I have received your note of the 28th and am glad to know that the work on the deer park pleased you, and that your visit was otherwise satisfactory.

[305]

Balconies in parapet wall overlooking Ram Branch scenery, Lower Approach Road, Biltmore, c. 1891

With regard to the balconies on the approach road, I hope that you will consent to let them stand until I can ask you to consider the matter with me on the ground. I think it probable that Mr. Gall has not been able to explain the reasons that led us to introduce some of them, especially those suggested by Mr. Smith as a part of the design of the second bridge. The work can be as well done in the Spring as now, and in the belief that you will be willing to give the matter a little further consideration with me, I think it better to delay giving the order for removing them until after I have seen or heard from you again. I will write to Mr. Gall, directing him to go no further with the construction of any not yet fully built.

There were four reasons for designing the islets near the north margin of the lake; first, the effect of them would be to enlarge the apparent extent of the water, because, in looking toward them from the opposite shore, the imagination would assume a larger recession of the main shore behind them than would actually exist, and there would at least be more effect of intricacy and mystery; second, the steepness of the ground almost everywhere at our proposed water-line on the main shore, (determined by considerations of economy), compels us to allow the lake a more rigid and unpicturesque [306]

Islands in the Lake, Biltmgre, c. 1895

I shall be glad to confer with you and will write asking an appointment before I come to New York.

Yours Very Truly,