The Ladies of Llangollen | Page 3

company, and were fond of a recluse life) was the question. At length he bethought himself of a method the most likely to answer the purpose, without the appearance of forwardness or indelicacy. He sent his servant with the following verbal message:--'Lord Fingal, travelling in this neighbourhood, sends his respectful compliments to Miss Butler and Miss Ponsonby, and informs them that he sets out to-morrow morning for Ireland, and would be happy to be the bearer of any commands of theirs to that country.' This message had the effect which his lordship desired. He received, in return, a kind and friendly invitation to take tea with the ladies, which he, of course, accepted with much pleasure.--Lord Fingal (the collector's informant added) was peculiarly charmed with the amiable behaviour of these interesting enthusiasts of friendship. He found not in them the gravity, formality, and demureness of virgin recluses, but the ease of liveliness, and animated conversation of happy, cultivated, and polished minds."
On June 2, 1829, death severed the faithful friendship which had existed for so many years between the eccentric residents at Plas Newydd, by removing from this earthly scene Lady Eleanor Butler, who had attained the advanced age of 90; and in December 9, 1831, Miss Ponsonby, who was seldom seen (except by her domestics) after the decease of her attached companion, was called to her "long home." They are both buried in the church-yard of Llangollen, where a stone monument is erected to their memory. On this record of mortality are inserted the following memorials:--
Sacred to the Memory of
_The Right Honourable_
LADY ELEANOR CHARLOTTE BUTLER,
Late of Plas Newydd in this Parish.
_Deceased_ 2_nd June_, 1829,
Aged 90 Years.
_Daughter of the Sixteenth_, _Sister of the Seventeenth_
_EARLS OF ORMONDE AND OSSORY_.
Aunt to the late, and to the present
MARQUESS OF ORMONDE.
_Endeared to her friends by an almost unequalled excellence of heart_, _and by manners worthy of her illustrious birth_, _the admiration and delight of a very numerous acquaintance from a brilliant vivacity of mind undiminished to the latest period of a prolonged existence_. _Her amiable condescension & benevolence secured the grateful attachment of those by whom they had been so long and so extensively experienced_. _Her various perfections crowned by the most pious and cheerful submission to the Divine Will_, _can only be appreciated_, _where it is humbly believed_, _they are_ now _enjoying their Eternal Reward_, _and by her of whom for more than fifty years_, _they constituted that happiness_, _which through our Blessed Redeemer_, _she trusts will be renewed_ when THIS TOMB _shall have closed over its latest tenant_.
"Sorrow not as others who have no hope."
1 _Thess._ _Chap._ 4. _v._ 13.
SARAH PONSONBY
departed this Life
on the 9th December, 1831, Aged 76.
_She did not long survive her beloved Companion LADY ELEANOR BUTLER_, _with whom she had lived in this valley for more than half a century of uninterrupted friendship_. "_But they shall no more return to their House_, _neither shall their place know them any more_." _Job_, _Chap._ 7. _v._ 10.
_Reader pause for a moment and reflect not on the uncertainty of human life but upon