Alexandei'- Wilson. 



i8- 



birds of New England. He is a great 

 sportsman, a man of fortune and education, 

 and has a considerable number of stuffed 

 birds, some of which he gave me, besides 

 letters to several persons of influence in 

 Eoston. On reaching Hartford I waited on 

 Mr. G., a member of Congress, who recom- 

 mended me to several others, particularly a 

 Mr. W., a gentleman of taste and fortune, 

 who was extremely obliging. The pub- 

 lisher of a newspaper here expressed the 

 highest admiration of the work, and has 

 since paid many handsome compliments to 

 it in his publication, as three other editors 

 ■did in New York. This is a species of cur- 

 rency that will neither purchase plates nor 

 pay the printer, but, nevertheless, it is grati- 

 fying to the vanity of an author when noth- 

 ing better can be got. * * * j|; -^^g^g 

 dark when I entered Boston, of which I 

 shall give you some account in my next. I 

 have visited the celebrated Bunker's Hill, 

 and no devout pilgrim ever approached the 

 sacred tomb of his holy prophet with more 

 awful enthusiasm and profound veneration 

 than I felt in tracing the grass-grown in- 

 trenchments of this hallowed spot made im- 

 mortal by the bravery of those heroes who 

 •defended it — whose ashes are now mingled 

 with its soil, and of whom a mean, beggarly 

 pillar of bricks is all the memento." 



His next letter to the same gentleman is 

 dated Windsor, Vermont, October 26. He 

 remained nearly a week in Boston journey- 

 ing through the streets with his book, and 

 visiting all the literary characters he could 

 meet with. Thence he traveled on through 

 New Hampshire, stopping at every place 

 where he thought it was likely he would do 

 any business, going as far as Portland, 

 Maine, where he staid three days. Here 

 he directed his course across country 

 " among dreary savage glens, and moun- 

 tains covered with pines and hemlocks, amid 

 whose black and half burnt trunks the ever- 

 lasting rocks and stones grinned horribly." 

 A journey of one hundred and fifty-seven 



miles brought him to Dartmouth College, 

 New Hampshire, on the Vermont line, here 

 he paid his addresses to the reverend fathers 

 of literature, and appears to have been very 

 well received. " Dr. Wheelock, the Presi- 

 dent of the college," he tells us, " made me 

 eat at his table, and the professors vied 

 with each other to oblige me." 



"I expect," he continued, "to be in 

 Albany in five days, and if the Legislature 

 be sitting I shall be detained perhaps three 

 days there. In eight days more I hope to 

 be in Philadelphhia. I have labored with 

 the zeal of a knight-errant in exhibiting this 

 book of mine, wherever I went, traveling 

 with it, like a beggar with his bantling, from 

 town to town, and from one country to an- 

 other. I have been loaded with praises, 

 with compliments and with kindnesses; 

 shaken almost to pieces in stage coaches; 

 I have wandered among strangers hearing 

 the same oh's and ah's, and telling the 

 same story a thousand times over, and for 

 what? Aye, that's it! You are very anxious 

 to know, and shall know the whole when I 

 reach Philadelphia." 



In a letter to Mr. Alexander Lawson, 

 written during this visit to Albany, he 

 writes: "And in the first place I ought to 

 thank you for the thousands of compliments 

 I have received for my birds from persons 

 of all descriptions, which were chiefly due 

 to the tact and skill of the engravers. In 

 short the book in all its parts so far exceeds 

 the ideas and expectations of the first lit- 

 erary characters in the eastern sections of 

 the United States as to command their ad- 

 miration and respect. The only objection 

 has been the price of one hundred and 

 twenty dollars, which in innumerable in- 

 stances has risen like an evil genius between 

 me and my hopes. Yet, I doubt not, but 

 when those copies subscribed for are deliv- 

 ered, and the book a little better known, the 

 whole number will be disposed of; and per- 

 haps encouragement given to go on with the 

 rest. To effect this, to me, most desirable 



