I have had two days experience with electric launches, making the trip from Richmond to Maidenhead in one boat; from Maidenhead to Hurley in another, and have seen several others, most larger than the largest of those used. The smallest of our boats was 35 ft. long; 6 ft full beam. Cockpit, from combing to combing, 4′ 10″ at widest; had seats for twenty with comfortable sitting space. There was but one boatman and he managed the boat in all respects perfectly well, easily, without special skill and with no exertion. The river was at points crowded and we passed thro numerous locks and narrow canals, made landings &c, always neatly, efficiently and comfortably. The boats were charged for about nine hours. We did not see the charging which was done at night. I think our speed did not much exceed six miles an hour. The wake was slight and would not I judged disturb our banks at Chicago at all, though when we were near the shore it gave a slight waving motion to the reeds growing out of the water. When going at full speed, there was more trembling vibration than was quite pleasant, yet hardly as much as I have found in a steam launch. I shd advise every possible expedient to be used to secure quietness in this respect. The boats had different seating arrangements. That of neither would serve our purpose at Chicago. What was had in view in my last advice on the point to Nixon wd be much better. The awning, tilt, perfectly met the requirements I presented to Nixon and which he cd not see his way to. It was, (I judged) of unbleached hemp canvass, dyed of a very light greenish hue. It was supported upon a slight wire rope between brass stanchions at the ends of the cock-pit; the rope set taught by a standing turnbuckle in the middle. The canvass was spread by splints like sections of hoops, passing through tubes of the canvass, much as neat canvass wagon tilts are. These hoops came about three feet apart from end to end. A section of the tilt, amidship would be about like this:

Distance from a to b 6″ or 7″
Distance from c to d 6′-

[547]

(Narrower bow and stern) I will send woodcuts representing it better. We saw one electric boat in which the distance from a to b was much more (and the awning was a much darker color). It was by comparison very ugly. As I always said in discussing the subject, the question of the awning is a very nice one, and with reference to lightness of effect it is extremely important. The curve is required to shed rain, I suppose, and if slight is unobjectionable in appearance. Great care shd be used in this respect, some awnings that we saw being very clumsy in effect, and giving a clumsy character to the boat. There was a valance along the edge of about 6″, with a red-bordered small scalloped margin. Under the valance curtains rolled up, to let down in case of rain and fasten to brass rings outside the cockpit combings. I would have the contractors provide one of these awnings and let us study it, before they order all, as it is a nice matter and we may be able to suggest a little modification which would be of material value.

There was very little paint on the boats. The natural woods varnished were disappointing in general effect, the original light and elegant quality so obtained having in every case that we saw, been dulled and the boats looking, consequently more worn, shabby and dull than they should. The prettiest boat that we saw, and we saw literally thousands, was black with a narrow gold bead and light green below the water line. The finer boats generally showed a good deal of polished brass work, and the furnishings were strikingly good. Nice copper-fitted boat hooks, copper-framed lanthorns &c. The wheel and all apparatus showing, solid brass, lightly polished. The tilt was held in place by lanyards made fast to firm brass rings set in brass plates outside the combings. Satisfaction with a boat depends much on the elegance of the fittings & moveables. In the best boats on the river, fine seamanship skill is less in the awning, the ropes, in turk’s heads; gratings, cushions &c. The electric boats had plain vertical stern and long overhangs, aft. Many of the steam launches that we saw had the old fashioned sloping heads some with a very long spoonlike curve, and I judge, as this was the case more especially with those which were newest and smartest, that there is a reacting tendency of fashion that way. In a few cases there was rather good decoration bow and stern, and the best had a good effect, but none was very good. I hold to the opinion that if an artist would give his mind to such work-very light and dainty filigreeish, it could be used with very good effect. In respect to head treatment; to carvings and slight and delicate gilt gingerbread, and to color outside and inside I think variety desirable, each boat varying in some respect from all others. I would have some black bodies, and some of light clear colors, relieved with gilt and brass. I saw no boats as finely finished—by which I mean as nearly like fine carriage work—as I think they well might be. Singularly, the very best we saw in this respect, were punts of mahogany. Next canoes. Both punts and canoes were often occupied only by ladies. The lady punters were sometimes poling with silver-tipped poles. Boating of all sorts is enormously [548]in fashion. The boats are sometimes delicate and fine but refinement might be carried much further.

We are now on our way down the river in a rowing boat and, having had a hard steady rain nearly all day, are resting at The George & Dragon Hotel, Wargrave, Berks.

A most capital school is found on the Thames banks for the study of what we want at Chicago in the Lagoon banks.

My most important observation is that at rare intervals long lines of low willows are found of even height and altogether monotonous character, being of the same tint and an even texture, and that under these circumstances a willow margin is most disagreeable. Generally the willow margin, even where it is low and is continuous for perhaps a mile of the same species is attractive and interesting, being in one way or another greatly varied. As we are liable in places to something near a similar monotony of low willow margins, I have noted several ways in which an agreeable variety generally is found even where there are continuous willows either immediately on the bank or a few yards, at most, back. First, variety is obtained by a series of willows of older and larger growth breaking in upon a series of younger and smaller: (It often looks as if adjoining small proprietors had at different intervals cut the willows to the ground each on his own property, so that thickets of different ages occur in succession). Second, because of variations in the elevation of the banks, and the effect of inroads of the river and the carving of the banks irregularly, the willows being low in the recesses. Third, by the apparent forming of a new bank in front of an old willow-grown one, and a young growth upon the new bank, often of some other foliage than that of willows. Fourth, the willows sometimes grow in the water and form protruding banks of foliage in contact with the water and rising from it. Again they sometimes are found growing only on the upper parts of higher banks and sometimes overhang reedy plants growing in shoal water at the base of these banks. Often the willows are seen behind and over and partly mixing with plants growing in broad, water-covered shoals before them; these plants being in patches of different tints; dark bull rushes, alternating with light flags and reeds (the common bull rush of the Thames (or what I call so, is larger and perhaps darker than the kind we have been planting). Also, among the flags and rushes there are sometimes broad-leafed low plants, so that by different dispositions of these plants the water growth when it appears below the willows is constantly varying considerably in composition. In at least one case, we saw a considerable plantation that must have been artificial, of the rhubarb-like plants that we described as having been seen in Jersey. Fifth; sometimes it appears that high banks upon which willows were before growing uprightly, have been undermined and the willows have grown out in masses horizontally or nearly so, and became fixed and grown strong in that [549]position. Then deep-shaded places and dark water appear under them. Sixth. Rarely other shrubs and young trees mingle with the willows. This however almost only while the willows are yet very small. Later the willows seem to have smothered everything else in company. With small willows, alders, elders, brambles are often mixed. Where a mixture of foliage occurs with larger willow bushes it is generally of some creeper, such as clematis. The low willow banks are sometimes all but hidden by an over growth of convolvulus. The effect is often very agreeable when the creepers hang pendent from outer horizontal growths of willow. Seventh, Herbaceous plants have sometimes got possession of the lower part of slopes and are seen between water plants and the thickets of willows. Eighth, steep banks, that have lately been caving probably, and from which willows may have been washed away, are sometimes fine with low water-plants with sagitarias, sedges and water grasses creeping up their lower parts irregularly and mingling with daisies, clover, wild carrot, poppies, beans and convolvulus; woody thickets growing out of the upper part of the bank and more or less mingling with and over hanging them.

Where the overhanging thicket of willows spreads well out and densely, I think the good effect could be produced next year by planting thickly many small cuttings of silver-poplar, (Abele), which would soon produce a low, shaded, obscure silvery undergrowth darkly shaded.

In these and other ways we can surely yet relieve ourselves of all danger that you may now see of too much monotonous a growth of willows along the shores. We shall have a greater variety of sorts; of forms and of colors, than appear in willows on the Thames, lighter and darker, more & less spreading and more and less dense, pliant, stiff & delicate. As to form, the only disagreeable phase of the willow margin of the Thames that I have observed other than monotony {is where} an irregular, young, upright, spindling growth is thrust above the general mass. If anything like this now appears, it can be remedied by shortening this Fall.

I think that we must in some places bend willows down and hold them by wires to pegs or weights suspended in the water, doing this with clusters and masses between points at some distance apart, so as to secure deep shaded dark edges at these places.

The larger part of the banks of the upper Thames that we have seen are willow-bordered; chiefly, but not always, the willows are several times larger than ours will be. They are very beautiful, and we do not get tired of them, and the principles of their beauty and interest will mainly apply to our conditions. There are, of course, other banks and other combinations of foliage than those I have named but as to such we less need lessons. I have not mentioned that we saw considerable bodies of Heracleum, which I suppose to have been planted, as well as the Rhubarb. Of flowering plants it appeared to me that the most common of those conspicuous was a spirea—Meadow Sweet; then poppies and daisies and a rush and a great many that I do not know. But the commonest was Morning Glory, and we cannot have too much [550]of it. Hawthorn I need hardly say is abundant; so are brambles and with good effect. I hope that you have large quantities of hops and that other bienial I have advised, well advanced and are preparing quantities of Madeira vine tubers. Also of Rubus odoratus for well shaded banks. You will see that I have more than ever confidence in what the willows will do for us, because of what I have seen on the Thames. But as our size of willows will be more uniform we must use every expedient we can to gain vivacity, variety and interest.

Do our best we shall not attain to the prettiest and most interesting effects of the Thames for these result from openings of the low banks where there are estuaries of little streams and rivulets. Looking up there one may see low growths, mainly but not wholly aquatic, reaching far away and becoming more & more obscure and mysterious in perspectives fading and darkening under dense covered tunnels of overarching tree foliage. This is so fine and poetically suggestive that though we cannot nearly approach what is to be found on the Thames, we must try to accomplish some small measure of effect in the same direction, which we can, perhaps, do by cutting deep bays in broad masses of foliage, especially where there are sufficient recesses of the shore to suggest the possibility of hidden streamlets, inlets or baylets. Also by pushing out narrow masses of foliage in nearly parallel lines, diagonal to the general trend of the shore with vacancies between them, the landward ends of these vacancies running into obscurity. We have tried to do something in this way on the West & South sides of the island. I wish that we had carried our attempts further and had more aimed at such effects elsewhere. We thought that it would be too expensive but I now think the necessary outlay would have been economical. Wherever we have narrow water ways opening from broader, as where the bridge stands near the Illinois State Building, let us get in all the outstretching and overarching foliage that we can. Let us, also, as much as possible train out creepers, and branches of trees, upon bridges, pulling down and nailing the branches, aiming to obtain shade and reflections of foliage and broken obscuration of water. Wherever shade from overhanging foliage can be made deep and constant upon water, I would root out lilies and other water plants, using them elsewhere, letting the deep shade come upon clear water, or mainly so. It is most important to secure broad shady margins here and there; to make roofs of dense foliage over still water. To be more sure of this and to carry it at points further than we otherwise can, especially on the sides and at the ends of bays which observers can not look at very closely, let roofs of lath, wire or splints, or boughs and “rustic work” be built over water, and branches lashed down upon them and creepers trained over them. Passages of very dark and obscure water occasionally along the shores cannot be too highly valued, and too much ingenuity & pains used to surely obtain them in a strikingly effective way. When nothing else will serve the purpose, trellises of wire net, set in a half cylindrical form, to be covered with morning-glory, Madeira vine, grown in pots and brought well forward under glass early in the [551]Spring, will soon produce the result required. Fine wire that cannot be seen can be used, and supported, if necessary, by props. This, I mean, where the covering plants will not be fully grown over the wire at the Spring opening of the Fair. But, again, “set pieces,” for this purpose can be prepared and kept until spring under glass; That is to say, troughs of horse shoe, ground-plan (horse shoes produced: ) can be made (the opposite troughs tied by joists at bottom, which joists would be under water) a hood of wire work spanning the space between them. This could be done at once and rooted willows or grape vines, set in the troughs and trained over the wire, or Madeira vine can be grown over it during the Winter (under glass), and the whole piece set in a prepared place, with plankings and outworks of willows &c already grown. I believe that I have suggested something of this sort before, but what I have seen on the Thames makes me the more anxious that we should be liberal in the use of such theatrical expedients. Nothing is so effective in water-bordering foliage as deep darkening coves. I long ago felt this when on a tropical river. Now, my impression is revived and strengthened, and I see that willows and Morning Glories can be made to serve something approaching the same results as those I have seen produced in palms and bananas and their natural smaller associates.

The following are named, in Dickens’s Dictionary of the Thames, among the common plants of the upper Thames–banks, marshes & waters. Lythrum

The beauty of Burnham, of Windsor Park and others we saw near the river lay a good deal in large patches of bracken. Ferny passages here & there [552]along the shores will be valuable. Passages, I say, meaning not a mere scattering of them. Care must be taken to avoid such use of plants that will grow rusty & faded toward the end of the summer.

But the main body must be with us as if on the Thames one of willows, cattails, flags, irises, rushes, morning glories, & water lilies; others being used to prevent sameness & as decorative garnishings.

Of course, we have seen numbers of water side lawns and gardens. Most of these are ruined by bedding plants and fussy decorations. And again and again I am led to distrust detached beds or strips of flowering or foliage plants within lawn-like spaces. Every one that we have seen has been out of place, impertinent, offensive to the genus loci, misplaced, tawdry, vulgar finery. On the other we have seen many cases in which flowering plants have been used with fine effects as an irregular and semi-natural fringe, partly intermingled with rich banks of shrubbery and vines along the base of walls and fences. Of shrubs used under these circumstances, generally before and under larger evergreens, laurels & rhododendrons, Berberis Mahonia is about the best. We could import if necessary, thousands of it next Fall. Thousands, also, of small plants of hawthorn.

The density and luxurience of vegetation on the Thames banks is remarkable. Close planting in rich soil with abundant watering will give us the like quality.

The use of pot plants, and of all sorts of window gardens here is remarkable. You may pass twenty small dwellings and shops in a village street, every window of every one of which will be richly decorated in this way. It is wonderfully and charmingly festive and in perfectly good taste for festive effect. We must do all we can to educate our people in the practice. And may it not be recommended to householders for the street decoration of the city & the Florists be advised to meet a demand in this respect?

Two other suggestions occur to me and which I will here offer as possibly worth thinking out. First, the enormous desire of people to write or cut their names in places of celebrity is met at the top of the Eiffel tower by a warning that it must be restrained and by the offer of a book in which visitors are asked to record their names, with the assurance that they will be published. Several such records could be made at Chicago, one for instance at the Woman’s Building wd probably be gratifying to the women. Second, to meet the maniacal propensity to carry away mementoes or “relics,” an assortment of articles of various values, mainly very small, shd be offered. (Possibly some little tokens in pottery or terracotta could be given away.) Among such articles (in order to check the disposition to pluck at shrubs & plants) great quantities of some simple flower, adapted to be pressed in a book might be got ready, to be sold for a cent a piece—the cheapest; so that none would have reason to complain. They could be supplied at pretty little shaded stands at many points in the grounds, which would help to furnish various points decoratively. Of [553]course, if this is to be done, large preparation shd be made soon. It should not be money-making. Further, I suggest that a good permanent form of memento, would be a seedling tree sold in a cheap pot or basket of soil—a tree or bush or vine to be taken home by the purchaser & planted at his home. Potted pines, or elms or vines or roses, six inches high, set in a small strawberry basket or a paper or splint cup, or an earthen thumb pot, with a loop by which a woman cd carry it on her arm, with printed directions what to do with it, could be sold with profit for a dime. But it would almost pay to give such things away, such is the demand for “relics,” and so popular would the arrangement be.

I have not mentioned above that at various points on the Thames, as in all shallow still, fresh waters almost that we have seen in England & in France the pretty little water ranunculus abounds, and is valuable. I also, forgot, where, speaking of expedients for making the shores at certain points more intricate to renew the suggestion that not only the effect of bays & coves of foliage might be obtained but, also, of projections by boxes of soil & plants, the boxes being sunk & fastened so that only the vegetation growing in them would be visible.

Friday, we drove to Dropmore and Burnham Beeches in the morning. Both most instructive & delightful. I shall send Rick back to study them more deliberately. Dropmore surprised me very much. It is so comparatively wild. It comes near to being a model of what we want in the Arboretum at Biltmore; I mean, in general effect. Our plan will be much more complete & valuable.

In the p.m. rowed down to Windsor, stopping and examining certain matters along the shores. Drove before dark thro the Park to an inn on Virginia Water. Most of following day in the Park & Forest, the great new pasture of the Castle &c. Then by trains to Chiselhurst in the evening. It was an over hard day’s work & left me sleepless for the night. The night before I left for the Thames trip I was sleepless, but the doctor advised me to go, and after every day that I have been afloat, I have slept well & naturally, taking nothing of what the doctor gave me. This is significant & the more significant for yesterday’s experience. I shall be quiet today and hope to sleep tonight; in which case I expect to go to London and begin some of my business preparatory to going North.

I find here letters from Phil & John of 3d & 5th July. Nothing about Chicago. Rick stays in town today & I have not opened letters addressed to him. About nearly everything else they bring me up. I don’t know whether Harry went to Montreal. I am sorry for the mishaps at Goelet’s and the Brookline Parkway, also, for the formalizing of the Thatched Roof. I am a little afraid that judicious advance is not being made with the Biltmore plan—But [554]on the whole I should think affairs were advancing fairly well, & I feel relieved. Henry Perkins is absent on mining business, going to Berlin & Vienna for professional consultations & examinations.

Affectnly