Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1819 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
2 ff. (each originally folded as two leaves).
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Name of creator
Biographical history
Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, better-known as the 'Ladies of Llangollen', were both members of Irish aristocratic families. Having quickly established a relationship following their meeting in 1768, the women escaped the scandalised animosity of their home circle by setting up home at Plasnewydd, a Gothic-style house situated near Llangollen, Denbighshire. For the next fifty years, they lived a secluded and often penurious existence, while nevertheless receiving such notable visitors as the landowner, traveller and writer Anne Lister and the poets Robert Southey, William Wordsworth and Percy Shelley. Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby are both buried in the grounds of St Collen's Church, Llangollen, while Plasnewydd is now a museum dedicated to their lives.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
Previously sold at auction by Anderson & Garland, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 2010 (Summer Fine Art & Antiques Sale, lot 384).
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
C. C. Bebbington; A Piece of History, Chichester; Purchase; September 2010; 006038841.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Two letters, one dated 19 November 1819, from Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the Ladies of Llangollen, [?in the hand of Sarah Ponsonby], to Mrs [?Anne] Hurt Sitwell, staying at Gwersyllt Park, Wrexham, arranging to meet.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Seal tears.
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Text
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 23980F, ff. 24-25.