cxxii LIFE OF WILSON. 



this market place, in the metropolis of the fertile country of 

 Kentucky. * 



* This letter, it should seem, gave offence to some of the inhabitants of 

 Lexington; and a gentleman residing in that town, solicitous about its repu- 

 tation, undertook, in a letter to the editor of the Port Folio, to vindicate it 

 from strictures which he plainly insinuated were the offspring of ignorance, 

 and unsupported by fact. 



After a feeble attempt at sarcasm and irony, the letter-writer thus 

 proceeds: " I have too great a respect for Mr. Wilson, as your friend, not to 

 believe he had in mind some other market house than that of Lexington, 

 when he speaks of it as *unpaved and unfinished!' But the people of Lex- 

 ington would be gratified to learn what your ornithologist means by * skinned 

 squirrels cut up into quarters,' which curious anatomical preparations he enu- 

 merates among the articles he saw in the Lexington market. Does Mr. Wil- 

 son mean to joke upon us? If this is wit we must confess that, however abun- 

 dant our country may be in good substantial matter-of-fact salt, the attic tart 

 is unknown among us. 



" I hope, howerer, soon to see this gentleman's American Ornithology. 

 Its elegance of execution, and descriptive propriety, may assuage the little 

 pique we have taken from the author." 



The editor of the Port Folio having transmitted this letter to Wilson, pre- 

 vious to sending it to press, it was returned with the following note: 



" TO THE EDITOU OF THE POUT FOLIO. 



Bartram's Guldens, July 16, 1811. 

 " Deal- Sir, 



" No man can have a more respectful opinion of the people of Kentucky, 

 particularly those of Lexington, than myself; because I have traversed near- 

 ly the whole extent of their country, and witnessed the effects of their 

 bravery, their active industry, and daring spirit for enterprise. But they 

 would be gods, and not men, were they/aw///ess. 



" I am sony that truth will not permit me to retract, as mere jofces, the 

 few disagreeable things alluded to. I certainly had no other market place 

 in view, than that of Lexington, in the passage above mentioned. As to the 

 circumstance of ' skinned squirrels, cut up into quarters,' which seems to 

 have excited so much sensibility, I candidly acknowledge myself to have 

 been incorrect in that statement, and I owe an apology for the same. On 

 referring to my notes taken at the time, I find the word * halves,' not quar- 

 ters; that is, those * curious anatomical preparations,' (skinned squirrels) 

 were brought to market in the form of a saddle of venison; not in that of a 

 leg or shoulder of mutton. 



" With this correction, I beg leave to assure your very sensible corres- 





