LIFE AT “MILL GROVE” 101 
you Morristown, and look for a good and decent familly in that 
place to recommend him to her as your own Son. This service 
from you will deserve my everlasting gratitude. I am Sir, with 
consideration. 
Yr Mo ob Ser—. 
Mr. Miers Fisher, who evidently received a copy of this 
letter, no doubt considered his own family as good as 
the best, and in detaining young Audubon at his home, 
we must credit him with the desire of following the in- 
structions thus received. 
“Mill Grove,” which was finally reached in the spring 
of 1804,* was a new-found paradise to the young natu- 
ralist. Here, however, he was destined to spend but little 
over a year, though it was doubtless the happiest year 
of his life. The farm was then conducted by a Quaker, 
named William Thomas, who was installed as tenant 
with his wife and family. It was arranged, said Audu- 
bon, that he should receive from them a quarterly allow- 
ance in ready money, in a sum that “was considered 
sufficient for the expenditure of a young gentleman.” ® 
Well might any youth fond of wild life in the country 
have fallen in love with this secluded spot, the beauty 
and charm of which are suddenly revealed to the visitor 
of today as he approaches it from the old Philadelphia 
road. Standing high on the rugged banks of the Perkio- 
ming Creek, which empties :nto the Schuylkill River 
just below this point, the old house, facing west, com- 
mands a wide and diversified scene, extending from the 
living waters below, over bottom lands of the valley, to 
the dim, undulating lines of the Reading hills in the far- 
4See Note, Vol. I, p. 98. 
5The yearly rent of “Mill Grove” in 1804, according to the accounts 
of Francis Dacosta, who had then acquired a half interest in it, amounted 
to $353.34. 
