FitzGerald had
commissioned S. Laurence to paint a portrait of Posh. On the 13th
January, 1870, he wrote to Laurence from Woodbridge (_Letters_, II, 113,
Eversley Edition):--

". . . If you were down here, I think I should make you take a life-
size Oil Sketch of the Head and Shoulders of my Captain of the Lugger.
You see by the enclosed" (a copy of the photograph of 1870, no doubt)
"that these are neither of them a bad sort: and the Man's Soul is
every way as well proportioned, missing in nothing that may become a
Man, as I believe. He and I will, I doubt, part Company; well as he
likes me, which is perhaps as well as a sailor cares for any one but
Wife and Children: he likes to be, what he is born to be, his own sole
Master, of himself, and of other men. So now I have got him a fair
start, I think he will carry on the Lugger alone: I shall miss my
Hobby, which is no doubt the last I shall ride in this world: but I
shall also get eased of some Anxiety about the lives of a Crew for
which I now feel responsible. . . ."

On January 20th FitzGerald wrote another letter to Laurence on the same
subject.

". . . I should certainly like a large Oil-sketch like Thackeray's,
done in your most hasty, and worst, style, to hang up with Thackeray
and Tennyson, with whom he shares a certain Grandeur of Soul and Body.
As you guess, the colouring is (when the Man is all well) the finest
Saxon type: with that complexion which Montaigne calls 'vif, Male, et
flamboyant'; blue eyes; and strictly auburn hair, that any woman might
sigh to possess. He says it is coming off, as it sometimes does from
those who are constantly wearing the close, hot Sou'-westers. We must
see what can be done about a Sketch" (_Letters_, II, 115, Eversley
Edition).

In February of the same year FitzGerald went down to Lowestoft, and wrote
another letter from there with reference to the proposed portrait
(_Letters_, II, 115, Eversley Edition). It is obvious from these letters
that there was no bitterness on his side which led to the ending of the
partnership. His long-suffering endured to the last.

"MY DEAR LAURENCE,

". . . I came here a few days ago, for the benefit of my old Doctor,
The Sea, and my Captain's Company, which is as good. He has not yet
got his new Lugger home; but will do so this week, I hope; and then
the way for us will be somewhat clearer.