you know.

"Mr. Durrant has never sent me the plants. I doubt he must have lost
some more children. Do not go to him again, if you went before. I
daresay I shall be running over to Lowestoft soon. But I am not quite
well.

"E. FG.

"Remember me to your Family: you do not tell me if your Mother is
better."

The Mr. Spalding here referred to was at that time the manager for a
large firm of agricultural implement makers. Subsequently he became the
curator of the museum at Colchester, and the letters from FitzGerald to
him which were handed to Mr. Francis Hindes Groome formed the most
valuable part of the second part of _Two Suffolk Friends_ called "Edward
FitzGerald. An Aftermath."

"Oil" and "cutch" are preservatives for the herring nets. The oil is
linseed, and the nets are soaked in it before they are tanned by the
cutch. Cutch is a dark resinous stuff, which is thrown into a copper
full of water and boiled till it is dissolved. Then the liquid is thrown
over the nets and permitted to soak in. After the nets are soaked in
linseed oil, and before they are tanned, they are hung up to dry in the
open air. The process has to be repeated several times during each
fishing, and those who are familiar with Lowestoft and Yarmouth must also
be familiar with the sight and smell of the nets, hanging out on
railings, either on public open spaces or in private net yards. Where
rails are not obtainable the nets are often spread on the ground, and an
ingenious idea for the quaint shape of Yarmouth (unique with its narrow
"rows") is that the rows represent the narrow footpaths between the
spaces on which the nets used to be laid to dry.

"Pasifull" is sometimes called "Percival," sometimes "Pasifall," and
sometimes as in this letter. His Christian name was Ablett, and he was
both a fisherman and a yacht hand.

Mr. Durrant was a market gardener and fruiterer in Lowestoft, and his
sons carry on the same business in three shops in Lowestoft now. One of
them remembers FitzGerald as a visitor and "a queer old chap," and that's
all he knows about him.

I do not think Posh troubled himself much about the accounts. But there
was another subject already broached which was to cause some
unpleasantness between the partners.

Some of FitzGerald's friends, both at Lowestoft and elsewhere, had become
uneasy at the hold which Posh had obtained over him. They feared lest he
should become a baron of beef