^"'•^^l Recent Li/ryafiirr. 20I 



1S98 J 



manner put me at once at m j ease. My drawings were soon brought out. 

 Lord Stanley is a great naturalist, and in an instant he was exclaiming 

 over my work, ' Fine !'' Beautiful ! ' and when I saw him on his knees, 

 having spread my drawings on the floor, the better to compare them, I 

 forgot he was Lord Stanley, I knew only he too loved Nature. ... He 

 cordiallv invited me to call on him in Grosvenor street in ioxvu (thus he 

 called London), shook hands with me again, and mounting a splendid 

 hunter rode off. . . . Oh! that I had been flogged out of this miserable 

 shyness and mauvcxise /ionic when I was a 3'outh." 



He says again, " When I airi\ed in this city [Liveipool] I felt dejected, 

 miserably so; the uncertainty as to my reception, my doubts as to how 

 my work would be received, all conspired to depress me. Now, how differ- 

 ent are my sensations ! I am well received everywhere, my works praised 

 and admired, and my poor heart is at last relieved from the great anxiety 

 that has for so many years agitated it, for I know now that I have not 

 worked in vain." 



Under the same date he writes : " I have letters given me to Baron 

 Humboldt, Genei-al La Fayette, Sir Walter Scott, Sir Humphry Davy, 

 Miss Hannah More, Miss Edgworth, Sir Thomas Lawrence, etc., etc. 

 How" I wish Victor could be with me; what an opportunity to see the best 

 of this island; few ordinary' individuals ever enjoyed the same reception. 

 Many persons of distinction have begged drawing lessons of me at a 

 guinea an hour." Although entertained so constantly, his expenses were 

 heavy, to defray which he spent much time painting pictures on orders, 

 and also for presentation to the Rojal and other scientific societies as a 

 token of his appreciation of the aid rendered him in making known his 

 work to the educated, the elite, and the titled of England. Thus, under 

 August 21, 1826, he says: "I painted many hours this day, finished my 

 Otter; ... I was again invited to remove to Green Bank [to the Rath- 

 bones], but declined until I have painted the Wild Turkey cock for the 

 Royal Institution [of Liverpool], say three days more." 



Under date of Dec. 13, 1S26, he sajs : "I have spent the greater portion 

 of this da}" in the company of Mr. Selby, the ornithologist. . . . We were 

 together some hours at the Institution, — he was greatly pleased with my 

 drawings, — and we then dined at Mr. Lizars' in company with Dr. Lizars, 

 and we all talked ornithology. I wish I possessed the scientific knowl- 

 edge of the subject that Mr. Selby does. He wished to hear my paper on 

 the ' Buzzard,' and after doing so, took it with him to read to *S\r Wm. 

 Jardine, to whom he goes to-morrow", but will return on Monday. Later 

 Dr. Brewster came to my room with the proof of the paper on the ' Car- 

 rion Crow.' He read it, and we both corrected. He told me it was a 

 question whether or no I could be made a member of the Royal Academy 

 [of Edinburgh], for only thirty foreigners were allowed by law, and the 

 number was already complete; still he hoped an exception would be made 

 in my case. He thanked me very cordially for my paper, and said Sir 



