280 AUDUBON 



honor of riding on a very fine and gentle elephant ; I say 

 " honor," because the immense animal was so well trained 

 and so obedient as to be an example to many human 



beings who are neither. The Duchess of A came in 



while I was there, — a large, very fat, red-faced woman, but 

 with a sweet voice, who departed in a coach drawn by 

 four horses with two riders, and two footmen behind ; 

 almost as much attendance as when she was a queen on 

 the boards of theatre, thirty years ago. 



January 28. I received a letter from D. Lizars to-day 

 announcing to me the loss of four subscribers ; but these 

 things do not damp my spirits half so much as the smoke 

 of London. I am as dull as a beetle. 



January 31. I have been in my room most of this day, 

 and very dull in this dark town. 



February 1, 1828,. Another Journal ! It has now twenty- 

 six brothers ; ^ some are of French manufacture, some from 

 Gilpin's " Mills on the Brandywine," some from other parts 

 of America, but you are positively a Londoner. I bought 

 you yesterday from a man across the street for fourteen 

 shillings ; and what I write in you is for my wife, Lucy 

 Audubon, a matchless woman, and for my two Kentucky 

 lads, whom I do fervently long to press to my heart again. 



It has rained all day. Bentley and I paid a visit to the 

 great anatomist. Dr. J. Brookes,^ to see his collection of 

 skeletons of divers objects. He received us with extreme 

 kindness. I saw in his yard some few rare birds. He was 

 called away on sudden and important business before we 

 saw his museum, so we are to go on Monday. Mr. Cross, 

 of the Exeter Exchange, had invited Bentley and me to 

 dinner with his quadrupeds and bipeds, and at three o'clock 

 we took a coach, for the rain was too heavy for Bentley, 

 and drove to the Menagerie. Mr. Cross by no means 



1 Of all the twenty-six only three are known to be in existence; the other 

 volumes now extant are all of later date. 



^ Joshua Brookes, r76i-i833, anatomist and surgeon. 



