208 AUDUBON 



Jamiary 2$.. My second visit to Sir Walter Scott was 

 much more agreeable than my first. My portfolio and its 

 contents were matters on which I could speak substan- 

 tially, 1 and I found him so willing to level himself with me 

 for a while that the time spent at his home was agreeable 

 and valuable. His daughter improved in looks the mo- 

 ment she spoke, having both vivacity and good sense. 



January 28. Yesterday I had so many visitors that I 

 was quite fatigued ; my rooms were full all the time, yet I 

 work away as if they were so many cabbages, except for a 

 short time taken to show them a few drawings, give them 

 chairs, and other civil attentions. In the evening I went to 

 the theatre to see the " Merchant of Venice ; " the night 

 was violently stormy, the worst I remember for years. I 

 thought of the poor sailors, what hard lives they have. 



January 30, Tuesday. The days begin to show a val- 

 uable augmentation. I could this morning begin work at 

 eight, and was still at my easel at four. A man may do a 

 good deal on a painting in eight hours provided he has the 

 power of laying the true tints at once, and does not muddy 

 his colors or need glazing afterwards. Now a query arises. 

 Did the ancient artists and colorists ever glaze their work? 

 I sometimes think they did not, and I am inclined to think 

 thus because their work is of great strength of standing, 

 and extremely solid and confirmed on the canvas a proof 

 with me that they painted clean and bright at once, but 

 that this once they repeated, perhaps, as often as three 

 times. Glazing certainly is a beautiful way of effecting 

 transparency, particularly over shadowy parts, but I fre- 



1 " January 24. Visit from Mr. Audubon, who brings some of his birds. 

 The drawings are of the first order the attitudes of the birds of the most 

 animated character, and the situations appropriate. . . . This sojourner 

 of the desert had been in the woods for months together. He preferred as- 

 sociating with the Indians to the company of the settlers; very justly, I 

 daresay, for a civilized man of the lower order when thrust back on the 

 savage state becomes worse than a savage." (Journal of Sir Walter Scott, 

 vol. L, p. 345.) 



