Edward FitzGerald and "Posh" Part 10

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 pa.s.sed the wife. But Posh thinks that the two hands did not meet. FitzGerald bowed with all his courtesy, and pa.s.sed 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 ill.u.s.trative of the man's unselfishness.

But now that the partners.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sures 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. b.a.l.l.s made of the whole Property; which valuation (as you ought to remember) I reduced even lower than Mr. b.a.l.l.s' 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, Pos.h.!.+' 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 longsh.o.r.eman 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 Fis.h.i.+ng, 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. b.a.l.l.s, 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. b.a.l.l.s 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.