12th October 1841 Rome
[...] Your beautiful ode on the return of Thorvaldsen I will write out for myself and give him the original to keep among his papers and will put your name on it. He has not yet been to my studio. The Germans got up a splendid dinner for him, there were a hundred and fifty persons, Italians only four or five of those who are bound to him by business, they are all envious of his fame, we English were ten in number but not all artists. The German artists sang most beautifully. Before Thorvaldsen was placed his group of the Graces in bronze. After the singing a crown of real laurel was placed on the old fellows head which he wore for one minute, took it off, and returned it to the giver who then placed it upon the group of the Graces where it remained all the evening. Your poetic soul and sensitive heart would have been impressed with the deepest feelings if you had been present at the moment when he drooped his white head with the laurel crown. He looked like a venerable bard, modest and imposing crowned with honor and years. As he stood up the instantaneous shout from a hundred and fifty persons was most electrifying – it was terrible. Thorvaldsen never made a speech nor is it so much the custom here, he bows all round holding up his glass and they go up to him and touch glasses. [...]