Your notes of the 3rd and 15th November have come into my hands on returning from a long journey in the South and West.

The best way to meet your inquiries will be by stating what other men have done under our advice. There are four such who have all gone through the course that we shall describe and there are two others who have entered upon it. They have all been men of liberal education; the majority graduates of Harvard, and have been so situated as to have acquired a good deal of general cultivation and to be somewhat familiar with works of art in various forms. [230]They have taken post graduate courses in engineering, botany and drawing, freehand, mechanical and topographical. At the same time, they have taken courses of reading in the literature of landscape architecture, some in French and German as well as English. They have also attended lectures and had some field practice at the Bussey Institution, and have become more or less familiar with the large collection of trees and shrubs at the Harvard Arboretum which is connected therewith. They have then come into our office as students and have visited various works upon which we have been engaged in different parts of the country and have engaged in office practice, and more or less in the superintendence of such works. This is generally continued for two years and they have then, in each case, spent a year traveling in Europe under our advice. We have made no charge for such instruction and advice as we have given them, but while with us they have paid their own expenses. After returning from Europe, they have either found employment as assistants, or have entered directly upon the practice of the profession on their own account. This is about equivalent to a good preliminary preparation for the work of an architect, but architects who can afford it usually spend more time in Europe and take a course of study which is there prescribed as a condition of entering upon the practice of architecture. As to the prospects of success in the profession, it is impossible to speak with much assurance, but I am inclined to think that a thoroughly well prepared {man} is likely to do as well in the future as an architect correspondingly prepared. The standard of the public in matters of landscape architecture is rapidly advancing, and is likely in the future to advance more rapidly than at present. An extremely small proportion of those who call themselves landscape gardeners have any real understanding of the art, and all such are sure to go under, as well prepared men are ready to take up their work.

I have written no works upon landscape architecture. The books of travel to which you refer are probably three volumes, each reporting observations made in a separate journey in the Slave States, about 1852–53. They are entitled “A Journey in the Sea-board States,” “A Journey in Texas,” and “A Journey in the Back Country.” They are out of print, but can generally be picked up by second hand dealers and may be found in most good libraries.

Yours Truly