144 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
possession it was already venerable with age, and it 
was completely restored for him by an architect named 
Lavigne.* In an inventory drawn up shortly after 
Madame Audubon’s death in October, 1821, the prop- 
erty of “La Gerbetiére” is described by reproducing the 
account given in an early deed bearing date of Novem- 
ber 11, 1769, which reads as follows: 
A house called La Gerbetiére, situated near the port of 
Launay, consisting of a sitting room, drawing room, kitchen, 
upper chamber . .. garret, and other quarters serving as a 
laundry, stable at the back, with pigeon loft above, court, par- 
terre, vegetable garden to one side, an orangery with orange 
trees, in the middle of the house, the whole in front of a close 
surrounded by high walls except on the side of the setting sun, 
with land belonging to the heirs of M. de la Haye Moricaud, 
held mutually,® the whole bounded on all other sides by high- 
ways. Notice: The aforesaid house and parterre [stand] in 
an empty field, which serves as a fair-ground, and is partly 
planted with young trees in serial rows; held in common with 
the Marquis de la Musse, with another empty field containing 
about two journals of land... .® 
“La Gerbetiére,” never more than an unpretentious 
country house with an attractive garden, was idealized 
in the fervent imagination of Audubon when in after 
life he drew upon the memories of his youth in France; 
for it had meant to him escape from the city, which he 
detested, to the fields and river which he loved. Yet, 
in spite of the abuse which a long line of poor tenantry 
inevitably entails, with intervals of total neglect last- 
*But not related to M. L. Lavigne, to whom I am indebted for ex- 
tracts from the deed, a translation of which is given below, as well as 
for many other references. 
*That is, the landlord to receive one-half the produce. 
*A “journal” of land being as much as a man could cultivate in a 
day’s labor. 
