It troubles me that we are standing in a widely different attitude towards the Hartford Park Commission from that in which we have ever stood at a corresponding period toward any of the twenty park commissions with which we have had to do, and I have a vague apprehension that we may be neglecting a duty in not making some move by which the Commissioners would be led to recognize this, and to consider whether a change of our footing may not be desirable. It is barely possible that I am mistaken in supposing that they have wished us to understand that they proposed to employ us, and I should be sorry to give them any reason to imagine that we are at all presuming in this respect. [946]You must consider this. If they have not had it in view to employ us, we have in some way been misled, and all that I shall now say is to go for naught. But if they have entertained such a purpose as I suppose they have, without suggestion from us or from anyone in our behalf, I should like to have it intimated to them, if this can be done without indelicacy, that our experience with the numerous park commissions that we have heretofore served leads us to suppose that at no period in the future will our counsel be of more importance to them than at the point at which some newspaper reports indicate that they are now standing. There is not one instance in twenty where counsel has {been} had with us at all by park commissioners that we have not led them, because of reasons that we have given, to make some changes in the choice they would otherwise have made of lands to be obtained for their purpose, and I am sure that no service that we have rendered to park commissions has been more appreciated than that which we have given them in the preliminary stage of their work. Through that advice they have gladly and unanimously completely revised the intention they had formed.

You will remember that I have been a park commissioner, have been president and have been treasurer of a park commission; have, by invitation, sat with and taken part in the debates of several park commissions, and because of the experience that has thus come to me, am more ready than I otherwise should be to look at the subject from the point of view of the commissioner in distinction from the point of view of a landscape architect.

Looking at the subject in this way, I think that there is no duty of the commission in which it is more likely to be benefitted by professional advice than that in which the Hartford Commission may, for all that I know, be at this moment engaged, and I am thinking that the Commissioners do not realize this, and it may be partly my fault that they do not. If, therefore, without seeming to urge our views upon the Commissioners, and without danger of indelicacy in any other respect, you can ascertain whether we are neglecting what, from our point of view, may be a duty, I should like to have you do so.

You understand that we have never met the Commissioners as a Board, but we suppose that we are understood to be standing in some sort of professional relation to them. Their business has, in fact, been a good deal in my mind for some time past, and I have given considerable thought to it. Having no authority to do so, the situation is one of delicacy, differing from any in which we have ever before been placed.

I have written this to you not so much with a view to your taking action upon it in any way as in order to obtain your opinion as to whether any action should be taken. Nevertheless, if you think it best to consult one of the Commissioners, and can do so with more directness and frankness by showing them this letter, I would like you to do so.

Yours affectionately,

I have your three letters of 15th & 16th. All that you say about the works is satisfactory to me. I am in doubt if you understand the situation at Biltmore. I have not written or said anything on the subject of which you are not informed, or, as far as I recollect, except thro’ the office. I may have written something direct to Rick but I think not. But I don’t think that you are as well-informed as you shd be.

I was very much taken aback by your action upon the partnership matter and have not been able to see the justifying reason for it. I suppose that you find it however in what you call my “failure of memory.” I have not been able to see the occasion or the justification for your action in other important respects and that it should have been taken without communication with me has caused an irritation and excitement and action which I am sorry for. I cannot yet bring myself to think that it was justifiable but I regret my course and am taking the back track. I had no idea that I was supposed to be in the condition that you have assumed. If you had given me your opinion I should have taken some course to verify or overcome it. Probably I should have accepted the occasion for your action and assisted you. I am writing Mr Chandler by this mail countermanding orders given him a few days ago.

My will was drawn up some ten years ago at the suggestion and in some degree under the advice of Judge Monell of Newburg who visited us at the time in Brookline. You, John, are dealt with as my elder son, partner and designed successor. Rick’s professional education is provided for and it is presumed that he will be partner with you.

I am very sorry that you did not think best to advise me what you thought of my condition & of what you intended. I think that I should have yielded all you desired. I should, at least, have at once taken medical advice, [949]and had a competent professional opinion. As it is, your course has been far from soothing. I have lost a few nights’ sleep which I could ill-spare.

I hope it will not be thought necessary to send me to an institution. I hate institutions. But I don’t see how I can live at home and not be interested in your works or refrain from giving advice. In fact it will be almost a killing thing to me not to visit Biltmore. I fear that it will break my heart. But I shall pray for & try to pursue Christian resignation.

Let Eliot see this and then, as I suppose that I should be cautious about writing, let it be sent to Rick. There is nothing in the world that I am so anxious about as his welfare—spiritual and eternal as well as artistic & professional. I suppose that you will have him in the office soon. I hope before I go. But not a day sooner than you think best to make him useful to you. Let him have the best possible professional education; especially in “planting.” He has had opportunity for a much better elementary professional education than anyone else I know and I hope you will give him opportunity to continue it—as at the Arboretum &c.—and that eventually the firm may profit by it. The firm! No. The Art!

Exit, bowing, not ungratefully,