Edward FitzGerald and "Posh" Part 8

"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, _Sat.u.r.day_.

"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. b.a.l.l.s, 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. b.a.l.l.s 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 ent.i.tled 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}