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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20543-h.zip b/20543-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d1ccaa --- /dev/null +++ b/20543-h.zip diff --git a/20543-h/20543-h.htm b/20543-h/20543-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca9768d --- /dev/null +++ b/20543-h/20543-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3930 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Edward FitzGerald and "Posh"</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + TD { vertical-align: top; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Edward FitzGerald and "Posh", by James Blyth</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Edward FitzGerald and "Posh", by James Blyth + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Edward FitzGerald and "Posh" + "Herring Merchants" + + +Author: James Blyth + + + +Release Date: February 8, 2007 [eBook #20543] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDWARD FITZGERALD AND "POSH"*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1908 John Long edition by David Price, +email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>EDWARD FITZGERALD AND “POSH”<br /> +“HERRING MERCHANTS”</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">include a +number of letters</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">from edward fitzgerald to joseph +fletcher</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">or “posh,” not hitherto +published</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +JAMES BLYTH</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">with sixteen +illustrations</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON<br /> +JOHN LONG<br /> +NORRIS STREET, HAYMARKET<br /> +<span class="smcap">mcmviii</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><!-- page 4--><a +name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 4</span><i>Copyright by +John Long, 1908</i><br /> +<i>All Rights Reserved</i></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><!-- page 5--><a +name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span><span +class="smcap">to</span><br /> +W. ALDIS WRIGHT, <span class="smcap">Esq.</span>, M.A.<br /> +<span class="smcap">vice-master of trinity college</span>, <span +class="smcap">cambridge</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">i dedicate this sketch</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">with most sincere thanks for his</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">invaluable assistance in connection +therewith</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">and for his permission to print</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">the letters of edward fitzgerald</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">which are now published for the first +time</span></p> +<p style="text-align: right">JAS. BLYTH</p> +<p><i>March</i>, 1908</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p0b.jpg"> +<img alt="“Posh” Fletcher in 1870. Taken for Edward +FitzGerald" src="images/p0s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 7--><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +7</span>PREFACE</h2> +<p>There can be no better foreword to this little sketch of one +of the phases of Edward FitzGerald’s life than the +following letter, written to Thomas Carlyle in 1870, which was +generously placed at my disposal by Dr. Aldis Wright while I was +giving the sketch its final revision for the press. The +portrait referred to in the letter is no doubt that reproduced as +the photograph of 1870.</p> +<blockquote><p>“<span class="smcap">Dear +Carlyle</span>,</p> +<p>“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 <!-- page 8--><a +name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>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</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Humble Reader,<br /> +“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Too much has been made by certain writers, with more credulity +than discretion, of some personal characteristics of a +great-hearted man. My purpose in tendering this sketch to +the lovers of FitzGerald is to show that in many ways he has been +calumniated. The man who could write the letters to his +humble friend, which are here <!-- page 9--><a +name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>printed; the +man who could show such consistent tenderness and delicacy of +spirit to his fisherman partner, and could permit the enthusiasm +of his affection to blind him to the truth, was no sulky +misanthrope; but a man whose heart, whose intensely human heart, +was so great as to preponderate over his magnificent +intellect. Edward FitzGerald was a great poet, and a great +philosopher. He was a still greater man.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>For there is no <i>Saki</i> to do it, either here or with the +houris.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">James +Blyth</span></p> +<h2><!-- page 13--><a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +13</span>INTRODUCTION</h2> +<p>Towards the end of the summer of 1906 I received a letter from +Mr. F. A. Mumby, of the <i>Daily Graphic</i>, asking me if I knew +if Joseph Fletcher, the “Posh” of the +“FitzGerald” letters, was still alive. All +about me were veterans of eighty, ay, and ninety! hale and +garrulous as any longshoreman needs be. But it had never +occurred to me before that possibly the man who was Edward +FitzGerald’s “Image of the Mould that Man was +originally cast in,” the east coast fisherman for whom the +great translator considered no praise to be too high, might be +within easy reach.</p> +<p>My first discovery was that to most of the good people of +Lowestoft the name of the man who had honoured the town by his +preference was unknown. A solicitor <!-- page 14--><a +name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>in good +practice, a man who is by way of being an author himself, asked +me (when I named FitzGerald to him) if I meant that FitzGerald +who had, he believed, made a lot of money out of salt! A +schoolmaster had never heard of either FitzGerald or Omar.</p> +<p>It was plain that the educated classes of Lowestoft could help +me in my search but little. So I went down to the harbour +basins and the fish wharves, and asked of “Posh” and +his “governor.”</p> +<p>Not a jolly boatman of middle age in the harbour but knew of +both. “D’ye mean 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 up in +Chapel Street. Number tew. He lodge theer.”</p> +<p>So up I went to Chapel Street, one of those streets in the old +North Town of Lowestoft which have seen better days. A +wizened, bent, white-haired old lady <!-- page 15--><a +name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>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, +fourteen years previously.</p> +<p>“You’ll find him down at the new basin,” +said the old lady. “He’s mostly there this time +o’ day.”</p> +<p>But there was no Posh at the new basin. Half a dozen +weather-beaten shrimpers (in their brown jumpers, and with the +fringe of hair running beneath the chin from ear to +ear—that hirsute ornament so dear to East Anglian +fishermen) were lounging about the wharf, or mending the +small-meshed trawl-nets wherein they draw what spoil they may +from the depleted roads.</p> +<p>All were grizzled, most were over seventy if wrinkled skin and +white hair may be taken as signs of age. And all knew Posh, +and (oh! shame to the “educated <!-- page 16--><a +name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +16</span>classes!”) all remembered Edward FitzGerald. +The poet, the lovable, cultured gentleman they knew nothing +of. Had they known of his incomparable paraphrase of the +Persian poet, of his scholarship, his intimacy with Thackeray, +Tennyson, Carlyle, the famous Thompson, Master of Trinity, they +would have recked nothing at all. But they remembered +FitzGerald, who has been called by their superiors an eccentric, +miserly hermit. They remembered him, I say, as a man whose +heart was in the right place, as a man who never turned a deaf +ear to a tale of trouble.</p> +<p>“Ah!” said one of them. “He was a +<i>good</i> gennleman, was old Fitz.” (They all spoke +of him as “old Fitz.” They thought of him as a +“mate”—as one who knew the sea and her moods, +and would put up with her vagaries even as 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 for <!-- page 17--><a name="page17"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 17</span>Posh when he come acrost him. +Posh! I reckon you’ll find him at Bill Harrison’s if +he bain’t on the market.”</p> +<p>“Posh” was no fancy name of the poet’s for +Joseph Fletcher, but the actual proper cognomen by which the man +has been known on the coast since he was a lad. Most east +coast fishermen have a nickname which supersedes their registered +name, and “Posh” (or now “old Posh”) was +Joseph Fletcher’s.</p> +<p>Bill Harrison’s is a cosy little beerhouse in the lower +North Town. It is 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.”</p> +<p>Here I found Posh. At that time, little more than a year +ago, I wrote of him as “a hale, stoutly-built man of over +the middle height, his round, ruddy, clean-shaven face encircled +by the fringe of iron-grey whiskers running round from ear to ear +beneath <!-- page 18--><a name="page18"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 18</span>the chin. His broad shoulders +were held square, his back straight, his head poised firm and +alert on a splendid column of neck.”</p> +<p>Alas! The description would fit Posh but poorly now.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said he. “I was Mr. +FitzGerald’s partner. But I can’t stop to +mardle along o’ ye now. I’ll meet ye when +an’ where ye like.”</p> +<p>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. I stalked him. I caught +stray glimpses of him in various haunts. But he always +evaded me.</p> +<p>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 on the doorstep expectant of Posh.</p> +<p>At length I cornered him (from information received) fairly +and squarely at the <!-- page 19--><a name="page19"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 19</span>Magdala House, a beerhouse in +Duke’s Head Street, two minutes’ walk from his +lodgings.</p> +<p>I got him on his legs and took him down Rant Score to Bill +Harrison’s.</p> +<p>“Now look here,” said I. “What’s +the matter? You’ve made appointment after +appointment, and kept none of them. Why don’t you +wish to see me?”</p> +<p>Posh shuffled his feet on, the sanded bricks. He drank +from the measure of “mild beer” (twopenny), for which +he will call in preference to any other liquid.</p> +<p>“Tha’ss like this here, master,” said +he. “I ha’ had enow o’ folks a +comin’ here an’ pickin’ my brains and +runnin’ off wi’ my letters and never givin’ me +so much as a sixpence.”</p> +<p>“Oho!” I thought. “That’s where +the rub is.”</p> +<p>I gave him a trifling guarantee of good faith, and his face +brightened up. Gradually I overcame his reserve, and +gradually I <!-- page 20--><a name="page20"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 20</span>persuaded him that I did not seek to +rob him of anything. I’m a bit of a sailor myself, +and I think a little talk of winds, shoals, seas, and landmarks +did more than the trifling guarantee of good faith to establish +friendly relations with the old fellow.</p> +<p>But he made no secret of his grievance, and I tell the tale as +he told it, without vouching for its accuracy, but confident that +he believed that he was telling me the truth. And, if he +was, the man referred to in his story, the man who robbed him to +all intents and purposes, is hereby invited to do something to +purge his offence by coming forward and “behaving like a +gennleman”—upon which I will answer for it that all +will be forgiven and forgotten by Posh.</p> +<p>“Ye see, master,” said Posh, “that was a Mr. +Earle” (I don’t know if that is the correct way of +spelling the name, because Posh is no great authority on +spelling; <!-- page 21--><a name="page21"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 21</span>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, and for 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 was a gennleman. Well, he axed me round +to Marine Parade, where he was a stayin’ with his lady, and +he give me one drink o’ whisky. And that’s all +I see of him. He was off with the letters and all, and +never gave me a farden for what he had or what he l’arnt +off o’ me. I heerd arterwards as the letters was sold +by auction for thutty pound. I see it in the paper. +If he’d ha’ sent me five pound I’d ha’ +been content. But he niver give me nothin’ but that +one drink. And ye see, master, <i>I didn’t know as +yew worn’t one o’ the same breed</i>!”</p> +<p>I have endeavoured to trace these letters, and to identify +this Mr. Earle. Mr. Clement Shorter has been kind enough to +do his <!-- page 22--><a name="page22"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 22</span>best to help me. 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 with +this volume) tells me that he has never been able to find out +where the letters are or who has them. One thing is +certain: the person who took advantage of Posh’s ignorance +will not be able to publish his ill-gotten gains in England so +long as any copyright exists in the letters. For no letter +of FitzGerald’s can be published without the consent of Dr. +Aldis Wright, and he is not the man to permit capital to be made +out of sharp practice with his consent. I have heard +rumours of certain letters to Posh being published in America, +with a photograph of Posh and Posh’s +“shud.” They may have been published under the +impression that they were properly in the possession of the +person holding them. I know nothing of that, nor of what +letters they are, nor who <!-- page 23--><a +name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>published +them, nor when and where they were issued. But I do know +what Posh has told me, and if the volume (if there is one) was +published in America by one innocent of trickery, here is his +chance to come forward and explain.</p> +<p>I was glad to see that Posh no longer numbered me among +“that breed.” But I was no longer surprised at +the difficulty I had experienced in getting to close quarters +with the man. From that time on he was the plain-speaking, +independent, humorous, rough man that he is naturally. He +has his faults. FitzGerald indicates one in several of his +letters. He is 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 as long as it did, and that that +refined, honourable gentleman (and I doubt if any one was ever +quite so perfect a gentleman as Edward <!-- page 24--><a +name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>FitzGerald) +was as infatuated with the breezy stalwart comeliness of the man +as his letters prove him to have been.</p> +<p>As all students of FitzGerald’s letters know, the +association between FitzGerald 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. But Posh never says a +word against his old guv’nor’s generosity and +kindness of heart. He puts his point of view with emphasis, +but always maintains that had it not been for other +“interfarin’ parties” there would never have +been any unpleasantness between him and the great man who loved +him so well, and whom, I believe in all sincerity, he still loves +as a kind, upright, and noble-hearted gentleman.</p> +<p>And as Posh’s years draw to a close (he was born in +June, 1838) I think his thoughts must often hark back to the days +when he was all in all to his guv’nor. For <!-- page +25--><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>evil +times have come on the old fellow. He is no longer the +hale, stalwart man I first saw at Bill Harrison’s.</p> +<p>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, almost decrepit, came stumbling to my +cottage door.</p> +<p>“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 +afore mornin’.”</p> +<p>Into the circumstances of his old landlady’s death, of +the action of her legal personal representatives, I will not go +here. It suffices to say that 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 sleeping in his shed on +the beach for two nights, without a roof which he could call his +home. Thanks to certain readers of the <i>Daily Graphic</i> +and to the members of the Omar <!-- page 26--><a +name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +26</span>Khayyám Club, I had a fund in hand for +Posh’s benefit, and immediately put a stop to his +homelessness. Indeed, he knew of this fund, and that he +could draw on it at need when he chose. But I believe the +old man’s heart was broken. He has never been the +same man since. The last year has put more than ten years +on the looks and bearing of the Posh whom I met first. But +his memory is still good, and I was surprised to see how much he +remembered of the people mentioned in the letters published in +this volume when I read them through to him the other day. +He cannot understand how it is that these letters have any +value. He tells me he has torn up “sackfuls on +’em” and strewn them to the winds. The actual +letters have been sold for his benefit, and I think that +FitzGerald would be pleased if he knew (as possibly he does know) +that his letters to his fisherman friend, have proved a stay to +his old age.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p26.jpg"> +<img alt="Posh in 1907" src="images/p26.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p><!-- page 27--><a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +27</span>I have done my best to give approximate dates to the +letters, and where I have succeeded in being absolutely correct I +have to thank Dr. Aldis Wright, whose courtesy and kindliness, +the courtesy and kindliness from a veteran to a tyro which is so +encouraging to the tyro, have been beyond any expression of +thanks which I can phrase. I hope that the letters and +notes 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 point of view of those old shrimpers by the new +basin as a “<i>good</i> gennleman,” as a +noble-hearted, courageous man, as well as the more artificial +scholar who quotes Attic scholiasts in a playful way as though +they were school classics. Every new discovery of +FitzGerald’s life seems to create new wonder, new +admiration for him; and there are, I hope, few who will read +without some emotion not far <!-- page 28--><a +name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>from tears +the sentence in his sermon to Posh.</p> +<p>“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: <i>now</i> I +shall often think of you with uneasiness, for the very reason +that I had so much Liking and Interest for you.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +29</span>CHAPTER I<br /> +THE MEETING</h2> +<p>The biography of a hero written by his valet would be +interesting, and, according to proverbial wisdom, unbiased by the +heroic repute of its subject. But it would be artificial +for all that. Even though the hero be 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 take +pleasure in, those qualities of his master, the existence of +which he would be the first to deny.</p> +<p>Where, however, a literary genius condescends to an intimacy +with a simple son of sea and shore who is not only practically +<!-- page 30--><a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +30</span>illiterate but is entirely ignorant of his +patron’s prowess, the opinions of the illiterate concerning +the personal characteristics of the genius obtain a very +remarkable value as being honest criticism by man of man, +uninfluenced by the spirit either of disingenuous adulation or of +equally disingenuous depreciation. That these opinions are +in the eyes of a disciple of the great man quaint, almost +insolently crude is a matter of course. But when they tend +to show the master not only great in letters but great in heart, +soul, human kindness, and generosity, they form, perhaps, the +most notable tribute to a great personality.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p30.jpg"> +<img alt="Cottage at corner of Boulge Park, where FitzGerald +lived for many years" src="images/p30.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>With the exception of Charles Lamb, no man’s letters +have endeared his memory to so many readers as have the letters +of Edward FitzGerald. But FitzGerald’s friends (to +whom most of the letters hitherto published were addressed) were +cultured gentlemen, men of the first rank of the time, of the +first rank of all time, <!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 31</span>men who would necessarily be swayed +by the charm of his culture, by the delicacy of his wit, by the +refinement of his thoughts.</p> +<p>In the case of “Posh,” however (that typical +Lowestoft fisherman who supplied “Fitz” with a period +of exaltation which was as extraordinary as it was +self-revealing), there were no extraneous influences at +work. Posh knew the man as a good-hearted friend, a man of +jealous affection, as a free-handed business partner, as a lover +of the sea. He neither knew nor cared that his partner (he +would not admit that “patron” would be the better +word!) was the author of undying verse. To this day it is +impossible to make him understand that reminiscences of +FitzGerald are of greater public interest than any recollection +of him—Posh.</p> +<p>It was not easy to explain to him that it was his first +meeting with Edward FitzGerald that was the thing and not the +theft of his (Posh’s) father’s longshore lugger <!-- +page 32--><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +32</span>which led to that meeting. However, time and +patience have rendered it possible to separate the wheat from the +tares of his narrative; and what tares may be left may be +swallowed down with the more nutritious grain without any +deleterious effect.</p> +<p>In the early summer of 1865 some daring longshore pirate made +off with Fletcher 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 were warned of the act. These worthy fellows +(and they are too fine a lot of men to be disbanded by any +twopenny Radical Government) traced the boat to Harwich. +Here the gallant rover had sought local and expert aid to enable +him to bring up, had then raised an awning, as though he were to +sleep aboard, and, after thus satisfying the local talent to whom +he was still indebted <!-- page 33--><a name="page33"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 33</span>for their services, had slunk ashore +and disappeared. Old Mr. Fletcher, on hearing the news, +started off to Harwich in another craft of his, and (fateful +fact!) took his son Posh with him.</p> +<p>Both the Fletchers were known to Tom Newson, a pilot of +Felixstowe Ferry, and they naturally looked him up.</p> +<p>For years Edward FitzGerald had been accustomed to cruise +about the Deben and down the river to Harwich in a small craft +captained by one West. But in 1865 he was the owner of a +smart fifteen-ton schooner, which he had had built for him by +Harvey, of Wyvenhoe, two years previously, and of which Tom +Newson was the skipper and his nephew Jack the crew. +According to Posh, the original name of this schooner was the +<i>Shamrock</i>, but she has become famous as the +<i>Scandal</i>. It happened that when the Fletchers were at +Harwich in search of the stolen punt, Edward FitzGerald had come +down the <!-- page 34--><a name="page34"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 34</span>river, and Newson made his two +Lowestoft friends known to his master.</p> +<p>There can be no doubt that at that time, when he was +twenty-seven years of age, Posh was an exceptionally comely and +stalwart man. And he was, doubtless, possessed of the dry +humour and the spirit of simple jollity which make his race such +charming companions for a time. At all events his +personality magnetised the poet, then a man of fifty-six, already +a trifle weary of the inanities of life.</p> +<p>FitzGerald must have been tolerably conversant with the +Harwich and Felixstowe mariners—with the +“salwagers” of the “Ship-wash”—and +the characters of the pilots and fishermen of the east +coast. But Posh seems to have come to him as something +new. How it happened it is impossible to guess. Posh +has no idea. He has a more or less contemptuous +appreciation of FitzGerald’s great affection for him. +But he cannot help any one to <!-- page 35--><a +name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>get to the +root of the question why FitzGerald should have singled him out +and set him above all other living men, as, for a brief period of +exaltation, he certainly did.</p> +<p>From the first meeting to the inevitable disillusionment +FitzGerald delighted in the company of the illiterate +fisherman. Whether he took his protégé +cruising with him on the <i>Scandal</i>, or sat with him in his +favourite corner of the kitchen of the old Suffolk Inn at +Lowestoft, or played “all-fours” with him, or sat and +“mardled” with him and his wife in the little cottage +(8 Strand Cottages, Lowestoft) where Posh reared his brood, +FitzGerald was fond even to jealousy of his new friend. The +least disrespect shown to Posh by any one less appreciative of +his merits FitzGerald would treat as an insult personal to +himself. On one occasion when he was walking with Posh on +the pier some stranger hazarded a casual word or two <!-- page +36--><a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>to +the fisherman. “Mr. Fletcher is <i>my</i> +guest,” said FitzGerald at once, and drew away his +“guest” by the arm.</p> +<p>It must have been soon after their first meeting that +FitzGerald wrote to Fletcher senior, Posh’s +father:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Markethill</span>, <span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>,<br /> +“March 1.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Mr. Fletcher</span>,</p> +<p>“Your little boy Posh came here yesterday, and is going +to-morrow with Newson to Felixtow Ferry, for a day or two.</p> +<p>“In case he is wanted at Lowestoft to attend a +<i>Summons</i>, or for any other purpose, please to write him a +line, directing to him at</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Thomas Newson’s,<br /> +“Pilot,<br /> +“Felixtow Ferry,<br /> +“<i>Ipswich</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Yours truly,<br /> +“<span class="smcap">Edward FitzGerald</span>.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p36.jpg"> +<img alt="11 Market Hill, Woodbridge (showing tablet outside +FitzGerald’s old rooms)" src="images/p36.jpg" /> +</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 37--><a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +37</span>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 fish to 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 and soles fell victims to the +longshoremen’s trawls, and altogether there were a hundred +fish to be caught to one in these days. Moreover, before +steam made coast traffic independent of wind, the sand-banks +outside the roads were a great source of profit to the beach men, +who went off in their 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, +and Colonel Leathes, of Herringfleet Hall, tells a tale of a +French brig, named the <i>Confiance en Dieu</i>, which took the +ground on the Newcome Sand off Lowestoft <!-- page 38--><a +name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 38</span>about the +year 1850. The weather was perfectly calm, but a company of +beach men boarded her and got her off, and so established a claim +for salvage. As a result she was kept nine weeks in port, +and her skipper, the owner, had to pay £1200 to get +clear.</p> +<p>All things considered, it is probable that a Lowestoft +longshoreman, in the sixties and seventies of the nineteenth +century, could make a very good living of it, and even now, now +when poverty has fallen on the beach, no beach man, unspoilt by +the curse of visitors’ tips, would bow his head to any man +as his superior.</p> +<p>FitzGerald always took a humorous delight in the business of +“salwaging” (as the men call it), and in his <i>Sea +Words and Phrases along the Suffolk Coast</i> (No. II), he +defines “Rattlin’ Sam” as follows: “A +term of endearment, I suppose, used by Salwagers for a nasty +shoal off the Corton coast.” In the same publication +(I) he <!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 39</span>defines +“saltwagin.” “So pronounced (if not +<i>solwagin</i>’) from, perhaps, an indistinct implication +of <i>salt</i> (water) and <i>wages</i>. <i>Salvaging</i>, +of course.”</p> +<p>Posh tells how his “guv’nor” would clap him +on the back and laugh heartily over a +“salwagin’” story. “You sea +pirates!” he would say. “You sea +pirates!”</p> +<p>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 the evenings he would sit and smoke a pipe, or +play “all-fours.” In the day he liked to go to +sea with Posh in the latter’s punt, the <i>Little +Wonder</i>. The <i>Scandal</i> was not launched that year +till June, and although he “got perished with the N.E. +wind” (<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. 101), he revelled in +the rough work.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p39.jpg"> +<img alt="12 Marine Terrace, Lowestoft" src="images/p39.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>He must have been a quaint spectacle to the Lowestoft +fishermen, for Posh assures me that he always went to sea in a +silk <!-- page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +40</span>hat, and generally wore a “cross-over,” or a +lady’s boa, round his neck. Now a silk hat and a +lady’s boa aboard a longshore punt would be about as +incongruous as a court suit in a shooting field. But +FitzGerald was not vain enough to be self-conscious. He +knew when he was comfortable, and that was enough for his healthy +intelligence. Why should he care for the foolish trifles of +convention? So to sea he went, top hat and all. And a +good and hardy sailor man he was, as all who remember his ways +afloat will testify.</p> +<p>Shortly before or after his visit to Lowestoft in the spring +of 1866 FitzGerald wrote to Posh:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Markethill</span>, <span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>,<br /> +“Saturday.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">My good Fellow</span>,</p> +<p>“When I came in from my Boat yesterday I found your +Hamper of Fish. Mr. Manby has his conger Eel: I gave the +<!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +41</span>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.</p> +<p>“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 <!-- page 42--><a name="page42"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 42</span>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.</p> +<p>“I was looking at the Whaleboat I told you of, but Mr. +Manby thinks she would . . . you propose.</p> +<p>“Here is a long Yarn; but to-morrow is Sunday; so you +can take it easy. And so ‘Fare ye well.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“<span class="smcap">Edward +FitzGerald</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The boat referred to in this letter was probably a small craft +in which FitzGerald had been in the habit of cruising up and down +river with one “West.” It certainly was not the +<i>Scandal</i>, for as transpires in the letter, that +“Great Ship” was not yet painted for the yachting +season.</p> +<p>Mr. Manby was a ship agent at Woodbridge.</p> +<p><!-- page 43--><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +43</span>The “Ship-wash” was, and is, the +“Rattlin’ Sam” of Felixstowe, and Tom Newson, +FitzGerald’s skipper, had evidently had a good bit of +“salwagin’.”</p> +<p>“Dan” is not the name of a man, but of a pointed +buoy with a flag atop wherewith herring fishers mark the end of +their fleets of nets, or (vide <i>Sea Words and Phrases</i>, +etc.). “A small buoy, with some ensign atop, to mark +where the fishing lines have been <i>shot</i>; and the <i>dan</i> +is said to ‘watch well’ if it hold erect against wind +and tide. I have often mistaken it for some floating sea +bird of an unknown species.”</p> +<p>The prophecy that as soon as Posh got his longshore fleet +complete he would 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 FitzGerald himself. But no +one ever took Posh’s place. FitzGerald’s +experience as a “herring merchant” began and ended +with his intimacy with Posh.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p43.jpg"> +<img alt="Old Lowestoft herring-drifter with “Dan” +fixed to stem" src="images/p43.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p><!-- page 44--><a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +44</span>George Howe, whose schooner was launched so that +FitzGerald was just in time to see her masts slipping along, was +one of the sons of “old John Howe,” who, with his +wife, was caretaker of Little Grange for many years. The +schooner was, Posh tells me, exceptionally cheap, and +FitzGerald’s reference to her meant that she was too cheap +to be good.</p> +<p>Since Posh’s letter-writing powers received praise from +one so qualified to 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 lines than with his pen by a very great +deal, and it is difficult to believe that he ever wielded the pen +of a ready writer. But perhaps FitzGerald was so fascinated +by the qualities which did exist in his protégé +that he saw 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’s heart to descry <!-- page 45--><a +name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>non-existent +merits than to imagine vain defects, and it was like the generous +soul of FitzGerald to attribute excellencies to his friend which +only existed in his imagination.</p> +<h2><!-- page 46--><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +46</span>CHAPTER II<br /> +“REMEMBER YOUR DEBTS”</h2> +<p>In 1866 Posh became the owner of a very old deep-sea lugger +named the <i>William Tell</i>, and, to enable him to acquire the +nets and gear necessary for her complete equipment as a North Sea +herring boat, he borrowed a sum of £50 from Tom Newson, and +a further sum of £50 from Edward FitzGerald. +FitzGerald thought that Newson should have security for his loan +(vide <i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. 104), but Newson refused to +accept any such thing. He, too, seems to have been under +the influence of Posh’s fascination. On October 7th, +1866, FitzGerald wrote (<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. 105): +“I am amused to see Newson’s <i>devotion</i> to his +young Friend. . . . He declined having any Bill of Sale on +Posh’s <!-- page 47--><a name="page47"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 47</span>Goods for Money lent; old as he is +(enough to distrust all Mankind) . . . has perfect reliance on +his Honour, Industry, Skill and Luck.”</p> +<p>About this time FitzGerald must have written the following +fragment, in which he refers to Newson’s loan:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 I lent you, and letting all that stand over for another +time.</p> +<p>“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?] <i>any one</i> 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 <i>you</i> unless I had confidence in +<!-- page 48--><a name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +48</span>you: and I speak to you plainly now in order that my +confidence may not diminish by your forgetting <i>one +farthing</i> that you owe any man.</p> +<p>“The other day an old Friend sent me £10, which +was one half of what he said he had borrowed of me <i>thirty +years ago</i>! I told him that, on my honour, I wholly +forgot ever having lent him any money. I could only +remember once <i>refusing</i> to lend him some. So here is +<i>one</i> man who remembered his Debts better than his Creditor +did.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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?</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +49</span>The debt to Newson was subsequently taken over by +FitzGerald, and a new arrangement made on the building of the +<i>Meum and Tuum</i> in the following year. But this +fragment is important, in that it strikes a note of warning, +which had to be repeated again and again during the partnership +between the poet and the fisherman. Posh was happy-go-lucky +in his accounts. I believe he was perfectly honest in +intention, but he did not understand the scrupulosity in +book-keeping which his partner thought essential to any business +concern.</p> +<p>FitzGerald himself was very far from being meticulous where +debts due to him were concerned. Dr. Aldis Wright can +remember more than one instance in which FitzGerald tore up an +acknowledgment of a loan after two or three years’ interest +had been paid. “I think you’ve paid +enough,” or “I think he’s paid enough,” +would be his bland dismissal of the debt due to him. Many +Woodbridge people had good cause <!-- page 50--><a +name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 50</span>to know the +generosity of the man as well as ever Posh had cause to know +it. FitzGerald may not have opened his heart to his +Woodbridge acquaintance so freely as he did to Posh, but he was +always ready to loosen his purse-strings.</p> +<p>The cork jackets were afterwards supplied to the crew of the +<i>Meum and Tuum</i>, as will be apparent in the letters.</p> +<p>“Jack,” who found the purse, was Jack Newson, Tom +Newson’s nephew, and the “crew” of the +<i>Scandal</i>.</p> +<h2><!-- page 51--><a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +51</span>CHAPTER III<br /> +A SERMON FOR SUNDAY</h2> +<p>In 1867 Posh sold the old <i>William Tell</i> to be broken +up. She was barely seaworthy and unfit to continue +fishing. An agreement was entered into with 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 +£360. FitzGerald had suggested that the boat should +be built by a Mr. Hunt, of Aldeburgh, but Posh persuaded him to +consent to Lowestoft and Dan Fuller instead. “I can +look arter ’em better,” said he, with some show of +reason.</p> +<p>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 and her profits. He <!-- page 52--><a +name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>was to find +the money for the new lugger, and to let the sums already due +from Posh remain in the partnership, while Posh was to bring in +the nets and gear he had.</p> +<p>But by this time FitzGerald had seen symptoms in Posh which +caused him anxiety. He loved his humble friend, and his +anxiety was on account of the man and not on account of the +possibilities of pecuniary loss incurred through Posh’s +weakness. On December the 4th, 1866, he wrote to Mr. +Spalding, of Woodbridge: “At eight or half-past I go to +have a pipe at Posh’s, if he isn’t half-drunk with +his Friends” (<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. 107).</p> +<p>On January 5th, 1867, he wrote to the same correspondent +(<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. 108) referring to Posh: +“This very day he signs an Agreement for a new +Herring-lugger, of which he is to be Captain, and to which he +will contribute some Nets and Gear. . . . I believe I have +smoked my pipe every evening but one with Posh at <!-- page +53--><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>his +house, which his quiet little Wife 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 many Friends)—so +many wanting him <i>to drink</i>. He says it’s quite +true and that he is often obliged to run away: as I believe he +does: for his House shows all Temperance and Order. This +little lecture I give him—to go the way, I suppose, of all +such Advice. . . .”</p> +<p>I fear that poor Posh’s limbs soon grew too stiff to +permit him to run away from the good brown +“bare.” But the lecture which FitzGerald +mentions so casually was surely one of the most delicately +written warnings ever penned. The sterling kindness of the +writer is as transparent in it as is his tenderness to an +inferior’s feelings. No one but a very paragon of a +gentleman would have taken the trouble to write so wisely, so +kindly, so tenderly, and so earnestly. The appeal must +surely have <!-- page 54--><a name="page54"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 54</span>moved Posh, for the pathos of the +reference to his patron’s loneliness could not but have its +effect.</p> +<p>But to touch on the sacred “bare” of a Lowestoft +fisherman is always dangerous. There are many teetotallers +among them now, and they would resent any imputation on their +temperance. But those who are not teetotallers would resent +it much more. FitzGerald warned his friend in as beautiful +a letter as was ever written. But Posh could never regard +the “mild bare,” the “twopenny” of the +district, as an enemy. He rarely touched spirits. +Now, at the age of sixty-nine, he enjoys his mild beer more than +anything and cares little for stronger stuff. But there is +no doubt that this same mild beer inserted the edge of the adze +which was to split the partnership in a little more than three +years’ time—this and the “interfarin’ +parties,” whom Posh blames for all the misunderstandings +which were to come.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><!-- page 55--><a +name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>“<span +class="smcap">Markethill</span>, <span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Thursday</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">My dear Poshy</span>,</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“As we shall provide that the Lugger when built shall +belong to me; so we will provide that, in case of my dying +<i>before</i> she is built, you may come on my executors for any +money due.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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 <i>one</i> danger—and I do think the only one—you +are liable to—<i>Drink</i>.</p> +<p>“I do not the least think you are <i>given</i> to <!-- +page 56--><a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +56</span>it: but you have, and will have, so many friends who +will press you to it: perhaps <i>I</i> myself have been +one. And when you keep so long without <i>food</i>; +<i>could</i> you do so, Posh, without a Drink—of some your +bad Beer [<i>sic</i>] 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 <i>but</i> 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.</p> +<p>“I say, I tell you all this for your sake: and something +for my own also—not as <!-- page 57--><a +name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>regards the +Lugger—but because, thinking you, as I do, so good a +Fellow, and being glad of your Company; and taking +<i>Pleasure</i> 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, <i>show me all above-board</i>, 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.</p> +<p>“I thought I had done with new Likings: and I had a more +easy Life perhaps on that account: <i>now</i> I shall often think +of you with uneasiness, for the very reason that I have so much +Liking and Interest for you.</p> +<p>“There—the Sermon is done, Posh. You +<i>know</i> 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Your’s truly,<br /> +“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><!-- page 58--><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +58</span>CHAPTER IV<br /> +THE <i>MUM TUM</i></h2> +<p>FitzGerald having made up his mind to give Posh a lift by +going into partnership with him began by finding not only the +money for the building of the boat but a name for her when she +should be ready for sea. It seemed to him that “Meum +and Tuum” would be an appropriate name, and the <i>Mum +Tum</i> is remembered along the coast to this day as a queer, +meaningless title for a boat. At a later date FitzGerald is +reported to have said that his venture turned out all Tuum and no +Meum so far as he was concerned. But it is possible that +Posh dealt more fairly with him than he thought. At all +events Posh thinks he did.</p> +<p>The boat was to be paid for in instalments. <!-- page +59--><a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>So +much on laying the keel, so much when the deck was on, etc., +etc., and FitzGerald took the greatest interest in her +building. He had first thought of christening the lugger +“Marian Halcombe,” after Wilkie Collins’s +heroine in <i>The Woman in White</i>, as appears from a letter to +Frederic Tennyson, written in January, 1867 (<i>Letters</i>, II, +90, Eversley Edition):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Again on June 17th (<i>Letters</i>, II, 94, Eversley Edition) +he wrote to the late Professor Cowell of Corpus Christi College, +Cambridge:—</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 60--><a name="page60"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 60</span>“I am here in my little +Ship” (the <i>Scandal</i>) “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 <i>should</i> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>There was some delay in getting the deck planks on the lugger, +for FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding on May 18th, 1867 (<i>Two +Suffolk Friends</i>, p. 110), that she would be decked +“next Week,” whereas her planking was not finished +till June, and, on a Friday in June, FitzGerald wrote to +Posh:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Friday</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">My dear Poshy</span>,</p> +<p>“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 <!-- page 61--><a name="page61"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 61</span>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.</p> +<p>“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 +<i>his</i> new Lugger from Mr. Hunt—I am told that one of +the American yachts, <i>The Henrietta</i>, 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 <!-- page 62--><a +name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>and get a +Sail, but it is too cold for that now.</p> +<p>“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</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“<span class="smcap">Edward +FitzGerald</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It should be observed that in this letter, as in several of +those written to Posh, FitzGerald signed his name, “Edward +FitzGerald,” in full, a practice from which he was averse +owing to certain facts connected with another Edward +Fitzgerald. Those who have heard the story of the historic +first meeting between the poet and the late Mr. Bernard Quaritch +will remember why <i>our</i> FitzGerald disliked the idea of +being confused with the other Edward Fitzgerald.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p62.jpg"> +<img alt="Posh and his old “Shud,” in which nets, +etc., belonging to the partnership were stored, and where the +letters now published were found" src="images/p62.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The letter here given forces a delightful picture upon +us. Its simplicity makes <!-- page 63--><a +name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>it superbly +graphic. Think of FitzGerald, refined in feature and +reserved in manner, a little unconventional in dress, but not +sufficiently so to be vulgarly noticeable—think of the man +who has given us the most poetical philosophy and the most +philosophical poetry, all in the most exquisite English, in our +language, sitting probably at Evans’s (it sounds like +Evans’s with the suppers and the music) and looking a +little pityingly at the reek about him like the “poor old, +solitary, and sad Man as he really was in spite of his +Jokes”; and then imaging in his mind’s eye the +handsome stalwart fisherman whom he loved so truly, and believing +that he was as morally excellent as he was physically! +“What a Face he would make at all this!” thought the +poet.</p> +<p>Five or six years ago a good friend of mine, the skipper of +one of the most famous tugs of Yarmouth, had to go up to town on +a salvage case before the Admiralty <!-- page 64--><a +name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>Court. +With him as witnesses went one or two beach men of the old +school, wind-and sun-tanned old shell-backs, with voices like a +fog-horn, and that entire lack of self-consciousness which is +characteristic of simplicity and good breeding. My friend +the skipper was cultured in comparison with the old beach men, +and he was a little vexed when one old “salwager” +insisted on accompanying him to the Oxford Music 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 +the beach man. For that jolly old salt hailed him across +the house. “Hi, Billeeoh! Bill Berry! Hi! +Lor, bor, howiver dew they dew’t? Howiver dew they +dew’t, bor? Tha’ss whoolly a masterpiece! +Hi! Billeeoh! Theer they goo agin!”</p> +<p>The skipper always ends the story there. He is as brave +a man as any on the coast. It was he who stood out in +Yarmouth Roads all night to look for the Caistor life-boat <!-- +page 65--><a name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +65</span>the night of the disaster—a night when the roads +could not be distinguished from the shoals, so broken into +tossing white horses was the whole offing—but I believe he +slunk down the stairs of the Oxford that night, and left the old +beach man still expressing his delighted wonder.</p> +<p>Perhaps FitzGerald thought that Posh would be as excited as +the old beach man.</p> +<p>“Mr. Berry” (as every one knows who knows anything +about FitzGerald) was the landlord of the house on Markethill, +Woodbridge, where the poet lodged. (By the way, he was, so +far as I know, no relation of my Bill Berry.) A sum of +£50 was due to Dan Fuller on the planking being completed, +and FitzGerald was anxious to let Posh have the money as soon as +it was needed. He “remembered his debts” even +before they became due.</p> +<p>I have already stated that Hunt was a boat-builder at +Aldeburgh, and that FitzGerald had, at first, wished Posh to +employ <!-- page 66--><a name="page66"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 66</span>him to build the <i>Mum Tum</i>, as +the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> was fated to be called.</p> +<p>The kindly jovial relations between the +“guv’nor” and his partner could not be better +indicated than by the name FitzGerald gives himself at the close, +just before he once more signs his name in full. Well, +perhaps the legal luminary of Lowestoft would justify his inquiry +if Edward FitzGerald was the man who made a lot of money out of +salt by saying, “Well, he called himself a +herring-merchant.”</p> +<p>The schoolmaster who had never heard of either FitzGerald or +Omar Khayyám would (according to the nature of the breed) +sniff and say “What? A herring-merchant and a +tent-maker! My boys are the sons of gentlemen. I +can’t be expected to know anything about tradesfolk of that +class.”</p> +<p>But Posh has a sense of humour, and he says, “Ah! +He used to laugh about that, the guv’nor did. +He’d catch hold o’ my jersey, so” (here Posh +pinches up a fold of <!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 67</span>his blue woollen jersey), “and +say, ‘Oh dear! Oh dear, Poshy! Two F’s in +the firm. FitzGerald and Fletcher, herring +salesmen—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-hearted man if ever there +was one.”</p> +<p>And then Posh’s eyes will grow moist sometimes, I think +perhaps with the thought that he might—ah, well! +It’s too late now.</p> +<p>Posh wishes me to give the dimensions of the lugger, as she +was of his own designing and proved a fast and stiff craft. +He had given her two feet less length than her beam called for, +according to local ideas, and FitzGerald called her “The +Cart-horse,” because she seemed broad and bluff 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, but altered to the more modern +“dandy” (something like a ketch but with more rake +<!-- page 68--><a name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +68</span>to the mizzen and with no topmast on the mainmast) +before she was sold. Any one about the herring basins who +has arrived at fisherman’s maturity (about sixty years) +will remember the <i>Mum Tum</i>, and, so far as she was +concerned, the partnership was entirely successful, for no one +has a bad word to say for her.</p> +<h2><!-- page 69--><a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +69</span>CHAPTER V<br /> +“NEIGHBOUR’S FARE”</h2> +<p>It is impossible to arrive at the exact sum of money which +FitzGerald brought into the partnership between him and Posh, but +it must have been something like five hundred pounds. The +lugger cost £360 to build, and, in addition, Posh was paid +£20 for his services (see <i>Letters</i>, 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 owner of three-fourths of the concern; but on a +valuation being made it was found that the nets and gear +contributed by Posh were of greater value than had been supposed, +and before the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> put to sea it was understood +that <!-- page 70--><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +70</span>Posh should be half owner with his +“guvnor.” Posh is very firm in his conviction +that up to the return of the boat from her first 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 in Posh. The quarrels and misunderstandings which +subsequently arose on this point Posh attributes to certain +“interfarin’ parties” (and especially to a +Lowestoft lawyer), who were under the impression that FitzGerald +had not looked after himself so well as he might have done and +who thought that this omission should be remedied. Possibly +they had an idea that they might “make +somethin’” in the course of the remedial +measures.</p> +<p>Early in August Posh sailed north with his crew to meet the +herring on their way <!-- page 71--><a name="page71"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 71</span>down south. His luck was poor, +and on August 26th FitzGerald wrote him from +Lowestoft:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Lowestoft</span>, <i>Monday</i>, <i>August</i> +26.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">My dear Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“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. <i>That</i> 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, <i>not</i> to drink <i>Beer</i> and <i>Ale</i> more than +you can help: but only <i>Porter</i>, and, every day, some Gin +and Water. I was talking to <!-- page 72--><a +name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 72</span>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 <i>Gravel</i>; and you may depend upon it +that Gravel will turn to <i>Stone</i>, 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 <i>old</i> sooner than Stone: No Disease +that <i>wears</i> him more. You should take plenty of +<i>Tea</i>; some Gin and Water every night; and <i>no</i> Ale, or +Beer; but only Porter; and not much of that. If you do not +choose to buy Gin for yourself, buy some for <i>me</i>: and keep +it on board: and drink some every Day, or Night. Pray +remember this: and <i>do it</i>.</p> +<p><!-- page 73--><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +73</span>“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 +<i>Gazelle</i> came in on Saturday with all her Nets gone to +pieces; the Lugger <i>Monitor</i> came in here yesterday to alter +her Nets—from <i>Sunk</i> to <i>Swum</i>, 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 <i>outward</i>, where they were first caught: +whereas the Herring had altered their course to inshore. . . +. Better to miss many Herrings than have the Stone.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 74--><a name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +74</span>Here, again, the delicate solicitude of this perfect +gentleman is apparent. “If you do not choose to buy +Gin for yourself, buy some for <i>me</i>: and keep it on board: +and drink some every Day, or Night.” That is to say, +“If you think that you cannot afford to buy gin for +yourself don’t worry about the expense. I’ll +see you are not put to any extra cost. But I can’t +bear to think that you may suffer for the want of a medicine +because of your East Anglian parsimony.”</p> +<p>It must be remembered that East Anglia was notorious for the +frequency of the disease in question. The late William +Cadge, of Norwich, probably the finest lithotomist in the world +(as Thompson was the greatest lithotritist), once told me that he +had performed over four hundred operations in the Norwich +Hospital for this disease alone.</p> +<p>But FitzGerald’s fears concerning Posh were not +realised. He seems to have had an <!-- page 75--><a +name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>especial +dread of the disease (as who has not?), for in a letter to +Frederic Tennyson of January 29th previously (II, 89, Eversley +Edition) he wrote (of Montaigne): “One of his Consolations +for <i>The Stone</i> is that it makes one less unwilling to part +with Life.”</p> +<p>Levi was a Lowestoft fishmonger, referred to in the footnote +of <i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. 108.</p> +<p>The <i>Gazelle</i> was the “punt” or longshore +boat which Posh bought at Southwold, and called (by reason of her +splendid qualities) <i>The Little Wonder</i>.</p> +<p>The difference between “sunk” and +“swum” herring nets would be unintelligible to a +modern herring fisher. Now the nets are thirty feet in +depth, are buoyed on the surface of the sea, and are kept +perpendicular (like a wall two miles long) by the weight of heavy +cables or “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, <!-- page 76--><a +name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>whose nets +are not half the depth of the North Sea fleets.</p> +<p>In FitzGerald’s time if the herring were expected to +swim deep the nets were sunk <i>below</i> the cables or warps +which strung them together, and if they 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 <i>all</i> nets are +“swum,” that is to say, all are above the warps and +are buoyed on the surface. But the depth has increased so +much (to what is technically known as “twenty-score +mesh,” which comes to about thirty feet) that there is no +need to alter their setting.</p> +<p>Posh’s wife, whose state of health is referred to in +this letter, survived till 1892, but for many years suffered from +tuberculosis in the lungs.</p> +<p>The <i>Monitor</i> was a Kessingland craft, and belonged to +one Hutton.</p> +<p>But whether Posh fished with “sunk” or <!-- page +77--><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +77</span>“swum” nets his luck was out for the season +of 1867. The fish as a rule get down to the Norfolk coast +about the beginning of October, and Posh had followed them down +from Scarborough. About the end of September, or the +beginning of October, FitzGerald wrote to his partner, addressing +the letter to 8 Strand Cottages, Lowestoft, in the expectation +that the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> had come south with the rest of the +herring drifters, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, North and South Shields, +and Scotch.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p77.jpg"> +<img alt="Strand Cottages, where Posh lived. No. 8, his cottage, +is marked with a white cross" src="images/p77.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Saturday</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“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 [<i>sic</i>] not go +there just now I have anything to complain of. I am not +sure but that a Friend may come here to <!-- page 78--><a +name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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 <i>swum</i> 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 <i>our</i> +turn for “Neighbour’s fare” is not quite lost, +though long a coming.</p> +<p>“Newson and Jack are gone home for Sunday. +To-night is a grand Horsemanship, to which I would make you go if +you <!-- page 79--><a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +79</span>were here. Remember me to all your People and +believe me yours</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“E. FG.</p> +<p>“I see that the . . . [illegible] vessel: and, as far as +I see, deserved to do so.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Miss Green was the landlady of the house at 12 Marine Terrace, +Lowestoft, where FitzGerald usually stayed when he did not sleep +aboard the <i>Scandal</i>.</p> +<p>Up to the date of the letter, and, indeed, throughout the +season of 1867, the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> had bad luck. +FitzGerald thought it was time that the luck should change, for +“Neighbour’s fare” is defined in <i>Sea Words +and Phrases along the Suffolk Coast</i> as “Doing as well +as one’s neighbours. ‘I mayn’t make a +fortune, but I look for “Neighbour’s fare” +nevertheless.’”</p> +<h2><!-- page 80--><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +80</span>CHAPTER VI<br /> +THE LUCK O’ THE <i>MUM TUM</i></h2> +<p>“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 he was doing Posh a good turn. Whether +or not Posh had a greater share of the earnings of the boat than +he was entitled to I cannot say. Certainly he began to +thrive exceedingly about this time, and, as an old longshoreman +seven years Posh’s senior, said to me the other day, +“He might ha’ been a gennleman! He used to kape +his greyhounds, and he had as pratty a mare as the’ wuz in +Lowestoft. Ah! Mr. FitzGerald was a <i>good</i> gennleman +to him—that he <i>wuz</i>!”</p> +<p><!-- page 81--><a name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +81</span>Once again the epithet “good,” which he so +pre-eminently merited.</p> +<p>But whether the year had been bad or good, it was necessary +for the sleeping partner to look into the accounts of the +firm.</p> +<p>On Christmas Day of 1867, when the season was over and all the +herring drifters had “made up,” that is to say, had +worked out their accounts and struck a balance of profit or loss, +Fitzgerald wrote to Posh:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Christmas Day</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Captain</span>,</p> +<p>“Unless I hear from you to-morrow that <i>you</i> are +coming over <i>here</i>, I shall most likely run over myself to +Miss Green’s at Lowestoft—by the Train which gets +there about 2.</p> +<p>“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 [<i>sic</i>] <i>to-morrow</i>, I dare +say:—But, as this is <!-- page 82--><a +name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>Christmas +time and I suppose you have many friends to see, I shall not want +you to be at school every evening.</p> +<p>“This is Newson’s piloting week, so he cannot +come.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Posh did not go to Woodbridge, so FitzGerald went to Miss +Green’s, whence, on December the 28th, he wrote one of his +most characteristic letters (in that it embraced interests so +widely different) to Professor Cowell. The letter begins +with a reference to M. Garcin de Tassy and his “annual +oration,” and continues with some passages of great +interest concerning the <i>Rubáiyát</i> and +Attar’s “Birds.” (Dr. Aldis +Wright’s Eversley Edition of <i>Letters</i>, II, +100.) Then from a delicate and dainty piece of criticism +the poet turns to his herring business. “I have come +here to wind up accounts for our Herring-lugger: much against us +as the season has been a bad one. My dear <!-- page 83--><a +name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>Captain +[Posh], who looks in his Cottage 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 I think +him—and surely my sixty years of considering men will not +so deceive me at last!—I would rather lose money with him +than gain it with others. Indeed I never proposed Gain, as +you may imagine: but only to have some Interest with this dear +Fellow.”</p> +<p>Well, he had his wish, though Posh maintains that there +<i>was</i> gain in the business at a certain time to be referred +to hereafter, and that there might have been plenty of gain but +for the “interfarin’ parties” before +mentioned.</p> +<p>From the first there was a difficulty in persuading Posh to +keep any accounts of either outgoings or incomings. He +seems to have paid a bill when he thought of it, or when he had +the money for it handy. But no idea of book-keeping, even +in its <!-- page 84--><a name="page84"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 84</span>most rudimentary form, was ever +entertained by him.</p> +<p>And FitzGerald had, before ever the partnership was an +accomplished fact, impressed on Posh the importance of +remembering his debts.</p> +<p>Before the spring fishing began in 1868 the question of +accounts came to the fore. On March the 29th the sleeping +partner wrote from Woodbridge:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Poshy</span>,</p> +<p>“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 <i>all</i> outgoings, and in such a +way as you, or I, might easily reckon them up: I mean, so as to +see what <i>each</i> amounts to—No man’s Memory can +be trusted in such matters; and I think that <i>your</i> Memory +(jostled about, as you say, with many different calls, +[<i>sic</i> no close to <!-- page 85--><a name="page85"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 85</span>parenthesis] needs to have +<i>writing</i> to refer to. <i>Do not suppose for one +moment</i> that I do not trust you, my good fellow: nor that I +think you have made any great blunder in what Accounts you +<i>did</i> keep last year. I only mean that a man ought to +be able to point <i>out at once</i>, 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: <i>as Mr. Spalding</i>, for +instance.</p> +<p>“If you think the Oil and <i>Cutch</i> are as good, and +as cheap, at Lowestoft as I can get them here, why not get them +at once at Lowestoft? About that <i>green Paint</i> for the +Lugger’s bottom:—Mr. Silver got some <i>so very +good</i> for <i>Pasifull’s</i> Smack last year that I think +it might be worth while to get some, if we could, from <i>his</i> +Merchant. You told me that what <i>you</i> got at Lowestoft +was <i>not</i> very good.</p> +<p>“I am <i>very glad</i> that the Lugger is so <!-- page +86--><a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>well +thought of that any one else wants to build from her. For +she was <i>your</i> child, you know.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“E. FG.</p> +<p>“Remember me to your Family: you do not tell me if your +Mother is better.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Mr. Spalding here referred to was at that time the manager +for a large firm of agricultural implement makers. +Subsequently he became the curator of the museum at Colchester, +and the letters from FitzGerald to him which were handed to Mr. +Francis Hindes Groome formed the most valuable part of the second +part of <i>Two Suffolk Friends</i> called “Edward +FitzGerald. An Aftermath.”</p> +<p><!-- page 87--><a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +87</span>“Oil” and “cutch” are +preservatives for the herring nets. The oil is linseed, and +the nets are soaked in it before they are tanned by the +cutch. Cutch is a dark resinous stuff, which is thrown into +a copper full of water and boiled till it is dissolved. +Then the liquid is thrown over the nets and permitted to soak +in. After the nets are soaked in linseed oil, and before +they are tanned, they are hung up to dry in the open air. +The process has to be repeated several times during each fishing, +and those who are familiar with Lowestoft and Yarmouth must also +be familiar with the sight and smell of the nets, hanging out on +railings, either on public open spaces or in private net +yards. Where rails are not obtainable the nets are often +spread on the ground, and an ingenious idea for the quaint shape +of Yarmouth (unique with its narrow “rows”) is that +the rows represent the narrow footpaths between the spaces on +which the nets used to be laid to dry.</p> +<p><!-- page 88--><a name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +88</span>“Pasifull” is sometimes called +“Percival,” sometimes “Pasifall,” and +sometimes as in this letter. His Christian name was Ablett, +and he was both a fisherman and a yacht hand.</p> +<p>Mr. Durrant was a market gardener and fruiterer in Lowestoft, +and his sons carry on the same business in three shops in +Lowestoft now. One of them remembers FitzGerald as a +visitor and “a queer old chap,” and that’s all +he knows about him.</p> +<p>I do not think Posh troubled himself much about the +accounts. But there was another subject already broached +which was to cause some unpleasantness between the partners.</p> +<p>Some of FitzGerald’s friends, both at Lowestoft and +elsewhere, had become uneasy at the hold which Posh had obtained +over him. They feared lest he should become a baron of beef +at which Posh could cut and come again. More than one +advised him that he should have some better <!-- page 89--><a +name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>security than +a mere partnership understanding, that he should, in fact, insist +on having a bill of sale, or mortgage of the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> +and her gear to secure the money he had found. Possibly he +was swayed by Posh’s backwardness in the matter of +account. Certainly he came to the conclusion that his +friends were right, and that he should have a charge on the boat +and her gear. Now I believe that Posh tells the truth when +he says that in the first instance there was no mention of any +such charge. And he was not a business man enough to see +the reasonableness of FitzGerald’s demand. He was, +moreover, urged by the secretiveness of his race, the love of +keeping private affairs from outsiders, and he bitterly resented +the proposition. Indeed, during the early months of 1868, +there were constant semi-quarrels, which were as constantly +patched up. FitzGerald loved the man too well to quarrel +with him definitely. Besides, Posh <!-- page 90--><a +name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 90</span>had not been +well. In January FitzGerald wrote to Professor Cowell +(<i>Letters</i>, II, 103, Eversley Edition): “I have spent +lots of money on my Herring-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 (a dear Fellow) is got ill, +which is the worst of all.”</p> +<p>But in this first instance Posh gave way. On April 14th +FitzGerald wrote Mr. Spalding: “I believe that he and I +shall now sign the Mortgage Papers that make him owner of <i>Half +Meum and Tuum</i>. I only get out of him that he +can’t say he sees much amiss in the Deed.” But +Posh is still bitter about that deed, and still blames his old +“guv’nor” for having listened to the +“interfarin’ parties.” He does not know +what was the matter with him that spring. “I was +quare, sir,” he says. “I don’t know what +ta was. But I was quare.”</p> +<p>He got well in time to go off after the spring mackerel, which +used to be a regular <!-- page 91--><a name="page91"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 91</span>fishing season off Lowestoft, though +now mackerel are getting as scarce as salmon off the Norfolk and +Suffolk coast. But the <i>Meum and Tuum’s</i> bad +luck still followed her with the longer and bigger meshed +nets. On June 16th, 1868, FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding +(<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. 113):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 92--><a name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +92</span>Newson and Jack were down at Lowestoft with the +<i>Scandal</i>, and it was characteristic of FitzGerald to give +his skipper leave to run home when he wished. FitzGerald +always liked the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> to be in harbour on a +Sunday so that the men could see their wives and families and +have a “good hot dinner.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +93</span>CHAPTER VII<br /> +“FLAGSTONE FITZGERALD”</h2> +<p>Now that the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> was ready for work +FitzGerald’s anxiety for the lives of her crew made him +insist upon their taking life-belts aboard with them, although +the mate had stated that no one would wear them. On April +24th a letter was written to Posh from Woodbridge.</p> +<blockquote><p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Poshy</span>,</p> +<p>“I hear from Mr. Birt this morning that the Life Belts +were sent off to you yesterday—<i>directed to your +house</i>. 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.</p> +<p>“Mr. Birt says that he makes the Belts of <i>two</i> +sizes for the Life Boat. But he has sent <i>all</i> yours +of the large size, except one <!-- page 94--><a +name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>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.</p> +<p>“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 <i>my</i> luck now, you +know.</p> +<p>“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 <i>my</i> house; we must hope that does +not mean to play as false.</p> +<p>“I am very sorry for your loss of lines and anchors.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 95--><a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +95</span>Mr. Gowing was, so far as Posh can recollect, a +Woodbridge builder, and Mr. 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 and anchors” were, Posh thinks, lost from his +old punt the <i>Gazelle</i>.</p> +<p>For the sake of convenience I give a letter here which is +somewhat out of date, but inasmuch as it has nothing to do with +the fishing but only with the trust which FitzGerald had in Posh +it may very well come in here.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Markethill</span>, <span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>October</i> 2<i>nd</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“I forgot to tell you that I had desired a Day and Night +Telescope to be left <i>for me</i> at the Lowestoft Railway +Station—Please to enquire for it: and, if it be there, this +Letter of mine may <!-- page 96--><a name="page96"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 96</span>be sufficient Warrant for <i>you</i> +to take the Glass.</p> +<p>“Do not, however, take the Glass <i>out to sea</i> till +we have tried it.</p> +<p>“We got here yesterday. I shall not be at +Lowestoft <i>this week</i> at any rate.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Yours,<br /> +“<span class="smcap">Edward FitzGerald</span>.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The glass was, Posh assures me, a good one. But no one +knows what became of it. Later FitzGerald again mentions +the glass.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Monday</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“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 +<!-- page 97--><a name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +97</span>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.</p> +<p>“Of course you will get anything done to Boat or Net +that you think proper.</p> +<p>“You did not tell me how the Spy-Glass answers. +But do not trouble yourself to write.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Yours truly,<br /> +“<span class="smcap">Flagstone +FitzGerald</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p97.jpg"> +<img alt="Woodbridge River (evening) where the +“scandal” berthed" src="images/p97.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>As soon as I asked Posh the meaning of the signature +“Flagstone FitzGerald” he burst out laughing. +“What!” said he. “Hain’t yew niver +heard about ole Flagstone? He was a retail and wholesale +grocer and gin’ral store dealer at Yarmouth name ---” +(well, we will say Smith for purposes of reference. As the +man’s sons still carry on his old business here in +Lowestoft it is as well not to give the true name. By the +<!-- page 98--><a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +98</span>way, I do not mean that the sons carry on the +“flagstone” business), “and he owned tew or +t’ree boots and stored ’em hisself. Well, when +they come to make up (and o’ coorse he’d chudged the +men for the stores, ah! and chudged ’em high!) they went +t’rew the stores an’ found as he’d weighted up +the sugar and such like wi’ flagstone! Well, they +made it sa hot for him at Yarmouth that he had ta mewve ta +Lowestoft, and he was allust called Flagstone Smith arter +that. I reckon as the Guv’nor heerd the yarn and +liked it. Ha! Ha! Ha!”</p> +<p>And it isn’t a bad yarn for one which is actually true +in every respect.</p> +<p>About the same time, or a little later (for it is impossible +to fix the date of these letters definitely), Fitzgerald +wrote:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Saturday</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">My dear Lad</span>,</p> +<p>“I suppose the Lugger had returned, and that you had +gone out in her again <!-- page 99--><a name="page99"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 99</span>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 +[<i>sic</i>] do not <i>stay</i> 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.</p> +<p>“I shall be expecting Newson up next week.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“You see I have nothing to say to you; only I thought +you might to [<i>sic</i>] hear from me whenever you should come +back.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><!-- page 100--><a name="page100"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 100</span>CHAPTER VIII<br /> +HOW FISHERS FISHED</h2> +<p>The poor mackerel season ended in the second week of +July. Why, when mackerel were so scarce, the <i>Meum and +Tuum</i> did not give up the fishing and try for “midsummer +herring” it is difficult to understand, and Posh does not +remember the reason, if there was one. Possibly the change +of nets, etc., etc., was too much trouble. Anyhow, the +season was unprofitable for the mackerel boats. On Monday, +July 13th, FitzGerald was still on the <i>Scandal</i> at +Lowestoft, and wrote from there to Mr. Spalding (<i>Two Suffolk +Friends</i>, p. 113): “Posh made up and paid off on +Saturday. I have not yet asked him, but I suppose he has +just paid his way, I mean so far as Grub goes. . . . Last +night it <!-- page 101--><a name="page101"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 101</span>lightened to the South, as we sat in +the Suffolk Gardens—I, and Posh, and Mrs. Posh. . . +.”</p> +<p>The “making up” may require some little +explanation. The “drift” fishing—i.e. the +herring and mackerel fishing (for though sprats and pilchards are +caught by drift nets, it is unnecessary to consider them when +dealing with the great North Sea drift fishing)—is carried +on on a system 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.</p> +<p>“Making up” is the technical term for balancing +profit and loss of a season, and ascertaining the sums which are +due to owners and crew respectively.</p> +<p>In the days when Fitzgerald was a “herring +merchant,” the systems of Yarmouth and Lowestoft were +different. At Yarmouth the owner of the boat took nine +shares out of sixteen, and bore all losses of <!-- page 102--><a +name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>damaged or +lost nets, etc., the remaining seven shares being divided among +the crew in varying proportions. For instance, the skipper +took 1¾ or two shares, the mate 1¼ or 1½, +and so on down to the boy with his one-half or three-eighths +share. At Lowestoft the shares were also divided into +sixteen; but the owner took only eight, and the crew the other +eight. The losses of gear, nets, etc., however, were borne +equally between the two lots of eight shares, and, on the whole, +I believe the Yarmouth system was more favourable to the men, +though the Lowestoft system made the skipper and crew more +careful of the nets and gear than they might have been did not +they suffer for any loss of them. The introduction of steam +drifters has made the shares complicated in the extreme. +The owners take so 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, the prices rule so high +nowadays, <!-- page 103--><a name="page103"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 103</span>and the catches are occasionally so +large (the other day a steam drifter brought in over £200 +worth of fish to Grimsby as the result of one night’s +fishing), that the great Martinmas fishing of the east coast has +become a gamble in which fortunes may be made and lost. +Many a boat earns over £2000 from October to +December. A lucky skipper may take £200 for his share +of the home fishing alone. But such figures would have +sounded fantastic in FitzGerald’s day, for I have been +assured over and over again by herring fishers that in the +sixties and seventies, ay, even in the eighties of last century, +£20 was a “good season’s share” for a +prominent hand of a successful drifter.</p> +<p>Posh, as half owner, would take four-sixteenth shares, and as +skipper would probably take another two-sixteenths, so that he +would draw more than any one else.</p> +<p>Some time during the spring or summer of 1868 there was great +excitement amongst the fishing-boat owners of Lowestoft <!-- page +104--><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +104</span>and other ports on account of an Act just passed +regulating the building of vessels, having especial regard to the +ventilation of the cuddy, forecastle, or the men’s sleeping +quarters. Posh tells me that many owners of drifters +considered that the Act applied to all craft, including fishing +boats, and that great expense was undergone by some +over-conscientious owners in fitting ventilating drums and shafts +in accordance with the Act. If the statute applied to any +drifter it would apply to the <i>Meum and Tuum</i>, and +FitzGerald evidently thought that the intention of the Act was +that fishing boats should be exempt. He proved to be right, +for the regulations were never enforced on fishing boats. +He wrote to Posh:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Saturday</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“You must lay out three halfpence on the <i>Eastern +Times</i> for last Friday. In that Newspaper there is a +good deal written <!-- page 105--><a name="page105"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 105</span>about that Act for altering Vessels: +the Writer is quite sure—that the Act does <i>not</i> 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.</p> +<p>“I have not seen Newson, but West was down at the Ferry +some days back and saw him. For a wonder, he [Newson] was +<i>Fishing</i>!—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.</p> +<p>“You will buy such things as you spoke <!-- page +106--><a name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 106</span>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.</p> +<p>“Now, here is a Letter for your Mantelpiece +to-morrow—Sunday—I don’t think I have more to +say.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Yours E. FG.</p> +<p>“Mr. Durrant has never sent me the hamper of Flowers he +promised.</p> +<p>“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:</p> +<p>“<i>Eastern Times</i> for <i>Friday</i> last sold at +Chapman’s.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 107--><a name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +107</span>“West” has been mentioned before as being +an old fellow with whom FitzGerald used to navigate the river +Deben in a small boat before the building of the +<i>Scandal</i>. Newson’s wife, like Posh’s, was +often ailing. Kind “Fitz” had written +previously (July 25th, 1868; <i>Letters</i>, Eversley Edition, p. +106) to Professor Cowell:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“. . . 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p107.jpg"> +<img alt="The “Happy New Year” yawl, belonging to +Posh’s beach company" src="images/p107.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The “claim made by your yawl” refers to a claim +for salvage made by the company of beach men (of which Posh was a +member) owning a yawl. FitzGerald (as has been seen before) +always took a humorous interest <!-- page 108--><a +name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 108</span>in the +doings of the “sea pirates,” yclept beach men or +“salwagers,” and he doubtless enjoyed his little +chuckle at Posh’s expense.</p> +<p>The builders were at work on Little Grange, which FitzGerald +predicted he would never live in but would die in. However, +he falsified both predictions, for he lived in the house ten +years and died in Norfolk.</p> +<p>Mr. Durrant was still in default. I doubt if FitzGerald +ever got those flowers. They were plants, Posh tells me, +which FitzGerald wished to plant out at Little Grange.</p> +<p>I can find no record of the principal, the Martinmas or +Autumn, fishing of 1868. But in the spring of 1869 the +<i>Meum and Tuum</i> went to the “West Fishing” for +mackerel, even as a large number of our modern steam drifters go +now, to the indignation of the pious fishermen of Penzance, +Newlyn, and St. Ives. These good fellows <!-- page 109--><a +name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 109</span>of the west +have, I think, some reason to complain that it is unfair that +they should suffer for righteousness’ sake. Looking +at the point in dispute impartially, it <i>does</i> seem hard +that the men of the locality should see Easterlings bringing in +good catches of fish as the result of what the Cornishmen regard +as a desecration of “the Lord’s Day.” The +religious sentiment which prevents the western and southern men +from putting off on Sunday is genuine and sincere enough. +The Scotch herring boats, which come in their thousands to +Yarmouth and Lowestoft for the autumn fishing, are always in +harbour from Saturday night to Monday morning, though the local +boats fish all days and nights. But by keeping in harbour +the Scotchmen offend the sensibilities of no one, whereas there +is much bitterness caused in the west by the refusal of the +Easterlings to fall in with local custom.</p> +<p>On March 1st, 1869, FitzGerald wrote to <!-- page 110--><a +name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 110</span>Professor +Cowell (<i>Letters</i>, II, 107, Eversley Edition):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“<span class="smcap">My dear +Cowell</span>,</p> +<p>“. . . 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>FitzGerald thought very highly of that “carcase” +of Posh’s, as will be seen from the story of the Laurence +portrait, set forth hereinafter, as the lawyers, whom Posh hates +so much, would say.</p> +<p>The sleeping partner throughout seems to have had more anxiety +on account of Posh’s sea hazards than on account of +business losses. How the mackerel paid I do not know, but +Posh was in time to go north for the beginning of the herring +fishing in July.</p> +<h2><!-- page 111--><a name="page111"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 111</span>CHAPTER IX<br /> +ECCENTRICITIES OF A GOOD HEART</h2> +<p>There must always be an interval ashore between the return of +the drifters from the western voyage and their sailing north to +follow the herring down from Aberdeen to Yarmouth. And +during this interval, in 1869, FitzGerald wrote one or two +letters to Posh which have survived that wholesale destruction of +which their recipient speaks.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Friday</i>.</p> +<p>“Newson is up here with the Yacht, Posh; and we shall +start to-morrow with the Tide about 10½. 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 <!-- page 112--><a name="page112"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 112</span>to-morrow evening, or Sunday. +I write this, because we <i>may</i> not have more than a day to +stay at Lowestoft.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Despite his silk hat and his boa, FitzGerald was a keen and +genuine lover of yachting. Even in the way in which he took +his enjoyment of this he was original. Posh asserts that he +has seen his “guv’nor” lying in the lee +scuppers while the <i>Scandal</i> was heeling over in a stiff +breeze, and permitting the wash of the sea to run over him till +he was drenched to the skin. Indeed, although his long lean +body looked frail, he was reckless in the way in which he treated +it. Posh tells one story which I give in his words. +He vouches for its truth, and I give it on his authority and not +as vouching for its accuracy myself. Personally I believe +the tale is true enough, but I admit that it requires a power of +assimilation which is not given to all.</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 113--><a name="page113"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 113</span>“He! he!” says +Posh. “He was a rum un sometimes, was my +guv’nor! I remember one day when the <i>Scandal</i> +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 <!-- page 114--><a name="page114"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 114</span>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 <!-- page 115--><a name="page115"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 115</span>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!”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The northern herring voyage of the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> in +1869, that is to say, the eight weeks’ fishing down the +east coast from Aberdeen to Lowestoft from the beginning of +August to the end of September, seems to have been about up to +what FitzGerald might have called “Neighbour’s +fare.” He wrote to Mrs. W. H. Thompson (the wife of +the Master of Trinity): “My lugger has had (along with her +neighbours) such a Season hitherto of Winds as no one +remembers. We made £450 in the North Sea” (that +is to say, in the north fishing before the home Martinmas fishing +began); “and (just for fun) I did wish to realise £5 +in my pocket. But my Captain would take it all to pay +Bills. But if he makes another £400 this Home <!-- +page 116--><a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +116</span>Voyage! Oh, then we shall have money in our +pockets. I do wish this. For the anxiety about all +these people’s lives has been so much more to me than all +the amusement I have got from the Business, that I think I will +draw out of it if I can see my Captain sufficiently firm on his +legs to carry it on alone. True, there will still be the +same risk to him and his ten men, but they don’t care; only +I sit here listening to the Winds in the Chimney, and always +thinking of the eleven hanging at my own finger ends” +(<i>Letters</i>, II, 110, Eversley Edition).</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p116.jpg"> +<img alt="A Lowestoft “Dandy”" src="images/p116.jpg" +/> +</a></p> +<p>The number of hands on a herring drifter used to be eleven, +which seemed excessive till the labour of hauling nearly two +miles of nets by hand is remembered. Now that almost every +drifter which goes into the North Sea has a donkey engine to do +the hardest work of the hauling the number aboard the dandies is +lessened to nine.</p> +<p>This letter to Mrs. Thompson is the first <!-- page 117--><a +name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 117</span>suggestion +that FitzGerald has any idea of ending the partnership, a +suggestion which became fully developed in 1870.</p> +<p>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 have seen, +though (as Dr. Aldis Wright says) “FitzGerald never wrote a +letter like any one else.” The power of throwing +himself “into the picture,” the humour of conscious +imitation, were never more brilliantly illustrated than by this +hail-fellow-well-met letter, written by the scholar and +poet:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Markethill</span>, <span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Wednesday</i>.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“I want you to learn from your friend <!-- page 118--><a +name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 118</span><i>Dan +Fuller</i> what particulars you can about that Lugger we saw at +Mutford Bridge. Draft of Water, Length of Keel, What sails +and Stores; and what <i>Price</i>; 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 +<i>cutter rigged</i>.</p> +<p>“So now, Poshy, do go down as soon as is convenient, to +Dan, and stand him <i>half a pint</i> and don’t tell him +what you are come about, but just turn the conversation (in a +<i>Salvaging</i> sort of way) to the old Lugger and get me the +particulars I ask for. Perhaps Dan’s heart will +open—<i>over Half a Pint</i>—as yours has been known +to do. And if you write to me as soon as you can <!-- page +119--><a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +119</span>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.</p> +<p>“The <i>Elsie</i> 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.</p> +<p>“Good-bye, Poshy, and believe me always yours to the +last Half Pint.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“E. FG.</p> +<p>“I enclose a paper with my questions marked, to which +you can add short answers.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 120--><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +120</span>Dan Fuller was the builder of the <i>Meum and +Tuum</i>. His son is still living, and a well-known +mechanic in Lowestoft. Mutford Bridge will be better +recognised as the bridge at Oulton Broad.</p> +<p>Once again FitzGerald chuckles at the morality of the +“salwagers,” and chuckles again at the expansiveness +of the East Anglian “half a pint,” which may mean +anything between its nominal measure and the full holding +capacity of the drinker—which is as vague as “half a +pint,” itself.</p> +<p>The <i>Elsie</i> was a yacht which belonged to a syndicate of +Woodbridge yachtsmen, of whom Mr. Silver (a Woodbridge friend of +FitzGerald’s) was one and Mr. Manby was another. The +two friends who went to Mutford Bridge 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 was a +beauty. But nothing came of the visit, and the Woodbridge +man did not buy her.</p> +<p><!-- page 121--><a name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +121</span>As yet the warning which FitzGerald had given Posh in +his sermon had (so far as the letters tell us) served its +purpose. But the letters appear to be deceitful in this, +and the next chapter must deal with a painful phase of the +partnership.</p> +<h2><!-- page 122--><a name="page122"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 122</span>CHAPTER X<br /> +POSH’S SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE</h2> +<p>The hopes for the home fishing of 1869 should have been +good. On August 30th, 1869 (<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. +114), FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding from Lowestoft: “You +will see by the enclosed that Posh has had a little better luck +than hitherto. One reason for my not going to Woodbridge +is, that I think it possible that this N.E. wind may blow him +hither to tan his nets. Only please God it don’t tan +him and his people first.”</p> +<p>Herring are, as our East Anglian fishermen say, +“ondependable” in their travels. They come +south along the coast from the <!-- page 123--><a +name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>north of +Scotland till they 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 be fixed for a certain date. +This year, for instance (1907), owing to the warm August and +September they have been late in coming south from Hull. +Generally “longshores” are caught off Lowestoft late +in August or early in September, and by the end of September the +home and Scotch fleets are congesting the herring basins. +This year, however, I had my first longshores brought me +yesterday, the 1st of October, and there are not a dozen Scotch +craft to be seen in the basins.</p> +<p>FitzGerald stayed at Lowestoft till the north-easters +<i>did</i> blow Posh home. And perhaps he would have been +happier had he gone back to Woodbridge before the return of the +<i>Meum and Tuum</i>. As it was, Posh had “some +bare” on regatta day (very late that year), and this upset +his “guv’nor.” <!-- page 124--><a +name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>He wrote to +Mr. Spalding on the 4th September (<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. +115): “I would not meddle with the Regatta. . . . And +the Day ended by vexing me more than it did him [Newson]. . . +. Posh drove in here the day before to tan his nets: could +not help making one with some old friends in a Boat-race on the +Monday, and getting very fuddled with them on the Suffolk Green +(where I was) at night. After all the pains I have taken, +and all the real anxiety I have had. And worst of all after +the repeated promises he had made! I said there must be an +end of Confidence between us, so far as <i>that</i> was +concerned, and I would so far trouble myself about him no +more. But when I came to reflect that this was but an +outbreak among old friends, on an old occasion, after (I do +believe) months of sobriety; that there was no concealment about +it; and that though obstinate at first as to how little drunk, +etc., he was very repentant <!-- page 125--><a +name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +125</span>afterwards—I cannot let this one flaw weigh +against the general good of the man. I cannot if I would: +what then is the use of trying? But my confidence in that +respect must be so far shaken, and it vexes 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 on one +who stands immeasurably above me in the scale, whose faults are +better than so many virtues. Was not this very outbreak +that of a great genial Boy among his old Fellows? True, a +Promise was broken. Yes, but if the Whole Man be of the +Royal Blood of Humanity, and do Justice in the Main, what are +<i>the people</i> to say? <i>He</i> 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 the good. . . .”</p> +<p>FitzGerald probably got to the very heart of the +misunderstanding between himself <!-- page 126--><a +name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>and Posh as +to the merits and demerits of “bare” when he wrote +that Posh was a little obstinate as to “how little +drunk,” etc. Moreover he understood the nature of the +man—“a great genial boy”—but he did not +understand that these “great genial boys” have all +the mischievous tendencies, and all the irresponsibility of real +boys. He was kind and forbearing enough, God knows. +But he had set up his Posh on such a pinnacle of pre-eminence +over all his fellow-men that it is possible that his bitterness +in discovering that after all his protégé was +merely a well-built, handsome, ordinary longshoreman caused a +greater revulsion than would have occurred had his first estimate +of Posh’s character been less exalted.</p> +<p>It is to the credit of the great heart of the man that he +never lost his love of Posh (Posh is certain about this), though +he undoubtedly did lose his confidence in and respect for +him.</p> +<p><!-- page 127--><a name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +127</span>And Posh did not give way to his +“guv’nor” as he might have done. That +fine old East Anglian spirit of independence (which is so +generally admirable) was in this particular instance sheer brutal +ingratitude when shown by Posh to FitzGerald. No one has a +greater admiration than I for this magnificent claim of a <span +class="smcap">Man</span> to be <span +class="smcap">Man’s</span> equal. It kept the race of +Norfolk and Suffolk longshoremen worthy of their traditions until +the cockney visitors, with their tips and their hunger for +longshore lies, ruined the nature of many of our beach +folk. But with FitzGerald, that kind, solicitous gentleman +who never asserted the claims of his station in life before an +inferior, the obtrusive display of this spirit of independence +was as unnecessary as it was cruel. And I think Posh +understands this now. He certainly never meant to hurt the +feelings of his old governor. But he chafed at the care +which his friend took of him. He said to me the other day +that he wished his <!-- page 128--><a name="page128"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 128</span>old master were alive now to take +such care. “Ah!” he said, “he’d +take hold o’ me like this here” (and here, as I have +described on a previous page, Posh pinched up his blue knitted +jersey), “and say, ‘Oh, my dear Poshy! Oh +dear! Oh dear! To think you should be like +this! Oh dear! Oh dear!’”</p> +<p>And Posh’s old eyes will water. Indeed, I have +noticed a likeness between the thoughts of Posh in reference to +FitzGerald and the remorse of the son of a loving father who had +tried his sire hard in lifetime and understood that he had done +so after his father’s death. Even now, this old man +of sixty-nine leans, metaphorically, on the recollection of the +man who loved him so. Even now he says, “Ah! that +would ha’ upset him if he’d known I should ha’ +come to this!”</p> +<p>But in 1869 Posh thought that he was a very fine fellow +indeed, and was not going to be “put upon” by any +“guv’nor,” no matter <!-- page 129--><a +name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 129</span>how kind +the “guv’nor” had been to him. He was +half owner of a fine drifter and skipper as well, to say nothing +of having designed the boat. He would assert himself.</p> +<p>He did.</p> +<h2><!-- page 130--><a name="page130"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 130</span>CHAPTER XI<br /> +POSH SHOWS TEMPER</h2> +<p>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 know something of +FitzGerald’s attitude by now) realises this he will be able +to appreciate the long-suffering generosity of this cultured +scholar whom fools have painted as a mere eccentric hermit. +Posh, now that he was well started by the aid of his governor, +began to yearn for independence. Possibly he had some +reason to complain that his sleeping partner interfered in +matters of which he was ignorant. On September 21st, 1869, +FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. +118):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Posh came up with his Lugger last <!-- page +131--><a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +131</span>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 <i>home</i>: but I think he won’t make a fortune by +it. However, I may be very wrong in thinking he had better +<i>not</i> have come. He has made about the average +fishing, I believe: about £250. Some boats have +£600, I hear; and some few not enough to pay their way.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Probably Posh knew all about the best way of making a profit +out of herring drifters, and FitzGerald may have been wrong in +fearing that he did not. FitzGerald, with his superb +culture, may not (I do not say he did not) have understood that +Posh, on his native North Sea, may <!-- page 132--><a +name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>have been +more than a match for all the culture in the world. For +what I know of the old longshoreman, I am convinced that if he +brought his nets home in his lugger he did so because he thought +it was the most profitable way of bringing them back. But +FitzGerald grew anxious, and his anxiety was not understood by +the natural child of the beach, and caused friction and mutual +irritation.</p> +<p>But this did not break out till the north voyage was over and +the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> had been on the home fishing for more +than a month. Then Posh began to have the fingering of a +good deal of money, and FitzGerald had already had reason to +doubt his abilities to keep his credit and debit sides of account +in proper order. Moreover, the usual autumn gales had been +bringing the stormy and dark nights which are as profitable as +they are dangerous to the drifters. On Monday, November +1st, 1869 (one of the few letters of FitzGerald’s <!-- page +133--><a name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +133</span>which I have seen completely dated), the sleeping +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 the date there is no address.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>danger</i> to Wife and +Children, I directly telegram’d to <i>you</i> to do what I +had desired you to do the week before. Busy as you were, +five minutes spent in writing me a <!-- page 134--><a +name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>line would +have spared all this trouble and all this vexation on both +sides.</p> +<p>“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 <i>safe</i>. My +telegram to you was simply to say, ‘Do what I bid +you’; Who should know <i>what</i> that was, or that it had +anything to do with paying the Boat’s Bills? People +might guess it had <i>something</i> 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>I</i>, the other Half, +would use some Authority in the matter.</p> +<p>“You say truly that, when we began together, you +supposed I should leave all to you, and use <i>no</i> Authority +(though you <!-- page 135--><a name="page135"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 135</span>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 <i>yourself</i> to Account. You know, and +ought to believe, that I have perfect confidence in <i>your +honour</i>; and have told you of the one defect I observed in you +as much for your sake as mine.</p> +<p>“<i>Quite as much</i>, 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 <!-- page 136--><a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +136</span>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 <i>blame</i> 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 <i>one man</i> fairly, kindly, and not ungenerously, +for three good years. I may have made mistakes; but I can +say I have done <i>my</i> best as conscientiously as he can say +he has done his. And I believe he <i>has</i> done his best, +though he has also made mistakes; and I remain his sincerely,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mr. Bradbeer was a herring merchant, and his family is still +prominent in the fishing industry of Lowestoft. +Posh’s letter, to which the above is a reply, must have +been very characteristic of his race, to which secrecy concerning +their private <!-- page 137--><a name="page137"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 137</span>affairs is a first nature. The +mistrust of the privacy of the “telegrams” may +possibly have had some justification. Even in these days +there are East Anglian villages where the contents of private +telegrams are sometimes known to the village before the actual +information reaches the addressee. And in 1869 Lowestoft +was not much more than a village, and telegraphy was in its +infancy. Possibly Posh exaggerated the importance of +secretiveness, and FitzGerald the security of privacy. But +apart from all questions of “the rights of the +matter,” what a letter it is! What a splendid +justification for almost any action. I fear, however the +matter in dispute be looked at, Posh cannot have the best of it +in this case. He had fired up at an imaginary slight, +wrong, whatever he chose to think it, and if he has any excuse at +all, it is that, but for his unreasonableness, we should not have +this letter.</p> +<p><!-- page 138--><a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +138</span>One would have thought that it might have given Posh +pause if even he felt disposed to show his independence +again. But this “squall” between these two +curious partners was not destined to be the last. For the +time it blew over, and the mutual relations between Posh and his +“guv’nor” were as friendly as ever.</p> +<h2><!-- page 139--><a name="page139"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 139</span>CHAPTER XII<br /> +THE <i>HENRIETTA</i></h2> +<p>During the winter of 1869-70 it seems that Posh conceived the +idea that the capital of the firm of FitzGerald and Fletcher +justified the working partner in increasing the +stock-in-trade. A boat-building company at Southwold put up +some craft at auction, and among them was one which had already +seen a good deal of sea service named the <i>Henrietta</i>. +This Posh bought for about £100 without consulting his +partner. It transpired afterwards that the sale was not +acceptable to all the shareholders of the company that owned the +boat, especially to a Jerry Cole, one of the principal +shareholders, and there was a good deal of bother for Posh in +obtaining delivery of his purchase. It may be as well <!-- +page 140--><a name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +140</span>to include all the letters relating to this transaction +in one chapter without regard to dates.</p> +<p>The first is dated February 1st—that is to say, February +1st, 1870—and was written at Woodbridge by FitzGerald to +his partner. The letter, as handed to me by Posh, was +incomplete, and lacked signature. No doubt the second sheet +had been lost with those “sackfuls.”</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>February</i> 1<i>st</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">My dear Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“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 <i>wrong</i>; but he thought that +you were not to blame either. Therefore I consider that I +<i>was</i> 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. <!-- page 141--><a +name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 141</span>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 <i>has</i> happened, I wish to take all the +blame on myself.</p> +<p>“All this will make you wish the more to be quit of such +a <i>Partner</i>. I am sure, however, that I <i>thought</i> +myself right: and am glad to recant. Perhaps another +Partner would not do so much: but you say you will not have +another.</p> +<p>“Mr. Spalding thinks you would have done better to stick +to <i>one</i> Lugger, considering the double trouble of +two. But he says he is not a proper judge. <i>I</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 <i>Dust</i> of the nets hurt you: and (oddly +enough) the first thing I saw, on opening a Paper here on my +return, was a <!-- page 142--><a name="page142"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 142</span>Report on the influence of +<i>Dust</i> 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 <i>Worthington</i>, but he is very expensive. One +thing I am sure of: <i>the more you eat</i>, <i>and the less you +drink</i>, <i>the better</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Even here, when Posh had obviously gone beyond his rights and +bought another boat without consultation with his capitalist +partner, FitzGerald shows his anxiety and solicitude for the +man.</p> +<p>There <i>is</i> a good deal of dust flying about the net +chambers; for the cutch and oil and thread all shred off and +poison the air. “Why,” said Posh the other day, +“he bought me one o’ them things that goo oover the +mouth” (a respirator), “but lor! I should +ha’ been ashamed ta be seed a wearin’ on +it!”</p> +<p>Dr. Worthington referred to in the letter <!-- page 143--><a +name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 143</span>is one of a +long line of medical practitioners, and was the Lowestoft medical +attendant of FitzGerald himself. I have experienced great +kindness from both this Dr. Worthington and his son Dr. Dick +Worthington. The former tells me that FitzGerald would +never enter his house, but would stand on the doorstep to +consult. He had no objection to the doctor entering his +(FitzGerald’s) lodgings, and on one occasion when Dr. +Worthington called on him at 12 Marine Terrace the doctor saw all +his medicine bottles unopened in a row. “You know +this isn’t fair to me,” said the justly irritated +doctor. “I do what I can for you, and you won’t +take my medicines.” “My dear doctor,” +said FitzGerald, “it does me good to see you.”</p> +<p>Dr. Aldis Wright says that this is merely an instance of +FitzGerald’s rule that he would never enter the house of +his equal. Of course his “social” equal is +inferred, for <!-- page 144--><a name="page144"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 144</span>the rule would have been unnecessary +if the “equal” bore another significance. His +inferiors in station he would visit and charm by his manner and +speech. But the house of a society equal he avoided, lest +he should be compelled, for mere courtesy, to go where he would +not.</p> +<p>I have, of course, chuckled over the opinion that Dr. +Worthington senior was “very expensive.” But I +believe that FitzGerald was one of those (I might almost say +“of us”) who regarded all doctor’s bills as +luxuries! At all events, if FitzGerald was right, I can say +that Dr. Dick Worthington is not atavistic in this +particular!</p> +<p>Mr. Spalding’s opinion inclined FitzGerald to make no +difficulty about finding the money for the +<i>Henrietta</i>. He lodged it at his bankers’ for +Posh to draw when occasion required. But Posh seems to have +been a little in advance. There is no heading whatever to +the following letter.</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 145--><a name="page145"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 145</span>“<span class="smcap">Dear +Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“I don’t understand your letter. That which +I had on <i>Friday</i>, enclosing Mr. Craigie’s, said that +you had not <i>drawn</i> the money, your letter of <i>To-day</i> +tells me that you <i>had</i> drawn the money, <i>before the +Letter from Southwold</i> came. Was not that letter Mr. +Craigie’s letter?</p> +<p>“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 <i>any</i> +morning on which you got <i>another</i> letter from Southwold, +telling you the business was to be settled.</p> +<p>“Moreover, I think you should have written me on +<i>Saturday</i>, 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 <i>do</i> care about, such as gales +of wind in which you are out, and such directions as <!-- page +146--><a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 146</span>I +have given over and over again about money matters.</p> +<p>“However, I don’t mean to kick up another row; +provided you <i>now</i> do, and at once, what I positively +desire.</p> +<p>“Which is; to take the money directly to Mr. Barnard, +and ask him, as from <i>me</i>, 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 [<i>sic</i>] the business, Bacon and Cobbold +will write to them at <i>once</i> 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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“E. FG.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mr. Craigie was an old Southwold friend of the Fletcher +family, with whom Fletcher <!-- page 147--><a +name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 147</span>senior +(Posh’s father) had spent Christmas for over forty +years. The criticism of Posh’s system appears, to the +impartial critic, to be both painful and true. But Posh, in +this case, was not altogether to blame. This Mr. Jerry +Cole, before mentioned, was keeping things back. He had a +preponderating interest in that Southwold company, and he thought +that the <i>Henrietta</i> had been sold too cheap, and that hung +up the delivery. At least that’s what Posh tells me, +and at this date I can’t get any better evidence than +his.</p> +<p>Shortly after the last letter FitzGerald wrote again. +Now his kind anxiety about this man, whom he still loved, +outweighed all thought of money. It was a bitter winter, +and Posh, he thought, was not over-hale.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Saturday</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Captain</span>,</p> +<p>“Whatever is to be done about the money, do not you go +over to Southwold <!-- page 148--><a name="page148"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 148</span>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 +<i>can</i> get it) for a a [<i>sic</i>] week or so. Perhaps +it may be as well at Southwold as at Lowestoft.</p> +<p>“I wish you were here to play Allfours with me +To-night.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Yours,<br /> +“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Posh got the lugger in March, 1870, and on March 2nd +FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. +118): “Posh has, I believe, gone off to Southwold in hope +to bring his Lugger home. I advised him last night to +ascertain first by letter whether she <i>were</i> ready for his +hands; but you know he will go his own way, and that generally is +as good as anybody’s. He now works all day in his +Net-loft: and I wonder how he keeps as well as he is, shut up +there from fresh air and among frowsy Nets. . . . I think +he has mistaken in not sending the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> to the +West this <!-- page 149--><a name="page149"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 149</span>spring. . . . But I have not +meddled, nor indeed is it my Business to meddle now. . . +.”</p> +<p>I think this must have been written about the date of the +letter with which I commence the next chapter, or possibly a +little later. It would, almost certainly, be <i>after</i> +the catches of mackerel mentioned by “Mr. Manby” as +hereinafter appears, and, very likely, after the termination of +the partnership.</p> +<h2><!-- page 150--><a name="page150"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 150</span>CHAPTER XIII<br /> +THE END OF THE PARTNERSHIP</h2> +<p>Either in March or April, 1870, FitzGerald wrote to Posh the +quaint letter which follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“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 <i>never had</i> asked +you—nor had you told me this at Lowestoft: if you had I +should not have wanted to ask again. And my reason +<i>for</i> asking, was simply that, on Monday Mr. Moor here was +<i>asking me</i> 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 <!-- page 151--><a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +151</span>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.</p> +<p>“You <i>must please yourself</i> 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.</p> +<p>“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 <i>you</i> should have told me <i>at once</i>, 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 +<!-- page 152--><a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +152</span>at your hands as much as he does the concealment of +it.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Yours,<br /> +“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p151.jpg"> +<img alt="The “Boat Inn,” Quay Lane, Woodbridge" +src="images/p151.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Mr. Moor was FitzGerald’s Woodbridge lawyer, and no +doubt he and other friends of FitzGerald thought that the affairs +of the partnership of FitzGerald and Fletcher were not carried on +with such precision as was desirable. Possibly they were +right. But then, Posh couldn’t be precise. I +have failed to get any intelligible account out of Posh as to +that rum-flip orgy. All he could do was to chuckle. +The question of loyalty raised in the letter is a nice one. +But Posh and his kind would only answer it in one way. They +would regard it as treachery to their order to betray each other +to a “gennleman,” however kind the +“gennleman,” may have been.</p> +<p>On April 4th FitzGerald wrote to Posh from +Woodbridge:—</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 153--><a name="page153"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 153</span>“<span class="smcap">Dear +Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“I <i>may be</i> at Lowestoft some time next week. +As it is I have still some engagements here; and, moreover, I +have not been quite well.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“I have desired that a . . . [word missing] of the Green +Paint which Mr. Silver used should be sent to you. But do +not you <i>wait</i> for it, if you want to be about the Lugger +<!-- page 154--><a name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +154</span>at once. The paint <i>will keep</i> for another +time: and I suppose that the sooner the Lugger is afloat this hot +and dry weather the better.</p> +<p>“Remember me to your Family.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Yours always,<br /> +“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mr. Manby has been already mentioned, and we have previously +heard of the excellence of Mr. Silver’s green paint. +But this letter must have been almost the last written by the +sleeping partner before the termination of the partnership; for +on April the 12th Mr. W. T. Balls, of Lowestoft, valued the +<i>Meum and Tuum</i>, and “Herring and Mackerel Nets, +Bowls, Warpropes, Ballast, and miscellaneous Fishing Stock +belonging jointly to Edward FitzGerald and Joseph +Fletcher.”</p> +<p>FitzGerald had started Posh, put him on his legs, and, as he +believed, given him a chance to become a successful +“owner.” <!-- page 155--><a +name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 155</span>But the +poet was weary of the partnership. He had found it +impossible to persuade Posh to keep accounts such as should be +kept in every business, and had been disappointed more than once +by the intemperance of the man. But as yet the kindly, +generous-hearted gentleman had no thought of breaking with his +protégé altogether, or of depriving him of the use +of the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> or <i>Henrietta</i>, both of which +had been bought with his, FitzGerald’s, money. But he +would no longer be a partner. So Mr. Balls was called in to +value the stock-in-trade, with a view to arranging that a bill of +sale for the half-value to which FitzGerald was entitled should +be given him, and that Posh should thereafter carry on the +business of a herring-boat owner by himself, subject to the +charge in favour of his old “guv’nor.”</p> +<p>Despite the various “squalls,” there had, as yet, +been no serious quarrel between these two. Indeed, +FitzGerald’s kind heart <!-- page 156--><a +name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 156</span>never +forgot Posh, and the fascination of the man. But for the +future FitzGerald and Posh were no longer partners. +FitzGerald’s experience as a “herring merchant” +was at an end.</p> +<h2><!-- page 157--><a name="page157"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 157</span>CHAPTER XIV<br /> +POSH’S PORTRAIT</h2> +<p>Previously to the termination of the partnership FitzGerald +had commissioned S. Laurence to paint a portrait of Posh. +On the 13th January, 1870, he wrote to Laurence from Woodbridge +(<i>Letters</i>, II, 113, Eversley Edition):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“. . . 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 <!-- page 158--><a +name="page158"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 158</span>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. . . .”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>On January 20th FitzGerald wrote another letter to Laurence on +the same subject.</p> +<blockquote><p>“. . . 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 <!-- page +159--><a name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +159</span>calls ‘vif, Mâle, 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” (<i>Letters</i>, II, 115, Eversley Edition).</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In February of the same year FitzGerald went down to +Lowestoft, and wrote another letter from there with reference to +the proposed portrait (<i>Letters</i>, II, 115, Eversley +Edition). It is obvious from these letters that there was +no bitterness on his side which led to the ending of the +partnership. His long-suffering endured to the last.</p> +<blockquote><p>“<span class="smcap">My dear +Laurence</span>,</p> +<p>“. . . 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. <!-- page 160--><a name="page160"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 160</span>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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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 <!-- page 161--><a +name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 161</span>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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p161.jpg"> +<img alt="Little Grange" src="images/p161.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The new Lugger was, of course, the <i>Henrietta</i>. The +portrait was, according to Posh, painted during the summer at +Little Grange, the house which FitzGerald built for himself, or +rather altered for himself, at Woodbridge. Dr. Aldis Wright +was under the impression that the portrait was 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 quarter of an hour at a time, on +and off, and then a stretchin’ o’ my legs in the +yard. 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 Hynes o’ Bury St. Edmunds. He <!-- page +162--><a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +162</span>kep’ a public there. I reckon he’s +dead by now.”</p> +<p>Up to the date of going to press I have been unable to trace +this portrait, and it is, of course, possible, that in spite of +Posh’s vivid recollection, Dr. Aldis Wright’s +impression may be the right one.</p> +<p>A letter to Laurence of August 2nd, 1870, corroborates Posh to +the extent of proving that the painter had certainly seen the +fisherman. On that date FitzGerald wrote (<i>Letters</i>, +II, 118, Eversley Edition):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“. . . 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. . . .</p> +<p>“I declare, you and I have seen A Man! Have we +not? Made in the mould of what <!-- page 163--><a +name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 163</span>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. . . .”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 the spirit of independence of my +gentleman. Possibly FitzGerald himself had, by too open a +display of his admiration for his partner, this typical +longshoreman, contributed to the personal self-satisfaction which +must have been at the bottom of the man’s reasons for +wishing to be free of one who had befriended him so delicately +and so generously. Posh himself admits, or rather boasts, +that the “break” was owing to his own action. +From first to last it seems that FitzGerald, the cultured +gentleman, the scholar, the poet <!-- page 164--><a +name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span>of perfect +language and profound philosophy, regarded Posh as almost more +than man—certainly as more than average man—and there +can be no greater token of the sweet simplicity of the +scholar.</p> +<h2><!-- page 165--><a name="page165"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 165</span>CHAPTER XV<br /> +A DROP O’ BARE</h2> +<p>In September, 1870 (which would be just before the home voyage +began and after the Northern voyage was over), Posh seems to have +“celebrated” more than his whilome partner and then +mortgagee thought proper. On the 8th of the month +FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. +119):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“. . . I had a letter from Posh yesterday, +telling me he was sorry we had not ‘parted +Friends.’ That he had been indeed ‘<i>a little +the worse</i> 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 <!-- page 166--><a +name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 166</span>Posh could +<i>walk</i>, I suppose he only acknowledges a <i>little</i> +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> +<p>“P.S.—I enclose Posh’s letter, and the +answer I propose to give to it. I am sure <!-- page +167--><a name="page167"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 167</span>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. . . .”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>His mother did not try to excuse him at all: his father would +not even see him go off. She merely told me +parenthetically, “I tell him he seem to do it when the +Governor is here.”</p> +<p>If FitzGerald had not set poor Posh (for in a way I am sorry +for the old fellow) on a pedestal, he would have understood that +to a longshoreman or herring fisher who drinks <!-- page 168--><a +name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 168</span>it (there +are many teetotallers now), “bare” can never be +regarded as an enemy. Posh did not think any excuse was +necessary for having had, perhaps, more than he could +conveniently carry. It was his last day ashore (though I +can’t quite understand what fishing he 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 so aboard. This is never done now, and +the chief drink aboard is cocoa (pronounced, as FitzGerald +writes, “cuckoo”). Posh no doubt thought +himself 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.” As for the father and mother, +well, they smoothed down the “gennleman” and +sympathised with their son according to their kind and to mother +nature. The Direction to FitzGerald’s Heirs, which he +<!-- page 169--><a name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +169</span>refers to, is still in existence, and reads as +follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Lowestoft</span>, <i>January</i> 20<i>th</i>, +1870.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“<span class="smcap">Edward +FitzGerald</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This solemn injunction was written on a sheet of note-paper, +and in the fold, over a sixpenny stamp, FitzGerald wrote: +“This paper I now endorse again on legal stamp, <!-- page +170--><a name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 170</span>so +as to give it the authority I can. Edward FitzGerald, July +31, 1870.”</p> +<p>Surely never man had so kind and considerate a friend as Posh +had in FitzGerald!</p> +<h2><!-- page 171--><a name="page171"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 171</span>CHAPTER XVI<br /> +THE SALE OF THE <i>SCANDAL</i></h2> +<p>Though the partnership was over, FitzGerald by no means gave +up his friendship for Posh. From time to time he saw him, +and from time to time he wrote to him, and always he retained the +affection for the longshoreman which had sprung up in him so +suddenly and (I fear) so unaccountably.</p> +<p>On February 5th, 1871, FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding +(<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. 121):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“. . . Posh and his Father are very busy +getting the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> ready for the West; Jemmy, who +goes Captain, is just now in France with a <i>Cargoe</i> of salt +Herrings. I suppose the Lugger will start in a fortnight or +so. . . . All-fours at night.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 172--><a name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +172</span>In April of the same year FitzGerald wrote to +Posh:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Monday</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“It was Mr. Kerrich who died suddenly this day +week—and I suppose is being buried this very day.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Yours, E. FG.</p> +<p>“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 <!-- page 173--><a name="page173"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 173</span>Wind is got West, after the squalls +of Hail.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p173.jpg"> +<img alt="Geldeston Hall, the Norfolk seat of the Kerrich Family" +src="images/p173.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Ablett Pasefield (or Percival), the fisherman and yacht hand, +has been mentioned before, and will be mentioned again. He +was one of FitzGerald’s favourites. Mr. Kerrich was +FitzGerald’s brother-in-law, the husband of the +poet’s favourite sister, who had predeceased him in +1863. On August 5th in that year FitzGerald wrote to +Professor Cowell (<i>Letters</i>, II, 46, Eversley Edition): +“. . . I have lost my sister Kerrich, the only one of my +family I much cared for, or who much cared for me.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>Mr. Kerrich lived at Geldeston Hall, near Beccles, which is +still in possession of the same family.</p> +<p>Mr. Berry (as we know) was FitzGerald’s landlord at +Markethill, Woodbridge.</p> +<p>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 <!-- +page 174--><a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +174</span>that he was to go to Woodbridge Horse Fair. In +the seventies the horse fairs of Norwich and other East Anglian +towns were important functions. The Rommany gryengroes had +not then all gone to America, and those who know their George +Borrow will remember with delight his description of the scene at +the horse fair on Norwich Castle Hill, when Jasper Petulengro +first brought himself to the recollection of Lavengro (or the +“sap-engro”) as his “pal”—that +memorable day when George Borrow saw the famous entire Norfolk +cob Marshland Shales led amongst bared heads, blind and grey with +age, but triumphant in his unequalled fame (<i>Lavengro</i>, p. +74, Minerva Edition).</p> +<p>But Posh bought no new horse. And his recollection does +not permit of any trustworthy account of his visit.</p> +<p>Perhaps it was during this trip to Woodbridge (and the carping +reader will be justified in saying “and perhaps it +wasn’t”) that <!-- page 175--><a +name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 175</span>Posh +witnessed the curious and characteristic meeting between +FitzGerald and his wife.</p> +<p>If this meeting were characteristic, still more so was the +history of the marriage.</p> +<p>FitzGerald had been a great friend of Bernard Barton, the +Woodbridge quaker poet, and on the death of his friend he wished +to save Miss Barton from being thrown on the world almost +destitute and almost friendless. The only way of doing it +without creating scandal (and he changed the name of his yacht +from the <i>Shamrock</i> to the <i>Scandal</i> because he said +that scandal was the principal commodity of Woodbridge) was to +make her his wife. This he did. But there were many +reasons why the marriage was not likely to prove a happy +one. It did not, and both parties recognised that 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 of each of them.</p> +<p><!-- page 176--><a name="page176"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +176</span>Posh was walking with FitzGerald on one occasion down +Quay Lane, Woodbridge, when Mrs. FitzGerald (who was living at +Gorleston at the time, but had gone over to Woodbridge, possibly +to see some old friends) appeared walking towards them. +FitzGerald removed the glove he was wearing on his right +hand. Mrs. FitzGerald removed the glove she was wearing on +her right hand. There was a momentary hesitation as the +husband passed the wife. But Posh thinks that the two hands +did not meet. FitzGerald bowed with all his courtesy, and +passed on.</p> +<p>Posh says that Mrs. FitzGerald was a “fine figure of a +woman.” And I believe that she was, indeed, so fine a +figure of a woman that the length of her stride excited the +admiration of the local schoolboys when she was still Miss +Barton. She was older than FitzGerald when he married her, +and both were nearer fifty than forty.</p> +<p>In this context I give the following letter <!-- page 177--><a +name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 177</span>from +FitzGerald to Posh, though I have been unable to fix its date +with any certainty.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>Tuesday</i>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“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>I</i> am concerned; though you will +perhaps see Newson.</p> +<p>“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 <i>three</i> Deaths from it here: all +from London. As young Smith died in <i>Quay Lane</i> +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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Ever yours,<br /> +“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“The Sportsman” was a public-house at <!-- page +178--><a name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +178</span>Woodbridge, and it is probable that FitzGerald had +helped “poor young Smith” substantially. His +anxiety lest Posh should contract smallpox, and his indifference +as to himself, are admirably illustrative of the man’s +unselfishness.</p> +<p>But now that the partnership was at an end he began to +frequent Lowestoft less. During 1871 he sold the +<i>Scandal</i>, and on September 4th he wrote to Dr. Aldis Wright +from Woodbridge (<i>Letters</i>, II, p. 126, Eversley Edition): +“I run over to Lowestoft occasionally for a few days, but +do not abide there long: no longer having my dear little Ship for +company. . . .”</p> +<p>Who bought the <i>Scandal</i> I do not know. Posh has no +recollection, and Dr. Aldis Wright has been unable to trace with +certainty the subsequent owner of her, though he has reason to +think that she was sold to Sir Cuthbert Quilter. She had +served her purpose. She was, as Posh assures me, a +“fast and handy little schooner.”</p> +<p><!-- page 179--><a name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +179</span>After her sale FitzGerald still remained the mortgagee +of the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> and the <i>Henrietta</i>. But +this was not to last indefinitely. Posh’s spirit of +independence and love of “bare” were fated to put an +end to all business relations between his old +“guv’nor” and him.</p> +<h2><!-- page 180--><a name="page180"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 180</span>CHAPTER XVII<br /> +BY ORDER OF THE MORTGAGEE</h2> +<p>Matters were still progressing fairly satisfactorily when +FitzGerald visited Lowestoft in September, 1872. On the +29th of that month he wrote to Mr. Spalding (<i>Two Suffolk +Friends</i>, p. 122):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“. . . 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. . +. .”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“Gays” is East Anglian for pictures.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>Towards the end of 1873 relations began to be severely +strained between mortgagor <!-- page 181--><a +name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 181</span>and +mortgagee. On December the 31st FitzGerald wrote from 12 +Marine Terrace, Lowestoft:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“12 <span +class="smcap">Marine Terrace</span>,<br /> +“<i>December</i> 31.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Joseph Fletcher</span>,</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“1st. As to your being <i>under</i> your Father: I +said no such thing: but wrote that he was to be <i>either</i> +Partner, or (with your Mother) constantly employed, and consulted +with as to the Boats. It is indeed for <i>their</i> sakes, +and that of your own Family, that I have come to take all this +trouble</p> +<p>“2ndly. As to the Bill of Sale to me. If you +could be calm enough, you would see that this would be a +Protection <i>to yourself</i>. You do not pay your +different Creditors <i>all</i> their Bill at the year’s +end. Now, if <!-- page 182--><a name="page182"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 182</span>any one of these should happen to +want <i>all</i> his Money; he might, by filing a Bankruptcy +against you, seize upon your Nets and everything else you have to +pay his Debt.</p> +<p>“As to your supposing that <i>I</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.</p> +<p>“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>I</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 <!-- page 183--><a +name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 183</span>Protection +to yourself and yours as to myself.</p> +<p>“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 +<i>they</i> 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“<span class="smcap">Edward +FitzGerald</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mr. Barnard was a Lowestoft lawyer for whom Posh had no great +love. It is hardly necessary to say that he did not +“ask” him. He still raises his voice and gets +excited when he discusses the grievances of which he made +complaint in the winter of 1873. “He wouldn’t +leave me alone,” says Posh. “It was ‘yew +must ax yar faa’er this, an’ yew must let yar mother +that, and yew mustn’t dew this here, nor yit that +theer.’ <!-- page 184--><a name="page184"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 184</span>At last I up an’ says, +‘Theer! I ha’ paid ivery farden o’ +debts. Look a here. Here be the receipts. Now +I’ll ha’e no more on it.’ And I slammed +my fist down like this here.”</p> +<p>(Posh’s fist came down on my Remington’s table +till the bell jangled!)</p> +<p>“‘Oh dear! oh dear, Posh!’ says he. +‘That it should ever come ta this! And hev yew +anything left oover?’</p> +<p>“‘Yes,’ I say. ‘I’ve got a +matter of a hunnerd an’ four pound clear arter payin’ +ivery farden owin’, an’ the stock an’ nets +an’ gear and tew boots <a name="citation184"></a><a +href="#footnote184" class="citation">[184]</a> 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.’</p> +<p>“‘Oh dear! oh dear! Posh,’ he say, +‘I din’t think as yew’d made so +much.’”</p> +<p>That is Posh’s account of the final disagreement which +led to the sale of the boats in 1874. Even if it be true +one cannot say that the bluff independence came off with flying +colours in this particular instance. <!-- page 185--><a +name="page185"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 185</span>But +FitzGerald could have told another story, if one may judge from +his letter to Mr. Spalding of the 9th January, 1874, written from +Lowestoft (<i>Two Suffolk Friends</i>, p. 123):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“. . . 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 <i>Salwaging</i> Ethics; and your Cromwells, +Cæsars, 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 <i>under +some</i> ‘<i>Surveillance</i>’: he <i>must</i> wish +to get rid of me also, and (I believe, though he says <i>not</i>) +of the Boat, if he could better himself.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 186--><a name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +186</span>Posh’s story is that after the letter of December +31st, 1873, FitzGerald tried to find him. He went to his +father’s house, and (says Posh, which we are at liberty to +doubt) “cried like a child.” He sent Posh a +paper of conditions which must be agreed to if he, Posh, were to +continue to have the use of the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> and the +<i>Henrietta</i>. The last one was (Posh says, with a roar +of indignation), “that the said Joseph Fletcher the younger +shall be a teetotaller!”</p> +<p>“Lor’!” says Posh, “how my father did +swear at him when I told him o’ that!”</p> +<p>No doubt he did. And no doubt in the presence of +FitzGerald the “slim” old Lowestoft longshoreman +raised his mighty voice in wrath and indignation that he should +have begotten a son to disgrace him so cruelly! FitzGerald +was too open a man, too honest-hearted, too straightforward to +understand that a father could encourage his son insidiously, and +swear at him, FitzGerald, <!-- page 187--><a +name="page187"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 187</span>at the same +time as he deprecated that son’s conduct. But +FitzGerald’s eyes, long closed by kindness, were partly +open at last. He would not go on without some better +guarantee of conduct, some better security that the boats’ +debts would be paid. On January 19th, 1874, he wrote to +Posh (and the handwriting of the letter suggests disturbance of +mind) from Woodbridge:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>should</i> 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 <i>some</i> +conditions, <i>none</i> of which <!-- page 188--><a +name="page188"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 188</span>which +[<i>sic</i>] 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“<span class="smcap">Edward +FitzGerald</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>But Posh “worn’t a goin’ ta hev his +faa’er put oover him, nor he worn’t a goin’ ta +take no pledge. Did ye iver hear o’ sich a +thing?”</p> +<p>So in due course, on the 17th February, 1874, Mr. W. T. Balls, +of Lowestoft, sold by auction the “Lugger <i>Meum and +Tuum</i>” (she had been converted into a dandy-rigged craft +about 1872) “and the <i>Henrietta</i> by direction of +Edward FitzGerald as mortgagee.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p200.jpg"> +<img alt="Edward FitzGerald’s gravestone in Boulge +churchyard; at the head of the grave is a rose bush raised from +seed brought from Omar’s tomb" src="images/p200.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>So Mr. Balls writes me. But he has no letters from +FitzGerald, and was kind enough to look up the valuation and sale +transactions in his books at my request.</p> +<p>The <i>Meum and Tuum</i> was a favourite of Posh’s and +he tried to buy her for himself. <!-- page 189--><a +name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 189</span>But +although she had only cost £360 to build in 1867, in 1874 +she fetched over £300, and Posh could not go so high as +that. So he made other arrangements, and his fishing +interests with FitzGerald were finally ended.</p> +<p>One would have thought that there would be no more letters +beginning “Dear Posh.” But though FitzGerald +had found himself obliged to end his association with Posh in the +herring fishing, he never ended his friendship, even if, during +the last years of his life, he neither saw nor wrote to his +former partner.</p> +<p>The <i>Meum and Tuum</i> made several more voyages in the +North Sea and to the west, and, when she was no longer strictly +seaworthy, was sold to a Mr. Crisp, of Beccles, a maltster and +general provision merchant, who turned her into a storeship, and +anchored her off his wharf in the river Waveney. When she +became so rotten as to be unfit even for a storage ship she was +<!-- page 190--><a name="page190"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +190</span>broken up, and her name-board was bought by Captain +Kerrich, of Geldeston Hall (the son of FitzGerald’s +favourite sister), who was kind enough to present it to the Omar +Khayyám Club. But as the club has no “local +habitation”—only a name—it now remains in the +charge of Mr. Frederic Hudson, one of the founders of the +club.</p> +<h2><!-- page 191--><a name="page191"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 191</span>CHAPTER XVIII<br /> +UNTO THIS LAST</h2> +<p>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, would take him by the blue woollen +jersey and pinch him, and say, “Oh dear, oh dear, +Posh! To think it should ha’ come to +this.” Well, this may possibly have been the +case. There is no doubt that FitzGerald resumed friendly +relations with the fisherman, for on August 29th, 1875, he wrote +from Woodbridge to his former partner:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, <i>August</i> 29.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Posh</span>,</p> +<p>“I have posted you a Lowestoft Paper telling you +something of the Regatta there. But as you say you like to +hear <!-- page 192--><a name="page192"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 192</span>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.</p> +<p>“I, and every one else, made sure that the little +<i>Sapphire</i> would do well when it came on to blow on +Thursday: she went to her moorings as none of the others did +except the <i>Red Rover</i>. But, directly the Gun fired, +the <i>Otter</i> (an awkward thing) drove down upon, and broke up +her Chain-plates, or stenctions [<i>sic</i>], to which the wire +rigging holds: so she could not sail at all: and the <i>Red +Rover</i> got the Prize, after going only <i>two</i> rounds +instead of <i>three</i>: which is odd work, I think. Major +Leathes’ mast went over in the first round, as it did a +year ago. At Evening, the <i>Otter</i> 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.</p> +<p>“Ablett and Jack got more and more uncomfortable <!-- +page 193--><a name="page193"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +193</span>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 <i>that</i>, I +think, will bring him to his senses, if anything can.</p> +<p>“On Friday we saw <i>Mushell</i> 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. <i>This</i>, I always say, is one of the Dangers of +coming home, but, as Things were, <i>Mushell</i> could scarce +help it, though he had better have gone to Yarmouth to sell his +Fish. He seems a good Fellow.</p> +<p>“All these mishaps—I wonder any man can carry on +the trade! I think I would <!-- page 194--><a +name="page194"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 194</span>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Yours always,<br /> +“E. FG.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p201.jpg"> +<img alt="Boulge church" src="images/p201.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The “little <i>Sapphire</i>” I cannot +identify. One gentleman has been kind enough to try to help +me, and thinks that she was the <i>Scandal</i>. But this +cannot be so, for the <i>Scandal</i> was built for FitzGerald at +Wyvenhoe in 1863, was first called the <i>Shamrock</i> and then +the <i>Scandal</i>. Personally, I remember the names of a +good many of the yachts of the Norfolk and Suffolk coast of the +period, but I can’t identify the <i>Sapphire</i>. The +<i>Red Rover</i> was a river craft, a cutter, with the one big +jib of our river craft <!-- page 195--><a +name="page195"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 195</span>instead of +jib and foresail, belonging to the late Mr. Sam Nightingale, of +Lacon’s Brewery. She was originally about twelve +tons, but by improvements and additions, when Mr. Nightingale +died in the eighties, was eighteen tons. For many years she +was the fastest yacht in the Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club, and +though she was occasionally beaten on fluky days she never lost +possession of the challenge cup for long. Fred Baldry, who +steered her with extraordinary skill, is, I believe, still alive, +and lives on Cobholm Island, Yarmouth.</p> +<p>The <i>Red Rover</i> was not only successful on the rivers and +Broads, but in the Yarmouth Roads. I was on her when she +was beating the famous Thames twenty-tonner <i>Vanessa</i>, when +the <i>Red Rover</i> carried away her bowsprit (a new stick) as +she was beating on the sands to dodge the tide, and I remember +how we were hooted all the way up Gorleston Harbour when Mr. +William Hall’s steam launch towed us in.</p> +<p><!-- page 196--><a name="page196"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +196</span>I believe that when the little ten-ton <i>Buttercup</i> +(unbeaten at her best) came down and gave the poor old <i>Red +Rover</i> the worst dressing down she had ever experienced it +broke Mr. Nightingale’s heart. He died soon after, +and he left a direction in his will that the <i>Red Rover</i> +should be broken up and burnt. It would, I think, have been +a kinder and better direction to have left the yacht to Fred +Baldry, who had steered her to victory so often.</p> +<p>Although I have described her as a river yacht, she was purely +a racing machine, and used to be accompanied (in the home waters +at all events) by a wherry, with all spare spars and sails, on +which everything unnecessary for sailing was stowed before the +starting gun was fired.</p> +<p>Once a year she carried a picnic party over Breydon Water, on +which occasion, I believe, Mrs. Nightingale was invariably +seasick going over to Breydon. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. +Nightingale ever used her for <!-- page 197--><a +name="page197"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 197</span>pleasure +except on that one annual excursion up to Reedham.</p> +<p>Well, well! There are no <i>Red Rovers</i> now, and no +Fred Baldrys coming on. But there are plenty of stinking +black tugs and filthy coal barges embellishing the lovely Norfolk +waters. I do not wonder that Colonel Leathes, mentioned in +the last quoted letter, has taken his yacht <i>off</i> the public +waters and confined her to the beautiful wooded reaches of +Fritton Mere.</p> +<p>The <i>Otter</i> was a rival of the <i>Red Rover</i> in the +early days of the latter yacht, and was a clumsy, rather ugly, +ketch-rigged craft belonging to Sir Arthur Preston. Major +Leathes’ (now Colonel Leathes) boat was a yawl named the +<i>Waveney Queen</i>, and the Colonel tells me that he carried +away his mast twice, each time because he would “carry +on” too long.</p> +<p>I can’t ascertain who was the “new owner” of +Ablett Percival and Jack—and if I could I suppose it +wouldn’t do to name <!-- page 198--><a +name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 198</span>him, in +view of FitzGerald’s stringent criticism of him. +Subsequently Jack Newson went on the <i>Mars</i>, the sea-going +craft belonging to the late J. J. Colman, <span +class="smcap">m.p.</span>, but this was later than 1875.</p> +<p>“Mushell” was the nickname of Joe Butcher, the +former skipper of the <i>Henrietta</i>, under Posh, as owner.</p> +<p>I must admit that this letter is hard to fit in with the year +1875, when the <i>Meum and Tuum</i> and the <i>Henrietta</i> had +been sold, and the separation between Posh and his +“guv’nor” final, so far as herring fishing was +concerned. The last paragraph, in which FitzGerald writes +that so long as Posh goes on he will stand by him, seems in flat +contradiction to what happened in 1874. But Colonel Leathes +puts the date as 1875, and Dr. Aldis Wright has been kind enough +to look up old almanacs in his possession and corroborates this +view. It speaks with extraordinary eloquence of +FitzGerald’s affection for Posh, of his <!-- page 199--><a +name="page199"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 199</span>patience +with the man, that after the want of recognition of his kindness +shown in 1874 he should have written to him in such a manner in +1875.</p> +<p>“Mr. and Mrs. Howe” were, as I have stated before, +the caretakers at Little Grange. “Cowell” was, +no doubt, Professor Cowell, though it seems strange that +FitzGerald should have mentioned him to Posh without any prefix +to his name.</p> +<p>That is the last letter in which I can find any reference to +Posh, and the last letter in Posh’s possession which was +written to him. I dare say there were later letters, but if +so they have been destroyed.</p> +<p>FitzGerald had tried a new experiment, and it was ended.</p> +<blockquote><p>Myself, when young, did eagerly frequent<br /> +Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument<br /> + About it and about: but evermore<br /> +Came out by the same door wherein I went.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>He had found a new love, a new interest, and believed that he +had found a new trustworthiness. <!-- page 200--><a +name="page200"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 200</span>But he +returned through the same door by which he entered; and he was an +old man for disillusionment.</p> +<p>Posh was, no doubt, rude, harsh, overbearing with the old +gentleman, but his eyes grow moist now when he speaks of +him. I think he would surrender a good deal of his boasted +independence if only he could have FitzGerald for his friend +again.</p> +<p>The last time he was with me I read him</p> +<blockquote><p>The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,<br /> +Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit<br /> + Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,<br +/> +Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“Well tha’ss a rum un!” said Posh.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">THE END</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">william brendon +and son</span>, <span class="smcap">ltd.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">printers</span>, <span +class="smcap">plymouth</span></p> +<h2>Footnotes:</h2> +<p><a name="footnote184"></a><a href="#citation184" +class="footnote">[184]</a> In East Anglia +“boat” is pronounced to rhyme with +“foot.”</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDWARD FITZGERALD AND "POSH"***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 20543-h.htm or 20543-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/5/4/20543 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Edward FitzGerald and "Posh" + "Herring Merchants" + + +Author: James Blyth + + + +Release Date: February 8, 2007 [eBook #20543] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDWARD FITZGERALD AND "POSH"*** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1908 John Long edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +EDWARD FITZGERALD AND "POSH" +"HERRING MERCHANTS" + + +INCLUDE A NUMBER OF LETTERS +FROM EDWARD FITZGERALD TO JOSEPH FLETCHER +OR "POSH," NOT HITHERTO PUBLISHED + +BY +JAMES BLYTH + +WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS + +LONDON +JOHN LONG +NORRIS STREET, HAYMARKET +MCMVIII + +_Copyright by John Long, 1908_ +_All Rights Reserved_ + +TO +W. ALDIS WRIGHT, ESQ., M.A. +VICE-MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE +I DEDICATE THIS SKETCH +WITH MOST SINCERE THANKS FOR HIS +INVALUABLE ASSISTANCE IN CONNECTION THEREWITH +AND FOR HIS PERMISSION TO PRINT +THE LETTERS OF EDWARD FITZGERALD +WHICH 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 the +phases of Edward FitzGerald's life than the following letter, written to +Thomas Carlyle in 1870, which was generously placed at my disposal by Dr. +Aldis Wright while I was giving the sketch its final revision for the +press. The portrait referred to in the letter is no doubt that +reproduced 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 than +discretion, of some personal characteristics of a great-hearted man. My +purpose in tendering this sketch to the lovers of FitzGerald is to show +that in many ways he has been calumniated. The man who could write the +letters to his humble friend, which are here printed; the man who could +show such consistent tenderness and delicacy of spirit to his fisherman +partner, and could permit the enthusiasm of his affection to blind him to +the truth, was no sulky misanthrope; but a man whose heart, whose +intensely human heart, was so great as to preponderate over his +magnificent intellect. Edward FitzGerald was a great poet, and a great +philosopher. 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 me +were veterans of eighty, ay, and ninety! hale and garrulous as any +longshoreman needs be. But it had never occurred to me before that +possibly the man who was Edward FitzGerald's "Image of the Mould that Man +was originally cast in," the east coast fisherman for whom the great +translator considered no praise to be too high, might be within easy +reach. + +My first discovery was that to most of the good people of Lowestoft the +name 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 author +himself, asked me (when I named FitzGerald to him) if I meant that +FitzGerald who had, he believed, made a lot of money out of salt! A +schoolmaster had never heard of either FitzGerald or Omar. + +It was plain that the educated classes of Lowestoft could help me in my +search but little. So I went down to the harbour basins and the fish +wharves, and asked of "Posh" and his "governor." + +Not a jolly boatman of middle age in the harbour but knew of both. "D'ye +mean 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 up +in Chapel Street. Number tew. He lodge theer." + +So up I went to Chapel Street, one of those streets in the old North Town +of Lowestoft which have seen better days. A wizened, bent, white-haired +old 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, fourteen +years previously. + +"You'll find him down at the new basin," said the old lady. "He's mostly +there this time o' day." + +But there was no Posh at the new basin. Half a dozen weather-beaten +shrimpers (in their brown jumpers, and with the fringe of hair running +beneath the chin from ear to ear--that hirsute ornament so dear to East +Anglian fishermen) were lounging about the wharf, or mending the small- +meshed trawl-nets wherein they draw what spoil they may from the depleted +roads. + +All were grizzled, most were over seventy if wrinkled skin and white hair +may be taken as signs of age. And all knew Posh, and (oh! shame to the +"educated classes!") all remembered Edward FitzGerald. The poet, the +lovable, cultured gentleman they knew nothing of. Had they known of his +incomparable paraphrase of the Persian poet, of his scholarship, his +intimacy with Thackeray, Tennyson, Carlyle, the famous Thompson, Master +of Trinity, they would have recked nothing at all. But they remembered +FitzGerald, who has been called by their superiors an eccentric, miserly +hermit. They remembered him, I say, as a man whose heart was in the +right 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." (They +all spoke of him as "old Fitz." They thought of him as a "mate"--as one +who knew the sea and her moods, and would put up with her vagaries even +as 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 for +Posh when he come acrost him. Posh! I reckon you'll find him at Bill +Harrison's if he bain't on the market." + +"Posh" was no fancy name of the poet's for Joseph Fletcher, but the +actual proper cognomen by which the man has been known on the coast since +he was a lad. Most east coast fishermen have a nickname which supersedes +their registered name, and "Posh" (or now "old Posh") was Joseph +Fletcher's. + +Bill Harrison's is a cosy little beerhouse in the lower North Town. It +is 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 of +him as "a hale, stoutly-built man of over the middle height, his round, +ruddy, clean-shaven face encircled by the fringe of iron-grey whiskers +running round from ear to ear beneath the chin. His broad shoulders were +held square, his back straight, his head poised firm and alert on a +splendid 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 to +mardle 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. I +stalked him. I caught stray glimpses of him in various haunts. But he +always 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 on +the doorstep expectant of Posh. + +At length I cornered him (from information received) fairly and squarely +at 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 appointment +after 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 measure +of "mild beer" (twopenny), for which he will call in preference to any +other liquid. + +"Tha'ss like this here, master," said he. "I ha' had enow o' folks a +comin' here an' pickin' my brains and runnin' off wi' my letters and +never 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 brightened +up. Gradually I overcame his reserve, and gradually I persuaded him that +I did not seek to rob him of anything. I'm a bit of a sailor myself, and +I think a little talk of winds, shoals, seas, and landmarks did more than +the trifling guarantee of good faith to establish friendly relations with +the old fellow. + +But he made no secret of his grievance, and I tell the tale as he told +it, without vouching for its accuracy, but confident that he believed +that he was telling me the truth. And, if he was, the man referred to in +his story, the man who robbed him to all intents and purposes, is hereby +invited to do something to purge his offence by coming forward and +"behaving like a gennleman"--upon which I will answer for it that all +will be forgiven and forgotten by Posh. + +"Ye see, master," said Posh, "that was a Mr. Earle" (I don't know if that +is the correct way of spelling the name, because Posh is no great +authority 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, and +for 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 was +a gennleman. Well, he axed me round to Marine Parade, where he was a +stayin' with his lady, and he give me one drink o' whisky. And that's +all I see of him. He was off with the letters and all, and never gave me +a farden for what he had or what he l'arnt off o' me. I heerd arterwards +as the letters was sold by auction for thutty pound. I see it in the +paper. If he'd ha' sent me five pound I'd ha' been content. But he +niver give me nothin' but that one drink. And ye see, master, _I didn't +know 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 help +me. 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 with +this volume) tells me that he has never been able to find out where the +letters are or who has them. One thing is certain: the person who took +advantage of Posh's ignorance will not be able to publish his ill-gotten +gains in England so long as any copyright exists in the letters. For no +letter of FitzGerald's can be published without the consent of Dr. Aldis +Wright, and he is not the man to permit capital to be made out of sharp +practice with his consent. I have heard rumours of certain letters to +Posh being published in America, with a photograph of Posh and Posh's +"shud." They may have been published under the impression that they were +properly in the possession of the person holding them. I know nothing of +that, nor of what letters they are, nor who published them, nor when and +where they were issued. But I do know what Posh has told me, and if the +volume (if there is one) was published in America by one innocent of +trickery, here is his chance to come forward and explain. + +I was glad to see that Posh no longer numbered me among "that breed." But +I was no longer surprised at the difficulty I had experienced in getting +to close quarters with the man. From that time on he was the +plain-speaking, independent, humorous, rough man that he is naturally. He +has his faults. FitzGerald indicates one in several of his letters. He +is 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 as +long as it did, and that that refined, honourable gentleman (and I doubt +if any one was ever quite so perfect a gentleman as Edward FitzGerald) +was as infatuated with the breezy stalwart comeliness of the man as his +letters prove him to have been. + +As all students of FitzGerald's letters know, the association between +FitzGerald 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. But +Posh never says a word against his old guv'nor's generosity and kindness +of heart. He puts his point of view with emphasis, but always maintains +that had it not been for other "interfarin' parties" there would never +have been any unpleasantness between him and the great man who loved him +so 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 think +his thoughts must often hark back to the days when he was all in all to +his guv'nor. For evil times have come on the old fellow. He is no +longer 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, almost +decrepit, 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 afore +mornin'." + +Into the circumstances of his old landlady's death, of the action of her +legal personal representatives, I will not go here. It suffices to say +that 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 sleeping +in his shed on the beach for two nights, without a roof which he could +call his home. Thanks to certain readers of the _Daily Graphic_ and to +the members of the Omar Khayyam Club, I had a fund in hand for Posh's +benefit, and immediately put a stop to his homelessness. Indeed, he knew +of this fund, and that he could draw on it at need when he chose. But I +believe the old man's heart was broken. He has never been the same man +since. The last year has put more than ten years on the looks and +bearing of the Posh whom I met first. But his memory is still good, and +I was surprised to see how much he remembered of the people mentioned in +the letters published in this volume when I read them through to him the +other day. He cannot understand how it is that these letters have any +value. He tells me he has torn up "sackfuls on 'em" and strewn them to +the winds. The actual letters have been sold for his benefit, and I +think that FitzGerald would be pleased if he knew (as possibly he does +know) that his letters to his fisherman friend, have proved a stay to his +old age. + +{Posh in 1907: p26.jpg} + +I have done my best to give approximate dates to the letters, and where I +have succeeded in being absolutely correct I have to thank Dr. Aldis +Wright, whose courtesy and kindliness, the courtesy and kindliness from a +veteran to a tyro which is so encouraging to the tyro, have been beyond +any expression of thanks which I can phrase. I hope that the letters and +notes 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 point +of view of those old shrimpers by the new basin as a "_good_ gennleman," +as a noble-hearted, courageous man, as well as the more artificial +scholar who quotes Attic scholiasts in a playful way as though they were +school classics. Every new discovery of FitzGerald's life seems to +create new wonder, new admiration for him; and there are, I hope, few who +will read without some emotion not far from tears the sentence in his +sermon to Posh. + +"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 had so much Liking and Interest for you." + + + + +CHAPTER I +THE MEETING + + +The biography of a hero written by his valet would be interesting, and, +according to proverbial wisdom, unbiased by the heroic repute of its +subject. But it would be artificial for all that. Even though the hero +be 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 take +pleasure in, those qualities of his master, the existence of which he +would be the first to deny. + +Where, however, a literary genius condescends to an intimacy with a +simple son of sea and shore who is not only practically illiterate but is +entirely ignorant of his patron's prowess, the opinions of the illiterate +concerning the personal characteristics of the genius obtain a very +remarkable value as being honest criticism by man of man, uninfluenced by +the spirit either of disingenuous adulation or of equally disingenuous +depreciation. That these opinions are in the eyes of a disciple of the +great man quaint, almost insolently crude is a matter of course. But +when they tend to show the master not only great in letters but great in +heart, soul, human kindness, and generosity, they form, perhaps, the most +notable 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 his +memory to so many readers as have the letters of Edward FitzGerald. But +FitzGerald's friends (to whom most of the letters hitherto published were +addressed) were cultured gentlemen, men of the first rank of the time, of +the first rank of all time, men who would necessarily be swayed by the +charm of his culture, by the delicacy of his wit, by the refinement of +his thoughts. + +In the case of "Posh," however (that typical Lowestoft fisherman who +supplied "Fitz" with a period of exaltation which was as extraordinary as +it was self-revealing), there were no extraneous influences at work. Posh +knew the man as a good-hearted friend, a man of jealous affection, as a +free-handed business partner, as a lover of the sea. He neither knew nor +cared that his partner (he would not admit that "patron" would be the +better word!) was the author of undying verse. To this day it is +impossible to make him understand that reminiscences of FitzGerald are of +greater public interest than any recollection of him--Posh. + +It was not easy to explain to him that it was his first meeting with +Edward FitzGerald that was the thing and not the theft of his (Posh's) +father's longshore lugger which led to that meeting. However, time and +patience have rendered it possible to separate the wheat from the tares +of his narrative; and what tares may be left may be swallowed down with +the more nutritious grain without any deleterious effect. + +In the early summer of 1865 some daring longshore pirate made off with +Fletcher 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 were +warned of the act. These worthy fellows (and they are too fine a lot of +men to be disbanded by any twopenny Radical Government) traced the boat +to Harwich. Here the gallant rover had sought local and expert aid to +enable him to bring up, had then raised an awning, as though he were to +sleep aboard, and, after thus satisfying the local talent to whom he was +still indebted for their services, had slunk ashore and disappeared. Old +Mr. Fletcher, on hearing the news, started off to Harwich in another +craft 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 Deben +and down the river to Harwich in a small craft captained by one West. But +in 1865 he was the owner of a smart fifteen-ton schooner, which he had +had built for him by Harvey, of Wyvenhoe, two years previously, and of +which Tom Newson was the skipper and his nephew Jack the crew. According +to Posh, the original name of this schooner was the _Shamrock_, but she +has become famous as the _Scandal_. It happened that when the Fletchers +were at Harwich in search of the stolen punt, Edward FitzGerald had come +down the river, and Newson made his two Lowestoft friends known to his +master. + +There can be no doubt that at that time, when he was twenty-seven years +of age, Posh was an exceptionally comely and stalwart man. And he was, +doubtless, possessed of the dry humour and the spirit of simple jollity +which make his race such charming companions for a time. At all events +his personality magnetised the poet, then a man of fifty-six, already a +trifle weary of the inanities of life. + +FitzGerald must have been tolerably conversant with the Harwich and +Felixstowe mariners--with the "salwagers" of the "Ship-wash"--and the +characters of the pilots and fishermen of the east coast. But Posh seems +to have come to him as something new. How it happened it is impossible +to guess. Posh has no idea. He has a more or less contemptuous +appreciation of FitzGerald's great affection for him. But he cannot help +any one to get to the root of the question why FitzGerald should have +singled him out and set him above all other living men, as, for a brief +period of exaltation, he certainly did. + +From the first meeting to the inevitable disillusionment FitzGerald +delighted in the company of the illiterate fisherman. Whether he took +his protege cruising with him on the _Scandal_, or sat with him in his +favourite corner of the kitchen of the old Suffolk Inn at Lowestoft, or +played "all-fours" with him, or sat and "mardled" with him and his wife +in the little cottage (8 Strand Cottages, Lowestoft) where Posh reared +his brood, FitzGerald was fond even to jealousy of his new friend. The +least disrespect shown to Posh by any one less appreciative of his merits +FitzGerald would treat as an insult personal to himself. On one occasion +when he was walking with Posh on the pier some stranger hazarded a casual +word or two to the fisherman. "Mr. Fletcher is _my_ guest," said +FitzGerald at once, and drew away his "guest" by the arm. + +It must have been soon after their first meeting that FitzGerald wrote to +Fletcher 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 fish +to 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 and +soles fell victims to the longshoremen's trawls, and altogether there +were a hundred fish to be caught to one in these days. Moreover, before +steam made coast traffic independent of wind, the sand-banks outside the +roads were a great source of profit to the beach men, who went off in +their 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, and +Colonel Leathes, of Herringfleet Hall, tells a tale of a French brig, +named the _Confiance en Dieu_, which took the ground on the Newcome Sand +off Lowestoft about the year 1850. The weather was perfectly calm, but a +company of beach men boarded her and got her off, and so established a +claim for salvage. As a result she was kept nine weeks in port, and her +skipper, the owner, had to pay 1200 pounds to get clear. + +All things considered, it is probable that a Lowestoft longshoreman, in +the sixties and seventies of the nineteenth century, could make a very +good living of it, and even now, now when poverty has fallen on the +beach, no beach man, unspoilt by the curse of visitors' tips, would bow +his 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 Suffolk +Coast_ (No. II), he defines "Rattlin' Sam" as follows: "A term of +endearment, I suppose, used by Salwagers for a nasty shoal off the Corton +coast." In the same publication (I) he defines "saltwagin." "So +pronounced (if not _solwagin_') from, perhaps, an indistinct implication +of _salt_ (water) and _wages_. _Salvaging_, of course." + +Posh tells how his "guv'nor" would clap him on the back and laugh +heartily over a "salwagin'" story. "You sea pirates!" he would say. "You +sea 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 the +evenings he would sit and smoke a pipe, or play "all-fours." In the day +he liked to go to sea with Posh in the latter's punt, the _Little +Wonder_. The _Scandal_ was not launched that year till June, and +although 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 Posh +assures 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 a +lady's boa aboard a longshore punt would be about as incongruous as a +court suit in a shooting field. But FitzGerald was not vain enough to be +self-conscious. He knew when he was comfortable, and that was enough for +his healthy intelligence. Why should he care for the foolish trifles of +convention? So to sea he went, top hat and all. And a good and hardy +sailor man he was, as all who remember his ways afloat will testify. + +Shortly before or after his visit to Lowestoft in the spring of 1866 +FitzGerald 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 which +FitzGerald had been in the habit of cruising up and down river with one +"West." It certainly was not the _Scandal_, for as transpires in the +letter, 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 Tom +Newson, 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 atop +wherewith herring fishers mark the end of their fleets of nets, or (vide +_Sea Words and Phrases_, etc.). "A small buoy, with some ensign atop, to +mark 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 often +mistaken it for some floating sea bird of an unknown species." + +The prophecy that as soon as Posh got his longshore fleet complete he +would 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 FitzGerald +himself. But no one ever took Posh's place. FitzGerald's experience as +a "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 in +time to see her masts slipping along, was one of the sons of "old John +Howe," who, with his wife, was caretaker of Little Grange for many years. +The schooner was, Posh tells me, exceptionally cheap, and FitzGerald's +reference to her meant that she was too cheap to be good. + +Since Posh's letter-writing powers received praise from one so qualified +to 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 lines +than with his pen by a very great deal, and it is difficult to believe +that he ever wielded the pen of a ready writer. But perhaps FitzGerald +was so fascinated by the qualities which did exist in his protege that he +saw 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's +heart to descry non-existent merits than to imagine vain defects, and it +was like the generous soul of FitzGerald to attribute excellencies to his +friend 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 necessary +for her complete equipment as a North Sea herring boat, he borrowed a sum +of 50 pounds from Tom Newson, and a further sum of 50 pounds from Edward +FitzGerald. FitzGerald thought that Newson should have security for his +loan (vide _Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 104), but Newson refused to accept +any such thing. He, too, seems to have been under the influence of +Posh's fascination. On October 7th, 1866, FitzGerald wrote (_Two Suffolk +Friends_, p. 105): "I am amused to see Newson's _devotion_ to his young +Friend. . . . He declined having any Bill of Sale on Posh's Goods for +Money lent; old as he is (enough to distrust all Mankind) . . . has +perfect reliance on his Honour, Industry, Skill and Luck." + +About this time FitzGerald must have written the following fragment, in +which 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 new +arrangement made on the building of the _Meum and Tuum_ in the following +year. But this fragment is important, in that it strikes a note of +warning, which had to be repeated again and again during the partnership +between the poet and the fisherman. Posh was happy-go-lucky in his +accounts. I believe he was perfectly honest in intention, but he did not +understand the scrupulosity in book-keeping which his partner thought +essential to any business concern. + +FitzGerald himself was very far from being meticulous where debts due to +him were concerned. Dr. Aldis Wright can remember more than one instance +in which FitzGerald tore up an acknowledgment of a loan after two or +three years' interest had been paid. "I think you've paid enough," or "I +think he's paid enough," would be his bland dismissal of the debt due to +him. Many Woodbridge people had good cause to know the generosity of the +man as well as ever Posh had cause to know it. FitzGerald may not have +opened his heart to his Woodbridge acquaintance so freely as he did to +Posh, but he was always ready to loosen his purse-strings. + +The cork jackets were afterwards supplied to the crew of the _Meum and +Tuum_, as will be apparent in the letters. + +"Jack," who found the purse, was Jack Newson, Tom Newson's nephew, and +the "crew" of the _Scandal_. + + + + +CHAPTER III +A SERMON FOR SUNDAY + + +In 1867 Posh sold the old _William Tell_ to be broken up. She was barely +seaworthy and unfit to continue fishing. An agreement was entered into +with 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 360 +pounds. FitzGerald had suggested that the boat should be built by a Mr. +Hunt, of Aldeburgh, but Posh persuaded him to consent to Lowestoft and +Dan Fuller instead. "I can look arter 'em better," said he, with some +show 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 and +her profits. He was to find the money for the new lugger, and to let the +sums already due from Posh remain in the partnership, while Posh was to +bring in the nets and gear he had. + +But by this time FitzGerald had seen symptoms in Posh which caused him +anxiety. He loved his humble friend, and his anxiety was on account of +the man and not on account of the possibilities of pecuniary loss +incurred through Posh's weakness. On December the 4th, 1866, he wrote to +Mr. Spalding, of Woodbridge: "At eight or half-past I go to have a pipe +at Posh's, if he isn't half-drunk with his Friends" (_Two Suffolk +Friends_, p. 107). + +On January 5th, 1867, he wrote to the same correspondent (_Two Suffolk +Friends_, p. 108) referring to Posh: "This very day he signs an Agreement +for a new Herring-lugger, of which he is to be Captain, and to which he +will contribute some Nets and Gear. . . . I believe I have smoked my +pipe every evening but one with Posh at his house, which his quiet little +Wife 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 many +Friends)--so many wanting him _to drink_. He says it's quite true and +that he is often obliged to run away: as I believe he does: for his House +shows all Temperance and Order. This little lecture I give him--to go +the way, I suppose, of all such Advice. . . ." + +I fear that poor Posh's limbs soon grew too stiff to permit him to run +away from the good brown "bare." But the lecture which FitzGerald +mentions so casually was surely one of the most delicately written +warnings ever penned. The sterling kindness of the writer is as +transparent in it as is his tenderness to an inferior's feelings. No one +but a very paragon of a gentleman would have taken the trouble to write +so wisely, so kindly, so tenderly, and so earnestly. The appeal must +surely have moved Posh, for the pathos of the reference to his patron's +loneliness could not but have its effect. + +But to touch on the sacred "bare" of a Lowestoft fisherman is always +dangerous. There are many teetotallers among them now, and they would +resent any imputation on their temperance. But those who are not +teetotallers would resent it much more. FitzGerald warned his friend in +as beautiful a letter as was ever written. But Posh could never regard +the "mild bare," the "twopenny" of the district, as an enemy. He rarely +touched spirits. Now, at the age of sixty-nine, he enjoys his mild beer +more than anything and cares little for stronger stuff. But there is no +doubt that this same mild beer inserted the edge of the adze which was to +split the partnership in a little more than three years' time--this and +the "interfarin' parties," whom Posh blames for all the misunderstandings +which 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 IV +THE _MUM TUM_ + + +FitzGerald having made up his mind to give Posh a lift by going into +partnership with him began by finding not only the money for the building +of the boat but a name for her when she should be ready for sea. It +seemed 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 to +have said that his venture turned out all Tuum and no Meum so far as he +was concerned. But it is possible that Posh dealt more fairly with him +than 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 the +greatest interest in her building. He had first thought of christening +the lugger "Marian Halcombe," after Wilkie Collins's heroine in _The +Woman in White_, as appears from a letter to Frederic Tennyson, written +in 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 the +late 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, for +FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding on May 18th, 1867 (_Two Suffolk +Friends_, p. 110), that she would be decked "next Week," whereas her +planking was not finished till June, and, on a Friday in June, FitzGerald +wrote 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 written +to Posh, FitzGerald signed his name, "Edward FitzGerald," in full, a +practice from which he was averse owing to certain facts connected with +another Edward Fitzgerald. Those who have heard the story of the +historic first meeting between the poet and the late Mr. Bernard Quaritch +will remember why _our_ FitzGerald disliked the idea of being confused +with the other Edward Fitzgerald. + +{Posh and his old "Shud," in which nets, etc., belonging to the +partnership were stored, and where the letters now published were found: +p62.jpg} + +The letter here given forces a delightful picture upon us. Its +simplicity makes it superbly graphic. Think of FitzGerald, refined in +feature and reserved in manner, a little unconventional in dress, but not +sufficiently so to be vulgarly noticeable--think of the man who has given +us the most poetical philosophy and the most philosophical poetry, all in +the most exquisite English, in our language, sitting probably at Evans's +(it sounds like Evans's with the suppers and the music) and looking a +little pityingly at the reek about him like the "poor old, solitary, and +sad Man as he really was in spite of his Jokes"; and then imaging in his +mind's eye the handsome stalwart fisherman whom he loved so truly, and +believing that he was as morally excellent as he was physically! "What a +Face he would make at all this!" thought the poet. + +Five or six years ago a good friend of mine, the skipper of one of the +most famous tugs of Yarmouth, had to go up to town on a salvage case +before the Admiralty Court. With him as witnesses went one or two beach +men of the old school, wind-and sun-tanned old shell-backs, with voices +like a fog-horn, and that entire lack of self-consciousness which is +characteristic of simplicity and good breeding. My friend the skipper +was cultured in comparison with the old beach men, and he was a little +vexed when one old "salwager" insisted on accompanying him to the Oxford +Music 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 the +beach man. For that jolly old salt hailed him across the house. "Hi, +Billeeoh! Bill Berry! Hi! Lor, bor, howiver dew they dew't? Howiver +dew they dew't, bor? Tha'ss whoolly a masterpiece! Hi! Billeeoh! Theer +they goo agin!" + +The skipper always ends the story there. He is as brave a man as any on +the coast. It was he who stood out in Yarmouth Roads all night to look +for the Caistor life-boat the night of the disaster--a night when the +roads could not be distinguished from the shoals, so broken into tossing +white horses was the whole offing--but I believe he slunk down the stairs +of the Oxford that night, and left the old beach man still expressing his +delighted wonder. + +Perhaps FitzGerald thought that Posh would be as excited as the old beach +man. + +"Mr. Berry" (as every one knows who knows anything about FitzGerald) was +the landlord of the house on Markethill, Woodbridge, where the poet +lodged. (By the way, he was, so far as I know, no relation of my Bill +Berry.) A sum of 50 pounds was due to Dan Fuller on the planking being +completed, and FitzGerald was anxious to let Posh have the money as soon +as 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 that +FitzGerald had, at first, wished Posh to employ him to build the _Mum +Tum_, as the _Meum and Tuum_ was fated to be called. + +The kindly jovial relations between the "guv'nor" and his partner could +not be better indicated than by the name FitzGerald gives himself at the +close, just before he once more signs his name in full. Well, perhaps +the legal luminary of Lowestoft would justify his inquiry if Edward +FitzGerald 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 Khayyam +would (according to the nature of the breed) sniff and say "What? A +herring-merchant and a tent-maker! My boys are the sons of gentlemen. I +can'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 about +that, the guv'nor did. He'd catch hold o' my jersey, so" (here Posh +pinches up a fold of his blue woollen jersey), "and say, 'Oh dear! Oh +dear, Poshy! Two F's in the firm. FitzGerald and Fletcher, herring +salesmen--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-hearted +man if ever there was one." + +And then Posh's eyes will grow moist sometimes, I think perhaps with the +thought that he might--ah, well! It's too late now. + +Posh wishes me to give the dimensions of the lugger, as she was of his +own designing and proved a fast and stiff craft. He had given her two +feet less length than her beam called for, according to local ideas, and +FitzGerald called her "The Cart-horse," because she seemed broad and +bluff 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, but +altered to the more modern "dandy" (something like a ketch but with more +rake to the mizzen and with no topmast on the mainmast) before she was +sold. Any one about the herring basins who has arrived at fisherman's +maturity (about sixty years) will remember the _Mum Tum_, and, so far as +she was concerned, the partnership was entirely successful, for no one +has a bad word to say for her. + + + + +CHAPTER V +"NEIGHBOUR'S FARE" + + +It is impossible to arrive at the exact sum of money which FitzGerald +brought into the partnership between him and Posh, but it must have been +something 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 owner +of three-fourths of the concern; but on a valuation being made it was +found that the nets and gear contributed by Posh were of greater value +than had been supposed, and before the _Meum and Tuum_ put to sea it was +understood that Posh should be half owner with his "guvnor." Posh is +very firm in his conviction that up to the return of the boat from her +first 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 in +Posh. The quarrels and misunderstandings which subsequently arose on +this point Posh attributes to certain "interfarin' parties" (and +especially to a Lowestoft lawyer), who were under the impression that +FitzGerald had not looked after himself so well as he might have done and +who thought that this omission should be remedied. Possibly they had an +idea that they might "make somethin'" in the course of the remedial +measures. + +Early in August Posh sailed north with his crew to meet the herring on +their way down south. His luck was poor, and on August 26th FitzGerald +wrote 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 is +apparent. "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 is +to say, "If you think that you cannot afford to buy gin for yourself +don't worry about the expense. I'll see you are not put to any extra +cost. But I can't bear to think that you may suffer for the want of a +medicine because of your East Anglian parsimony." + +It must be remembered that East Anglia was notorious for the frequency of +the disease in question. The late William Cadge, of Norwich, probably +the finest lithotomist in the world (as Thompson was the greatest +lithotritist), once told me that he had performed over four hundred +operations in the Norwich Hospital for this disease alone. + +But FitzGerald's fears concerning Posh were not realised. He seems to +have had an especial dread of the disease (as who has not?), for in a +letter to Frederic Tennyson of January 29th previously (II, 89, Eversley +Edition) he wrote (of Montaigne): "One of his Consolations for _The +Stone_ is that it makes one less unwilling to part with Life." + +Levi was a Lowestoft fishmonger, referred to in the footnote of _Two +Suffolk Friends_, p. 108. + +The _Gazelle_ was the "punt" or longshore boat which Posh bought at +Southwold, and called (by reason of her splendid qualities) _The Little +Wonder_. + +The difference between "sunk" and "swum" herring nets would be +unintelligible to a modern herring fisher. Now the nets are thirty feet +in depth, are buoyed on the surface of the sea, and are kept +perpendicular (like a wall two miles long) by the weight of heavy cables +or "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 nets +were sunk _below_ the cables or warps which strung them together, and if +they 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 above +the warps and are buoyed on the surface. But the depth has increased so +much (to what is technically known as "twenty-score mesh," which comes to +about 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 the +lungs. + +The _Monitor_ was a Kessingland craft, and belonged to one Hutton. + +But whether Posh fished with "sunk" or "swum" nets his luck was out for +the season of 1867. The fish as a rule get down to the Norfolk coast +about the beginning of October, and Posh had followed them down from +Scarborough. About the end of September, or the beginning of October, +FitzGerald wrote to his partner, addressing the letter to 8 Strand +Cottages, Lowestoft, in the expectation that the _Meum and Tuum_ had come +south with the rest of the herring drifters, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, North +and South Shields, and Scotch. + +{Strand Cottages, where Posh lived. No. 8, his cottage, is marked with a +white 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 that +the luck should change, for "Neighbour's fare" is defined in _Sea Words +and Phrases along the Suffolk Coast_ as "Doing as well as one's +neighbours. 'I mayn't make a fortune, but I look for "Neighbour's fare" +nevertheless.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VI +THE 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 he +was doing Posh a good turn. Whether or not Posh had a greater share of +the earnings of the boat than he was entitled to I cannot say. Certainly +he began to thrive exceedingly about this time, and, as an old +longshoreman seven years Posh's senior, said to me the other day, "He +might ha' been a gennleman! He used to kape his greyhounds, and he had +as 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 the +sleeping partner to look into the accounts of the firm. + +On Christmas Day of 1867, when the season was over and all the herring +drifters had "made up," that is to say, had worked out their accounts and +struck 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 characteristic +letters (in that it embraced interests so widely different) to Professor +Cowell. The letter begins with a reference to M. Garcin de Tassy and his +"annual oration," and continues with some passages of great interest +concerning the _Rubaiyat_ and Attar's "Birds." (Dr. Aldis Wright's +Eversley Edition of _Letters_, II, 100.) Then from a delicate and dainty +piece of criticism the poet turns to his herring business. "I have come +here to wind up accounts for our Herring-lugger: much against us as the +season has been a bad one. My dear Captain [Posh], who looks in his +Cottage 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 I +think him--and surely my sixty years of considering men will not so +deceive me at last!--I would rather lose money with him than gain it with +others. Indeed I never proposed Gain, as you may imagine: but only to +have some Interest with this dear Fellow." + +Well, he had his wish, though Posh maintains that there _was_ gain in the +business at a certain time to be referred to hereafter, and that there +might have been plenty of gain but for the "interfarin' parties" before +mentioned. + +From the first there was a difficulty in persuading Posh to keep any +accounts of either outgoings or incomings. He seems to have paid a bill +when he thought of it, or when he had the money for it handy. But no +idea of book-keeping, even in its most rudimentary form, was ever +entertained 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 to +the 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 a +large firm of agricultural implement makers. Subsequently he became the +curator of the museum at Colchester, and the letters from FitzGerald to +him which were handed to Mr. Francis Hindes Groome formed the most +valuable part of the second part of _Two Suffolk Friends_ called "Edward +FitzGerald. An Aftermath." + +"Oil" and "cutch" are preservatives for the herring nets. The oil is +linseed, and the nets are soaked in it before they are tanned by the +cutch. Cutch is a dark resinous stuff, which is thrown into a copper +full of water and boiled till it is dissolved. Then the liquid is thrown +over the nets and permitted to soak in. After the nets are soaked in +linseed oil, and before they are tanned, they are hung up to dry in the +open air. The process has to be repeated several times during each +fishing, and those who are familiar with Lowestoft and Yarmouth must also +be familiar with the sight and smell of the nets, hanging out on +railings, either on public open spaces or in private net yards. Where +rails are not obtainable the nets are often spread on the ground, and an +ingenious idea for the quaint shape of Yarmouth (unique with its narrow +"rows") is that the rows represent the narrow footpaths between the +spaces on which the nets used to be laid to dry. + +"Pasifull" is sometimes called "Percival," sometimes "Pasifall," and +sometimes as in this letter. His Christian name was Ablett, and he was +both a fisherman and a yacht hand. + +Mr. Durrant was a market gardener and fruiterer in Lowestoft, and his +sons carry on the same business in three shops in Lowestoft now. One of +them remembers FitzGerald as a visitor and "a queer old chap," and that's +all he knows about him. + +I do not think Posh troubled himself much about the accounts. But there +was another subject already broached which was to cause some +unpleasantness between the partners. + +Some of FitzGerald's friends, both at Lowestoft and elsewhere, had become +uneasy at the hold which Posh had obtained over him. They feared lest he +should 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 a +mere partnership understanding, that he should, in fact, insist on having +a bill of sale, or mortgage of the _Meum and Tuum_ and her gear to secure +the money he had found. Possibly he was swayed by Posh's backwardness in +the matter of account. Certainly he came to the conclusion that his +friends were right, and that he should have a charge on the boat and her +gear. Now I believe that Posh tells the truth when he says that in the +first instance there was no mention of any such charge. And he was not a +business man enough to see the reasonableness of FitzGerald's demand. He +was, moreover, urged by the secretiveness of his race, the love of +keeping private affairs from outsiders, and he bitterly resented the +proposition. Indeed, during the early months of 1868, there were +constant semi-quarrels, which were as constantly patched up. FitzGerald +loved the man too well to quarrel with him definitely. Besides, Posh had +not been well. In January FitzGerald wrote to Professor Cowell +(_Letters_, II, 103, Eversley Edition): "I have spent lots of money on my +Herring-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 (a +dear Fellow) is got ill, which is the worst of all." + +But in this first instance Posh gave way. On April 14th FitzGerald wrote +Mr. Spalding: "I believe that he and I shall now sign the Mortgage Papers +that make him owner of _Half Meum and Tuum_. I only get out of him that +he can't say he sees much amiss in the Deed." But Posh is still bitter +about that deed, and still blames his old "guv'nor" for having listened +to the "interfarin' parties." He does not know what was the matter with +him that spring. "I was quare, sir," he says. "I don't know what ta +was. But I was quare." + +He got well in time to go off after the spring mackerel, which used to be +a regular fishing season off Lowestoft, though now mackerel are getting +as scarce as salmon off the Norfolk and Suffolk coast. But the _Meum and +Tuum's_ bad luck still followed her with the longer and bigger meshed +nets. On June 16th, 1868, FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (_Two Suffolk +Friends_, 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 was +characteristic of FitzGerald to give his skipper leave to run home when +he wished. FitzGerald always liked the _Meum and Tuum_ to be in harbour +on 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 for +the lives of her crew made him insist upon their taking life-belts aboard +with them, although the mate had stated that no one would wear them. On +April 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, and +Mr. 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 and +anchors" were, Posh thinks, lost from his old punt the _Gazelle_. + +For the sake of convenience I give a letter here which is somewhat out of +date, but inasmuch as it has nothing to do with the fishing but only with +the 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 became +of 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 "Flagstone +FitzGerald" he burst out laughing. "What!" said he. "Hain't yew niver +heard about ole Flagstone? He was a retail and wholesale grocer and +gin'ral store dealer at Yarmouth name ---" (well, we will say Smith for +purposes of reference. As the man's sons still carry on his old business +here in Lowestoft it is as well not to give the true name. By the way, I +do not mean that the sons carry on the "flagstone" business), "and he +owned tew or t'ree boots and stored 'em hisself. Well, when they come to +make up (and o' coorse he'd chudged the men for the stores, ah! and +chudged 'em high!) they went t'rew the stores an' found as he'd weighted +up the sugar and such like wi' flagstone! Well, they made it sa hot for +him at Yarmouth that he had ta mewve ta Lowestoft, and he was allust +called Flagstone Smith arter that. I reckon as the Guv'nor heerd the +yarn 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 the +date 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 VIII +HOW FISHERS FISHED + + +The poor mackerel season ended in the second week of July. Why, when +mackerel were so scarce, the _Meum and Tuum_ did not give up the fishing +and try for "midsummer herring" it is difficult to understand, and Posh +does not remember the reason, if there was one. Possibly the change of +nets, etc., etc., was too much trouble. Anyhow, the season was +unprofitable for the mackerel boats. On Monday, July 13th, FitzGerald +was still on the _Scandal_ at Lowestoft, and wrote from there to Mr. +Spalding (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 113): "Posh made up and paid off on +Saturday. I have not yet asked him, but I suppose he has just paid his +way, I mean so far as Grub goes. . . . Last night it lightened to the +South, 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 and +pilchards are caught by drift nets, it is unnecessary to consider them +when dealing with the great North Sea drift fishing)--is carried on on a +system 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 a +season, and ascertaining the sums which are due to owners and crew +respectively. + +In the days when Fitzgerald was a "herring merchant," the systems of +Yarmouth and Lowestoft were different. At Yarmouth the owner of the boat +took nine shares out of sixteen, and bore all losses of damaged or lost +nets, etc., the remaining seven shares being divided among the crew in +varying 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 or +three-eighths share. At Lowestoft the shares were also divided into +sixteen; but the owner took only eight, and the crew the other eight. The +losses of gear, nets, etc., however, were borne equally between the two +lots of eight shares, and, on the whole, I believe the Yarmouth system +was more favourable to the men, though the Lowestoft system made the +skipper and crew more careful of the nets and gear than they might have +been did not they suffer for any loss of them. The introduction of steam +drifters has made the shares complicated in the extreme. The owners take +so 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, the +prices rule so high nowadays, and the catches are occasionally so large +(the other day a steam drifter brought in over 200 pounds worth of fish +to Grimsby as the result of one night's fishing), that the great +Martinmas fishing of the east coast has become a gamble in which fortunes +may be made and lost. Many a boat earns over 2000 pounds from October to +December. A lucky skipper may take 200 pounds for his share of the home +fishing alone. But such figures would have sounded fantastic in +FitzGerald's day, for I have been assured over and over again by herring +fishers that in the sixties and seventies, ay, even in the eighties of +last century, 20 pounds was a "good season's share" for a prominent hand +of a successful drifter. + +Posh, as half owner, would take four-sixteenth shares, and as skipper +would probably take another two-sixteenths, so that he would draw more +than any one else. + +Some time during the spring or summer of 1868 there was great excitement +amongst the fishing-boat owners of Lowestoft and other ports on account +of an Act just passed regulating the building of vessels, having especial +regard to the ventilation of the cuddy, forecastle, or the men's sleeping +quarters. Posh tells me that many owners of drifters considered that the +Act applied to all craft, including fishing boats, and that great expense +was undergone by some over-conscientious owners in fitting ventilating +drums and shafts in accordance with the Act. If the statute applied to +any drifter it would apply to the _Meum and Tuum_, and FitzGerald +evidently thought that the intention of the Act was that fishing boats +should be exempt. He proved to be right, for the regulations were never +enforced 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 whom +FitzGerald used to navigate the river Deben in a small boat before the +building of the _Scandal_. Newson's wife, like Posh's, was often ailing. +Kind "Fitz" had written previously (July 25th, 1868; _Letters_, Eversley +Edition, 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 the +company of beach men (of which Posh was a member) owning a yawl. +FitzGerald (as has been seen before) always took a humorous interest in +the doings of the "sea pirates," yclept beach men or "salwagers," and he +doubtless enjoyed his little chuckle at Posh's expense. + +The builders were at work on Little Grange, which FitzGerald predicted he +would never live in but would die in. However, he falsified both +predictions, for he lived in the house ten years and died in Norfolk. + +Mr. Durrant was still in default. I doubt if FitzGerald ever got those +flowers. They were plants, Posh tells me, which FitzGerald wished to +plant out at Little Grange. + +I can find no record of the principal, the Martinmas or Autumn, fishing +of 1868. But in the spring of 1869 the _Meum and Tuum_ went to the "West +Fishing" for mackerel, even as a large number of our modern steam +drifters go now, to the indignation of the pious fishermen of Penzance, +Newlyn, and St. Ives. These good fellows of the west have, I think, some +reason to complain that it is unfair that they should suffer for +righteousness' sake. Looking at the point in dispute impartially, it +_does_ seem hard that the men of the locality should see Easterlings +bringing in good catches of fish as the result of what the Cornishmen +regard as a desecration of "the Lord's Day." The religious sentiment +which prevents the western and southern men from putting off on Sunday is +genuine and sincere enough. The Scotch herring boats, which come in +their thousands to Yarmouth and Lowestoft for the autumn fishing, are +always in harbour from Saturday night to Monday morning, though the local +boats fish all days and nights. But by keeping in harbour the Scotchmen +offend the sensibilities of no one, whereas there is much bitterness +caused in the west by the refusal of the Easterlings to fall in with +local 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 be +seen from the story of the Laurence portrait, set forth hereinafter, as +the lawyers, whom Posh hates so much, would say. + +The sleeping partner throughout seems to have had more anxiety on account +of Posh's sea hazards than on account of business losses. How the +mackerel paid I do not know, but Posh was in time to go north for the +beginning of the herring fishing in July. + + + + +CHAPTER IX +ECCENTRICITIES OF A GOOD HEART + + +There must always be an interval ashore between the return of the +drifters from the western voyage and their sailing north to follow the +herring down from Aberdeen to Yarmouth. And during this interval, in +1869, FitzGerald wrote one or two letters to Posh which have survived +that 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 lover +of yachting. Even in the way in which he took his enjoyment of this he +was original. Posh asserts that he has seen his "guv'nor" lying in the +lee scuppers while the _Scandal_ was heeling over in a stiff breeze, and +permitting the wash of the sea to run over him till he was drenched to +the skin. Indeed, although his long lean body looked frail, he was +reckless in the way in which he treated it. Posh tells one story which I +give in his words. He vouches for its truth, and I give it on his +authority and not as vouching for its accuracy myself. Personally I +believe the tale is true enough, but I admit that it requires a power of +assimilation 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 to +say, the eight weeks' fishing down the east coast from Aberdeen to +Lowestoft from the beginning of August to the end of September, seems to +have been about up to what FitzGerald might have called "Neighbour's +fare." He wrote to Mrs. W. H. Thompson (the wife of the Master of +Trinity): "My lugger has had (along with her neighbours) such a Season +hitherto of Winds as no one remembers. We made 450 pounds in the North +Sea" (that is to say, in the north fishing before the home Martinmas +fishing began); "and (just for fun) I did wish to realise 5 pounds in my +pocket. But my Captain would take it all to pay Bills. But if he makes +another 400 pounds this Home Voyage! Oh, then we shall have money in our +pockets. I do wish this. For the anxiety about all these people's lives +has been so much more to me than all the amusement I have got from the +Business, that I think I will draw out of it if I can see my Captain +sufficiently firm on his legs to carry it on alone. True, there will +still be the same risk to him and his ten men, but they don't care; only +I sit here listening to the Winds in the Chimney, and always thinking of +the eleven hanging at my own finger ends" (_Letters_, II, 110, Eversley +Edition). + +{A Lowestoft "Dandy": p116.jpg} + +The number of hands on a herring drifter used to be eleven, which seemed +excessive till the labour of hauling nearly two miles of nets by hand is +remembered. Now that almost every drifter which goes into the North Sea +has a donkey engine to do the hardest work of the hauling the number +aboard the dandies is lessened to nine. + +This letter to Mrs. Thompson is the first suggestion that FitzGerald has +any idea of ending the partnership, a suggestion which became fully +developed 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 have +seen, though (as Dr. Aldis Wright says) "FitzGerald never wrote a letter +like any one else." The power of throwing himself "into the picture," +the humour of conscious imitation, were never more brilliantly +illustrated than by this hail-fellow-well-met letter, written by the +scholar 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 still +living, and a well-known mechanic in Lowestoft. Mutford Bridge will be +better recognised as the bridge at Oulton Broad. + +Once again FitzGerald chuckles at the morality of the "salwagers," and +chuckles again at the expansiveness of the East Anglian "half a pint," +which may mean anything between its nominal measure and the full holding +capacity of the drinker--which is as vague as "half a pint," itself. + +The _Elsie_ was a yacht which belonged to a syndicate of Woodbridge +yachtsmen, of whom Mr. Silver (a Woodbridge friend of FitzGerald's) was +one and Mr. Manby was another. The two friends who went to Mutford +Bridge 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 was +a beauty. But nothing came of the visit, and the Woodbridge man did not +buy her. + +As yet the warning which FitzGerald had given Posh in his sermon had (so +far as the letters tell us) served its purpose. But the letters appear +to be deceitful in this, and the next chapter must deal with a painful +phase of the partnership. + + + + +CHAPTER X +POSH'S SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE + + +The hopes for the home fishing of 1869 should have been good. On August +30th, 1869 (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 114), FitzGerald wrote to Mr. +Spalding from Lowestoft: "You will see by the enclosed that Posh has had +a little better luck than hitherto. One reason for my not going to +Woodbridge is, that I think it possible that this N.E. wind may blow him +hither to tan his nets. Only please God it don't tan him and his people +first." + +Herring are, as our East Anglian fishermen say, "ondependable" in their +travels. They come south along the coast from the north of Scotland till +they 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 be +fixed for a certain date. This year, for instance (1907), owing to the +warm August and September they have been late in coming south from Hull. +Generally "longshores" are caught off Lowestoft late in August or early +in September, and by the end of September the home and Scotch fleets are +congesting the herring basins. This year, however, I had my first +longshores brought me yesterday, the 1st of October, and there are not a +dozen Scotch craft to be seen in the basins. + +FitzGerald stayed at Lowestoft till the north-easters _did_ blow Posh +home. And perhaps he would have been happier had he gone back to +Woodbridge 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 Suffolk +Friends_, p. 115): "I would not meddle with the Regatta. . . . And the +Day ended by vexing me more than it did him [Newson]. . . . Posh drove +in here the day before to tan his nets: could not help making one with +some old friends in a Boat-race on the Monday, and getting very fuddled +with them on the Suffolk Green (where I was) at night. After all the +pains I have taken, and all the real anxiety I have had. And worst of +all after the repeated promises he had made! I said there must be an end +of Confidence between us, so far as _that_ was concerned, and I would so +far trouble myself about him no more. But when I came to reflect that +this was but an outbreak among old friends, on an old occasion, after (I +do believe) months of sobriety; that there was no concealment about it; +and that though obstinate at first as to how little drunk, etc., he was +very repentant afterwards--I cannot let this one flaw weigh against the +general good of the man. I cannot if I would: what then is the use of +trying? But my confidence in that respect must be so far shaken, and it +vexes 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 on +one who stands immeasurably above me in the scale, whose faults are +better than so many virtues. Was not this very outbreak that of a great +genial Boy among his old Fellows? True, a Promise was broken. Yes, but +if the Whole Man be of the Royal Blood of Humanity, and do Justice in the +Main, 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 the +good. . . ." + +FitzGerald probably got to the very heart of the misunderstanding between +himself and Posh as to the merits and demerits of "bare" when he wrote +that Posh was a little obstinate as to "how little drunk," etc. Moreover +he understood the nature of the man--"a great genial boy"--but he did not +understand that these "great genial boys" have all the mischievous +tendencies, and all the irresponsibility of real boys. He was kind and +forbearing enough, God knows. But he had set up his Posh on such a +pinnacle of pre-eminence over all his fellow-men that it is possible that +his bitterness in discovering that after all his protege was merely a +well-built, handsome, ordinary longshoreman caused a greater revulsion +than would have occurred had his first estimate of Posh's character been +less exalted. + +It is to the credit of the great heart of the man that he never lost his +love of Posh (Posh is certain about this), though he undoubtedly did lose +his confidence in and respect for him. + +And Posh did not give way to his "guv'nor" as he might have done. That +fine old East Anglian spirit of independence (which is so generally +admirable) was in this particular instance sheer brutal ingratitude when +shown by Posh to FitzGerald. No one has a greater admiration than I for +this magnificent claim of a MAN to be MAN'S equal. It kept the race of +Norfolk and Suffolk longshoremen worthy of their traditions until the +cockney visitors, with their tips and their hunger for longshore lies, +ruined the nature of many of our beach folk. But with FitzGerald, that +kind, solicitous gentleman who never asserted the claims of his station +in life before an inferior, the obtrusive display of this spirit of +independence was as unnecessary as it was cruel. And I think Posh +understands this now. He certainly never meant to hurt the feelings of +his old governor. But he chafed at the care which his friend took of +him. He said to me the other day that he wished his old master were +alive now to take such care. "Ah!" he said, "he'd take hold o' me like +this here" (and here, as I have described on a previous page, Posh +pinched up his blue knitted jersey), "and say, 'Oh, my dear Poshy! Oh +dear! 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 likeness +between the thoughts of Posh in reference to FitzGerald and the remorse +of the son of a loving father who had tried his sire hard in lifetime and +understood that he had done so after his father's death. Even now, this +old man of sixty-nine leans, metaphorically, on the recollection of the +man who loved him so. Even now he says, "Ah! that would ha' upset him if +he'd known I should ha' come to this!" + +But in 1869 Posh thought that he was a very fine fellow indeed, and was +not 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 and +skipper as well, to say nothing of having designed the boat. He would +assert himself. + +He did. + + + + +CHAPTER XI +POSH 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 know +something of FitzGerald's attitude by now) realises this he will be able +to appreciate the long-suffering generosity of this cultured scholar whom +fools have painted as a mere eccentric hermit. Posh, now that he was +well started by the aid of his governor, began to yearn for independence. +Possibly he had some reason to complain that his sleeping partner +interfered 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 of +herring drifters, and FitzGerald may have been wrong in fearing that he +did not. FitzGerald, with his superb culture, may not (I do not say he +did not) have understood that Posh, on his native North Sea, may have +been more than a match for all the culture in the world. For what I know +of the old longshoreman, I am convinced that if he brought his nets home +in his lugger he did so because he thought it was the most profitable way +of bringing them back. But FitzGerald grew anxious, and his anxiety was +not understood by the natural child of the beach, and caused friction and +mutual irritation. + +But this did not break out till the north voyage was over and the _Meum +and Tuum_ had been on the home fishing for more than a month. Then Posh +began to have the fingering of a good deal of money, and FitzGerald had +already had reason to doubt his abilities to keep his credit and debit +sides of account in proper order. Moreover, the usual autumn gales had +been bringing the stormy and dark nights which are as profitable as they +are dangerous to the drifters. On Monday, November 1st, 1869 (one of the +few letters of FitzGerald's which I have seen completely dated), the +sleeping 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 the +date 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 in +the fishing industry of Lowestoft. Posh's letter, to which the above is +a reply, must have been very characteristic of his race, to which secrecy +concerning their private affairs is a first nature. The mistrust of the +privacy of the "telegrams" may possibly have had some justification. Even +in these days there are East Anglian villages where the contents of +private telegrams are sometimes known to the village before the actual +information reaches the addressee. And in 1869 Lowestoft was not much +more than a village, and telegraphy was in its infancy. Possibly Posh +exaggerated the importance of secretiveness, and FitzGerald the security +of privacy. But apart from all questions of "the rights of the matter," +what a letter it is! What a splendid justification for almost any +action. I fear, however the matter in dispute be looked at, Posh cannot +have the best of it in this case. He had fired up at an imaginary +slight, wrong, whatever he chose to think it, and if he has any excuse at +all, it is that, but for his unreasonableness, we should not have this +letter. + +One would have thought that it might have given Posh pause if even he +felt disposed to show his independence again. But this "squall" between +these two curious partners was not destined to be the last. For the time +it blew over, and the mutual relations between Posh and his "guv'nor" +were as friendly as ever. + + + + +CHAPTER XII +THE _HENRIETTA_ + + +During the winter of 1869-70 it seems that Posh conceived the idea that +the capital of the firm of FitzGerald and Fletcher justified the working +partner in increasing the stock-in-trade. A boat-building company at +Southwold put up some craft at auction, and among them was one which had +already seen a good deal of sea service named the _Henrietta_. This Posh +bought for about 100 pounds without consulting his partner. It +transpired afterwards that the sale was not acceptable to all the +shareholders of the company that owned the boat, especially to a Jerry +Cole, one of the principal shareholders, and there was a good deal of +bother for Posh in obtaining delivery of his purchase. It may be as well +to include all the letters relating to this transaction in one chapter +without regard to dates. + +The first is dated February 1st--that is to say, February 1st, 1870--and +was written at Woodbridge by FitzGerald to his partner. The letter, as +handed to me by Posh, was incomplete, and lacked signature. No doubt the +second 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 bought +another boat without consultation with his capitalist partner, FitzGerald +shows his anxiety and solicitude for the man. + +There _is_ a good deal of dust flying about the net chambers; for the +cutch and oil and thread all shred off and poison the air. "Why," said +Posh the other day, "he bought me one o' them things that goo oover the +mouth" (a respirator), "but lor! I should ha' been ashamed ta be seed a +wearin' on it!" + +Dr. Worthington referred to in the letter is one of a long line of +medical practitioners, and was the Lowestoft medical attendant of +FitzGerald himself. I have experienced great kindness from both this Dr. +Worthington and his son Dr. Dick Worthington. The former tells me that +FitzGerald would never enter his house, but would stand on the doorstep +to consult. He had no objection to the doctor entering his +(FitzGerald's) lodgings, and on one occasion when Dr. Worthington called +on him at 12 Marine Terrace the doctor saw all his medicine bottles +unopened in a row. "You know this isn't fair to me," said the justly +irritated doctor. "I do what I can for you, and you won't take my +medicines." "My dear doctor," said FitzGerald, "it does me good to see +you." + +Dr. Aldis Wright says that this is merely an instance of FitzGerald's +rule that he would never enter the house of his equal. Of course his +"social" equal is inferred, for the rule would have been unnecessary if +the "equal" bore another significance. His inferiors in station he would +visit and charm by his manner and speech. But the house of a society +equal he avoided, lest he should be compelled, for mere courtesy, to go +where he would not. + +I have, of course, chuckled over the opinion that Dr. Worthington senior +was "very expensive." But I believe that FitzGerald was one of those (I +might almost say "of us") who regarded all doctor's bills as luxuries! At +all events, if FitzGerald was right, I can say that Dr. Dick Worthington +is not atavistic in this particular! + +Mr. Spalding's opinion inclined FitzGerald to make no difficulty about +finding the money for the _Henrietta_. He lodged it at his bankers' for +Posh to draw when occasion required. But Posh seems to have been a +little 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 whom +Fletcher senior (Posh's father) had spent Christmas for over forty years. +The criticism of Posh's system appears, to the impartial critic, to be +both painful and true. But Posh, in this case, was not altogether to +blame. This Mr. Jerry Cole, before mentioned, was keeping things back. +He had a preponderating interest in that Southwold company, and he +thought that the _Henrietta_ had been sold too cheap, and that hung up +the delivery. At least that's what Posh tells me, and at this date I +can't get any better evidence than his. + +Shortly after the last letter FitzGerald wrote again. Now his kind +anxiety about this man, whom he still loved, outweighed all thought of +money. 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 to +Mr. Spalding (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 118): "Posh has, I believe, gone +off to Southwold in hope to bring his Lugger home. I advised him last +night to ascertain first by letter whether she _were_ ready for his +hands; but you know he will go his own way, and that generally is as good +as anybody's. He now works all day in his Net-loft: and I wonder how he +keeps as well as he is, shut up there from fresh air and among frowsy +Nets. . . . 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 it +my Business to meddle now. . . ." + +I think this must have been written about the date of the letter with +which 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 of +the partnership. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII +THE END OF THE PARTNERSHIP + + +Either in March or April, 1870, FitzGerald wrote to Posh the quaint +letter 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 other +friends of FitzGerald thought that the affairs of the partnership of +FitzGerald and Fletcher were not carried on with such precision as was +desirable. Possibly they were right. But then, Posh couldn't be +precise. I have failed to get any intelligible account out of Posh as to +that rum-flip orgy. All he could do was to chuckle. The question of +loyalty raised in the letter is a nice one. But Posh and his kind would +only answer it in one way. They would regard it as treachery to their +order 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 the +excellence of Mr. Silver's green paint. But this letter must have been +almost the last written by the sleeping partner before the termination of +the 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 to +Edward 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 was +weary of the partnership. He had found it impossible to persuade Posh to +keep accounts such as should be kept in every business, and had been +disappointed more than once by the intemperance of the man. But as yet +the kindly, generous-hearted gentleman had no thought of breaking with +his protege altogether, or of depriving him of the use of the _Meum and +Tuum_ or _Henrietta_, both of which had been bought with his, +FitzGerald's, money. But he would no longer be a partner. So Mr. Balls +was called in to value the stock-in-trade, with a view to arranging that +a bill of sale for the half-value to which FitzGerald was entitled should +be given him, and that Posh should thereafter carry on the business of a +herring-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 quarrel +between these two. Indeed, FitzGerald's kind heart never forgot Posh, +and the fascination of the man. But for the future FitzGerald and Posh +were no longer partners. FitzGerald's experience as a "herring merchant" +was at an end. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV +POSH'S PORTRAIT + + +Previously to the termination of the partnership FitzGerald had +commissioned S. Laurence to paint a portrait of Posh. On the 13th +January, 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 same +subject. + + ". . . 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 wrote +another letter from there with reference to the proposed portrait +(_Letters_, II, 115, Eversley Edition). It is obvious from these letters +that there was no bitterness on his side which led to the ending of the +partnership. 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 house +which FitzGerald built for himself, or rather altered for himself, at +Woodbridge. Dr. Aldis Wright was under the impression that the portrait +was 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 quarter +of an hour at a time, on and off, and then a stretchin' o' my legs in the +yard. 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 Hynes +o' Bury St. Edmunds. He kep' a public there. I reckon he's dead by +now." + +Up to the date of going to press I have been unable to trace this +portrait, and it is, of course, possible, that in spite of Posh's vivid +recollection, Dr. Aldis Wright's impression may be the right one. + +A letter to Laurence of August 2nd, 1870, corroborates Posh to the extent +of proving that the painter had certainly seen the fisherman. On that +date 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 the +spirit of independence of my gentleman. Possibly FitzGerald himself had, +by too open a display of his admiration for his partner, this typical +longshoreman, contributed to the personal self-satisfaction which must +have been at the bottom of the man's reasons for wishing to be free of +one who had befriended him so delicately and so generously. Posh himself +admits, or rather boasts, that the "break" was owing to his own action. +From first to last it seems that FitzGerald, the cultured gentleman, the +scholar, the poet of perfect language and profound philosophy, regarded +Posh as almost more than man--certainly as more than average man--and +there can be no greater token of the sweet simplicity of the scholar. + + + + +CHAPTER XV +A DROP O' BARE + + +In September, 1870 (which would be just before the home voyage began and +after the Northern voyage was over), Posh seems to have "celebrated" more +than his whilome partner and then mortgagee thought proper. On the 8th +of 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 even +see him go off. She merely told me parenthetically, "I tell him he seem +to do it when the Governor is here." + +If FitzGerald had not set poor Posh (for in a way I am sorry for the old +fellow) on a pedestal, he would have understood that to a longshoreman or +herring fisher who drinks it (there are many teetotallers now), "bare" +can never be regarded as an enemy. Posh did not think any excuse was +necessary for having had, perhaps, more than he could conveniently carry. +It was his last day ashore (though I can't quite understand what fishing +he 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 so +aboard. This is never done now, and the chief drink aboard is cocoa +(pronounced, as FitzGerald writes, "cuckoo"). Posh no doubt thought +himself 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." As +for the father and mother, well, they smoothed down the "gennleman" and +sympathised with their son according to their kind and to mother nature. +The Direction to FitzGerald's Heirs, which he refers to, is still in +existence, 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 the +fold, over a sixpenny stamp, FitzGerald wrote: "This paper I now endorse +again on legal stamp, so as to give it the authority I can. Edward +FitzGerald, July 31, 1870." + +Surely never man had so kind and considerate a friend as Posh had in +FitzGerald! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI +THE SALE OF THE _SCANDAL_ + + +Though the partnership was over, FitzGerald by no means gave up his +friendship for Posh. From time to time he saw him, and from time to time +he wrote to him, and always he retained the affection for the +longshoreman which had sprung up in him so suddenly and (I fear) so +unaccountably. + +On February 5th, 1871, FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (_Two Suffolk +Friends_, 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 been +mentioned before, and will be mentioned again. He was one of +FitzGerald's favourites. Mr. Kerrich was FitzGerald's brother-in-law, +the husband of the poet's favourite sister, who had predeceased him in +1863. On August 5th in that year FitzGerald wrote to Professor Cowell +(_Letters_, II, 46, Eversley Edition): ". . . I have lost my sister +Kerrich, the only one of my family I much cared for, or who much cared +for me." + +* * * * * + +Mr. Kerrich lived at Geldeston Hall, near Beccles, which is still in +possession 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 to +Woodbridge Horse Fair. In the seventies the horse fairs of Norwich and +other East Anglian towns were important functions. The Rommany +gryengroes had not then all gone to America, and those who know their +George Borrow will remember with delight his description of the scene at +the horse fair on Norwich Castle Hill, when Jasper Petulengro first +brought himself to the recollection of Lavengro (or the "sap-engro") as +his "pal"--that memorable day when George Borrow saw the famous entire +Norfolk cob Marshland Shales led amongst bared heads, blind and grey with +age, but triumphant in his unequalled fame (_Lavengro_, p. 74, Minerva +Edition). + +But Posh bought no new horse. And his recollection does not permit of +any trustworthy account of his visit. + +Perhaps it was during this trip to Woodbridge (and the carping reader +will be justified in saying "and perhaps it wasn't") that Posh witnessed +the curious and characteristic meeting between FitzGerald and his wife. + +If this meeting were characteristic, still more so was the history of the +marriage. + +FitzGerald had been a great friend of Bernard Barton, the Woodbridge +quaker poet, and on the death of his friend he wished to save Miss Barton +from being thrown on the world almost destitute and almost friendless. +The only way of doing it without creating scandal (and he changed the +name of his yacht from the _Shamrock_ to the _Scandal_ because he said +that scandal was the principal commodity of Woodbridge) was to make her +his wife. This he did. But there were many reasons why the marriage was +not likely to prove a happy one. It did not, and both parties recognised +that 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 of +each of them. + +Posh was walking with FitzGerald on one occasion down Quay Lane, +Woodbridge, when Mrs. FitzGerald (who was living at Gorleston at the +time, but had gone over to Woodbridge, possibly to see some old friends) +appeared walking towards them. FitzGerald removed the glove he was +wearing on his right hand. Mrs. FitzGerald removed the glove she was +wearing on her right hand. There was a momentary hesitation as the +husband passed the wife. But Posh thinks that the two hands did not +meet. FitzGerald bowed with all his courtesy, and passed on. + +Posh says that Mrs. FitzGerald was a "fine figure of a woman." And I +believe that she was, indeed, so fine a figure of a woman that the length +of her stride excited the admiration of the local schoolboys when she was +still 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 that +FitzGerald had helped "poor young Smith" substantially. His anxiety lest +Posh should contract smallpox, and his indifference as to himself, are +admirably illustrative of the man's unselfishness. + +But now that the partnership was at an end he began to frequent Lowestoft +less. During 1871 he sold the _Scandal_, and on September 4th he wrote +to Dr. Aldis Wright from Woodbridge (_Letters_, II, p. 126, Eversley +Edition): "I run over to Lowestoft occasionally for a few days, but do +not abide there long: no longer having my dear little Ship for company. . . ." + +Who bought the _Scandal_ I do not know. Posh has no recollection, and +Dr. Aldis Wright has been unable to trace with certainty the subsequent +owner of her, though he has reason to think that she was sold to Sir +Cuthbert Quilter. She had served her purpose. She was, as Posh assures +me, a "fast and handy little schooner." + +After her sale FitzGerald still remained the mortgagee of the _Meum and +Tuum_ and the _Henrietta_. But this was not to last indefinitely. Posh's +spirit of independence and love of "bare" were fated to put an end to all +business relations between his old "guv'nor" and him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII +BY ORDER OF THE MORTGAGEE + + +Matters were still progressing fairly satisfactorily when FitzGerald +visited Lowestoft in September, 1872. On the 29th of that month he wrote +to 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 between +mortgagor and mortgagee. On December the 31st FitzGerald wrote from 12 +Marine 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. It +is hardly necessary to say that he did not "ask" him. He still raises +his voice and gets excited when he discusses the grievances of which he +made complaint in the winter of 1873. "He wouldn't leave me alone," says +Posh. "It was 'yew must ax yar faa'er this, an' yew must let yar mother +that, and yew mustn't dew this here, nor yit that theer.' At last I up +an' says, 'Theer! I ha' paid ivery farden o' debts. Look a here. Here +be the receipts. Now I'll ha'e no more on it.' And I slammed my fist +down 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 clear +arter payin' ivery farden owin', an' the stock an' nets an' gear and tew +boots {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 so +much.'" + +That is Posh's account of the final disagreement which led to the sale of +the boats in 1874. Even if it be true one cannot say that the bluff +independence came off with flying colours in this particular instance. +But FitzGerald could have told another story, if one may judge from his +letter 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, FitzGerald +tried to find him. He went to his father's house, and (says Posh, which +we are at liberty to doubt) "cried like a child." He sent Posh a paper +of conditions which must be agreed to if he, Posh, were to continue to +have the use of the _Meum and Tuum_ and the _Henrietta_. The last one +was (Posh says, with a roar of indignation), "that the said Joseph +Fletcher 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 and +indignation that he should have begotten a son to disgrace him so +cruelly! FitzGerald was too open a man, too honest-hearted, too +straightforward to understand that a father could encourage his son +insidiously, and swear at him, FitzGerald, at the same time as he +deprecated that son's conduct. But FitzGerald's eyes, long closed by +kindness, were partly open at last. He would not go on without some +better guarantee of conduct, some better security that the boats' debts +would be paid. On January 19th, 1874, he wrote to Posh (and the +handwriting 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 a +goin' 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, of +Lowestoft, sold by auction the "Lugger _Meum and Tuum_" (she had been +converted into a dandy-rigged craft about 1872) "and the _Henrietta_ by +direction of Edward FitzGerald as mortgagee." + +{Edward FitzGerald's gravestone in Boulge churchyard; at the head of the +grave 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 was +kind enough to look up the valuation and sale transactions in his books +at my request. + +The _Meum and Tuum_ was a favourite of Posh's and he tried to buy her for +himself. But although she had only cost 360 pounds to build in 1867, in +1874 she fetched over 300 pounds, and Posh could not go so high as that. +So he made other arrangements, and his fishing interests with FitzGerald +were 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 his +association with Posh in the herring fishing, he never ended his +friendship, even if, during the last years of his life, he neither saw +nor wrote to his former partner. + +The _Meum and Tuum_ made several more voyages in the North Sea and to the +west, and, when she was no longer strictly seaworthy, was sold to a Mr. +Crisp, of Beccles, a maltster and general provision merchant, who turned +her into a storeship, and anchored her off his wharf in the river +Waveney. When she became so rotten as to be unfit even for a storage +ship she was broken up, and her name-board was bought by Captain Kerrich, +of Geldeston Hall (the son of FitzGerald's favourite sister), who was +kind enough to present it to the Omar Khayyam Club. But as the club has +no "local habitation"--only a name--it now remains in the charge of Mr. +Frederic Hudson, one of the founders of the club. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII +UNTO 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, would +take him by the blue woollen jersey and pinch him, and say, "Oh dear, oh +dear, Posh! To think it should ha' come to this." Well, this may +possibly have been the case. There is no doubt that FitzGerald resumed +friendly relations with the fisherman, for on August 29th, 1875, he wrote +from 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 kind +enough to try to help me, and thinks that she was the _Scandal_. But +this cannot be so, for the _Scandal_ was built for FitzGerald at Wyvenhoe +in 1863, was first called the _Shamrock_ and then the _Scandal_. +Personally, I remember the names of a good many of the yachts of the +Norfolk and Suffolk coast of the period, but I can't identify the +_Sapphire_. The _Red Rover_ was a river craft, a cutter, with the one +big jib of our river craft instead of jib and foresail, belonging to the +late Mr. Sam Nightingale, of Lacon's Brewery. She was originally about +twelve tons, but by improvements and additions, when Mr. Nightingale died +in the eighties, was eighteen tons. For many years she was the fastest +yacht in the Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club, and though she was +occasionally beaten on fluky days she never lost possession of the +challenge cup for long. Fred Baldry, who steered her with extraordinary +skill, is, I believe, still alive, and lives on Cobholm Island, Yarmouth. + +The _Red Rover_ was not only successful on the rivers and Broads, but in +the Yarmouth Roads. I was on her when she was beating the famous Thames +twenty-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 I +remember 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 she +had ever experienced it broke Mr. Nightingale's heart. He died soon +after, and he left a direction in his will that the _Red Rover_ should be +broken up and burnt. It would, I think, have been a kinder and better +direction to have left the yacht to Fred Baldry, who had steered her to +victory so often. + +Although I have described her as a river yacht, she was purely a racing +machine, and used to be accompanied (in the home waters at all events) by +a wherry, with all spare spars and sails, on which everything unnecessary +for sailing was stowed before the starting gun was fired. + +Once a year she carried a picnic party over Breydon Water, on which +occasion, I believe, Mrs. Nightingale was invariably seasick going over +to Breydon. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Nightingale ever used her for pleasure +except on that one annual excursion up to Reedham. + +Well, well! There are no _Red Rovers_ now, and no Fred Baldrys coming +on. But there are plenty of stinking black tugs and filthy coal barges +embellishing the lovely Norfolk waters. I do not wonder that Colonel +Leathes, mentioned in the last quoted letter, has taken his yacht _off_ +the public waters and confined her to the beautiful wooded reaches of +Fritton Mere. + +The _Otter_ was a rival of the _Red Rover_ in the early days of the +latter yacht, and was a clumsy, rather ugly, ketch-rigged craft belonging +to Sir Arthur Preston. Major Leathes' (now Colonel Leathes) boat was a +yawl named the _Waveney Queen_, and the Colonel tells me that he carried +away 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--and +if I could I suppose it wouldn't do to name him, in view of FitzGerald's +stringent criticism of him. Subsequently Jack Newson went on the _Mars_, +the sea-going craft belonging to the late J. J. Colman, M.P., but this +was 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, when +the _Meum and Tuum_ and the _Henrietta_ had been sold, and the separation +between Posh and his "guv'nor" final, so far as herring fishing was +concerned. The last paragraph, in which FitzGerald writes that so long +as Posh goes on he will stand by him, seems in flat contradiction to what +happened in 1874. But Colonel Leathes puts the date as 1875, and Dr. +Aldis Wright has been kind enough to look up old almanacs in his +possession and corroborates this view. It speaks with extraordinary +eloquence of FitzGerald's affection for Posh, of his patience with the +man, that after the want of recognition of his kindness shown in 1874 he +should have written to him in such a manner in 1875. + +"Mr. and Mrs. Howe" were, as I have stated before, the caretakers at +Little Grange. "Cowell" was, no doubt, Professor Cowell, though it seems +strange that FitzGerald should have mentioned him to Posh without any +prefix to his name. + +That is the last letter in which I can find any reference to Posh, and +the last letter in Posh's possession which was written to him. I dare +say 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 a +new trustworthiness. But he returned through the same door by which he +entered; and he was an old man for disillusionment. + +Posh was, no doubt, rude, harsh, overbearing with the old gentleman, but +his eyes grow moist now when he speaks of him. I think he would +surrender a good deal of his boasted independence if only he could have +FitzGerald 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." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDWARD FITZGERALD AND "POSH"*** + + +******* This file should be named 20543.txt or 20543.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/5/4/20543 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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