AUDUBON'S FAMILY IN AMERICA 301 



history of which has been given, 16 she passed a number 

 of years after 1865. 



In a letter written to a relative from "Washington 

 Heights, N. Y., July 11, 1865," Mrs. Audubon spoke 

 thus of the present, while memories, not untinged with 

 sorrow, filled the retrospect : 



We have passed through a very cold winter which tried 

 both my Granddaughter . . . and myself much. I have hoped 

 until I almost despair that [she] would have a short Holiday 

 so that we could go up to Hudson for a week and see you all 

 and mingle with those who sympathize and care for us, but in 

 a Boarding house, one seems a stranger in the world, and as I 

 pass my days alone generally from breakfast till our dinner 

 hour six o'clock evening when [my granddaughter] comes 

 home from her music Pupils of whom she has now ten, and from 

 that time I am glad when she is invited out to refresh her 

 mind. 



I seldom leave home but to go up to see my other Grand 

 Daughter Lucy Williams, but being sixteen miles off we do 

 not go there often. . . . 



I have heard from my Sister Gordon lately of Orleans, she 

 has her Son at home ! but they are likely to lose all their Prop- 

 erty on account of Sister's Son having been engaged in the 

 Confederate War. It does seem to me ... as if we were a 

 doomed family for all of us are in pecuniary difficulty more 

 or less. As to myself I find it hard to look back patiently 

 upon my great ignorance of business and the want of a wise 

 adviser who I now find could have saved me half the property 

 I have under errour and ignorance sacrificed and have just 

 enough left to keep us but not enjoy life by any travelling 

 about in this beautiful World. I sat on Sunday night after 

 Church on the Piazza contemplating the beautiful Moon & its 

 Creator, and I cannot yet say I wish to leave it, notwithstand- 

 ing all my disappointments and mortifications. Excuse this 



16 



See Chapter I. 



