124 



John yames Audubon. 



defer the pursuit of his ornithological pro- 

 ject until he had accumulated sufficient 

 money to carry out his plans. It was late 

 in November when he reached Mr. Percy's 

 plantation at Bayou Sara, and once more 

 held in his arms his beloved wife. It was 

 not lon,"^ before he had established classes in 

 dancing and fencing, which brought him a 

 considerable income, which, with the savings 

 of Mme. Audubon, enabled him to foresee 

 a successful issue to his great ornithologi- 

 cal work. 



In May, 1826, having left his wife and son 

 at Bayou Sara, Audubon sailed for England 

 on the ship Delos. The voyage, though 

 interesting, as shown by the journal, was 

 uneventful, and on the 20th of July Audu- 

 bon landed in Liverpool. On presenting 

 some of his letters he was received with 

 great cordiality, and was introduced to 

 many eminent people, all of whom admired 

 his work and seemed anxious to aid him. 

 He exhibited his drawings at the Liverpool 

 exhibition, and afterwards at the Royal 

 Institution, and received about ^i^ioo as the 

 result. From Liverpool he proceeded to 

 Manchester, where his drawings were again 

 placed on exhibition. 



On October 25 the naturalist left Man- 

 chester for Edinburgh, where his stay was 

 a succession of brilliant successes and his 

 work met with instant appreciation. Here 

 he almost at once made the acquaintance 

 of literary and scientific men who were in a 

 position to be of the greatest assistance to 

 him. Such were Professor Jameson, Dr. 

 Knox, Mr. Francis Jeffrey, Sir William Jar- 

 dine, Sir Walter Scott, Professor Wilson 

 (Christopher North), Lord Elgin, Mr. Selby, 

 the ornithologist; the Earl of Morton, Dr. 

 Brew.ster and many others. As ehsewhere, 

 his drawings attracted great attention in 

 Edinburgh, and a committee from the Royal 

 Institute of Edinburgh offered him the use 

 of their rooms for the exhibition of his 

 drawings. He soon received an offer from 

 Mr. Lizars, an engraver, to publish the first 



number of his "Birds of America," with life- 

 size figures, and the work was at once put 

 in hand. In the meantime the exhibition 

 of his drawings was bringing him in some 

 money. His portrait was painted and placed 

 on exhibition. Professor Wilson wrote an 

 article about him and his work, for Black- 

 wood's Magazine, and the whole town was 

 talking of him. The first proofs of the 

 initial number of his work were ready late 

 in November, and in December some of 

 them had been colored and seem to have 

 delighted him. All the while he was paint- 

 ing with energy, and preparing papers on 

 the habits of various birds. 



Toward the close of his stay in Edin- 

 burgh, in March, 1827, Audubon issued his 

 prospectus, and the courage and hopeful- 

 ness of the man are well shown by the 

 tone of this document. As his wife says : 

 " He was in a strange country, with no 

 friends but those he had made within a 

 few months, and not ready money enough 

 in hand to bring out the first number pro- 

 posed, and yet he entered confidently on 

 this undertaking, which was to cost over a 

 hundred thousand dollars, and with no 

 pledge of help, but on the other hand, dis- 

 couragements on all sides, and from his 

 best friends." 



After leaving Edinburgh, Audubon vis- 

 ited a number of manufacturing towns and 

 secured a few subscribers at ;^2oo each. 

 At length he reached London, and here he 

 was more successful. Here he met Mr. 

 Havell, the engraver, who finally carried 

 tlirough his great work to its completion. 



In June, 1828, he received letters from Mr. 

 Lizars, his Edinburgh engraver, intimating 

 that there were difficulties in the way of 

 completing the work then, and an arrange- 

 ment was made with Mr. Havell for color- 

 ing the plates in London. The work was 

 now fairly under way, for subscriptions had 

 been liberally taken in London, the King 

 and the Duchess of Clarence being among 

 the subscribers there. 



