Audubon Park, 437 



tages where the men lived who worked on the place. In 

 the valley were the dwelling-house, a large barn and sta- 

 ble, and a little cottage where the coachman lived with 

 his wife and family. A beautiful little stream ran through 

 the grounds, widening out in one place into a pond, at the 

 lower end of which was a waterfall five or six feet high 

 <ind very broad ; the water fell into another pond, and 

 below that the brook divided into two parts, forming a 

 little island. Just before the brook reached the river, it 

 was crossed by a picturesque bridge which was quite an 

 ornament to the scene. This estate he named Minnie's 

 Land, Minnie, the Scotch word for mother, being the 

 name by which he generally addressed his wife, and to 

 her he left the whole of it at his death. 



About half of this beautiful place forms what is now 

 called " Audubon Park," so named by some of the gen- 

 tlemen, friends of the Audubon family, who resided there 

 after the naturalist's death ; but no one would recognize 

 the spot ; where formerly there was but one dwelling- 

 house, there are now about forty. The portion called 

 Audubon Park contains above a dozen houses, and though 

 it is still very beautiful, there is of course a total change 

 in the arrangement of the grounds, and the very house 

 Mr. Audubon lived in, is so metamorphosed that he 

 would scarcely recognize it for the one that once was 

 his. 



Rufus W. Griswold, who visited Audubon in 1846, 

 gives us the following picture of his home : " The house 

 was simple and unpretending in its architecture, and beau- 

 tifully embowered amid elms and oaks. Several graceful 

 fawns, and a noble elk, were stalking in the shade of the 

 trees, apparently unconscious of the presence of a few 

 dogs, and not caring for the numerous turkeys, geese, and 

 other domestic animals that gabbled and screamed around 

 them. Nor did my own approach startle the wild, beau- 



