364 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



to be "a man of great physical strength and size"; in- 

 stead, however, he saw 



a small, slender man, tottering on his feet, weaker than a 

 newly hatched partridge; he welcomed me with tears in his 

 eyes, held one of my hands, and attempted speaking, which was 

 difficult to him, the Countess meanwhile rubbing his other hand. 

 I saw at a glance the situation, and begged he would be seated 

 . . . and I took a seat on a sofa that I thought would swallow 

 me up, so much down swelled around me. It was a vast room, 

 at least sixty feet long, and wide in proportion, let me say 

 thirty feet, all hung with immense paintings on a rich purple 

 ground; all was purple about me. The large tables were cov- 

 ered with books, instruments, drawing apparatus, a telescope, 

 with hundreds of ornaments. 



After luncheon Audubon's "Book of Nature" was pro- 

 duced, and his drawings spread out and admired. Next 

 day the Countess, who was "a woman of superior intel- 

 lect and conversation," was given "a most unnecessary 

 lesson" in drawing, for, said the naturalist, "she drew 

 much better than I did; but I taught her to rub with 

 cork, and prepare for water-color." Before he left the 

 Countess wrote her name in his subscription book, and 

 arranged that he should return and resume his instruc- 

 tion. 



One of Audubon's early friends at Edinburgh was 

 Captain Basil Hall, 15 traveler and writer, who was then 

 about to start on a journey through the United States; 

 he told the naturalist that he was a midshipman on board 

 the Leander "when Pierce was killed off New York," 

 at the time of Audubon's return with Rozier to America 

 in 1806, when Captain Sammis, upon seeing the British 



15 Basil Hall (1788-1844), noted for his travels in China, Korea, and 

 on the coasts of Chili, Peru and Mexico, visited the United States in 1827- 

 28; his Travels in North America appeared in 1829. 



