Burns — On Alexander Wir,soN. 29 



part for his engraving-, he became so familiar and well ac- 

 quainted that he would pall the paper out of the artist's hands, 

 or take the spectacles from his nose, so that Air. Lawson, se- 

 duced by these blandishments, and forgetting its character in 

 other respects, does not hesitate to declare the Condors the 

 gentlest birds he had ever had to deal with." The above illus- 

 trates the extraordinary pains taken by the engraver to insure 

 the " minuteness of accuracy " so frequently praised by the 

 author. 



However, but for this gentleman's prejudice and obstinacy, 

 some of Audubon's drawings might have been introduced. 

 Audubon dwells briefly upon the unpleasant occasion: "[Phil- 

 adelphia] April 14 [1824]. After breakfast met the prince, 

 who called with me on Mr. Lawson, the engraver of Mr. Wil- 

 son's plates. This gentleman's figure nearly reached the roof. 

 His face was sympathetically long, and his tongue was so long 

 that we obtained no opportunity of speaking in his company. 

 Lawson said my drawings were too soft, too much like oil 

 paintings, and objected to engrave them." Lawson's verbal 

 account of the same meeting, published not long afterward by 

 Dunlap, exhibits a certain snobbishness not without grim hu- 

 mor. " One morning, very early, Bonaparte roused him from 

 bed — he was accompanied by a rough fellow, bearing a port- 

 folio. They were admitted and the portfolio opened, in which 

 were a number of paintings of birds, executed in crayons or 

 pastels, which were displayed as the work of an untaught wild 

 man from the woods by Bonaparte, and as such the engraver 

 thought them very extraordinary. Bonaparte admired them 

 exceedingly, and expatiated upon their merit as originals from 

 nature, and painted by a self-taught genius. Audubon — for 

 the ' rough fellow ' who had borne the portfolio, was the orni- 

 thologist and artist — sat by in silence. At length in the 

 course of their examination, they came to the picture of the 

 ' Horned Owl.' Bonaparte, who had been liberal in admira- 

 tion and commendation throughout the exhibition, now de- 

 clared this portrait to be superior to Wilson's of the same 

 grave personage. ' It is twice as big,' said the engraver. . . . 

 Lawson told me he spoke freely of the pictures, and said that 



