A Resourceful Man

Despite Edmund's rejection of Mr Micawber's advice - "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and sixpence, result misery" - the family lived well and well short of misery. The way Edmund harboured his resources included several ways of adding to his income. The family kept pigs, made hay for his horses in the nine plus acres of land around the Fritham house and sold surplus butter from his cows. He also took in lodgers. Edmund was an inquisitive, enterprising person and among his many interests was a particular fondness for music as we shall record. His diary contains a long list of his contacts and friends, with many entries on items of interest or practical use. One of the items he found worthy of note is on the page facing the page of debts previously shown: image to the right.

Edmund had written down some lines of French sayings: with a bit of editing. The main note provides a conundrum in the use of French. The French irregular verb etre and the regular verb suivre have the neat ability to be written, correctly, ' je suis' and 'je suis', in the first person singular.
je suis ce que je suis je ne suis pas ce que je suis si j'etais ce que je suis je ne serais pas ce que je suis	I am what I am I am not what I am If I was that which I am I would not be what I am.	I am what I am I am not what I follow If I was that which I follow I would not be that which I am.
This writer remembers the same four lines when being taught French in the early 1950's. Then, we illustrated the text with the picture of a drunk following a pig home. The text of the bottom few lines - again in French - are not so clear. Headed as: 'Lines written over the door of an alehouse' they do not provide a complete translation - but seem to be a caution against drunkenness. Edmund had much experience of the effects of drink while he was in the navy. His voyage in the 'Constance' would remind him of the sailors who died of drink and the old song - 'What shall we do with the drunken sailor'.