LIFE AT "MILL GROVE" 105 



first consideration. The present owner of "Mill Grove" 

 has added attractive porches at the front and back. 

 Ampelopsis climbs over the walls, which are shaded by 

 handsome trees ; one of these, a fine black walnut at the 

 easterly porch, which in August bore its great green 

 balls in full clusters, must have been vigorous in Audu- 

 bon's day, and possibly suggested the introduction of 

 sprays of this full-fruited tree into some of his plates. 



While on a visit from Santo Domingo in 1789, con- 

 cerned with his business interests, Captain Audubon 

 spent some time in Philadelphia. On March 28, 1789, 

 he purchased the "Mill Grove" property, at that time 

 consisting of 284!/2 acres of land, mansion house, mill, 

 barns, furniture, tools and live stock, from Henry Au- 

 gustin Prevost 8 and his wife, for the sum of 2,300 Eng- 

 lish pounds, in gold and silver. He never lived there, 

 and that he never intended to make it his immediate resi- 

 dence is shown by the fact that in less than a fortnight 

 he leased the farm in its entirety, as already noticed, to 

 its former owner, and gave him a mortgage which stood 

 for seventeen years. 9 



8 In 1761 James Morgan, the first miller and builder, conveyed one-half 

 of the mill site of five acres to Roland Evans, who came into possession 

 of the other half, with the adjoining farm, in 1771; the property was 

 sold to Governor John Penn in 1776; it passed to Samuel C. Morris in 

 1784, and to the Prevosts in 1786. 



The lease, which was drawn up in English, April 10, 1789, reads in 

 part as follows: "This indenture, made on the tenth Day of April in 

 the Year of our Lord, One thousand Seven hundred & Eighty nine, Be- 

 tween John Audubon, of the Island of St. Domingo, Gentleman, now 

 being in the City of Philadelphia, of the one party, and Augustine 

 Prevost. . . ." The lease included the messuages, grist mills, saw mills, 

 plantation and tract of land, which is described, tools, implements, stock, 

 and furniture of the mills and farm, and was drawn for one year; it 

 was signed in the presence of Miers Fisher, agent and attorney for Jean 

 Audubon. 



In the inventory were included one windmill, one pair of scales, with 

 weights of 56, 28 and 7 pounds, "skreen," four bolting cloths, two hoisting 

 tubs, and one large screw and circle for raising the millstones. This lease 

 was renewed in October, 1790, when Jean Audubon, who was then living 



