I was in hopes to have had a tete à tete with you at new york about this time but Mrs. Schuylers indisposition has deprived me of that pleasure, nor can I hope It was as the winter is so far advanced, until Spring, unless you should take a ride and grace that fire side w[h]ere you will always be seen with the highest satisfaction—

Benson & Hamilton advise me of your intention to build a good house in New York,—That you wished a conversation with me on the subject.—If you want any materials which this part of the country can afford, why have you not already laid your commands where you know they will be carried into execution with the greatest alacrity? pray do not hesitate to make me your agent on the Occasion.—Your Plan I suppose is formed and If you can find time to convey me a copy it will afford me pleasure, and possibly I may suggest an improvement which has not occured—

In a pantry adjoining my dining room I have placed a close stove, which warms both room to any degree I please, and a small fire which In the dining room prevents not a Stagnation of the Air.—The comfort arising from this contrivance is such, that If I was to build I would provide for It in the original plan—In any side ^wall^ of a Lower room adjacent to a Hall, pantry or office I would place a stove cast in the form of an Elegant urn, in such manner that ^something more than^ half of It should project into the room and the other half be buried in the wall that It might be fed with fuel from the hall, pantry or office. on the top of the urn I would have a branch with four arms to support a marble side table, Hence the urn would not only warm the room but whatever is put on the side table, and to those who did not move all Its arms would appear merely as a pedestal to support the branches, the smoak might be conveyed, If thro a thin partition wall, by a flat pipe, or by a round, or flat one, at pleasure If otherwise,—which pipe should go into another urn in the upper room, the metal of which should not ^much^ exceed the thickness of plate ^sheet^ Iron, this would be a decent stove, and sufficently warm the room to render it comfortable in the coldest weather, from this the pipe should be continued to the Garret and then conveyed to the nearest Chimney,—should you adopt this mode in your building, It would be best to procure the stoves from the Charron manufactory,1 as they may be cast there ornamented to any degree you may wish

I have given Chancellor Livingston a treatise lately published by a Mr Gale,2 on the Subject of financing, If you have not read It, I wish you would, because I wish your opinion upon Its merits, that I may be corroborated in mine, or reconsider the principles from which It is drawn, If we do not coincide.—

You have probably a better Cypher than that I shewed & sent you. I have lately contrived one which I prefer to any I have yet seen, on account of Its expedition, and the impossibility, as I conceive, of decyphering it without a previous knowledge of the Key—a whole word however long is represented by one or more figures and the same figure or figures do actually represent above two hundred different words, and that without any burthen to the memory, and as the Key may be taken at pleasure, If your letter to one correspondant falls into the hands of another he will not be able to decypher It—and If by any accident you should not be able to guide the pen, you may dictate the figures to a Clerk without his knowing their import and cause him to make a copy in cypher which you may transmit or translate at your liesure ones own hands may have defects which the partial Eyes of the prejudicial parent cannot discover. I will therefore commit it to your Inspection as soon as I can procure an Amanuensis to make a Copy.—3 adieu I am very sincerely your affectionate friend & Obedient Servant