The Audubon Reader (78 page)

Our dear children returned from Niagara a few days ago quite well and as happy as if angels in heaven. My sweet Maria becomes dearer to me every moment, and my heart swells with joy as I see her approaching me to kiss me as she would kiss her dearest of friends. God bless her! She will give you the details of her journey, &c. Indeed, I think that she feels well satisfied that her new father is not a bad one and her husband the very first in the world, this is all right, and we all see this 25 years hence! I have filled all my old friend’s [i.e., Lucy’s] commissions and more. The shawl, 70$, is superb. The rifle is first rate. So is the ginger, mackerel, &c., &c. I say all this because my beloved friend
Maria Martin will be glad to know of it. We have not yet received the birds in rum and skulls from New Orleans; they are at sea, however, and I hope will soon reach this to go with all the like material, heavy trunks, &c., direct to London. John has some skins of beasts for you, he brought me some valuable ones of birds from Niagara, where he saw 2 of the Birds of Washington that the gentleman possessing them would not sell, being anxious to do so in Europe where he is going. Harris is here and well. Should he not go to England this autumn, you will see him probably at Charleston on his way southwest, &c., as he contemplates a long journey after natural knowledge. Do search for the new
Downy Woodpecker; its bill will be sufficient for you to recognize it at once, so: [here Audubon draws the bill] the common is so [here Audubon draws the bill of the common Downy Woodpecker]. [Thomas] Brewer has given me the nest of the
Northern Common Titmouse, also the triple one of the
Sylvia sativa
, rendered so to hide 2 eggs of the
Cow Bunting in 2 different chambers as it were, and having deposited 4 of its own in the upper apartment! What will [George] Ord say to this? Pray attend as much as you can to the procuring of birds in rum for me agreeably with the list here enclosed.
William Cooper married his last wife’s sister on Monday last, and I have not seen him at all. [Henry] Ward [Audubon’s larcenous young English taxidermist] is a complete scamp, and I have not seen him, but have paid him 118$ for the trash he has given N. Berthoud in my absence, and who was told
to pay him when asked. Be careful of him or he may play you some ugly trick yet.

Harris has lost another brother-in-law and is now as deep in mourning as ever. Dr. Spencer will remain undecided about going to England until we return from it! I have no letters from my Lucy or Victor by the last packet, and therefore conclude that they expect us about the time we, ourselves, hope to arrive at London. Mr. Gordon has not yet failed. N. Berthoud will pay every cent, and will be comfortable besides, and so will thousands of other
honest American merchants
! Our country is physically and intrinsically too powerful to remain long in its present state of inactivity, and I dare hope that ere a twelvemonth is over, things will have taken a new and a healthy turn. God grant it! I have received several letters from Dr. [George] Shattuck; he announces the expectation of Dr. Parkman of Boston about the beginning of September. The latter was in London when last heard of.

I hope that you, your dear Harriet, my dear Maria, Eliza and even the younger folks will let us hear of you all “middling often.” If you do not, why, we will suffer—and you all will be the cause.

Mr. Grimshaw goes to England next month; his wife, child & servant will remain with my sister[-in-law] Eliza Berthoud; and all this will be pleasing as Nicholas contemplates taking a journey to the West this next autumn. You cannot conceive how much we all regret that Maria M. & Eliza could not have gone over with us. It would have so much improved them both, one in health, the other in mind or knowledge of things which descriptions do not bear out. When, as I now do, [I] expect to be with my beloved wife in less than 30 days, it feels like a dream, aye, like a dearly pleasing one too, and yet it seems quite as if a dream! As it is useless to be sorry about the bird skins from the Rocky Mountains having gone by the rice ship, I will say no more about them or the sweet finch and pretty squirrels, but will fidget until I see all these things again. Oh, if I have good luck, how I will revise my own work in my fourth volume. How I will cut & slash at my own poor past ignorance; and yet how more careful than ever must I proceed not to blunder worse than I have already done. I wish I had you at my elbow all the while, my good friend, that we might argue every point coolly, aye, as coolly as we always have done, and hope
to do again. What a strange realization of a dream this finishing of a work that has cost me so many years of enjoyment, of labor and of vexations, and yet a
few
more months will, I trust, see it ended, aye, ended, and myself a naturalist no longer! No more advertisements of this poor me. No more stares at my face whilst traveling. No, I have some idea of revising even myself and altering my very name, not to be pestered anymore. I feel in better spirits since the return of our children to me, but you would be surprised to see how much thinner I am. Why, when my beard is longish, I look as I thought formerly I never could look; but our captain tells me that with turtle soups, good wines and agreeable company he expects to render me quite fit to meet my wife and to be presented to my friends in England. We carry ice for the whole voyage, and sweet daughter is tickled at the idea of ice creams and other good things which he has on board—on board! This will be a new sight to her, for she has not yet seen the superb ship, and I know how surprised and pleased she will be to find so much splendor and comfort combined. We have a fine bath house, &c., &c., and a very decent library.

Now, dear friends, I must conclude this my last from this side of the Atlantic, and part even this letter which I really envy, for it will be with you whilst I shall be tossing over the billows, seasick and far from being as comfortable. But so it is, and must be, I hope for the sake of us all …

Now for the rub:

Wanted! Wanted!! Wanted!!!

Bachman’s Warbler!

Bewick’s Wren

Bemaculated Duck

Boat-tailed Grackle

Bird of Washington

Black-throated Diver

Black Warrior Hawk

Blue-green Warbler

Blue Grosbeak!

Blue-headed Pigeon

Bonaparte’s Flycatcher

Booby Gannet

Carbonated Warbler

Carolina Paroquet

Common Gallinule

Dusky Petrel

Florida Jay

Fork-tailed Flycatcher

Freshwater Marsh Hen

White Heron

Henslow’s Bunting

Least Bittern

Mango hummingbird

Mangrove Cuckoo

Orange-crowned Warbler

Painted Finch

Pipiry Flycatcher

Purple Martin

Ring-necked Duck

Roseate Tern

Sandwich Tern

Sooty Tern

Stanley Hawk

Swainson’s Warbler

Tennessee Warbler

Tropic Bird

White-headed Pigeon

Whooping Crane

Wood Ibis

Worm-eating Warbler

Yellow-breasted Chat

Yellow-crowned Heron

Zenaida Dove

Turkey Buzzard

Key West Pigeon

Long-eared Owl

Wood Ducks

New York Rail

Do all you can, and that as quickly as possible, so as to have what you may collect in London by May 1838, and now once more God bless you all. N. Berthoud says at this moment that the sum due me now in the U.S. amounts to $9,354.74 …

London, England

14 August 1837

My dear Bachman,

We have been snugly at home already for a week, and thank God are well and well doing. We had a pleasant and short passage; and such a set of companions as would have been quite congenial to your gay spirits. We saw Ireland 15 days after we had lost sight of America. Our children were both well, and I only sick (sea) the morning on which we landed at Liverpool. At this latter place I wrote you a few lines and sent you a beautiful church. We left that emporium of commerce two days afterwards and reached Birmingham by the railroad, traveled 96 miles in 4½ hours. We slept at Birmingham and the next morning, after an early breakfast, started for London by the coach called the “Tally O” and were rolled over the smooth and firm roads of England exactly 10 miles per hour. Having dined at [a] lovely village about halfway, on we again moved and at 8 of the evening I was in the arms of my Lucy! Dear old friend, she was not very well, our arrival produced a great revolution of her nervous system, but after a while all was gaiety and happiness at our house in Wimpole Street. Our family physician was present. Our children were happy, and as we after a while retired to our separate apartments we blessed the Being from whom we had received this long-wished-for moment.

Our dearest Maria, with a mind and eyes filled with wonders, was not at all fatigued, and even since then she has been enjoying the sights of this as it were New World to her. We have dined out twice, shewn her many a wonderful object, and even this morning took [her] to the St. James Park to view the Queen’s palace and list to some exquisite martial music. At 5 this afternoon we are going to Mr. Gordon’s to dine, and afterwards to view
ad secundum
the
Zoological Gardens.

We brought our budget for this year quite safely, and I am to
say, that by having purchased
American gold
at New York, I have saved something like a couple and a half of hundred dollars.

Our Work too is going on quite well, the 76th Number is out, and the next packet [ship] will take all the American sets from No. 72 to 76 both inclusive. Havell tells me that on the first day of January next the
Birds of America
will be finished! Think of that!! What a glorious Christmas I will then enjoy. Would that you all were with us at that precious moment, and for awhile after that we might talk and laugh and kiss all the dear ones about us, and thank God for the privileges he has granted to your poor old friend. Whilst at Liverpool, I went on board the ship
Superb
and found that only 13 birds had reached Earl Derby alive; and that the
alligator had died on its reaching the docks. The other vessel has not yet arrived, and as you may suppose I am already pretty fidgety about my valuable bird skins and valuable birds in rum.
Lord Ravensworth has received all the seeds and plants and I brought 18
Wild Pigeons alive, and the all of my
terrapins in good order.

London is just as I left it, a vast artificial area as well covered with humbug as are our pine lands and old fields with broom grass. [William] Swainson is publishing his incomprehensible works. [John] Gould has just finished his
Birds of Europe
and now will go on with those of Australia. [William] Yarrell is publishing the British birds quarto size—and about one thousand other very trying works are in progress to assist in the mass of confusion already scattered over the world.

The Arrival of J.J.A., his son &his daughter has been proclaimed throughout these realms, &c., &c., &c.

After ten years or more of constant exertions to obtain and to study both a good representation and the habits of our
Marsh Tern, and when, as I thought, both were actually in my possession, I find on the opening of all our trunks, boxes, &c., that my drawing of this curiously interesting species is actually
wanting
or
missing!
This is the 15th of August, and on the last day of the present year my work will be finished, but unless you find that drawing at your house and send it to me immediately (via New York) through Mr. Berthoud, it will come too late. The Charleston ship with our dear little pet the
Blue Grosbeak (I unfortunately do not know the name of the ship) is not yet arrived, and just now the winds are sadly
adverse. The above paragraph is addressed to my beloved friend
Maria Martin, and to her I must beg to attend to it, as quick as this may reach you all.

Oh how much I now regret that I did not bring my bird skins along with me—but it is all over and I must wait and probably after all be disappointed, for the
Superb
has been in at Liverpool for more than a fortnight and the other vessel has never been as yet heard of.

Maria & John are going to the opera this evening, and today at 5 we have two gents to dine with us—one a clergyman the other the editor of the
London Courier
.

Victor will leave us in a few days on a tour of recreation and rest for the seashore, for about two weeks. He has not been very well of late, and I trust that such a jaunt will greatly benefit his health.

The 14
turtles caught by us in Texas are now crawling about our little back yard in good health, the poor things have not eat a mouthful since caught! My good friend [William] MacGillivray has lately published a work (the 1st volume of a work) on the ornithology of British subjects, but the reviewers have spoken of it so curiously that I will now copy a small extract of their strictures, which I hope you will not consider as egotism in me to transmit to you all, joined as we are by a good, solid and friendly band!—“The writing appears to us an affected attempt to imitate the styles of Isaac Walton and of Audubon, which being extremely peculiar, can only be relished in the originals, and here, as in the case of similar imitations, we desiderate their freshness, and dislike the misplaced quaintness of expression,” &c., &c., &c.

William Swainson is rattling away as wild as ever … with his lunatic systematical rhapsodies of circles, &c., &c., and has been leathered well on a work of elemental conchology. May those cut him to the very marrow. Yarrell is, as I believe I have already said, publishing a
The Birds of England
on a small scale.

The wedding cake is quite nice and as yet uncut. Mamma keeps it for some
grand occasion!
All our friends are fond of our beloved daughter, and I have kissed her dear [illegible] almost off …

God bless you all! Whatever you have to do for me, do quickly, for recollect that January will soon come, and then, why, the
Birds of America
will have closed their pinions, never to be opened more …