AUDUBON IN LONDON 395 



tures which Sir Thomas sold for me enabled me to pay my 

 borrowed money, and to appear full-handed when Mr. Havell 

 called. Thus I passed the Rubicon. 



This was before the reform of the penal laws in Eng- 

 land, when it seems to have been hard for a man to 

 escape hanging, not to speak of being sent to prison 

 for debt, the chief terror of life in certain circles. 

 There were 223 capital offenses, and in 1829 in the 

 city of London alone 7,114 persons were sent to the 

 debtors' prison. 8 



Without the sale of his pictures in the summer of 

 1827, Audubon felt that he must certainly have become 

 a bankrupt, yet he was periodically displeased with the 

 results of his efforts in oil colors, and resolved to "spoil 

 no more canvas" but to draw "in my usual old untaught 

 way, which is what God meant me to do" ; "I can draw," 

 he continues, "but I shall never paint well." In the 

 fall of 1828, however, he was again working in oils, 

 and produced four large pieces, one of which was called 

 "The Eagle and the Lamb," and two others which were 

 doubtless variations of his "Pheasant" and "Otter" pic- 

 tures. "It is charity," said the artist, "to speak the 

 truth to a man who knows the poverty of his talents, 

 and wishes to improve; it is villainous to mislead him, 

 by praising him to his face, and laughing at his work 

 as they go down the stairs of his house." Sir Thomas 

 Lawrence had praised some of these pictures and had 

 promised to select one for exhibition at Somerset House. 

 As regards "The Eagle and the Lamb," which Audu- 

 bon hoped would go to Windsor Castle, William 

 Swainson would give no opinion; the same canvas, or 



See Sir Walter Besant, London in the Nineteenth Century (London, 

 1909). 



