[...] I am not returning via Bayreuth this time as I told you I should, and you will not see me there till late this summer. I tell you this because I do not want you to think me an ingrate and I hereby confess myself your debtor. Your decoction has done me excellent service.
For the rest, it is now settled that my great Dramatic Festival is to take place in Bayreuth in the summer of 1873, and I am thinking of settling there permanently about that time.
Knowing that you are kind enough to wish me well, and in order that you may be in a position to confute mistaken rumours about my enterprise, I may tell you that while it is true that I have His Majesty the King of Bavaria's permission and support, backed by a very helpful contribution, it is nevertheless my own personal affair, and only to be brought about by the united efforts of a number of very various friends of my art. Accordingly I shall have to approach the town authorities of Bayreuth on the same footing as others, though I think I may reckon on their good will in view of the notice and importance I shall bring to Bayreuth. Late in the summer I shall meet the necessary experts in Bayreuth to choose and buy the ground on which my Festival Theatre is to be erected, and its construction will then be put in hand immediately. I shall also then decide on a plot of land to build myself a house. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 647