We shall give you herein a memorandum of operations which we advise to be prepared for, and, as far as practicable carried on, before next Summer. We expect to visit the Estate in February, when, after an inspection of the results of what has been done in the meantime, instructions for refinements may be added. We hope that by that time all the rougher blocking-out work required may have been accomplished, so that a review with reference to detail and finishing operations can then be made to better advantage.

BILTMORE VILLAGE. Work to be continued under previous instructions. Mr. Gall seems to have it well in hand.

REGION of the QUARRY on the APPROACH ROAD. The quarry is to be abandoned and the present conditions of the region are to be modified with a view to such increased picturesque effect as can be obtained at [856]

reasonable cost. There is some uncertainty as to the amount of rock that is to be expediently removed, and there are other elements of the plan that may need to be adjusted to the results that may be obtained by blasting. Therefore the plan of operations to be had in view is tentative, and subject to amendment in minor particulars after review in February.

The two finished parts of the Approach Road, above and below the Quarry, are to be connected by an intermediate part to be laid out on a slightly curving course, as has been shown Mr. Gall on the ground. Work upon this road may be delayed until after our next visit except so far as necessary to keep open a convenient passage. In the end the brook is to pass under the road by a bridge near where the present engine-house stands. A temporary bridge will be used meantime, as the final structure can better be designed after the work has been advanced. Below the bridge the stream will form a slight cascade, falling into the quarry pit and there, in the end, forming a pool which will fill the pit. The surface of this pool is to be as low as it can be, allowing it to have an outlet which will not require the brook below the pit to be deepened where it passes under the bridge a few rods below the stone-breaker.

There will then be a nearly vertical wall of rock on the side of the pool [857]opposite the Approach Road; this wall being the present face of the quarry. Below a point ten feet from its top this wall is to be so blasted that the upper part of it will be as much overhanging as it can be without suggesting that it is in danger of breaking off and falling. Probably it may overhang five to ten feet, or, in places, a little more than ten. The body of rock so left standing will be referred to below as “the cliff.” The rock to be obtained by the blasting above called for, together with the rock that remains in the pit, or which shall be obtained especially for the purpose by blasting on the banks of the pit, is to be stacked up against the lower part of the cliff, in such a manner that the upper part of the stack will be a shelf, the top of which, at its outer edge, will be three inches above the level of the surface of the water in the pool. The back part of the shelf is to be three inches lower. The shelf is to measure from four to eight feet from front to rear and is to be adapted to support a body of soil in which Ivy will grow to climb upon and drape the cliff. The soil on this shelf is to be, on an average, four feet deep and its surface is to rise from the water toward the cliff as steeply as it will stand. Pieces of rock are to be laid over its surface so as to appear as if they had fallen from above. Ivy is to grow up through crevices between these pieces of rock.

The necessary blasting on the face of the cliff must be done with great care under the direction of the most expert quarrymen who can be employed for the purpose. There is to be no attempt to obtain a smooth face. Moderate irregularities are desirable. The utmost discretion and skill is to be used with a view to getting as large a recess above the water and as much of a beetling or overhanging effect as is practicable, without establishing the slightest appearance of insecurity in the overhanging mass.

It is not desirable that any of the operations above proposed with a view to the cliff and pool should be carried to a finish before our proposed visit in February, but it is highly important that so much may be accomplished by that time that we shall then be able to form a more trustworthy judgment than we can in the present condition of the place, as to what it will be practicable to accomplish in the detailed treatment and further development of picturesque qualities. We have verbally advised Mr. Gall upon this point and hope that you will see that the desired preliminary results are secured before February. If they should be, questions of detail can then be better determined and planting plans for the vicinity more accurately prepared than they now can be. Possibly such plans may be carried out before next Summer, which Mr. Vanderbilt would like, I suppose.

Between the Approach Road and the Quarry Pit there is to be a stone parapet similar in character to that which has been built near the north entrance of the Esplanade.

The scale of the local scenery is to be as large as it is practicable to make it, and care must be used to avoid petty and niggling features through which it would acquire the least degree of garden-like or paltry “rock-work” character. In the end there must be the least possible appearance of what [858]gardeners call rock-work. By the use of Ivy and other foliage, partly screening the rock, it is hoped that the general result will have a natural, unsophisticated but intricate and somewhat mysterious character.

In general it is not desirable that the work should be carried to a finish until we see it again, but it should be blocked out as fully as practicable. This because, when nearing a finish, opportunities for improvement of the design are likely to be suggested, and we wish to have the advantage of considering them.

The quarrying foreman should be encouraged to use his best skill and to exercise the most cautious discretion in securing as much of an over-hang in the cliff as can well be obtained without establishing the slightest appearance of insecurity in the beetling mass above.

Between this time and February, operations should be directed only to so far roughing out the design as it has been thus described, that a better judgment can then be formed of what is practicable. To make sure of reaching the point desired before February, as many men should be put at this work as economically can be, but only the most careful and skillful men to be had should be employed in the blasting operations.

GARDENER’S YARD. Mr. Howard has the necessary plans and directions for setting out this work and the rough operations of the grading required will desirably be done before February, with a view to some possible improvements of details in the design which may then be made.

ARBOR. The Arbor in the middle of the garden for which Mr. Hunt has prepared drawings should be constructed as soon as conveniently possible. It is hoped that the vines to grow over it may be planted in the Spring.

SPRING GARDEN DISTRICT. The grading and draining of this district is to be completed in accordance with sketches and verbal instructions which have been given Mr. Gall. It is important that the ground to be planted with shrubbery and the glade of turf between the two lines of shrubbery should have a rich, deep and well drained soil. If necessary, soil must be obtained from a distance. If this cannot be done at once, it is better that the whole work should be postponed. If it can, the required shrubbery may be planted next Spring.

THE GLEN. Stakes have been set and verbal directions given under which Mr. Gall can sub-grade a walk six feet wide, as staked, between the head of the Lake and the Spring Garden, with branches to the hot-house and to the gardener’s cottage. This walk is to cross the stream passing through the Glen where it enters the Lake; thence be led to a boat-house which is to be built at a point designated by stakes on the east shore of the north end of the Lake, and thence, upon a course which has been staked, to a point on the Glen Road. A short staircase will be required on the steep slope sustaining Glen Road. [859]

Neither the boat-house, the bridge, nor the staircase need be constructed for permanence this Winter.

IMPROVEMENT of PLANTATIONS WEST of the HOUSE. The few small trees that have been blazed are to be taken out by the roots. Trees are prepared to be transplanted to the various positions where stakes have been set with the names of the trees on them. Pits ten feet across and three feet deep are to be made ready for these, and enough good soil and compost is to be placed near them to refill the pits. This work is to be under the direction of Mr. Beadle who will use his discretion as to which of the prepared trees [860]can desirably be moved during the Winter. Some, it will be best probably, to leave where they are another year, in order that their new roots in the prepared ground may be tougher. It is presumed that most of them can be moved by the frozen-ball process, on a stone-boat, but as to this, also, Mr. Beadle will decide, attempting nothing that cannot surely be well done. He may think it better that all the trees should stand where they are another year. In each case he will decide. If any accident occurs injuring a tree, that tree is to be rejected. The utmost care should be used and the best results possible had in view. Mr. Beadle should personally see to the quality of the soil, manure, etc., and spare no pains to secure the highest success for this very important planting. Only good garden soil is to be used and it is to be very well enriched with leaf mold and rotten cow-yard dung. All pains should be taken to guard the trees from rough treatment and preserve them from jar.

CONSTRUCTION of the LAGOON and DIVERSION of FOUR MILE CREEK. Plans for this work have been prepared, but no operations upon them need be advanced during the Winter.

THE ARBORETUM. (Mr. Gall’s Force) The grading of the Arboretum Road and its immediate borders is to be completed in accordance with written instructions before given.

A road up the valley of Six Mile Branch connecting the River Road with the Rhododendron section of the Arboretum Road, is to be roughly graded and made passable, following the stakes which have been set, and under instructions which have been verbally given to Mr. Howard and to Mr. Gall. All practicable effect of ledge rock at the side of the road is to be secured, as has been explained to Mr. Gall, and this may be supplemented by moving loose rock from the neighborhood to the borders of the road.

After this has been done the force is to be occupied in the preparation for planting of so much of the Arboretum ground as is comparatively free from trees and bushes and that can be prepared at moderate expense; beginning with the ground about the Johnson house, and taking up in succession the open spaces along the river bank to the Rice house and up the Long Shoals valley.

Wherever ground is thus prepared care must be taken to bring the side slopes of the road to a satisfactory form in accordance with directions that have been verbally given Mr. Gall at many points on the ground.

What remains to be done in grading the immediate borders of the Arboretum Road is of great importance and Mr. Gall should not spare study or pains to secure pleasing results. They should be large in scale; the undulations should be simple and flow gracefully one into another; varying in extent and steepness, like those of the borders of the French Broad where there is little or no meadow land between its banks and the adjoining hills. Where trees or rocks or masses of Rhododendrons near the borders of the road [861]cannot otherwise well be given a natural, graceful and flowing character, rocks, should, if practicable, be obtained near by and so placed as to justify bolder banks than could otherwise be had. Detailed instructions have been verbally given at several points; and if expected advance in the rougher work is made, others can be given in February.

Yours Respectfully,