This letter will relate to the proposed diversion of Four Mile Creek below the Brick House.

We would wish to have all who are to be responsible in the direction of this work impressed with the fact that in no other class of the work to be done at Biltmore is it as difficult to obtain satisfactory results as in that of artificially making brooks and brooksides of a natural aspect, and this is especially the case where a brook is to be carried through open flat land. In no other sort of work are good results as little to be secured by means of drawings, models and written specifications. In no other work is so much dependent on the skill of those immediately directing the required operations. We have rarely found in our study of the best old landscape works in Europe, artificially made brooks and brooksides that were congruous with the general scenery of the region to the effect of which they should have been made subordinate and contributive. Often we have found them grossly impertinent and derogatory to the scenery. The reason of this we believe to be that too much has been attempted to be done by exact and didactic instructions; too little left to be determined by those engaged in the field work as this was advanced. For this reason we are indisposed to depend as much as most of our profession have done in such works, upon paper plans, specifications and models, and are disposed, after fixing limits and indicating general principles, to trust in details more to the ability [869]of the Superintendent on the ground to teach the operators how to manage the materials they are handling in such a way as to bring about desired results. In no other kind of work that we have to direct is the attainment of such results equally dependent on the knack of the workmen and the skill of the foremen in drawing out and making use of this knack.

In all operations of this class there are two principal errors to be guarded against. First, that of running to the fantastic; second, that of avoiding the fantastic by running to the clumsy, prosaic and commonplace. The first course leads to results that bring to mind “landscapes” such as confectioners make in sugar; the other to “landscapes” such as children make with Dutch toy trees, houses and fences. We have found that results of neither class are to be fully avoided by giving those who are to directly superintend the work much instruction in the form of drawings or models. They are hardly to be escaped unless the superintendent and the foreman can be led to so far enter into the spirit of the design that they can themselves supply a good deal of original thought to its details. Most assuredly, the work required cannot be done mechanically as some architectural works may be by following drawings and specifications. Indeed, something must be asked even of the laboring men employed, which is essentially of the nature of that almost instinctive process in the minds of men who could not read or follow drawings, to which Ruskin and Norton largely attribute the distinctive interest of mediaeval cathedrals.

In the work of the Ram Branch Valley, drawings and models were used less than they sometimes have been in works of our profession. Certain limits being fixed, and the general character of the result required being explained verbally, the determination of details of construction was largely left to be made on the ground as the work advanced, much being trusted not simply to the skill in arrangement of the material to be used that was required of the workmen by Mr. Gall and Foreman Potter, but to the unconscious sympathy of the workmen themselves with the motive of the design and their deftness in handling the required material accordingly. Though some defects have not yet been as fully overcome as they are expected to be, the general character of the ultimate result promises to be satisfactory. In a few years, that is to say, the brook and its banks, even in those parts where there have been the most destructive and reformatory operations, is likely to make an impression of nearly as much unsophisticated naturalness as it did in its former state and yet, in various ways, to have a much more interesting character. Thus the art to conceal art in all that which, like the road and its bridges, was not designed to appear of artificial construction, will have been successfully practised.

In determining how the work is to be carried on, it is to be considered, even more than in determining any other class of scenery-making operations, what Nature can be coaxed to accomplish upon the foundations that we are to lay for her. These foundations, that is to say, must be contrived with [870]reference to the general character of such results as the forces of Nature can be afterwards expected to bring about. Results must be had in view, for example, such as are only to be obtained by a well-calculated use of the force of running water operating upon earth and stones and living plants as this force varies in Summer and Winter, in floods and droughts.

As the flow of water in the proposed channel will be sluggish there is danger that after storms detritus, brought from above by the stream, will be deposited on its bottom in excessive quantities. This danger will lessen as the ground above becomes consolidated and permanent plantations are established, but, to provide against it in the meantime, we have in view a ditch to take storm water overflows from the turn of the stream nearest the Brick House direct through the old channel of the Branch to the nearest point of the river. The present channel of the Branch will probably serve this purpose, at least temporarily, but that it may do so without danger to crops on the meadow through which it flows, low dikes will, perhaps, need to be formed on each of its banks. The Agricultural Department can attend to this, if preferred.

No map that we have of the meadow between Brick House and Sand Pits, through which the new stream of Four Mile Creek is to flow, is such that we can feel safe in attempting to lay down the course of this stream more than approximately. We have already pointed it out on the ground to Mr. Gall and to Mr. Howard. It is now to be staked out with regard to slight variations of the topography which the map does not show. The middle of the stream will generally coincide with a line defining the deepest depression of the swale, but some slight variations can be made from this line if thought necessary to avoid a too direct and canal-like course.

Regarding the above instructions, Mr. Howard can stake out a course for a shallow trench, the bottom of which is to be the bed of the new brook, commonly from one to two, occasionally three, feet below the present surface of the lowest part of the swale. A trench on the course thus defined can be made before our visit in February.

The stream is not expected to be materially broader than the present stream opposite Brick House, but its width and depth will be varying and slight inaccuracies in breadth and course and in the slopes of the banks are desirable. We can direct any slight improvement of the banks that shall seem to us to be called for in our intended February visit.

If Mr. Howard thinks it better to send us a map in order that we may indicate the banks of the brook before stakes are set for them, more definitely than we think that we can with the map we have, such a map should be on a scale of one hundred feet to an inch with contour lines showing every foot of elevation. It should cover the space between the east side of the road bordering the deer park and a line that would be one hundred feet west of the middle of the swale. If such a map is made, Mr. Howard had better draw a pencil line upon it indicating what he thinks the middle of a natural water course through [871]the swale, and we will return it with any amendments for which we see occasion. But we hardly think such a map is necessary.

Yours Respectfully,