A 31-line ALS to Mr Collins, acknowledging receipt of his note. He will be in London in the second week in January "when I will bring a small miniature of my poor Father in possession of Lady Mends, a copy of which I trust will be all that you require, as this is invaluable being the only one we possess"..............."what will be the price when complete?"   

Mends (1815-1871) passed his lieutenant's exam on 1 April 1834. He served as mate from around 1840 of the steam paddle-driven Lizard-class gunvessel HMS Locust, which was under the command of Lieutenant-Commander John Lunn, in the Mediterranean. He was first commissioned to the rank of lieutenant on 30 August 1841, and in September was appointed to HMS Malabar, of 72 guns, Captain Sir George Rose Sartorius commanding, in the Mediterranean. In October 1844, he was appointed senior to the brig HMS Mutine, of 12 guns, Captain Richard Borough Crawford, which was attached to the force at the Cape of Good Hope, and from there on 17 October appointed, in a similar capacity,hifirst lieutenant on HMS Eurydice, 22, Captain Talavera Vernon Anson. Mend's agents were Messrs. Ommanney of Portsmouth. On 25 July 1850 he became first lieutenant in the 120-gun HMS Trafalgar at Sheerness under Montagu Stopford. In July 1851 Mends sailed in her for the Mediterranean (Stopford was later relieved by Henry Francis Greville), until 11 January 1854, when he was promoted Commander. From 23 January that year Mends was second-in-command to Captain George Elliot on the 91-gun HMS James Watt at Portsmouth, and served on her in the Baltic campaign of the Crimean War (1854–55). On 8 February 1856, still as Commander, Mends took command of HMS Pioneer on the North American and West Indies station. Next, on 1 May 1858 he assumed command of a wood screw-gunboat HMS Nimrod in the East Indies and China; he was promoted to Captain on 20 December 1858. From 22 May 1861 to 10 July 1862 Mends was appointed flag captain of HMS Edgar, a screw-propelled 91-gun second rate launched in 1858, under Rear-Admiral John Elphinstone Erskine, who was second-in-command in the Channel. From December 1861 Mends was appointed to the North American and West Indies stations. Edgar arrived in the Bahamas in January 1862 in time to see salvage operations on HMS Conqueror on Rum Cay. Mends remained on Edgar until the ship was paid off at Portsmouth. On 24 March 1866 Mends went on the retired captains list. At the time of his death he was on half pay, as he had been for several years.

Sketches and watercolours by Mends survive from as early as 1838 and as late as 1865. Over 80 of these works are in the collection of the National Maritime Museum, more than half of which are from a sketchbook that covers the period of 1850 to 1853, immediately before and during his time on HMS Trafalgar, with some examples in private hands. The lithographer and artist Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton used some of his work, and other notable artists also copied it. (Wiki)