visibly thinner, weaker and more ailing. "

{The "Happy New Year" yawl, belonging to Posh's beach company: p107. Jpg}

The "claim made by your yawl" refers to a claim for salvage made by thecompany of beach men (of which Posh was a member) owning a yawl. FitzGerald (as has been seen before) always took a humorous interest inthe doings of the "sea pirates, " yclept beach men or "salwagers, " and hedoubtless enjoyed his little chuckle at Posh's expense. 

The builders were at work on Little Grange, which FitzGerald predicted hewould never live in but would die in. However, he falsified bothpredictions, for he lived in the house ten years and died in Norfolk. 

Mr. Durrant was still in default. I doubt if FitzGerald ever got thoseflowers. They were plants, Posh tells me, which FitzGerald wished toplant out at Little Grange. 

I can find no record of the principal, the Martinmas or Autumn, fishingof 1868. But in the spring of 1869 the _Meum and Tuum_ went to the "WestFishing" for mackerel, even as a large number of our modern steamdrifters go now, to the indignation of the pious fishermen of Penzance, Newlyn, and St. Ives. These good fellows of the west have, I think, somereason to complain that it is unfair that they should suffer forrighteousness' sake. Looking at the point in dispute impartially, it_does_ seem hard that the men of the locality should see Easterlingsbringing in good catches of fish as the result of what the Cornishmenregard as a desecration of "the Lord's Day. " The religious sentimentwhich prevents the western and southern men from putting off on Sunday isgenuine and sincere enough. The Scotch herring boats, which come intheir thousands to Yarmouth and Lowestoft for the autumn fishing, arealways in harbour from Saturday night to Monday morning, though the localboats fish all days and nights. But by keeping in harbour the Scotchmenoffend the sensibilities of no one, whereas there is much bitternesscaused in the west by the refusal of the Easterlings to fall in withlocal custom. 

On March 1st, 1869, FitzGerald wrote to Professor Cowell (_Letters_, II, 107, Eversley Edition):--

 "MY DEAR COWELL, ". . . My lugger Captain has just left me to go on his Mackerel Voyage to the Western Coast; and I don't know when I shall see him again. . . . You can't think what a grand, tender Soul this is, lodged in a suitable carcase. "

FitzGerald thought very highly of that "carcase" of Posh's, as will beseen from the story of the Laurence portrait, set forth hereinafter, asthe lawyers, whom Posh hates so much, would say. 

The sleeping partner throughout seems to have had more anxiety on accountof Posh's sea hazards than on account of business losses. How themackerel paid I do not know, but Posh was in time to go north for thebeginning of the herring fishing in July. 

CHAPTER IXECCENTRICITIES OF A GOOD HEART

There must always be an interval ashore between the return of thedrifters from the western voyage and their sailing north to follow theherring down from Aberdeen to Yarmouth. And during this interval, in1869, FitzGerald wrote one or two letters to Posh which have survivedthat wholesale destruction of which their recipient speaks. 

 "WOODBRIDGE, _Friday_. 

 "Newson is up here with the Yacht, Posh; and we shall start to-morrow with the Tide about 10. 30. I doubt if we shall get out of the harbour: or, even if we do that, get to Lowestoft in the Day. But you can just give a look to the Southward to-morrow evening, or Sunday. I write this, because we _may_ not have more than a day to stay at Lowestoft. 

 "E. FG. "

Despite his silk hat and his boa, FitzGerald was a keen and genuine loverof yachting. Even in the way in which he took his enjoyment of this hewas original. Posh asserts that he has seen his "guv'nor" lying in thelee scuppers while the _Scandal_ was heeling over in a stiff breeze, andpermitting the wash of the sea to run over him till he was drenched tothe skin. Indeed, although his long lean body looked frail, he wasreckless in the way in which he treated it. Posh tells one story which Igive in his words. He vouches for its truth, and I give it on hisauthority and not as vouching for its accuracy myself. Personally Ibelieve the tale is true enough, but I admit that it requires a power ofassimilation which is not given to all. 

 "He! he!" says Posh. "He was a rum un sometimes, was my guv'nor! I remember one day when the _Scandal_ was a layin' agin' the wharf where the trawl market is now. Mr. Sims Reeves, the lawyer [this was a prominent counsel on the Norwich circuit, not the famous tenor], and some other friends came over for a sail, and they and Tom [Newson] was below while me and Jack and the guv'nor was on deck, astarn. The mains'l was h'isted, but there wasn't no heads'l on her, and we lay theer riddy to get unner way. There was a fresh o' wind blowin' from the eastard, not wery stiddy, and as we lay theer the boom kep' a wamblin' and a jerkin' from side to side, a wrenchin' the mainsheet block a rum un. The guv'nor was a readin' of a letter as had just been brought down by the poost. 'Posh, ' he say, 'here's a letter with some money I niver expected to git, ' he say. 'That's a good job, ' when just then the boom come over wallop and caught him fair on the side of his hid, and knocked him oover into the harbour like one o'clock. He was a wearin' of his topper same as us'al, and all of a sudden up he come agin just as Jack an' me was raychin' oover arter him. His topper come up aisy like, as though 'twas a life-buoy if I may say soo, and unnerneath it come the fur boa, and then the guv'nor. And as true as I set here he was still a holdin' that letter out in front of him in both hands. Well, I couldn't help it. I bust out a laughin', and soo did Jack an' all, and then we rayched down and copped hold on him and h'isted him aboord all right and tight, but as wet as a soused harrin'. He come up a laughin', playsed as Punch, an' give orders to cast off and git up headsail ta oncet. And would yew believe me, he wouldn't goo below ta shift afore we got right out to the Corton light, though Mr. Reeves axed him tew time and time agin! Not he. That was blowin' a fresh o' wind, an' he jest lay down in the lee scuppers, and 'I can't get no wetter, Posh, ' he say, and let the lipper slosh oover him. Ah! He was a master rum un, was my ole guv'nor!"

The northern herring voyage of the _Meum and Tuum_ in 1869, that is tosay, the eight weeks' fishing down the east coast from Aberdeen toLowestoft from the beginning of August to the end of September, seems tohave been about up to what FitzGerald might have called "Neighbour'sfare. " He wrote to Mrs. W. H. Thompson (the wife of the Master ofTrinity): "My lugger has had (along with her neighbours) such a Seasonhitherto of Winds as no one remembers. We made 450 pounds in the NorthSea" (that is to say, in the north fishing before the home Martinmasfishing began); "and (just for fun) I did wish to realise 5 pounds in mypocket. But my Captain would take it all to pay Bills. But if he makesanother 400 pounds this Home Voyage! Oh, then we shall have money in ourpockets. I do wish this. For the anxiety about all these people's liveshas been so much more to me than all the amusement I have got from theBusiness, that I think I will draw out of it if I can see my Captainsufficiently firm on his legs to carry it on alone. True, there willstill be the same risk to him and his ten men, but they don't care; onlyI sit here listening to the Winds in the Chimney, and always thinking ofthe eleven hanging at my own finger ends" (_Letters_, II, 110, EversleyEdition). 

{A Lowestoft "Dandy": p116. Jpg}

The number of hands on a herring drifter used to be eleven, which seemedexcessive till the labour of hauling nearly two miles of nets by hand isremembered. Now that almost every drifter which goes into the North Seahas a donkey engine to do the hardest work of the hauling the numberaboard the dandies is lessened to nine. 

This letter to Mrs. Thompson is the first suggestion that FitzGerald hasany idea of ending the partnership, a suggestion which became fullydeveloped in 1870. 

But before Posh was hard at it every day, fishing off the Norfolk coast, his "guv'nor" wrote him a note in a much more cheerful strain. Indeed, this is a letter by itself, unlike any other of the writer's which I haveseen, though (as Dr. Aldis Wright says) "FitzGerald never wrote a letterlike any one else. " The power of throwing himself "into the picture, "the humour of conscious imitation, were never more brilliantlyillustrated than by this hail-fellow-well-met letter, written by thescholar and poet:--

 "MARKETHILL, WOODBRIDGE, _Wednesday_. 

 "Now then, Posh, here is a letter for you, sooner than you looked for, and moreover you will have to answer it as soon as you can. 

 "I want you to learn from your friend _Dan Fuller_ what particulars you can about that Lugger we saw at Mutford Bridge. Draft of Water, Length of Keel, What sails and Stores; and what _Price_; and any other Questions you may think necessary to ask. If the man here who has a notion of buying such a Vessel to make a Yacht of on this river sees any hope of doing so at a reasonable rate, and with a reasonable hope of Success, he will go over next week to look at the Vessel. He of course knows he would have to alter all her inside: but I told him your Opinion that she would do well _cutter rigged_. 

 "So now, Poshy, do go down as soon as is convenient, to Dan, and stand him _half a pint_ and don't tell him what you are come about, but just turn the conversation (in a _Salvaging_ sort of way) to the old Lugger and get me the particulars I ask for. Perhaps Dan's heart will open--_over Half a Pint_--as yours has been known to do. And if you write to me as soon as you can what you can learn, why I take my Blessed Oath that I'll be d---d if I don't stand you Half a Pint, so help me Bob, the next time I go to Lowestoft. I hope I make myself understood. 

 "The _Elsie_ is being gutted, and new timbered, and Mr. Silver has bought a new dandy of forty tons, and Ablett Percival" (cf. Spelling in other letters) "is to be Captain. I think of going down the river soon to see Captain Newson. I have been on the River To-day and thought that I should have been with you on the way to Yarmouth or Southwold if I had stayed at Lowestoft. Instead of which I have been to the Lawyer here. 

 "Good-bye, Poshy, and believe me always yours to the last Half Pint. 

 "E. FG. 

 "I enclose a paper with my questions marked, to which you can add short answers. "

Dan Fuller was the builder of the _Meum and Tuum_. His son is stillliving, and a well-known mechanic in Lowestoft. Mutford Bridge will bebetter recognised as the bridge at Oulton Broad. 

Once again FitzGerald chuckles at the morality of the "salwagers, " andchuckles again at the expansiveness of the East Anglian "half a pint, "which may mean anything between its nominal measure and the full holdingcapacity of the drinker--which is as vague as "half a pint, " itself. 

The _Elsie_ was a yacht which belonged to a syndicate of Woodbridgeyachtsmen, of whom Mr. Silver (a Woodbridge friend of FitzGerald's) wasone and Mr. Manby was another. The two friends who went to MutfordBridge to look at the lugger were (so far as Posh can remember) Mr. Silver and Mr. Cobbold, of Cobbold's Bank. Posh says that the lugger wasa beauty. But nothing came of the visit, and the Woodbridge man did notbuy her. 

As yet the warning which FitzGerald had given Posh in his sermon had (sofar as the letters tell us) served its purpose. But the letters appearto be deceitful in this, and the next chapter must deal with a painfulphase of the partnership. 

CHAPTER XPOSH'S SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE

The hopes for the home fishing of 1869 should have been good. On August30th, 1869 (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 114), FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding from Lowestoft: "You will see by the enclosed that Posh has hada little better luck than hitherto. One reason for my not going toWoodbridge is, that I think it possible that this N. E. Wind may blow himhither to tan his nets. Only please God it don't tan him and his peoplefirst. "

Herring are, as our East Anglian fishermen say, "ondependable" in theirtravels. They come south along the coast from the north of Scotland tillthey are in their prime (full-roed, fat fish) off Yarmouth in October. But their arrival at the various ports along the east coast can never befixed for a certain date. This year, for instance (1907), owing to thewarm August and September they have been late in coming south from Hull. Generally "longshores" are caught off Lowestoft late in August or earlyin September, and by the end of September the home and Scotch fleets arecongesting the herring basins. This year, however, I had my firstlongshores brought me yesterday, the 1st of October, and there are not adozen Scotch craft to be seen in the basins. 

FitzGerald stayed at Lowestoft till the north-easters _did_ blow Poshhome. And perhaps he would have been happier had he gone back toWoodbridge before the return of the _Meum and Tuum_. As it was, Posh had"some bare" on regatta day (very late that year), and this upset his"guv'nor. " He wrote to Mr. Spalding on the 4th September (_Two SuffolkFriends_, p. 115): "I would not meddle with the Regatta. . . . And theDay ended by vexing me more than it did him [Newson]. . . . Posh drovein here the day before to tan his nets: could not help making one withsome old friends in a Boat-race on the Monday, and getting very fuddledwith them on the Suffolk Green (where I was) at night. After all thepains I have taken, and all the real anxiety I have had. And worst ofall after the repeated promises he had made! I said there must be an endof Confidence between us, so far as _that_ was concerned, and I would sofar trouble myself about him no more. But when I came to reflect thatthis was but an outbreak among old friends, on an old occasion, after (Ido believe) months of sobriety; that there was no concealment about it;and that though obstinate at first as to how little drunk, etc. , he wasvery repentant afterwards--I cannot let this one flaw weigh against thegeneral good of the man. I cannot if I would: what then is the use oftrying? But my confidence in that respect must be so far shaken, and itvexes me to think that I can never be sure of his not being overtaken so. I declare that it makes me feel ashamed very much to play the judge onone who stands immeasurably above me in the scale, whose faults arebetter than so many virtues. Was not this very outbreak that of a greatgenial Boy among his old Fellows? True, a Promise was broken. Yes, butif the Whole Man be of the Royal Blood of Humanity, and do Justice in theMain, what are _the people_ to say? _He_ thought, if he thought at all, that he kept his promise in the main. But there is no use talking, unless I part company wholly, I suppose I must take the evil with thegood. . . . "

FitzGerald probably got to the very heart of the misunderstanding betweenhimself and Posh as to the merits and demerits of "bare" when he wrotethat Posh was a little obstinate as to "how little drunk, " etc. Moreoverhe understood the nature of the man--"a great genial boy"--but he did notunderstand that these "great genial boys" have all the mischievoustendencies, and all the irresponsibility of real boys. He was kind andforbearing enough, God knows. But he had set up his Posh on such apinnacle of pre-eminence over all his fellow-men that it is possible thathis bitterness in discovering that after all his protege was merely awell-built, handsome, ordinary longshoreman caused a greater revulsionthan would have occurred had his first estimate of Posh's character beenless exalted. 

It is to the credit of the great heart of the man that he never lost hislove of Posh (Posh is certain about this), though he undoubtedly did losehis confidence in and respect for him. 

And Posh did not give way to his "guv'nor" as he might have done. Thatfine old East Anglian spirit of independence (which is so generallyadmirable) was in this particular instance sheer brutal ingratitude whenshown by Posh to FitzGerald. No one has a greater admiration than I forthis magnificent claim of a MAN to be MAN'S equal. It kept the race ofNorfolk and Suffolk longshoremen worthy of their traditions until thecockney visitors, with their tips and their hunger for longshore lies, ruined the nature of many of our beach folk. But with FitzGerald, thatkind, solicitous gentleman who never asserted the claims of his stationin life before an inferior, the obtrusive display of this spirit ofindependence was as unnecessary as it was cruel. And I think Poshunderstands this now. He certainly never meant to hurt the feelings ofhis old governor. But he chafed at the care which his friend took ofhim. He said to me the other day that he wished his old master werealive now to take such care. "Ah!" he said, "he'd take hold o' me likethis here" (and here, as I have described on a previous page, Poshpinched up his blue knitted jersey), "and say, 'Oh, my dear Poshy! Ohdear! Oh dear! To think you should be like this! Oh dear! Oh dear!'"

And Posh's old eyes will water. Indeed, I have noticed a likenessbetween the thoughts of Posh in reference to FitzGerald and the remorseof the son of a loving father who had tried his sire hard in lifetime andunderstood that he had done so after his father's death. Even now, thisold man of sixty-nine leans, metaphorically, on the recollection of theman who loved him so. Even now he says, "Ah! that would ha' upset him ifhe'd known I should ha' come to this!"

But in 1869 Posh thought that he was a very fine fellow indeed, and wasnot going to be "put upon" by any "guv'nor, " no matter how kind the"guv'nor" had been to him. He was half owner of a fine drifter andskipper as well, to say nothing of having designed the boat. He wouldassert himself. 

He did. 

CHAPTER XIPOSH SHOWS TEMPER

Posh says that there "were lots o' breezes" between him and his"guv'nor, " and when the reader of this study (who should have got to knowsomething of FitzGerald's attitude by now) realises this he will be ableto appreciate the long-suffering generosity of this cultured scholar whomfools have painted as a mere eccentric hermit. Posh, now that he waswell started by the aid of his governor, began to yearn for independence. Possibly he had some reason to complain that his sleeping partnerinterfered in matters of which he was ignorant. On September 21st, 1869, FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 118):--

 "Posh came up with his Lugger last Friday, with a lot of torn nets, and went off again on Sunday. I thought he was wrong to come up, and not to transmit his nets by Rail, as is often done at 6d. A net. But I did not say so to him--it is no unamiable point in him to love _home_: but I think he won't make a fortune by it. However, I may be very wrong in thinking he had better _not_ have come. He has made about the average fishing, I believe: about 250 pounds. Some boats have 600 pounds, I hear; and some few not enough to pay their way. 

 "He came up with a very bad cold and hoarseness; and so went off, poor fellow: he never will be long well, I do think. "

Probably Posh knew all about the best way of making a profit out ofherring drifters, and FitzGerald may have been wrong in fearing that hedid not. FitzGerald, with his superb culture, may not (I do not say hedid not) have understood that Posh, on his native North Sea, may havebeen more than a match for all the culture in the world. For what I knowof the old longshoreman, I am convinced that if he brought his nets homein his lugger he did so because he thought it was the most profitable wayof bringing them back. But FitzGerald grew anxious, and his anxiety wasnot understood by the natural child of the beach, and caused friction andmutual irritation. 

But this did not break out till the north voyage was over and the _Meumand Tuum_ had been on the home fishing for more than a month. Then Poshbegan to have the fingering of a good deal of money, and FitzGerald hadalready had reason to doubt his abilities to keep his credit and debitsides of account in proper order. Moreover, the usual autumn gales hadbeen bringing the stormy and dark nights which are as profitable as theyare dangerous to the drifters. On Monday, November 1st, 1869 (one of thefew letters of FitzGerald's which I have seen completely dated), thesleeping partner wrote on a sheet of paper headed by a monogram which is"S. W. & B. " so far as I can make out. To make up for the fullness of thedate there is no address. 

 "I cannot lay blame to myself, Posh, in this matter, though I may not have known you were so busy with the boat as you tell me. Hearing of great disasters by last week's gale, I was, as usual, anxious about you. Hearing nothing from you, I telegram'd on Thursday Afternoon to Mr. Bradbeer: his answer reached me at 5 p. M. That you had come in on Tuesday, and were then safe in harbour. Being then afraid lest you should put off paying away the money, which, as I told you, was a positive _danger_ to Wife and Children, I directly telegram'd to _you_ to do what I had desired you to do the week before. Busy as you were, five minutes spent in writing me a line would have spared all this trouble and all this vexation on both sides. 

 "As to my telegrams telling all the world what you wish to keep secret; how did they do that? My telegrams to Mr. Bradbeer were simply to ask if you were _safe_. My telegram to you was simply to say, 'Do what I bid you'; Who should know _what_ that was, or that it had anything to do with paying the Boat's Bills? People might guess it had _something_ to do with the Boat: and don't you suppose that every one knows pretty well how things are between us? And why should they not, I say, when all is honestly done between us? The Custom House people must know (and, of course, tell others) that you are at present only Half-owner; and would suppose that _I_, the other Half, would use some Authority in the matter. 

 "You say truly that, when we began together, you supposed I should leave all to you, and use _no_ Authority (though you have always asked me about anything you wished done). Quite true. I never did wish to meddle; nor did I call on you for any Account, till I saw last year that you forgot a really important sum, and that you did not seem inclined to help your Memory (as every one else does) by writing it down in a Book. In two cases this year I have shown you the same forgetfulness (about your liabilities I mean) and I do not think I have been unjust, or unkind, in trying to make you bring _yourself_ to Account. You know, and ought to believe, that I have perfect confidence in _your honour_; and have told you of the one defect I observed in you as much for your sake as mine. 

 "_Quite as much_, yes! For the anxiety I have . . . [word illegible] [? suffered] these two years about your eleven lives is but ill compensated by all these squalls between us two; which I declare I excuse myself of raising. If, in this last case, you really had not time to post me a line or two to say you were all safe, and that you had done what I desired you to do; I am very sorry for having written so sharply as I did to you: but I cannot _blame_ myself for the mistake. No: this I will say: I am not apt to think too much of my doings, and dealings with others. But, in my whole sixty years, I can with a clear conscience say that I have dealt with _one man_ fairly, kindly, and not ungenerously, for three good years. I may have made mistakes; but I can say I have done _my_ best as conscientiously as he can say he has done his. And I believe he _has_ done his best, though he has also made mistakes; and I remain his sincerely, "E. FG. "

Mr. Bradbeer was a herring merchant, and his family is still prominent inthe fishing industry of Lowestoft. Posh's letter, to which the above isa reply, must have been very characteristic of his race, to which secrecyconcerning their private affairs is a first nature. The mistrust of theprivacy of the "telegrams" may possibly have had some justification. Evenin these days there are East Anglian villages where the contents ofprivate telegrams are sometimes known to the village before the actualinformation reaches the addressee. And in 1869 Lowestoft was not muchmore than a village, and telegraphy was in its infancy. Possibly Poshexaggerated the importance of secretiveness, and FitzGerald the securityof privacy. But apart from all questions of "the rights of the matter, "what a letter it is! What a splendid justification for almost anyaction. I fear, however the matter in dispute be looked at, Posh cannothave the best of it in this case. He had fired up at an imaginaryslight, wrong, whatever he chose to think it, and if he has any excuse atall, it is that, but for his unreasonableness, we should not have thisletter. 

One would have thought that it might have given Posh pause if even hefelt disposed to show his independence again. But this "squall" betweenthese two curious partners was not destined to be the last. For the timeit blew over, and the mutual relations between Posh and his "guv'nor"were as friendly as ever. 

CHAPTER XIITHE _HENRIETTA_

During the winter of 1869-70 it seems that Posh conceived the idea thatthe capital of the firm of FitzGerald and Fletcher justified the workingpartner in increasing the stock-in-trade. A boat-building company atSouthwold put up some craft at auction, and among them was one which hadalready seen a good deal of sea service named the _Henrietta_. This Poshbought for about 100 pounds without consulting his partner. Ittranspired afterwards that the sale was not acceptable to all theshareholders of the company that owned the boat, especially to a JerryCole, one of the principal shareholders, and there was a good deal ofbother for Posh in obtaining delivery of his purchase. It may be as wellto include all the letters relating to this transaction in one chapterwithout regard to dates. 

The first is dated February 1st--that is to say, February 1st, 1870--andwas written at Woodbridge by FitzGerald to his partner. The letter, ashanded to me by Posh, was incomplete, and lacked signature. No doubt thesecond sheet had been lost with those "sackfuls. "

 "WOODBRIDGE, _February_ 1_st_. 

 "MY DEAR POSH, "Mr. Spalding was with me last night; and I asked him if I was justified in the scolding I gave you about buying the Lugger and Nets too; telling him the particulars. He would not go so far as to say I was _wrong_; but he thought that you were not to blame either. Therefore I consider that I _was_ wrong; and, as I told you, I am very glad to find myself wrong, though very sorry to have been so: and I cannot let a day pass without writing to say so. You may think that I had better have said nothing to anybody about it: but I always do ask of another if I am right. If Mr. Spalding had been at Lowestoft at the time all this would not have happened: as it _has_ happened, I wish to take all the blame on myself. 

 "All this will make you wish the more to be quit of such a _Partner_. I am sure, however, that I _thought_ myself right: and am glad to recant. Perhaps another Partner would not do so much: but you say you will not have another. 

 "Mr. Spalding thinks you would have done better to stick to _one_ Lugger, considering the double trouble of two. But he says he is not a proper judge. _I_ think the chief evil is that this new Boat will keep you ashore in the Net-room, which I am persuaded hurts you. I told you I was sure the _Dust_ of the nets hurt you: and (oddly enough) the first thing I saw, on opening a Paper here on my return, was a Report on the influence of _Dust_ in causing Disease. I hope you have seen the Doctor and told him all--about last Summer's Illness. Let me hear what he says. I should have advised _Worthington_, but he is very expensive. One thing I am sure of: _the more you eat_, _and the less you drink_, _the better_. "

Even here, when Posh had obviously gone beyond his rights and boughtanother boat without consultation with his capitalist partner, FitzGeraldshows his anxiety and solicitude for the man. 

There _is_ a good deal of dust flying about the net chambers; for thecutch and oil and thread all shred off and poison the air. "Why, " saidPosh the other day, "he bought me one o' them things that goo oover themouth" (a respirator), "but lor! I should ha' been ashamed ta be seed awearin' on it!"

Dr. Worthington referred to in the letter is one of a long line ofmedical practitioners, and was the Lowestoft medical attendant ofFitzGerald himself. I have experienced great kindness from both this Dr. Worthington and his son Dr. Dick Worthington. The former tells me thatFitzGerald would never enter his house, but would stand on the doorstepto consult. He had no objection to the doctor entering his(FitzGerald's) lodgings, and on one occasion when Dr. Worthington calledon him at 12 Marine Terrace the doctor saw all his medicine bottlesunopened in a row. "You know this isn't fair to me, " said the justlyirritated doctor. "I do what I can for you, and you won't take mymedicines. " "My dear doctor, " said FitzGerald, "it does me good to seeyou. "

Dr. Aldis Wright says that this is merely an instance of FitzGerald'srule that he would never enter the house of his equal. Of course his"social" equal is inferred, for the rule would have been unnecessary ifthe "equal" bore another significance. His inferiors in station he wouldvisit and charm by his manner and speech. But the house of a societyequal he avoided, lest he should be compelled, for mere courtesy, to gowhere he would not. 

I have, of course, chuckled over the opinion that Dr. Worthington seniorwas "very expensive. " But I believe that FitzGerald was one of those (Imight almost say "of us") who regarded all doctor's bills as luxuries! Atall events, if FitzGerald was right, I can say that Dr. Dick Worthingtonis not atavistic in this particular!

Mr. Spalding's opinion inclined FitzGerald to make no difficulty aboutfinding the money for the _Henrietta_. He lodged it at his bankers' forPosh to draw when occasion required. But Posh seems to have been alittle in advance. There is no heading whatever to the following letter. 

 "DEAR POSH, "I don't understand your letter. That which I had on _Friday_, enclosing Mr. Craigie's, said that you had not _drawn_ the money, your letter of _To-day_ tells me that you _had_ drawn the money, _before the Letter from Southwold_ came. Was not that letter Mr. Craigie's letter?

 "Anyhow, I think you ought not (after all I have said) to have drawn the money (to keep in your house) till you wanted it. And you could have got it at the Bank _any_ morning on which you got _another_ letter from Southwold, telling you the business was to be settled. 

 "Moreover, I think you should have written me on _Saturday_, in answer to my letter. You are very good in attending to any letters of mine about stores, or fish, which I don't care about. But you somehow do not attend so regularly to things which I _do_ care about, such as gales of wind in which you are out, and such directions as I have given over and over again about money matters. 

 "However, I don't mean to kick up another row; provided you _now_ do, and at once, what I positively desire. 

 "Which is; to take the money directly to Mr. Barnard, and ask him, as from _me_, to pay it to my account at Messrs. Bacon and Cobbold's Bank at Woodbridge. Then if you tell me the address of the Auctioneer or Agent, at Southwold who manage [_sic_] the business, Bacon and Cobbold will write to them at _once_ that the money is ready for them directly the Lugger is ready for you. And, write me a line to-morrow to say that this is done. 

 "This makes a trouble to you, and to me, and to Bankers, but I think you must blame yourself for not attending to my directions. But I am yours not the less. 

 "E. FG. 

Mr. Craigie was an old Southwold friend of the Fletcher family, with whomFletcher senior (Posh's father) had spent Christmas for over forty years. The criticism of Posh's system appears, to the impartial critic, to beboth painful and true. But Posh, in this case, was not altogether toblame. This Mr. Jerry Cole, before mentioned, was keeping things back. He had a preponderating interest in that Southwold company, and hethought that the _Henrietta_ had been sold too cheap, and that hung upthe delivery. At least that's what Posh tells me, and at this date Ican't get any better evidence than his. 

Shortly after the last letter FitzGerald wrote again. Now his kindanxiety about this man, whom he still loved, outweighed all thought ofmoney. It was a bitter winter, and Posh, he thought, was not over-hale. 

 "WOODBRIDGE, _Saturday_. 

 "DEAR CAPTAIN, "Whatever is to be done about the money, do not you go over to Southwold while this weather lasts. I think it is colder than I ever knew. Don't go, I say--there can be no hurry for the boat (even if you _can_ get it) for a a [_sic_] week or so. Perhaps it may be as well at Southwold as at Lowestoft. 

 "I wish you were here to play Allfours with me To-night. 

 "Yours, "E. FG. "

Posh got the lugger in March, 1870, and on March 2nd FitzGerald wrote toMr. Spalding (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 118): "Posh has, I believe, goneoff to Southwold in hope to bring his Lugger home. I advised him lastnight to ascertain first by letter whether she _were_ ready for hishands; but you know he will go his own way, and that generally is as goodas anybody's. He now works all day in his Net-loft: and I wonder how hekeeps as well as he is, shut up there from fresh air and among frowsyNets. . . . I think he has mistaken in not sending the _Meum and Tuum_to the West this spring. . . . But I have not meddled, nor indeed is itmy Business to meddle now. . . . "

I think this must have been written about the date of the letter withwhich I commence the next chapter, or possibly a little later. It would, almost certainly, be _after_ the catches of mackerel mentioned by "Mr. Manby" as hereinafter appears, and, very likely, after the termination ofthe partnership. 

CHAPTER XIIITHE END OF THE PARTNERSHIP

Either in March or April, 1870, FitzGerald wrote to Posh the quaintletter which follows:--

 "DEAR POSH, "I never wanted you to puzzle yourself about the Accounts any more, but only to tell me at a rough estimate what the chief expenses were--as, for instance, Shares, &c. --I beg to say that I _never had_ asked you--nor had you told me this at Lowestoft: if you had I should not have wanted to ask again. And my reason _for_ asking, was simply that, on Monday Mr. Moor here was _asking me_ about what a Lugger's expenses were, and I felt it silly not to be able to tell him the least about it: and I have felt so when some one asked me before: and that is why I asked you. I neither have, nor ever had, any doubt of your doing your best: and you ought not to think so. 

 "You _must please yourself_ entirely about Plymouth: I only wish to say that I had not spoken as if I wanted you to go. Go by all means if you like. 

 "When I paid the Landlady of the Boat Inn for Newson and Jack she asked me if you had explained to me about the Grog business. I said that you could not understand it at first, but afterwards supposed that others might have been treated at night. She said--Yes; drinking rum-flip till two in the morning. She says it was Newson's doing, but I think _you_ should have told me _at once_, particularly as your not doing so left me with some suspicion of the Landlady's fair dealing. You did not choose to leave the blame to Newson, I suppose, but I think I deserve the truth at your hands as much as he does the concealment of it. 

 "Yours, "E. FG. "

{The "Boat Inn, " Quay Lane, Woodbridge: p151. Jpg}

Mr. Moor was FitzGerald's Woodbridge lawyer, and no doubt he and otherfriends of FitzGerald thought that the affairs of the partnership ofFitzGerald and Fletcher were not carried on with such precision as wasdesirable. Possibly they were right. But then, Posh couldn't beprecise. I have failed to get any intelligible account out of Posh as tothat rum-flip orgy. All he could do was to chuckle. The question ofloyalty raised in the letter is a nice one. But Posh and his kind wouldonly answer it in one way. They would regard it as treachery to theirorder to betray each other to a "gennleman, " however kind the"gennleman, " may have been. 

On April 4th FitzGerald wrote to Posh from Woodbridge:--

 "DEAR POSH, "I _may be_ at Lowestoft some time next week. As it is I have still some engagements here; and, moreover, I have not been quite well. 

 "If you want to see me, you have only to come over here any day you choose. To-morrow (Sunday) there is a Train from Lowestoft which reaches Woodbridge at about 3 in the afternoon. I tell you this in case you might want to see or speak to me. 

 "Mr. Manby told me yesterday that there was a wonderful catch of Mackerel down in the West. I have no doubt that this warm weather and fine nights has to do with it. I believe that we are in for a spell of such weather:--but I suppose you have no thought of going Westward now. 

 "I have desired that a . . . [word missing] of the Green Paint which Mr. Silver used should be sent to you. But do not you _wait_ for it, if you want to be about the Lugger at once. The paint _will keep_ for another time: and I suppose that the sooner the Lugger is afloat this hot and dry weather the better. 

 "Remember me to your Family. 

 "Yours always, "E. FG. "

Mr. Manby has been already mentioned, and we have previously heard of theexcellence of Mr. Silver's green paint. But this letter must have beenalmost the last written by the sleeping partner before the termination ofthe partnership; for on April the 12th Mr. W. T. Balls, of Lowestoft, valued the _Meum and Tuum_, and "Herring and Mackerel Nets, Bowls, Warpropes, Ballast, and miscellaneous Fishing Stock belonging jointly toEdward FitzGerald and Joseph Fletcher. "

FitzGerald had started Posh, put him on his legs, and, as he believed, given him a chance to become a successful "owner. " But the poet wasweary of the partnership. He had found it impossible to persuade Posh tokeep accounts such as should be kept in every business, and had beendisappointed more than once by the intemperance of the man. But as yetthe kindly, generous-hearted gentleman had no thought of breaking withhis protege altogether, or of depriving him of the use of the _Meum andTuum_ or _Henrietta_, both of which had been bought with his, FitzGerald's, money. But he would no longer be a partner. So Mr. Ballswas called in to value the stock-in-trade, with a view to arranging thata bill of sale for the half-value to which FitzGerald was entitled shouldbe given him, and that Posh should thereafter carry on the business of aherring-boat owner by himself, subject to the charge in favour of his old"guv'nor. "

Despite the various "squalls, " there had, as yet, been no serious quarrelbetween these two. Indeed, FitzGerald's kind heart never forgot Posh, and the fascination of the man. But for the future FitzGerald and Poshwere no longer partners. FitzGerald's experience as a "herring merchant"was at an end. 

CHAPTER XIVPOSH'S PORTRAIT

Previously to the termination of the partnership FitzGerald hadcommissioned S. Laurence to paint a portrait of Posh. On the 13thJanuary, 1870, he wrote to Laurence from Woodbridge (_Letters_, II, 113, Eversley Edition):--

 ". . . If you were down here, I think I should make you take a life- size Oil Sketch of the Head and Shoulders of my Captain of the Lugger. You see by the enclosed" (a copy of the photograph of 1870, no doubt) "that these are neither of them a bad sort: and the Man's Soul is every way as well proportioned, missing in nothing that may become a Man, as I believe. He and I will, I doubt, part Company; well as he likes me, which is perhaps as well as a sailor cares for any one but Wife and Children: he likes to be, what he is born to be, his own sole Master, of himself, and of other men. So now I have got him a fair start, I think he will carry on the Lugger alone: I shall miss my Hobby, which is no doubt the last I shall ride in this world: but I shall also get eased of some Anxiety about the lives of a Crew for which I now feel responsible. . . . "

On January 20th FitzGerald wrote another letter to Laurence on the samesubject. 

 ". . . I should certainly like a large Oil-sketch like Thackeray's, done in your most hasty, and worst, style, to hang up with Thackeray and Tennyson, with whom he shares a certain Grandeur of Soul and Body. As you guess, the colouring is (when the Man is all well) the finest Saxon type: with that complexion which Montaigne calls 'vif, Male, et flamboyant'; blue eyes; and strictly auburn hair, that any woman might sigh to possess. He says it is coming off, as it sometimes does from those who are constantly wearing the close, hot Sou'-westers. We must see what can be done about a Sketch" (_Letters_, II, 115, Eversley Edition). 

In February of the same year FitzGerald went down to Lowestoft, and wroteanother letter from there with reference to the proposed portrait(_Letters_, II, 115, Eversley Edition). It is obvious from these lettersthat there was no bitterness on his side which led to the ending of thepartnership. His long-suffering endured to the last. 

 "MY DEAR LAURENCE, ". . . I came here a few days ago, for the benefit of my old Doctor, The Sea, and my Captain's Company, which is as good. He has not yet got his new Lugger home; but will do so this week, I hope; and then the way for us will be somewhat clearer. 

 "If you sketch a head, you might send it down to me to look at, so as I might be able to guess if there were any likelihood in that way of proceeding. Merely the Lines of Feature indicated, even by Chalk, might do. As I told you, the Head is of the large type, or size, the proper Capital of a six-foot Body, of the broad dimensions you see in the Photograph. The fine shape of the Nose, less than Roman, and more than Greek, scarce appears in the Photograph; the Eye, and its delicate Eyelash, of course will remain to be made out; and I think you excel in the Eye. 

 "When I get home (which I shall do this week) I will send you two little Papers about the Sea words and Phrases used hereabout, for which this Man (quite unconsciously) is my main Authority. You will see in them a little of his simplicity of Soul; but not the Justice of Thought, Tenderness of Nature, and all other good Gifts which make him a Gentleman of Nature's grandest Type. "

{Little Grange: p161. Jpg}

The new Lugger was, of course, the _Henrietta_. The portrait was, according to Posh, painted during the summer at Little Grange, the housewhich FitzGerald built for himself, or rather altered for himself, atWoodbridge. Dr. Aldis Wright was under the impression that the portraitwas never finished; but Posh is very certain about it. "I mind settin'as still as a cat at a mouse-hole, " says he, "for ten min't or a quarterof an hour at a time, on and off, and then a stretchin' o' my legs in theyard. Ah! I was somethin' glad when that wuz finished, that I was!Tired! Lor! I niver knowed as dewin' narthen' would tire ye like that. The picter was sold at Mr. FitzGerald's sale, and bought by Billy Hyneso' Bury St. Edmunds. He kep' a public there. I reckon he's dead bynow. "

Up to the date of going to press I have been unable to trace thisportrait, and it is, of course, possible, that in spite of Posh's vividrecollection, Dr. Aldis Wright's impression may be the right one. 

A letter to Laurence of August 2nd, 1870, corroborates Posh to the extentof proving that the painter had certainly seen the fisherman. On thatdate FitzGerald wrote (_Letters_, II, 118, Eversley Edition):--

 ". . . The Lugger is now preparing in the Harbour beside me; the Captain here, there, and everywhere; with a word for no one but on business; the other side of the Man you saw looking for Birds' Nests: all things in their season. I am sure the Man is fit to be King of a Kingdom as well as of a Lugger. . . . 

 "I declare, you and I have seen A Man! Have we not? Made in the mould of what Humanity should be, Body and Soul, a poor Fisherman. The proud Fellow had better have kept me for a Partner in some of his responsibilities. But no; he must rule alone, as is right he should too. . . . "

Yes. It would certainly have been better for Posh if he had kept his"guv'nor" for a partner. But the "squalls, " the occasional beer bouts(or "settin' ins, " as they call them in East Anglia), had excited thespirit of independence of my gentleman. Possibly FitzGerald himself had, by too open a display of his admiration for his partner, this typicallongshoreman, contributed to the personal self-satisfaction which musthave been at the bottom of the man's reasons for wishing to be free ofone who had befriended him so delicately and so generously. Posh himselfadmits, or rather boasts, that the "break" was owing to his own action. From first to last it seems that FitzGerald, the cultured gentleman, thescholar, the poet of perfect language and profound philosophy, regardedPosh as almost more than man--certainly as more than average man--andthere can be no greater token of the sweet simplicity of the scholar. 

CHAPTER XVA DROP O' BARE

In September, 1870 (which would be just before the home voyage began andafter the Northern voyage was over), Posh seems to have "celebrated" morethan his whilome partner and then mortgagee thought proper. On the 8thof the month FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 119):--

 ". . . I had a letter from Posh yesterday, telling me he was sorry we had not 'parted Friends. ' That he had been indeed '_a little the worse_ for Drink'--which means being at a Public-house half the Day, and having to sleep it off the remainder: having been duly warned by his Father at Noon that all had been ready for sailing 2 hours before, and all the other Luggers gone. As Posh could _walk_, I suppose he only acknowledges a _little_ Drink; but, judging by what followed on that little Drink, I wish he had simply acknowledged his Fault. He begs me to write: if I do so I must speak very plainly to him: that, with all his noble Qualities, I doubt I can never again have Confidence in his Promise to break this one bad Habit, seeing that He has broken it so soon, when there was no occasion or excuse: unless it were the thought of leaving his Wife so ill at home. The Man is so beyond others, as I think, that I have come to feel that I must not condemn him by general rule; nevertheless, if he ask me, I can refer him to no other. I must send him back his own written Promise of Sobriety, signed only a month before he broke it so needlessly: and I must even tell him that I know not yet if he can be left with the Mortgage as we settled it in May. . . . 

 "P. S. --I enclose Posh's letter, and the answer I propose to give to it. I am sure it makes me sad and ashamed to be setting up for Judge on a much nobler Creature than myself. . . . I had thought of returning him his written Promise as worthless: desiring back my direction to my Heirs that he should keep on the Lugger in case of my Death. . . . I think Posh ought to be made to feel this severely: and, as his Wife is better I do not mind making him feel it if I can. On the other hand, I do not wish to drive Him, by Despair, into the very fault which I have so tried to cure him of. . . . "

His mother did not try to excuse him at all: his father would not evensee him go off. She merely told me parenthetically, "I tell him he seemto do it when the Governor is here. "

If FitzGerald had not set poor Posh (for in a way I am sorry for the oldfellow) on a pedestal, he would have understood that to a longshoreman orherring fisher who drinks it (there are many teetotallers now), "bare"can never be regarded as an enemy. Posh did not think any excuse wasnecessary for having had, perhaps, more than he could conveniently carry. It was his last day ashore (though I can't quite understand what fishinghe was going on unless the herring came down earlier than they do now), and he was "injyin' of hisself. " In the old days they took a cask or soaboard. This is never done now, and the chief drink aboard is cocoa(pronounced, as FitzGerald writes, "cuckoo"). Posh no doubt thoughthimself hard done by that such a fuss should have been made about a"drarp o' bare. " He doubtless wished that FitzGerald should forgive him. For, despite his conduct, he did, I truly believe, love his "guv'nor. " Asfor the father and mother, well, they smoothed down the "gennleman" andsympathised with their son according to their kind and to mother nature. The Direction to FitzGerald's Heirs, which he refers to, is still inexistence, and reads as follows:--

 "LOWESTOFT, _January_ 20_th_, 1870. 

 "I hereby desire my Heirs executors and Assigns not to call in the Principal of any Mortgage by which Joseph Fletcher the younger of Lowestoft stands indebted to me; provided he duly pays the Interest thereon; does his best to pay off the Principal; and does his best also to keep up the value of the Property so mortgaged until he pays it off. 

 "This I hereby desire and enjoin on my heirs executors or assigns solemnly as any provision made by Word or Deed while . . . [word missing] any other legal document. 

 "EDWARD FITZGERALD. "

This solemn injunction was written on a sheet of note-paper, and in thefold, over a sixpenny stamp, FitzGerald wrote: "This paper I now endorseagain on legal stamp, so as to give it the authority I can. EdwardFitzGerald, July 31, 1870. "

Surely never man had so kind and considerate a friend as Posh had inFitzGerald!

CHAPTER XVITHE SALE OF THE _SCANDAL_

Though the partnership was over, FitzGerald by no means gave up hisfriendship for Posh. From time to time he saw him, and from time to timehe wrote to him, and always he retained the affection for thelongshoreman which had sprung up in him so suddenly and (I fear) sounaccountably. 

On February 5th, 1871, FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (_Two SuffolkFriends_, p. 121):--

 ". . . Posh and his Father are very busy getting the _Meum and Tuum_ ready for the West; Jemmy, who goes Captain, is just now in France with a _Cargoe_ of salt Herrings. I suppose the Lugger will start in a fortnight or so. . . . All-fours at night. "

In April of the same year FitzGerald wrote to Posh:--

 "WOODBRIDGE, _Monday_. 

 "DEAR POSH, "Come any day you please. The Horse Fair is on Friday, you had better come, at any rate; by Thursday, so as to catch the Market. For I think your Lugger must have got away before that. 

 "A letter written by Ablett Pasefield [otherwise called Percival] yesterday tells me there are four Lowestoft Luggers in Weymouth. I fancy that even if they were on the Fishing ground, the wind must be too strong to be at work. 

 "It was Mr. Kerrich who died suddenly this day week--and I suppose is being buried this very day. 

 "Yours, E. FG. 

 "Mr. Berry tells me that the Poultry Show here is on Thursday. You can, as I say, come any Day you please. I see the Wind is got West, after the squalls of Hail. "

{Geldeston Hall, the Norfolk seat of the Kerrich Family: p173. Jpg}

Ablett Pasefield (or Percival), the fisherman and yacht hand, has beenmentioned before, and will be mentioned again. He was one ofFitzGerald's favourites. Mr. Kerrich was FitzGerald's brother-in-law, the husband of the poet's favourite sister, who had predeceased him in1863. On August 5th in that year FitzGerald wrote to Professor Cowell(_Letters_, II, 46, Eversley Edition): ". . . I have lost my sisterKerrich, the only one of my family I much cared for, or who much caredfor me. "

* * * * *

Mr. Kerrich lived at Geldeston Hall, near Beccles, which is still inpossession of the same family. 

Mr. Berry (as we know) was FitzGerald's landlord at Markethill, Woodbridge. 

At this time Posh was a man of means, and drove his smart gig and mare, and it was with some idea of buying a new horse that he was to go toWoodbridge Horse Fair. In the seventies the horse fairs of Norwich andother East Anglian towns were important functions. The Rommanygryengroes had not then all gone to America, and those who know theirGeorge Borrow will remember with delight his description of the scene atthe horse fair on Norwich Castle Hill, when Jasper Petulengro firstbrought himself to the recollection of Lavengro (or the "sap-engro") ashis "pal"--that memorable day when George Borrow saw the famous entireNorfolk cob Marshland Shales led amongst bared heads, blind and grey withage, but triumphant in his unequalled fame (_Lavengro_, p. 74, MinervaEdition). 

But Posh bought no new horse. And his recollection does not permit ofany trustworthy account of his visit. 

Perhaps it was during this trip to Woodbridge (and the carping readerwill be justified in saying "and perhaps it wasn't") that Posh witnessedthe curious and characteristic meeting between FitzGerald and his wife. 

If this meeting were characteristic, still more so was the history of themarriage. 

FitzGerald had been a great friend of Bernard Barton, the Woodbridgequaker poet, and on the death of his friend he wished to save Miss Bartonfrom being thrown on the world almost destitute and almost friendless. The only way of doing it without creating scandal (and he changed thename of his yacht from the _Shamrock_ to the _Scandal_ because he saidthat scandal was the principal commodity of Woodbridge) was to make herhis wife. This he did. But there were many reasons why the marriage wasnot likely to prove a happy one. It did not, and both parties recognisedthat the wisest thing to do was to separate without any unnecessary fuss. They did so. And no doubt their action proved to be for the happiness ofeach of them. 

Posh was walking with FitzGerald on one occasion down Quay Lane, Woodbridge, when Mrs. FitzGerald (who was living at Gorleston at thetime, but had gone over to Woodbridge, possibly to see some old friends)appeared walking towards them. FitzGerald removed the glove he waswearing on his right hand. Mrs. FitzGerald removed the glove she waswearing on her right hand. There was a momentary hesitation as thehusband passed the wife. But Posh thinks that the two hands did notmeet. FitzGerald bowed with all his courtesy, and passed on. 

Posh says that Mrs. FitzGerald was a "fine figure of a woman. " And Ibelieve that she was, indeed, so fine a figure of a woman that the lengthof her stride excited the admiration of the local schoolboys when she wasstill Miss Barton. She was older than FitzGerald when he married her, and both were nearer fifty than forty. 

In this context I give the following letter from FitzGerald to Posh, though I have been unable to fix its date with any certainty. 

 "WOODBRIDGE, _Tuesday_. 

 "DEAR POSH, "I find that I may very likely have to go to London on Thursday--not to be home till Friday perhaps. If I do this it will be scarce worth while your coming over here to-morrow, so far as _I_ am concerned; though you will perhaps see Newson. 

 "Poor young Smith of the Sportsman was brought home ill last week, and died of the very worst Small Pox in a Day or two. There have been _three_ Deaths from it here: all from London. As young Smith died in _Quay Lane_ leading down to the Boat Inn, I should not like you to be about there with any chance of Danger, though I have been up and down several times myself. 

 "Ever yours, "E. FG. "

"The Sportsman" was a public-house at Woodbridge, and it is probable thatFitzGerald had helped "poor young Smith" substantially. His anxiety lestPosh should contract smallpox, and his indifference as to himself, areadmirably illustrative of the man's unselfishness. 

But now that the partnership was at an end he began to frequent Lowestoftless. During 1871 he sold the _Scandal_, and on September 4th he wroteto Dr. Aldis Wright from Woodbridge (_Letters_, II, p. 126, EversleyEdition): "I run over to Lowestoft occasionally for a few days, but donot abide there long: no longer having my dear little Ship for company. . . . "

Who bought the _Scandal_ I do not know. Posh has no recollection, andDr. Aldis Wright has been unable to trace with certainty the subsequentowner of her, though he has reason to think that she was sold to SirCuthbert Quilter. She had served her purpose. She was, as Posh assuresme, a "fast and handy little schooner. "

After her sale FitzGerald still remained the mortgagee of the _Meum andTuum_ and the _Henrietta_. But this was not to last indefinitely. Posh'sspirit of independence and love of "bare" were fated to put an end to allbusiness relations between his old "guv'nor" and him. 

CHAPTER XVIIBY ORDER OF THE MORTGAGEE

Matters were still progressing fairly satisfactorily when FitzGeraldvisited Lowestoft in September, 1872. On the 29th of that month he wroteto Mr. Spalding (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 122):--

 ". . . Posh--after no fish caught for 3 weeks--has had his boat come home with nearly all her fleet of nets torn to pieces in last week's winds. . . . He . . . Went with me to the theatre afterwards, where he admired the 'Gays, ' as he called the Scenes; but fell asleep before Shylock had whetted his knife in the Merchant of Venice. . . . "

"Gays" is East Anglian for pictures. 

* * * * *

Towards the end of 1873 relations began to be severely strained betweenmortgagor and mortgagee. On December the 31st FitzGerald wrote from 12Marine Terrace, Lowestoft:--

 "12 MARINE TERRACE, "_December_ 31. 

 "JOSEPH FLETCHER, "As you cannot talk with me without confusion, I write a few words to you on the subject of the two grievances which you began about this morning. 

 "1st. As to your being _under_ your Father: I said no such thing: but wrote that he was to be _either_ Partner, or (with your Mother) constantly employed, and consulted with as to the Boats. It is indeed for _their_ sakes, and that of your own Family, that I have come to take all this trouble

 "2ndly. As to the Bill of Sale to me. If you could be calm enough, you would see that this would be a Protection _to yourself_. You do not pay your different Creditors _all_ their Bill at the year's end. Now, if any one of these should happen to want _all_ his Money; he might, by filing a Bankruptcy against you, seize upon your Nets and everything else you have to pay his Debt. 

 "As to your supposing that _I_ should use the Bill of Sale except in the last necessity (which I do not calculate upon), you prove that you can have but little remembrance of what I have hitherto done for you and am still willing to do for your Family's sake quite as much as for your own. 

 "The Nets were included in the Valuation which Mr. Balls made of the whole Property; which valuation (as you ought to remember) I reduced even lower than Mr. Balls' Valuation; which you yourself thought too low at the time. Therefore (however much the Nets, &c. May have been added to since) surely _I_ have the first claim on them in Justice, if not by the Mortgage. I repeat, however, that I proposed the Bill of Sale quite as much as a Protection to yourself and yours as to myself. 

 "If you cannot see all this on reflection, there is no use my talking or writing more about it. You may ask Mr. Barnard, if you please, or any such competent person, if _they_ object to the Bill of Sale, I shall not insist. But you had better let me know what you decide on before the end of the week when I shall be going home, that I may arrange accordingly. 

 "EDWARD FITZGERALD. "

Mr. Barnard was a Lowestoft lawyer for whom Posh had no great love. Itis hardly necessary to say that he did not "ask" him. He still raiseshis voice and gets excited when he discusses the grievances of which hemade complaint in the winter of 1873. "He wouldn't leave me alone, " saysPosh. "It was 'yew must ax yar faa'er this, an' yew must let yar motherthat, and yew mustn't dew this here, nor yit that theer. ' At last I upan' says, 'Theer! I ha' paid ivery farden o' debts. Look a here. Herebe the receipts. Now I'll ha'e no more on it. ' And I slammed my fistdown like this here. "

(Posh's fist came down on my Remington's table till the bell jangled!)

"'Oh dear! oh dear, Posh!' says he. 'That it should ever come ta this!And hev yew anything left oover?'

"'Yes, ' I say. 'I've got a matter of a hunnerd an' four pound cleararter payin' ivery farden owin', an' the stock an' nets an' gear and tewboots {184} an' all wha'ss mortgaged ta yew. Now I'll ha'e no more on't. Ayther I'm master or I ha' done wi't. '

"'Oh dear! oh dear! Posh, ' he say, 'I din't think as yew'd made somuch. '"

That is Posh's account of the final disagreement which led to the sale ofthe boats in 1874. Even if it be true one cannot say that the bluffindependence came off with flying colours in this particular instance. But FitzGerald could have told another story, if one may judge from hisletter to Mr. Spalding of the 9th January, 1874, written from Lowestoft(_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 123):--

 ". . . I have seen no more of Fletcher since I wrote, though he called once when I was out. . . . I only hope he has taken no desperate step. I hope so for his Family's sake, including Father and Mother. People here have asked me if he is not going to give up the business, &c. Yet there is Greatness about the Man. I believe his want of Conscience in some particulars is to be referred to his _Salwaging_ Ethics; and your Cromwells, Caesars, and Napoleons have not been more scrupulous. But I shall part Company with him if I can do so without Injury to his Family. If not I must let him go on _under some_ '_Surveillance_': he _must_ wish to get rid of me also, and (I believe, though he says _not_) of the Boat, if he could better himself. "

Posh's story is that after the letter of December 31st, 1873, FitzGeraldtried to find him. He went to his father's house, and (says Posh, whichwe are at liberty to doubt) "cried like a child. " He sent Posh a paperof conditions which must be agreed to if he, Posh, were to continue tohave the use of the _Meum and Tuum_ and the _Henrietta_. The last onewas (Posh says, with a roar of indignation), "that the said JosephFletcher the younger shall be a teetotaller!"

"Lor'!" says Posh, "how my father did swear at him when I told him o'that!"

No doubt he did. And no doubt in the presence of FitzGerald the "slim"old Lowestoft longshoreman raised his mighty voice in wrath andindignation that he should have begotten a son to disgrace him socruelly! FitzGerald was too open a man, too honest-hearted, toostraightforward to understand that a father could encourage his soninsidiously, and swear at him, FitzGerald, at the same time as hedeprecated that son's conduct. But FitzGerald's eyes, long closed bykindness, were partly open at last. He would not go on without somebetter guarantee of conduct, some better security that the boats' debtswould be paid. On January 19th, 1874, he wrote to Posh (and thehandwriting of the letter suggests disturbance of mind) from Woodbridge:--

 "I forgot to say, Fletcher, that I shall pay for any work done to my two Boats, in case that you get another Boat to employ the Nets in. That you _should_ get such another Boat, is, I am quite sure, the best plan for you and for me also. As I wrote you before, I shall make over to you all my Right to the Nets on condition that you use them, or change them for others to be used, in the Herring Fishing, in any other Boat which you may buy or hire. I certainly shall not let you have the use of my Boats, unless under _some_ conditions, _none_ of which which [_sic_] you seemed resolved to submit to. It will save all trouble if you take the offer I have made you, and the sooner it is settled the better. 

 "EDWARD FITZGERALD. "

But Posh "worn't a goin' ta hev his faa'er put oover him, nor he worn't agoin' ta take no pledge. Did ye iver hear o' sich a thing?"

So in due course, on the 17th February, 1874, Mr. W. T. Balls, ofLowestoft, sold by auction the "Lugger _Meum and Tuum_" (she had beenconverted into a dandy-rigged craft about 1872) "and the _Henrietta_ bydirection of Edward FitzGerald as mortgagee. "

{Edward FitzGerald's gravestone in Boulge churchyard; at the head of thegrave is a rose bush raised from seed brought from Omar's tomb: p200. Jpg}

So Mr. Balls writes me. But he has no letters from FitzGerald, and waskind enough to look up the valuation and sale transactions in his booksat my request. 

The _Meum and Tuum_ was a favourite of Posh's and he tried to buy her forhimself. But although she had only cost 360 pounds to build in 1867, in1874 she fetched over 300 pounds, and Posh could not go so high as that. So he made other arrangements, and his fishing interests with FitzGeraldwere finally ended. 

One would have thought that there would be no more letters beginning"Dear Posh. " But though FitzGerald had found himself obliged to end hisassociation with Posh in the herring fishing, he never ended hisfriendship, even if, during the last years of his life, he neither sawnor wrote to his former partner. 

The _Meum and Tuum_ made several more voyages in the North Sea and to thewest, and, when she was no longer strictly seaworthy, was sold to a Mr. Crisp, of Beccles, a maltster and general provision merchant, who turnedher into a storeship, and anchored her off his wharf in the riverWaveney. When she became so rotten as to be unfit even for a storageship she was broken up, and her name-board was bought by Captain Kerrich, of Geldeston Hall (the son of FitzGerald's favourite sister), who waskind enough to present it to the Omar Khayyam Club. But as the club hasno "local habitation"--only a name--it now remains in the charge of Mr. Frederic Hudson, one of the founders of the club. 

CHAPTER XVIIIUNTO THIS LAST

Posh does not remember the last occasion on which he spoke to his old"guv'nor, " but he says that whenever he did see him he, FitzGerald, wouldtake him by the blue woollen jersey and pinch him, and say, "Oh dear, ohdear, Posh! To think it should ha' come to this. " Well, this maypossibly have been the case. There is no doubt that FitzGerald resumedfriendly relations with the fisherman, for on August 29th, 1875, he wrotefrom Woodbridge to his former partner:--

 "WOODBRIDGE, _August_ 29. 

 "DEAR POSH, "I have posted you a Lowestoft Paper telling you something of the Regatta there. But as you say you like to hear from me also, I write to supply what the Paper does not tell: though I wonder you can care to hear of such things in the midst of your Fishing. 

 "I, and every one else, made sure that the little _Sapphire_ would do well when it came on to blow on Thursday: she went to her moorings as none of the others did except the _Red Rover_. But, directly the Gun fired, the _Otter_ (an awkward thing) drove down upon, and broke up her Chain-plates, or stenctions [_sic_], to which the wire rigging holds: so she could not sail at all: and the _Red Rover_ got the Prize, after going only _two_ rounds instead of _three_: which is odd work, I think. Major Leathes' mast went over in the first round, as it did a year ago. At Evening, the _Otter_ grounded as she lay by the South Pier: and would have knocked her bottom out had not Ablett Pasifull gone off to her and made them hoist their main-sail. 

 "Ablett and Jack got more and more uncomfortable with their new Owner, who is a Fool as well as a Screw. At last Ablett told him that he himself and Jack had almost been on the point of leaving him, and _that_, I think, will bring him to his senses, if anything can. 

 "On Friday we saw _Mushell_ coming in deeply laden, and we heard how he had just missed putting three lasts on board of you. I sent off a Telegram to you that same evening, as Mushell knew you would be anxious to know that he had come in safe through the wind and Sea of Thursday night. He was to have started away again on Sunday: but one of his men who had gone home had not returned by one o'clock, when I came away. _This_, I always say, is one of the Dangers of coming home, but, as Things were, _Mushell_ could scarce help it, though he had better have gone to Yarmouth to sell his Fish. He seems a good Fellow. 

 "All these mishaps--I wonder any man can carry on the trade! I think I would rather be in my own little Punt again. But, while you will go on, you know I will stand by you. Your mare is well, and the sore on her Shoulder nearly gone. Mr. And Mrs. Howe send their Regards. Cowell is gone off to Devonshire instead of coming to meet me at Lowestoft: but I dare say I shall run over there again before long. 

 "Yours always, "E. FG. "

{Boulge church: p201. Jpg}

The "little _Sapphire_" I cannot identify. One gentleman has been kindenough to try to help me, and thinks that she was the _Scandal_. Butthis cannot be so, for the _Scandal_ was built for FitzGerald at Wyvenhoein 1863, was first called the _Shamrock_ and then the _Scandal_. Personally, I remember the names of a good many of the yachts of theNorfolk and Suffolk coast of the period, but I can't identify the_Sapphire_. The _Red Rover_ was a river craft, a cutter, with the onebig jib of our river craft instead of jib and foresail, belonging to thelate Mr. Sam Nightingale, of Lacon's Brewery. She was originally abouttwelve tons, but by improvements and additions, when Mr. Nightingale diedin the eighties, was eighteen tons. For many years she was the fastestyacht in the Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club, and though she wasoccasionally beaten on fluky days she never lost possession of thechallenge cup for long. Fred Baldry, who steered her with extraordinaryskill, is, I believe, still alive, and lives on Cobholm Island, Yarmouth. 

The _Red Rover_ was not only successful on the rivers and Broads, but inthe Yarmouth Roads. I was on her when she was beating the famous Thamestwenty-tonner _Vanessa_, when the _Red Rover_ carried away her bowsprit(a new stick) as she was beating on the sands to dodge the tide, and Iremember how we were hooted all the way up Gorleston Harbour when Mr. William Hall's steam launch towed us in. 

I believe that when the little ten-ton _Buttercup_ (unbeaten at her best)came down and gave the poor old _Red Rover_ the worst dressing down shehad ever experienced it broke Mr. Nightingale's heart. He died soonafter, and he left a direction in his will that the _Red Rover_ should bebroken up and burnt. It would, I think, have been a kinder and betterdirection to have left the yacht to Fred Baldry, who had steered her tovictory so often. 

Although I have described her as a river yacht, she was purely a racingmachine, and used to be accompanied (in the home waters at all events) bya wherry, with all spare spars and sails, on which everything unnecessaryfor sailing was stowed before the starting gun was fired. 

Once a year she carried a picnic party over Breydon Water, on whichoccasion, I believe, Mrs. Nightingale was invariably seasick going overto Breydon. Neither Mr. Nor Mrs. Nightingale ever used her for pleasureexcept on that one annual excursion up to Reedham. 

Well, well! There are no _Red Rovers_ now, and no Fred Baldrys comingon. But there are plenty of stinking black tugs and filthy coal bargesembellishing the lovely Norfolk waters. I do not wonder that ColonelLeathes, mentioned in the last quoted letter, has taken his yacht _off_the public waters and confined her to the beautiful wooded reaches ofFritton Mere. 

The _Otter_ was a rival of the _Red Rover_ in the early days of thelatter yacht, and was a clumsy, rather ugly, ketch-rigged craft belongingto Sir Arthur Preston. Major Leathes' (now Colonel Leathes) boat was ayawl named the _Waveney Queen_, and the Colonel tells me that he carriedaway his mast twice, each time because he would "carry on" too long. 

I can't ascertain who was the "new owner" of Ablett Percival and Jack--andif I could I suppose it wouldn't do to name him, in view of FitzGerald'sstringent criticism of him. Subsequently Jack Newson went on the _Mars_, the sea-going craft belonging to the late J. J. Colman, M. P. , but thiswas later than 1875. 

"Mushell" was the nickname of Joe Butcher, the former skipper of the_Henrietta_, under Posh, as owner. 

I must admit that this letter is hard to fit in with the year 1875, whenthe _Meum and Tuum_ and the _Henrietta_ had been sold, and the separationbetween Posh and his "guv'nor" final, so far as herring fishing wasconcerned. The last paragraph, in which FitzGerald writes that so longas Posh goes on he will stand by him, seems in flat contradiction to whathappened in 1874. But Colonel Leathes puts the date as 1875, and Dr. Aldis Wright has been kind enough to look up old almanacs in hispossession and corroborates this view. It speaks with extraordinaryeloquence of FitzGerald's affection for Posh, of his patience with theman, that after the want of recognition of his kindness shown in 1874 heshould have written to him in such a manner in 1875. 

"Mr. And Mrs. Howe" were, as I have stated before, the caretakers atLittle Grange. "Cowell" was, no doubt, Professor Cowell, though it seemsstrange that FitzGerald should have mentioned him to Posh without anyprefix to his name. 

That is the last letter in which I can find any reference to Posh, andthe last letter in Posh's possession which was written to him. I daresay there were later letters, but if so they have been destroyed. 

FitzGerald had tried a new experiment, and it was ended. 

 Myself, when young, did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument About it and about: but evermore Came out by the same door wherein I went. 

He had found a new love, a new interest, and believed that he had found anew trustworthiness. But he returned through the same door by which heentered; and he was an old man for disillusionment. 

Posh was, no doubt, rude, harsh, overbearing with the old gentleman, buthis eyes grow moist now when he speaks of him. I think he wouldsurrender a good deal of his boasted independence if only he could haveFitzGerald for his friend again. 

The last time he was with me I read him

 The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it. 

"Well tha'ss a rum un!" said Posh. 

THE END

WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD. PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH

Footnotes:

{184} In East Anglia "boat" is pronounced to rhyme with "foot. "