Everybody who came on Saturday was delighted with your kind reception, and nothing could be a more complete adaptation to the circuit which surrounded it than your entertainment, alike conspicuous for the abundance, and the refined taste in the selection and preparation of its viands.
The ladies, I can assure you, were not a little pleased with the compliment of the bouquets. The only regret I felt myself was in the consideration of the fatigue you must have undergone in your own exertions to prepare for making so choice a company as you assembled, so completely pleased and happy, not omitting your toil also in the reception; but in both points I am quite sure you were thoroughly successful.
Accept my own thanks for your kindness to me personally on this eventful occasion, and with my best wishes that you may long live to continue your exertions for the benefit of the Museum, and that you may be backed by the liberality of successive Chancellors of the Exchequer, such as Sir George Cornewall Lewis.
Yours, &c., &c.
Henry Ellis.”
The reply to this conveys a graceful tribute to Sir Henry Ellis’s own deserts:—
“B. M., May 4th, 1857.
“My dear Sir Henry,
I assure you that I cannot find words to express adequately the feelings with which I perused your most kind letter; believe me, although I shall not say much, I feel deeply your kindness.
This great institution which has grown under your eyes, and increased from small beginnings to its present magnitude by your paternal care and unremitting exertions for the space of 56 years, must always occupy a high place in your heart. I can only express the hope that I may not attempt in vain to follow your footsteps in the responsible situation which I fill, and that the comparison may not be so much to my disadvantage, when in future times the results of your administration are compared with mine.