302 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



long detail about myself. I cannot help looking back as well as 

 to the present and future. 



After Mrs. Audubon had passed her eightieth year 

 she left New York and again made her home in the 

 West. In 1874, when with a granddaughter at Louis- 

 ville, she dictated and signed the following letter to a 

 gentleman who had asked for an autograph of her hus- 

 band: 



Mrs. Audubon to William R. Dorian 



Louisville Jan. 30 

 1874 



Mr. Wm. R. Dorian 



Dear Sir 



I regret that your letter of Jan. 10th has remained so 

 long unanswered, but my granddaughter who usually writes 

 for me, is so constantly occupied with her pupils that until 

 to-day she has not been able to find time to write to you. I 

 regret that I cannot give you a letter of my husband John 

 James Audubon with the autograph attached. 



The enclosed, the best I have to send you is one from 

 which the autograph and a portion of the letter were cut off 

 many years ago. 



With many regrets that I cannot more fully grant your 

 request 



I am dear Sir 



Yours respectfully, 



Lucy Audubon 



Mrs. Audubon's closing days were spent at the home 

 of her sister-in-law, Mrs. William G. Bakewell, at Shel- 

 byville, Kentucky, where she died, with her mental fac- 

 ulties unimpaired, at the age of eighty-six, June 18, 

 1874, having outlived this sister-in-law and her young- 

 er sisters, Mrs. Alexander Gordon, of New Orleans, 



