AUDUBON IN LONDON 408 
knew no other language but his own, and the applica- 
tion of Latin and Greek for the purpose of systematic 
nomenclature was a constant source of error.” 
At this time Swainson was living in semi-retirement 
at a farmstead of considerable size, called “Highfield 
Hall,” ** near Tyttenhanger Green, a small settlement, 
off the highroad, two miles southeast of the historic 
town of St. Albans, in Hertfordshire; though his letters 
were always dated from “The Green” at Tyttenhanger, 
his associations were with the more considerable village 
of London Colney, but a mile to the south, on the road 
to Barnet. Audubon had brought a letter of intro- 
duction from Dr. Traill, a valiant champion of Swain- 
son at Edinburgh, but was unable to go to the country 
to deliver it. Swainson, however, attended promptly 
to the review, and on April 11, 1828, sent it to Mr. 
Loudon, who published it in the May number of his 
Magazine.*® 
Swainson’s review was extremely laudatory, and 
Audubon reproduced extracts from it in later editions 
of his “Prospectus.” 'To quote a characteristic para- 
graph, he said that the naturalist’s ornithological papers 
* Swainson’s house has been kindly identified by my friend, Mr. George 
E. Bullen, to whom I am indebted also for an interesting photograph, 
taken from an old print. Mrs. Swainson, who died February 12, 1835, 
was buried in the parish church, with which she was closely identified, 
at London Colney, and a tablet to her memory is still to be seen there. 
Swainson probably preferred the historic associations of Tyttenhanger, a 
name originally applied to the manor and manor house of the Abbot of 
St. Albans, a famous abbey property acquired before the Conquest, with 
a history extending over six hundred years, but he did not live there. 
The oldest resident now on the spot, a man over ninety, told Mr. Bullen 
that as a boy he often collected butterflies, moths and other specimens 
of natural history which he took to “Highfield Hall,” and was always 
paid by one of the Swainson children. Since Swainson’s time the original 
house, which was approached by a long walk, has become almost un- 
recognizable, having received an addition to one side; the grass land which 
then surrounded it has been converted into beautiful lawns. 
* See Bibliography, No. 95. 
