CHAPTER XXIII 



AUDUBON IN LONDON 



Impressions of the metropolis — A trunk full of letters — Friendship of 

 Children — Sir Thomas Lawrence — Lizars stops work — A family of 

 artists — Robert Havell, Junior — The Birds of America fly to London — 

 The Zoological Gallery — Crisis in the naturalist's affairs — Royal 

 patronage — Interview with Gallatin — Interesting the Queen — Desertion 

 of patrons — Painting to independence — Personal habits and tastes — 

 Enters the Linnsean Society — The White-headed Eagle — Visit to the 

 great universities — Declines to write for magazines — Audubon-Swain- 

 son correspondence — "Highfield Hall" near Tyttenhanger — In Paris 

 with Swainson — Glimpses of Cuvier — His report on The Birds of 

 America — Patronage of the French Government and the Duke of 

 Orleans — Bonaparte the naturalist. 



Audubon reached London on May 21, 1827, and 

 put up at the "Bull and Mouth" tavern, but soon moved 

 into more permanent lodgings at number 55 Great 

 Russell Street, near the British Museum. Though for 

 a long time eager to see the capital, no sooner had he 

 reached it than he was anxious to be away and more 

 homesick than ever for his family and his beloved 

 America. London then seemed to him "like the mouth 

 of an immense monster, guarded by millions of sharp- 

 edged teeth," from which he could escape only by 

 miracle. 



He had brought with him a formidable array of 

 letters addressed to the elite of the capital, 1 and he bore 



1 Among the sixty or more persons to whom Audubon carried written 

 credentials at this time were the following: the Duke of Northumberland, 

 Robert Peel, Sir Humphry Davy, Sir J. D. Aukland, Albert Gallatin, 

 the American Minister, Sir Thomas Lawrence, David Wilkie, Dr. Buck- 

 land, Dr. Holland, Dr. Roget, Dr. Wollaston, William Swainson, Sir 

 William Herschel, and his son, afterwards Sir John Herschel, John George 

 Children, R. W. Hay, N. A. Vigors, Captain Cook, John Murray and 

 Robert Bakewell (see Vol. II, p. 134). 



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