IN 1778 ELEANOR BUTLER AND SARAH PONSONBY fled Ireland together and set up home in Llangollen, a village in rural north Wales. Eleanor was 39 and Sarah 23; they had been friends since Sarah was a child and had corresponded for some time about the desirability of living together. Both came from aristocratic families; the Butlers had been Earls of Ormonde but had lost the title and estates in the reign of James II; the Ponsonbys are Earls of Bessborough although her family was a cadet branch.
THEY MOVED into "Plas Newydd" a cottage just outside the village of Llangollen in 1780. The house was stone built situated behind the village, nestling beneath the picturesque hill of Dinas Bran crowned with its ruined castle. There were four good acres of garden and field with a stream in a ravine. All around was - and still is -a stunning view of the Eglwyseg and Berwyn mountains.
THEIR DAYS WERE spent together, gardening and improving their minds with reading. They maintained a vast correspondence with many notable men and women of their day. Their passionate devotion to each other ( each was "My Beloved" shortened to My B. in letters and journals) was not questioned by their friends many of whom began to threaten their "retirement" from the world by increasing visits to "Plas Newyyd.
On 24th July 1790 THE GENERAL EVENING POST carried this stringent article.
"Extraordinary Female Affection"
Miss Butler and Miss Ponsonby have retired from society into a certain Welch vale. Both ladies are daughter of great Irish families whose names they retain. Miss Butler who is of the Ormonde family had several offers of marriage, all of whom she rejected. Miss Ponsonby, her particular friend and companion was suppose to be the bar to all matrimonial union, it was thought proper to separate them and so Miss Butler was confined.
The two ladies however found means to elope together. Being soon overtaken, they were each brought back by their respective relations. Many attempts were renewed to draw Miss Butler back into marriage. But upon her solemnly and repeatedly declaring that nothing could induce her to wed anyone, her parent ceased to persecute her by any more offers. Not many months after, the ladies concerted and executed a fresh elopement. Each having a small sum with them, and having been allowed a trifling income, the place of their retreat was confided to a female servant of the Butler family, who was sworn to secrecy as to the place of their retirement. She was only to say that that they were well and safe and hoped that their friends would without further enquiry, continue their annuities, which has not only been done but increased.
The beautiful above-mentioned vale is the spot they fixed on where they have resided for several years unknown to the neighbouring villages by any other appellation than the Ladies of the Vale.
About a twelvemonth since three Ladies and a Gentleman stopping one night at an inn in the village, not being able to procure beds, the inhabitants [i.e of the village] applied to the female Hermits for accommodation to some foreign strangers [the Ladies and the Gentleman.] This was readily granted - when lo ! in these foreigners they descried some of their own relations ! (But) no entreaties could prevail on the ladies to quit (i.e vacate) their sweet retreat.
Miss Butler is tall and masculine, she wears always a riding habit, hangs her hat with the air of a sportsman in the hall, and appears in all respects as a young man if we except the petticoats which she still retains.
Miss Ponsonby, on the contrary, is polite and effeminate, fair and beautiful. In Mr Secretary Steel's list of Pensions for 1788 there are the names of Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, for annuities of fifty pounds each. We have many reasons to imagine that these pensioners are The Ladies of The Vale; their female confidante continues to send them their Irish annuities beside.
They live in elegance, neatness and taste. Two females are their only servants.
Miss Ponsonby does the duties and honours of the house, while Miss Butler superintends the gardens and the rest of the grounds.
******
CORRUPTION and Vice in Deepest Wales !
TWO scandalous ladies from the Irish nobility are being maintained in idle comfort with money from the Public Purse !
OH DEAR! Oh dear !
IT could have been written today !
LIKE all vicious attacks from the media it contains both truth and untruth. Their first attempt at running away together was indeed thwarted but after four weeks of intense family suffering all round they were eventually allowed to leave together! They did live in reasonable comfort but were continually in debt, being dependent on their families for support - who, disapproving, were not generous.
They had been granted a pension of £100 p.a. from the Civil List in 1787.
There is no record of Eleanor ever being offered marriage - let alone at this time. She is described as short rather than tall, masculine, yes, in voice and speech, and one of the pictures of them shows them in Top hats and skirts.
As with most publicity it was hurtful at the time but did little, if any, long term harm. By the end of their long lives together the ladies had become that most British of Institution - well loved eccentrics. Anyone who was anybody visited them, royalty as well as the cream of literary society. Unknown visitors came in coaches. A myth grew up around them, books about their lives appearing in 1856, 1897, and again in 1930. Today their house - though much altered by subsequent owners, is a museum run by Denbigh Council open from March to October.
The Ladies lived together for over 50 years. Eleanor died in 1829 and Sarah in 1831. The still lie together. This is the only known portrait, the black and white one above is thought to be a copy.
Thanks to "The Ladies of Llangollen" by Elizabeth Mavor pub. Penguin 1973; and Denbigh Council.
Plas Newydd as it is today.
From Old Dyke 7, December 2000
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