We have just received four letters from you, all of the 27th instant, and all very satisfactory, except with regard to Mr. Douglass’s work. I have to-day written to Mr. Douglass.

You say nothing about the brook, the management of which is the most difficult and critical part of the work of the approach. I assume that you are advancing that along with the road, and satisfactorily to yourself, finding no unexpected difficulties.

Where gutters are necessary in the road, I think the best would be made of stone from the quarry in small irregular pieces after the manner of those first laid on the Central Park which remain more satisfactory to me than any I have {had} laid since, except, perhaps, some by Mr. McMillan in the same manner on the Buffalo Park. I like their appearance better than either the brick gutters which we laid in Brooklyn, or those of squared stone that we are laying in the Boston parks, both of the latter being much too conspicuous, especially for a narrow, rural road such as you are making. The less the gutters attract attention and the more they seem to blend the edge of the road with the adjoining ground, the better they would be. Wherever you think it practicable to dispense with gutters, do so by all means, as advised in our first instructions on the subject to Mr. Thompson, with which I assume that you are familiar. Nowhere make them broader or deeper than is necessary to serve the purpose, making adjustments in this respect to the requirements of the locality. I mean that there is no necessity for making them of uniform breadth and depth.

I have just returned from a visit, in company with Mr. Vanderbilt, to Bar Harbor and to the pine plantations of Mr. Russell at East Greenwich. Mr. Vanderbilt will probably go to the estate in about a fortnight and remain until nearly July. I shall hope to come about the 20th of May. I should be glad then to see a short bit of work clear across the valley in as nearly a finished condition as you find practicable: {not necessarily next} {to} the quarry. Except such short bit I should prefer that you left the work of grading slopes & channel, merely roughed out, suspending operations, at least wherever you were at all in doubt or might think that my counsel on the ground would help you to the best result.