Edward FitzGerald and "Posh" Part 4

"Newson and Jack are gone home for Sunday. To-night is a grand Horsemans.h.i.+p, 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 ent.i.tled to I cannot say. Certainly he began to thrive exceedingly about this time, and, as an old longsh.o.r.eman 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 Ta.s.sy and his "annual oration," and continues with some pa.s.sages 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 partners.h.i.+p was an accomplished fact, impressed on Posh the importance of remembering his debts.

Before the spring fis.h.i.+ng 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 fis.h.i.+ng, 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 s.p.a.ces 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 s.p.a.ces 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 partners.h.i.+p 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 fis.h.i.+ng 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 Fis.h.i.+ng, 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.