"If you sketch a head, you might send it down to me to look at, so as
I might be able to guess if there were any likelihood in that way of
proceeding. Merely the Lines of Feature indicated, even by Chalk,
might do. As I told you, the Head is of the large type, or size, the
proper Capital of a six-foot Body, of the broad dimensions you see in
the Photograph. The fine shape of the Nose, less than Roman, and more
than Greek, scarce appears in the Photograph; the Eye, and its
delicate Eyelash, of course will remain to be made out; and I think
you excel in the Eye.

"When I get home (which I shall do this week) I will send you two
little Papers about the Sea words and Phrases used hereabout, for
which this Man (quite unconsciously) is my main Authority. You will
see in them a little of his simplicity of Soul; but not the Justice of
Thought, Tenderness of Nature, and all other good Gifts which make him
a Gentleman of Nature's grandest Type."

{Little Grange: p161.jpg}

The new Lugger was, of course, the _Henrietta_. The portrait was,
according to Posh, painted during the summer at Little Grange, the house
which FitzGerald built for himself, or rather altered for himself, at
Woodbridge. Dr. Aldis Wright was under the impression that the portrait
was never finished; but Posh is very certain about it. "I mind settin'
as still as a cat at a mouse-hole," says he, "for ten min't or a quarter
of an hour at a time, on and off, and then a stretchin' o' my legs in the
yard. Ah! I was somethin' glad when that wuz finished, that I was!
Tired! Lor! I niver knowed as dewin' narthen' would tire ye like that.
The picter was sold at Mr. FitzGerald's sale, and bought by Billy Hynes
o' Bury St. Edmunds. He kep' a public there. I reckon he's dead by
now."

Up to the date of going to press I have been unable to trace this
portrait, and it is, of course, possible, that in spite of Posh's vivid
recollection, Dr. Aldis Wright's impression may be the right one.

A letter to Laurence of August 2nd, 1870, corroborates Posh to the extent
of proving that the painter had certainly seen the fisherman. On that
date FitzGerald wrote (_Letters_, II, 118, Eversley Edition):--

". . . The Lugger is now preparing in the Harbour beside me; the
Captain here, there, and everywhere; with a word for no one but on
business; the other side of the Man you saw looking for Birds' Nests:
all things in