248 Deane, Letters from Stvainson to Audubon. fjuly 



WILLIAM SWAINSON TO JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 

 (Hitherto Unpublished Letters.) 



BY RUTHVEN DEANE. 



The following letters, covering dates between 1828-30, show, 

 as in other letters of Swainson's which I have published, his crude 

 method of writing and expressing himself. In Dr. Albert Giin- 

 ther's interesting address delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of 

 the Linngean Society of London, May 24, 1900, he writes : " Swain- 

 son was extremely careless in orthography and loose in his style 

 of writing ; he persistently misspelt not only technical terms, but 

 also the names of foreign authors, and even of some of his famil- 

 iar friends and correspondents." These letters were written at 

 a period when he was deeply engaged in his literary pursuits, yet 

 in a discontented and nervous frame of mind, mortified at the 

 slow sale of his 'Zoological Illustrations,' his temporary embarrass- 

 ment for funds, and his evident growing dislike for American 

 naturalists. 



I am under many obligations to Miss M. R. Audubon for the 

 gift of three of these letters and to Miss M. Eliza Audubon for 

 the loan of the others with permission to publish them. 



No. 1. 



Tuesday 11 Nov. 1828. 

 I had written the enclosed, my dear Mr. Audubon, before your 

 letter of monday reached me. It has come this instant. Dreams, 

 you know, must be always interpreted contrawise, we might have 

 lifted up our arms, as you saw in your dream but, if you had not 

 awoke, it was no doubt to have shaken hands ! But that my re- 

 gard for you may be evinced, I will bring myself to lay under an 

 obligation, which I would only ask from one of my own family. 

 I was that moment thinking to which I should write, to ask the 

 loan of 80 ,£ for a few months, and now I will ask it of you. If 

 you was aware of the peculiar feelings which we Englishmen have 



