

THE EUROPEAN JOURNALS 



203 



same with my birds. If practicable, I finish the bird at 

 one sitting, — often, it is true, of fourteen hours, — so that 

 I think they are correct, both in detail and composition. 



Monday, 8th. I rose this morning two and a half hours 

 before day, and wrote much before breakfast. Thanks to 

 my good spirit not a soul called upon me this day, and I 

 brushed away without losing a moment of the precious 

 light of these short days. This evening I saw my plate of 

 the Wild Turkey, and went to hear Captain Basil Hall lec- 

 ture at the Royal Society on the Trade Winds. The prac- 

 tical as well as theoretical knowledge of this learned man 

 rendered this a most valuable evening to me. I was intro- 

 duced to Mr. Perceval, the son of the King of England's 

 Secretary of State,^ who was shamefully and barbarously 

 murdered some years since. 



Tuesday, 9th. Mr. Hays, the Dalmahoy antiquarian, 

 called on me, and brought me a copy of Bewick's " Quadru- 

 peds." At eight this evening I went to the Society of Arts, 

 of which I have been elected a member. Here I saw a 

 capital air-gun, and a steam-carriage in full motion ; but / 

 had to operate, and showed my manner of putting up my 

 birds with wires, and I positively shook so that I feared I 

 should not be able to proceed to the termination ; this 

 bashfulness is dreadful, how am I ever to overcome it? 



January 10. The weather has been most strange, at 

 times so dark that I could not see to paint, and suddenly 

 the sun shone so brightly that I was dazzled. It rained, 

 it blew, it snowed ; we have had all seasons. A Mr. Bu- 

 chanan from London came to see my work, and Professor 

 Wilson at the same time; both liked my painting, and 

 strangely enough the two had known each other twenty 

 years ago. I went to the theatre to see Miss Foote and 

 Mr. Murray ; both were much applauded, and the house 

 was crowded. I am very fond of the theat^-c , I think it 



' Spencer Perceval, bom 1762, assassinated in the lobby of the House 

 of Commons, May II, 1812. 



1PM 



