From the National Library of Wales; A Listing
and Guide to the Microfilm Collection
Publisher's Note:
In 1778 Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby eloped
to set up a new life together in Plas Newydd in Llangollen Vale.
The move met with strong opposition from their respective families
but their new Gothic residence soon became a magnet for writers
and intellectuals.
Wordsworth, Madame de Genlis, Edmund Burke and
Anna Seward all visited, and the ‘Ladies of Llangollen’ (as
Butler and Ponsonby soon became known) established a vigorous
correspondence network.
The papers of the Ladies of Llangollen held at
the National Library of Wales are a vital source to study this
important partnership and the literary circle that they created.
Known as the Hamwood Papers, formerly in the possession of the
Hamilton family of Hamwood, Dunboyne, co Meath, they include:
Papers and Correspondence of Elinor Goddard
including an account of attempts by Eleanor Butler and Sarah
Ponsonby to escape from their homes in Ireland, and accounts of
visits to the Ladies of Llangollen
Sarah Ponsonby’s "Account of a Journey in
Wales perform’d in May 1778 by Two Fugitive Ladies"
Sarah Ponsonby’s Commonplace Book (with
gardening and architectural notes and verse in French, Italian and
English)
Eleanor Butler’s Diary for 1784 including
comments on letters received and books acquired and read
Eleanor Butler’s famous Journals (six volumes
in all, for 1788-1791, 1799, 1802, 1807 and 1821) which have been
compared with Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal, recording details of
visitors, books read, correspondence and local events
Five volumes of correspondence sent to the
ladies including letters from Henrietta Bowdler, Lady Bury, Mrs
O’Connell, Lady Sydney Morgan, Anna Seward, Mrs Jane Davey,
Hester Lynch Piozzi, George Canning, Sir Walter Scott, Arthur
Wellesley, William Wilberforce and William Wordsworth
An apparently unpublished verse drama entitled
"Loves Frenzy, or, the Garlands of the Faun", together
with poems and watercolours largely by Sarah Ponsonby
A volume of manuscript poems compiled for
Camilla Blackford
A volume of manuscript poems dedicated to
Caroline Hamilton
A volume of manuscript poems composed by Mary
Tighe
Manuscript volumes concerning Geometry,
Medicine, Buonaparte and Heraldy
This source will be valuable for anyone writing
on Romantic Friendship, the Gothic Pastoral Ideal, 18th Century
Literary Circles and the Romantic Movement.
William Pidduck
March 1997
