Edward FitzGerald and "Posh" Part 2

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 longsh.o.r.e 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 a.s.sistance 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 a.s.signment 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 Appet.i.te 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 Gla.s.s 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 t.i.tle 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."