Audubon's initial volume of the _Biography_ was well received and drew forth immediate and unstinted praise from many sources. He was anxious that MacGillivray should contribute some account of it to the London _Quarterly Review_, then under the editorial management of John Gibson Lockhart, but his suggestion was coldly received and drew forth the following declaration of independence from his able, if as yet undistinguished, coadjutor:[388] With respect to the review, I can only say that if Mr. Lockhart is so doubtful as to my powers, he may doubt as long as he lists. I shall not submit any essay of mine to his judgment. If you had informed me that he or the conductor of my other review would print a notice of your works, I should have agreed to write one with pleasure, but under existing circumstances I shall not, it being repugnant to my feelings and contrary to my practice and principles to sue for favor with any man. I have already written three reviews of your books which have been printed, and when I am applied to for a fourth I shall write it too, with "an elegance of style, a power of expression, and knowledge of the subject" equal to those usually displayed by the editor of the Quarterly. Some of the criticism, whether friendly or hostile, which this work eventually evoked will be considered in a later chapter. Shortly after his arrival in London, Audubon received a call from Joseph Bartholomew Kidd, a young artist whom he had met at Edinburgh the previous March, and was attracted so much by his "youth, simplicity and cleverness" that he again invited him to paint in his rooms. On the 31st of March, 1831, an agreement was made with Kidd[389] to copy some of his drawings in oils and put in appropriate backgrounds. "It was our intention," said Audubon, "to send them to the exhibition for sale, and to divide the amount between us. He painted eight, and then I proposed, if he would paint the one hundred engravings which comprise my first volume of the Birds of America, I would pay him one hundred pounds." In 1832 Captain Thomas Brown gave this notice of the undertaking in the _Caledonian Mercury_: About a year ago Audubon conceived the grand idea of a Natural History Gallery of Paintings, and entered into an agreement with Mr. Kidd to copy all his drawings of the same size, and in oil, leaving to the taste of that excellent artist to add such backgrounds as might give them a more pictorial effect. In the execution of such of these as Mr. Kidd has finished, he has not only preserved all the vivacious character of the originals, but he has greatly heightened their beauty, by the general tone and appropriate feeling which he has preserved and carried throughout his pictures.