Page:Stryker's American Register and Magazine, Volume 6, 1851.djvu/216

210 completely successsfulsuccessful [sic]; and within three years his portfolio was better than before.

In 1824, Lucien Bonaparte proposed to purchase his drawings: but Mr. Audubon rejected the offer, and resolved to publish them himself. He accordingly went to England with that intention; and before his return he visited the European Continent, where Cuvier and M. Humboldt, with whom he had become acquainted and travelled during his wanderings in Mexico, received him with distinguished honor.

His personal appearance and his magnificent portfolio of drawings excited not a little attention. His tall form, his noble features, and the eagle glance of his eye, united with his simplicity of manners, and his lively conversation, marked him out as a man of no ordinary character. His habits also appeared to the denizens of the large cities of England to be somewhat singular, "It was pleasant," says a correspondent of the London Athenæum, "to watch him as he walked through the streets of Liverpool, with his long black hair curling on his shoulders, and his trousers of New Harmony cloth, as full as petticoats, to the great edification of passers-by, himself innocently unconscious of any singularity of appearance. There was no resisting his enthusiasm on his own subject—nor the affectionate and self-engrossed earnestness with which he threw himself on the sympathy and good offices of those who welcomed him. He brought his forest ways with him—kept the habits of the birds—went to roost when candles were lighted at Midsummer, and was up before day dawn, dragging out of their beds (I shivering]y recollect) the youngsters who might be under the same roof, to share the walk which he always took before sunrise, to watch his friends as soon as they began to stir in their nests.

"At that time he kept a most copious journal of all his impressions of England, its things, and its men and women (a somewhat bird's-eye view of society, perhaps), and not only did he invite every one who would to copy it, but in his unsuspiciousness would read aloud to the parties described his notes of themselves, their doings, and their conventional, un-bird-like ways. How racy and fresh this journal was, may be inferred from the excellent interludes of wild life and adventures which diversify the scientific letter-press of the four volumes describing the 'Birds of America.'

"Nothing in the old world was unnoticed; but nothing was described in common language or measured according to common standards. It would be a pity if a record so sincere and so graphic should not one day see the light. Audubon had a keen, though imperfectly cultivated, sense of other arts besides his own:—was