Mr Spence Spencer called about an hour after you left upon the errand which you kindly charged him with to Mrs Olmsted. He had selected about seventy five stereoscopic views from photographs by Haywood which he desired Mrs Olmsted to take, but we ventured to think that he might have misunderstood his instructions and Mrs Olmsted took the liberty of making a selection herself of twenty four all of Cayuga scenery and taken from those of the Ithaca photographer as well as from the Haywood’s sets. Mrs Olmsted desires me to thank you for them and regrets that she could not have presented her acknowledgments in person.

We have done little else here than ramble up the streams & over the hills. I have blocked out a tolerably complete plan for the general subdivisions & formed a theory of the probable progress of closer settlement on the hill outside of the necessary university grounds. I think I can accommodate most of Mr Cornell’s wishes more satisfactorily to myself than I had supposed I could when I was here before. The site of your second building being determined, against my judgment, it seems to me to be very important that nothing should be done which shall make the suggestion which I offered you in regard to a terrace impracticable, and especially if the first building is duplicated, that its roof-lines and its base lines should be on the same level with those of the first. If it is to be almost a duplicate, it should be precisely a duplicate, otherwise (& especially with a difference of two feet elevation on the horizontal skylines) it will look as if any variation had been accidental and a mistake arising from the carelessness or stupidity of the builders. I am surprised that Mr Cornell should entertain such a project; the saving of expense to be secured by it is very trifling. Mr Finch fully agrees with me and is very anxious to gain the point. The two buildings being accepted, your suggestion of a more important and more advanced building by which they shall be subordinated and at the same time “assembled” may, I think, be so realized as to greatly overcome the inherent disadvantages of the arrangment. It will be successful in proportion to the degree of unity into which the three buildings can be brought and the lateral members of the group subordinated without being dislocated from the common mass. For this result you will see that the [209] common horizontal lines—horizontal lines at top & bottom of the side structures with a perfectly symmetrical relation to the centre—are absolutely essential.

We are going on to visit some relatives of Mrs Olmsted at Geneseo & shall probably reach home about Wednesday of next week when I hope we may see you.