little ten-ton _Buttercup_ (unbeaten at her best)
came down and gave the poor old _Red Rover_ the worst dressing down she
had ever experienced it broke Mr. Nightingale's heart. He died soon
after, and he left a direction in his will that the _Red Rover_ should be
broken up and burnt. It would, I think, have been a kinder and better
direction to have left the yacht to Fred Baldry, who had steered her to
victory so often.

Although I have described her as a river yacht, she was purely a racing
machine, and used to be accompanied (in the home waters at all events) by
a wherry, with all spare spars and sails, on which everything unnecessary
for sailing was stowed before the starting gun was fired.

Once a year she carried a picnic party over Breydon Water, on which
occasion, I believe, Mrs. Nightingale was invariably seasick going over
to Breydon. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Nightingale ever used her for pleasure
except on that one annual excursion up to Reedham.

Well, well! There are no _Red Rovers_ now, and no Fred Baldrys coming
on. But there are plenty of stinking black tugs and filthy coal barges
embellishing the lovely Norfolk waters. I do not wonder that Colonel
Leathes, mentioned in the last quoted letter, has taken his yacht _off_
the public waters and confined her to the beautiful wooded reaches of
Fritton Mere.

The _Otter_ was a rival of the _Red Rover_ in the early days of the
latter yacht, and was a clumsy, rather ugly, ketch-rigged craft belonging
to Sir Arthur Preston. Major Leathes' (now Colonel Leathes) boat was a
yawl named the _Waveney Queen_, and the Colonel tells me that he carried
away his mast twice, each time because he would "carry on" too long.

I can't ascertain who was the "new owner" of Ablett Percival and Jack--and
if I could I suppose it wouldn't do to name him, in view of FitzGerald's
stringent criticism of him. Subsequently Jack Newson went on the _Mars_,
the sea-going craft belonging to the late J. J. Colman, M.P., but this
was later than 1875.

"Mushell" was the nickname of Joe Butcher, the former skipper of the
_Henrietta_, under Posh, as owner.

I must admit that this letter is hard to fit in with the year 1875, when
the _Meum and Tuum_ and the _Henrietta_ had been sold, and the separation
between Posh and his "guv'nor" final, so far as herring fishing was
concerned. The last paragraph, in which FitzGerald writes that so long
as Posh goes on he will stand by him, seems in flat