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208 



AUDUBON 



January 2If. 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/ and I found him so willing to level himself with mc 

 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- 



^ "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. i., p. 345.) 



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