Edward FitzGerald and Posh | Page 8

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