MISS JENNETT BENEDICT
AN EXAMPLE OF AUDUBON'S ITINERANT PORTRAITURE; DRAWN AT MEADVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, IN 1824. AFTER THE ORIGINAL CRAYON DRAWING IN POSSESSION OF MR. FREDERICK A. STERLING.
MISS ELIZA PIRRIE
"MY LOVELY MISS PIRRIE OF 'OAKLEY,'" AUDUBON'S PUPIL IN 1821. AFTER A PORTRAIT IN POSSESSION OF HER GRANDDAUGHTER, MISS LUCY M. MATTHEWS. PUBLISHED BY COURTESY OF MR. STANLEY CLISBY ARTHUR.
A month was spent at Pittsburgh, where Audubon searched the country for birds and continued his drawings. While there he made the acquaintance of the Reverend John Henry Hopkins, a man of superb appearance and rare conversational and oratorical powers, later known as the learned and versatile first Episcopal Bishop of Vermont. Audubon attended some of the ministrations of this remarkable man, through whose influence, he said, "I was brought to think, more than I usually did, of religious matters; but I never think of churches without feeling sick at heart at the sham and show of some of their professors. To repay evil with kindness is the religion that I was taught to practice, and this will forever be my rule."
In the autumn of 1824 Audubon planned another visit to the Great Lakes in search of new birds, and tried to induce his friend, Mr. Edward Harris, to accompany him. While wandering in the forests along those lakes he thought out the plan which was finally followed in the publication of his Birds of America: