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+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"***
+
+
+
+
+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"***
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