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 Fishing, 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. Balls, 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. Balls 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.

The _Meum and Tuum_ was a favourite of Posh's and he tried to buy her for
himself. But although she had only cost 360 pounds to build in 1867, in
1874 she fetched over 300 pounds, and Posh could not go so high as that.
So he made other arrangements, and his fishing interests with FitzGerald
were finally ended.

One would have thought that there would be no more letters beginning
"Dear Posh." But though FitzGerald had found himself obliged to end his
association with Posh in the herring fishing, he never ended his
friendship, even if, during the last years of his life, he neither saw
nor wrote to his former partner.

The _Meum and Tuum_ made several more voyages in the North Sea and to the
west, and, when she was no longer strictly seaworthy, was sold to a Mr.
Crisp, of Beccles, a maltster and general provision merchant, who turned
her into a storeship, and anchored her off his wharf in the river
Waveney.