Chapter 10

POSH'S SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE

The hopes for the home fishing of 1869 should have been good. On August 30th, 1869 (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 114), FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding from Lowestoft: "You will see by the enclosed that Posh has had a little better luck than hitherto. One reason for my not going to Woodbridge is, that I think it possible that this N.E. wind may blow him hither to tan his nets. Only please God it don't tan him and his people first."

Herring are, as our East Anglian fishermen say, "ondependable" in their travels. They come south along the coast from the north of Scotland till they are in their prime (full-roed, fat fish) off Yarmouth in October. But their arrival at the various ports along the east coast can never be fixed for a certain date. This year, for instance (1907), owing to the warm August and September they have been late in coming south from Hull. Generally "longshores" are caught off Lowestoft late in August or early in September, and by the end of September the home and Scotch fleets are congesting the herring basins. This year, however, I had my first longshores brought me yesterday, the 1st of October, and there are not a dozen Scotch craft to be seen in the basins.

FitzGerald stayed at Lowestoft till the north-easters _did_ blow Posh home. And perhaps he would have been happier had he gone back to Woodbridge before the return of the _Meum and Tuum_. As it was, Posh had "some bare" on regatta day (very late that year), and this upset his "guv'nor." He wrote to Mr. Spalding on the 4th September (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 115): "I would not meddle with the Regatta. . . . And the Day ended by vexing me more than it did him [Newson]. . . . Posh drove in here the day before to tan his nets: could not help making one with some old friends in a Boat-race on the Monday, and getting very fuddled with them on the Suffolk Green (where I was) at night. After all the pains I have taken, and all the real anxiety I have had. And worst of all after the repeated promises he had made! I said there must be an end of Confidence between us, so far as _that_ was concerned, and I would so far trouble myself about him no more. But when I came to reflect that this was but an outbreak among old friends, on an old occasion, after (I do believe) months of sobriety; that there was no concealment about it; and that though obstinate at first as to how little drunk, etc., he was very repentant afterwards--I cannot let this one flaw weigh against the general good of the man. I cannot if I would: what then is the use of trying? But my confidence in that respect must be so far shaken, and it vexes me to think that I can never be sure of his not being overtaken so. I declare that it makes me feel ashamed very much to play the judge on one who stands immeasurably above me in the scale, whose faults are better than so many virtues. Was not this very outbreak that of a great genial Boy among his old Fellows? True, a Promise was broken. Yes, but if the Whole Man be of the Royal Blood of Humanity, and do Justice in the Main, what are _the people_ to say? _He_ thought, if he thought at all, that he kept his promise in the main. But there is no use talking, unless I part company wholly, I suppose I must take the evil with the good. . . ."

FitzGerald probably got to the very heart of the misunderstanding between himself and Posh as to the merits and demerits of "bare" when he wrote that Posh was a little obstinate as to "how little drunk," etc. Moreover he understood the nature of the man--"a great genial boy"--but he did not understand that these "great genial boys" have all the mischievous tendencies, and all the irresponsibility of real boys. He was kind and forbearing enough, God knows. But he had set up his Posh on such a pinnacle of pre-eminence over all his fellow-men that it is possible that his bitterness in discovering that after all his protege was merely a well-built, handsome, ordinary longshoreman caused a greater revulsion than would have occurred had his first estimate of Posh's character been less exalted.

It is to the credit of the great heart of the man that he never lost his love of Posh (Posh is certain about this), though he undoubtedly did lose his confidence in and respect for him.

And Posh did not give way to his "guv'nor" as he might have done. That fine old East Anglian spirit of independence (which is so generally admirable) was in this particular instance sheer brutal ingratitude when shown by Posh to FitzGerald. No one has a greater admiration than I for this magnificent claim of a MAN to be MAN'S equal. It kept the race of Norfolk and Suffolk longshoremen worthy of their traditions until the cockney visitors, with their tips and their hunger for longshore lies, ruined the nature of many of our beach folk. But with FitzGerald, that kind, solicitous gentleman who never asserted the claims of his station in life before an inferior, the obtrusive display of this spirit of independence was as unnecessary as it was cruel. And I think Posh understands this now. He certainly never meant to hurt the feelings of his old governor. But he chafed at the care which his friend took of him. He said to me the other day that he wished his old master were alive now to take such care. "Ah!" he said, "he'd take hold o' me like this here" (and here, as I have described on a previous page, Posh pinched up his blue knitted jersey), "and say, 'Oh, my dear Poshy! Oh dear! Oh dear! To think you should be like this! Oh dear! Oh dear!'"

And Posh's old eyes will water. Indeed, I have noticed a likeness between the thoughts of Posh in reference to FitzGerald and the remorse of the son of a loving father who had tried his sire hard in lifetime and understood that he had done so after his father's death. Even now, this old man of sixty-nine leans, metaphorically, on the recollection of the man who loved him so. Even now he says, "Ah! that would ha' upset him if he'd known I should ha' come to this!"

But in 1869 Posh thought that he was a very fine fellow indeed, and was not going to be "put upon" by any "guv'nor," no matter how kind the "guv'nor" had been to him. He was half owner of a fine drifter and skipper as well, to say nothing of having designed the boat. He would assert himself.

He did.