AUDUBON'S LETTERPRESS 447 



on canvas or mill-board. He was thus engaged in 1833 

 when he wrote to ask for an advance of from twelve to 

 fourteen pounds on account of an accident that had 

 befallen him on the 16th of May of that year. Kidd 

 said in his letter that while he was attending a sale of 

 Lord Eldin's pictures, the floor of the building sud- 

 denly gave way with a crash and precipitated the whole 

 company, together with the furniture, into a room be- 

 low; that he had sustained many bruises himself, not 

 to speak of a dislocated arm, but what with blisters, 

 cupping, nurses and remedies of all sorts, he was then 

 slowly mending. Another of their projects was to 

 publish Kidd's copies of Audubon's drawings as indi- 

 vidual pieces, and a notice of this appeared in Black- 

 wood's Magazine for 1831. John Wilson, in reviewing 

 Audubon's work in the magazine for that year said: 

 "it is expected that there will be completed by Audu- 

 bon, Kidd, and others, — Four Hundred Subjects. 

 Audubon purposes opening, on his return [from 

 America], an Ornithological Gallery, of which may the 

 proceeds prove a moderate fortune!" All such plans, 

 however, seem to have been delayed or frustrated, and a 

 misunderstanding with Kidd brought them suddenly to 

 a close in 1833. Audubon's explicit directions under 

 this head were given in a letter to his son Victor, written 

 at Charleston on Christmas Day of that year. 10 



When his letterpress was finished, Audubon left 

 Edinburgh with Mrs. Audubon on April 15, 1831. 

 Newcastle, York, Leeds, and Manchester were again 

 visited, and a pause of several days was made at Liver- 

 pool before proceeding to London, when, as the natural- 

 ist recorded, they "traveled on that extraordinary road, 

 called the railway, at the rate of 24 miles an hour." Jjc\ 



10 See Chapter XXVI I, p. 62. 



