"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.'"