INTRODUCTION TO HIS WIFE. 7 



Mr. Fisher, of Philadelphia, knowing his condition, went with 

 his carriage to his lodging, and drove the invalid to his villa, 

 situated at some distance from the city on the road to Trenton. 

 Mr. Fisher was a Quaker, and a strict formalist in religious 

 matters ; did not approve of hunting, and even objected to music. 

 To the adventurous and romantic youth this home was little 

 livelier than a prison, and he gladly escaped from it. Mr. 

 Fisher, at his request, put him in possession of his father's 

 property of Mill Grove, on the Perkiominy Creek ; and from 

 the rental paid by the tenant, a. Quaker named William Thomas, 

 the youth found himself supplied with all the funds he needed. 



At Mill Grove young Audubon found " a blessed spot." In 

 the regularity of the fences, the straight and military exactness 

 of the avenues, Audubon saw his father's taste, nay, his very 

 handiwork. The mill attached to the property was to him a 

 daily source of enjoyment, and he was delighted with the repose 

 of the quiet milldam where the pewees were accustomed to 

 build. " Hunting, fishing, and drawing occupied my every 

 moment," he writes; adding, "cares I knew not, and cared 

 nothing for them." 



In simple and unaffected language he relates his introduction 

 to his wife, the daughter of Mr. Bakewell, an English gentleman 

 who had purchased the adjoining property. Mr. Bakewell lived 

 at Fatland Ford, within sight of Mill Grove, but Audubon had 

 avoided the family, as English and objectionable to one who had 

 been nurtured with hatred to " perfidious Albion." The very 

 name of Englishman was odious to him, he tells us ; and even 

 after his neighbour had called upon him, he was uncivil enough 

 to postpone his advances in return. Mrs. Thomas, the tenant's 

 wife at Mill Grove, with a woman's desire to see what the issue 

 might be, urged her young master to visit the Bakewell family ; 

 but the more he was urged his heart appeared to be the more 

 hardened against the stranger. 



The winter's frosts had set in. Audubon was following some 

 grouse down the creek, when suddenly he came upon Mr. Bake- 

 well, who at once dissipated the Frenchman's prejudices by the 

 discovery of kindred tastes. Audubon writes : " I was struck 

 with the kind politeness of his manners, and found him a most 

 expert marksman, and entered into conversation. I admired 



