AUDUBON IN LONDON 393 



sons. He hoped to supply their places at Glasgow, then 

 a rich city of one hundred and fifty thousand people, 

 but after a visit there of four days in November, 1827, 

 he was obliged to return to Edinburgh with but one 

 new name on his list. 



On October 22 he expressed the resolve for the com- 

 ing year "to positively keep a cash account" with him- 

 self and others, "a thing" he had "never yet done." The 

 wisdom of that decision was apparent upon settling his 

 accounts for 1827 with both Lizars and Havell, as ap- 

 pears from this note, written in his journal on January 

 17, 1828: "It is difficult work for a man like me to see 

 that he is neither cheating nor cheated. All is paid for 

 1827, and I am well ahead in funds. Had I made such 

 regular settlements all my life I should never have been 

 as poor a man as I have been ; but on the other hand I 

 should never have published the "Birds of America." 

 Again, for February 7 we find this record: "Havell 

 brought me the sets he owed me for 1827, and I paid 

 him in full. Either through him or Mr. Lizars I have 

 met with a loss of nearly 100, for I am charged with 

 fifty numbers more than can be accounted for by my 

 agents or myself. This seems strange always to me, 

 that people cannot be honest, but I must bring myself 

 to believe many are not, from my own experiences." 



Shortly after reaching London, as we have seen, 

 Audubon had made the acquaintance of Sir Thomas 

 Lawrence, then at the head of the Royal Academy and 

 favorite painter of the Court and fashionable society. 

 The friendship of this influential artist at a critical mo- 

 ment proved most fortunate, for Sir Thomas called 

 repeatedly at his lodgings, and at each visit brought 

 patrons who went away with some of his pictures but 

 not without leaving a handsome toll of sovereigns in 



