I was very sorry to get your telegram at midnight saying that Phil could not come. If it’s nothing serious I hope that he will follow. If it is serious you will let me know. We found White with the Grip yesterday.

Our conference with Twombly and Mead was satisfactory. That is to say Mead and McKim helped us to get him to think that the terrace would be a fine thing and we helped them to lead him to think the house a fine thing. He kept saying that they would cost too much; that none of his children would ever be rich enough to support so large a house and so large gardens &c. He asked if we did not think that the terraces would cost $50,000, and at last I had to say that I thought that at least something that would answer could be made for that sum. We are to proceed to plan with the understanding that the plan must be so managed that the cost will not exceed it. Please help John to contrive it. It seems to me that the lower terrace wall might bend downward toward the centre, so that the retaining wall at B would be as near the natural surface as at A, or nearer. This would save wall building and filling. The stairs at (a) could be brought well down and between them & the point (b) I should think there might be a fall (slope) of 10 feet. Making the whole (ABA) not merely a Jardin Anglais but an American Garden, the space between (b) and (B) could be heaped up and the whole given a considerable movement and by mounding and high and heavy Rhododendron planting a good effect obtained, all the better [443]because of the strong contrast it would have with the more formal, flat and low embroidered terrace garden above. Much slope could thus be given the lower terrace, so that the top of the wall at B could be several feet below its top at A. The retaining wall AB would be a rough fieldstone wall, with much batter and curve, and at the bottom outside earth might be heaped up against it, so that it would seem to have been laid out following a natural bastion-like steep slope of the hillside. Ivy to be planted top & bottom of wall. Other savings in wall building can be made by reductions both in length and breadth of upper terraces (no reduction in breadth (depth) of lower terrace). The upper terrace walls would be of very cheap brick laid with much mortar and could be covered with vines or espaliers—(Why not Rosa Wicheriana?)

Twombly felt very badly about the estimated cost of his glass-houses and the cost of the wall about his garden. He asked me if I did not think that he could “get along” with less costly houses, and, as after some pondering I really did not see any necessity for so much glass–did not see why, with New York market close at hand, he could not live in tolerable comfort with half as much, and as I thought a concession at this point, not prominent in landscape, might help to the terraces, I said that I thought it could easily be so arranged that he would have all that would be requisite for the present for $40,000. If afterwards he should find more needed he could add houses on each side. I hope that I did not cross your hawse in saying so, or John’s, for he immediately said: “I knew that you would say so if you gave a little attention to it,” confound him. So we are ordered to cut down the scheme. I hope it can be done by simply dropping two or four of the outside houses. He is to give us a lot more work, bowling green, bowling alley, court tennis & so on.

Yours Faithfully

P.S.

It has since occurred to me that the upper, narrow Twombly terrace might be supported by a brick and cut stone wall as a piece of the house and being partly a veranda be left out of our estimate of the out work terraces. The house was, in fact so designed, I believe, by Meade. Then the embroidered terrace could be supported by a wall partly stone, rock-faced, and partly, rough brick with a brick or terra cotta parapet or perhaps an iron rail; a consistent dress effect in all that is to {be} seen from above and from the second level being thus provided for. Then I question if a wall is necessary for the lower terrace. Instead of it the filling which will be required for the sloped garden can be finished with a bank sloping at perhaps 45° with a parapet, railing or fence at the top to be overgrown with honey suckle and appear as a hedge with a border of rhododendrons between it and the circuit walk of the American Garden.

[444]

Then, as to the filling required, I shd think that the natural surface of the ground North, South and East of the terraces could be remodeled so that it could all be obtained within a distance of about 100 yards. The effect would be improved, if I am not mistaken, if the present character of the hillside was so changed that there appeared to have been washed out, dell-like recesses in it, near each end of the house, with a natural swell or shoulder between them, giving on its flatter upper parts a good natural site for a house of the size intended. These washed out dells sweeping down on each side of the terrace gardens and converging, the ground below the middle of the bow of the lower garden would naturally be lower and flatter than it is now. That is to say it may be so managed that it will not be obvious whether the steep terrace-bank which I above suggest may be used instead of a wall, is the remains of a natural bold swell of the hill side between the two depressions, or is partly artificial. It would be better that the upper parts of the two depressions should play out into the natural surface very gently, and near the heads they need not be parallel or symmetrical. That toward the stable may swing off to the northward; that opposite rather return toward the house, so that it would be looked down into from the south terrace or veranda and have a general parallelism with the architectural lines.

Now, for my engagement with Senator Stewart.

F.L.O