On Geek Holidays...and the Ladies of Llangollen
Happy Anniversary of the Glorious People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road! Likewise, Happy Geek Pride Day and Happy Towel Day!
I have a new used book called Are You Two...Together? by Lindsy Van Gelder and Pamela Robin Brandt, and it is fascinating, filled with historical tidbits I'd never heard of before. Like the Ladies of Llangollen, for example--Lady Eleanor Butler (11 May 1739 - 2 June 1829) and the Honorable Sarah Ponsonby (1755 - 9 December 1832), who tried running away together twice in 1778 before their families gave in.
The book (on page 48) puts it this way. (The footnotes are mine.)
"Then things came to a head for both women. Eleanor's parents had had her educated in a convent, and now they were making definite plans to send her back to the nuns for good. Sarah's 'parental' situation was even worse: Gouty, fat, fiftyish Sir William [Fownes] was leching after her. Then, on the night of Monday, April 2, 1778, Eleanor sneaked out of the family castle [1],changed into men's clothes to deceive possible pursuers, and rode off on a borrowed horse to a rendezvous with Sarah. Their goal, initially, was Waterford, twenty-three miles away; then, the boat for England, and freedom.
"They were apprehended by Sir William's servants within a mile of Waterford. Riding in a carriage and disguised in male drag, with Sarah carrying a pistol, they would have made it all the way, if not for the yapping of Sarah's mangy little dog, whose bark one of their trackers recognized. We cannot help pointing out that if they'd had a cat, like normal lesbians, this would not have happened. (In Llangollen, eventually, they did get one, Tatters, who slept on their bed, as God intended.)
"Again, they were torn apart, Sarah to Inistiogue [2] and the disgraced Eleanor, perceived as the real queer, the predatory dragon lady, to the home of a married sister to await imminent shipment to a French nunnery. [3] They were forbidden to communicate. But after three weeks of pining and sighing and whatever 'giving attitude' was called in 1778, they were granted permission for one last brief farewell meeting. In the allotted half hour, they arranged another escape.
"This time, Eleanor walked twelve miles across outlaw-infested country, and hid for days in the cupboard of Sarah's bedroom. [4] Again, they were discovered. This time, their families threw in the towel."
And after that, they moved to a five-room stone cottage in Llangollen in North Wales. And were, by all accounts, not only quite happy together but also quite popular with the movers and shakers of their day. If someone wrote this in an f/f novel, I'd be saying, "Oh, come ON," but it's true. Among those who visited (during the day, as the Ladies did not allow gentlemen to stay overnight) were, according to the book, "Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth, Edmund Burke, Josiah Wedgewood, Horace Walpole and the Duke of Wellington." Among the women who stayed with the Ladies on occasion--sculptor Anne Damer and French author Madame de Genlis.
Eleanor died first, Sarah three-and-a-half years later. They're buried beneath a single headstone--the largest monument in the cemetery, and right on the main path to St. Collen's Church. The gravestone lists Sarah as Eleanor's "beloved." There's also a memorial plaque to them in the church, which was unveiled on August 21, 1937 by Lord Howard de Walden. Here's a picture of the plaque:
It was probably modeled after this print:
So that's the tale of the Ladies of Llangollen. The book was worth the three bucks for this mini-bio alone.
I can't wait to see what other historical tidbits this book comes up with.
[1] Eleanor's family home was Kilkenny Castle.- back to text
[2] Sarah's closest remaining relatives and her guardians, Sir William and Lady Elizabeth Fownes, lived in Woodstock House, a manor in the village of Inistiogue. And yes, that does mean that the gouty old guy leching after twenty-three-year-old "Sally," as the Fownes called her, was her guardian and relative. - back to text
[3] Two reasons for this. First, the Butlers were VERY Catholic. Second, Eleanor was thirty-nine, which would have made her an old maid by the standards of her day, so marrying her off probably didn't seem like much of an option. Convent-caging her on the other side of the Channel, on the other hand, apparently did. - back to text
[4] I've no idea what it looked like, but the general impression I have is that bedroom cupboards were, as pieces of furniture go, something like a large walk-in closet. Don't think of Harry Potter in a cupboard under the stairs. Think of the wardrobe leading to Narnia. THAT size.- back to text
***
I have a new used book called Are You Two...Together? by Lindsy Van Gelder and Pamela Robin Brandt, and it is fascinating, filled with historical tidbits I'd never heard of before. Like the Ladies of Llangollen, for example--Lady Eleanor Butler (11 May 1739 - 2 June 1829) and the Honorable Sarah Ponsonby (1755 - 9 December 1832), who tried running away together twice in 1778 before their families gave in.
The book (on page 48) puts it this way. (The footnotes are mine.)
"Then things came to a head for both women. Eleanor's parents had had her educated in a convent, and now they were making definite plans to send her back to the nuns for good. Sarah's 'parental' situation was even worse: Gouty, fat, fiftyish Sir William [Fownes] was leching after her. Then, on the night of Monday, April 2, 1778, Eleanor sneaked out of the family castle [1],changed into men's clothes to deceive possible pursuers, and rode off on a borrowed horse to a rendezvous with Sarah. Their goal, initially, was Waterford, twenty-three miles away; then, the boat for England, and freedom.
"They were apprehended by Sir William's servants within a mile of Waterford. Riding in a carriage and disguised in male drag, with Sarah carrying a pistol, they would have made it all the way, if not for the yapping of Sarah's mangy little dog, whose bark one of their trackers recognized. We cannot help pointing out that if they'd had a cat, like normal lesbians, this would not have happened. (In Llangollen, eventually, they did get one, Tatters, who slept on their bed, as God intended.)
"Again, they were torn apart, Sarah to Inistiogue [2] and the disgraced Eleanor, perceived as the real queer, the predatory dragon lady, to the home of a married sister to await imminent shipment to a French nunnery. [3] They were forbidden to communicate. But after three weeks of pining and sighing and whatever 'giving attitude' was called in 1778, they were granted permission for one last brief farewell meeting. In the allotted half hour, they arranged another escape.
"This time, Eleanor walked twelve miles across outlaw-infested country, and hid for days in the cupboard of Sarah's bedroom. [4] Again, they were discovered. This time, their families threw in the towel."
And after that, they moved to a five-room stone cottage in Llangollen in North Wales. And were, by all accounts, not only quite happy together but also quite popular with the movers and shakers of their day. If someone wrote this in an f/f novel, I'd be saying, "Oh, come ON," but it's true. Among those who visited (during the day, as the Ladies did not allow gentlemen to stay overnight) were, according to the book, "Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth, Edmund Burke, Josiah Wedgewood, Horace Walpole and the Duke of Wellington." Among the women who stayed with the Ladies on occasion--sculptor Anne Damer and French author Madame de Genlis.
Eleanor died first, Sarah three-and-a-half years later. They're buried beneath a single headstone--the largest monument in the cemetery, and right on the main path to St. Collen's Church. The gravestone lists Sarah as Eleanor's "beloved." There's also a memorial plaque to them in the church, which was unveiled on August 21, 1937 by Lord Howard de Walden. Here's a picture of the plaque:
It was probably modeled after this print:
So that's the tale of the Ladies of Llangollen. The book was worth the three bucks for this mini-bio alone.
I can't wait to see what other historical tidbits this book comes up with.
[1] Eleanor's family home was Kilkenny Castle.- back to text
[2] Sarah's closest remaining relatives and her guardians, Sir William and Lady Elizabeth Fownes, lived in Woodstock House, a manor in the village of Inistiogue. And yes, that does mean that the gouty old guy leching after twenty-three-year-old "Sally," as the Fownes called her, was her guardian and relative. - back to text
[3] Two reasons for this. First, the Butlers were VERY Catholic. Second, Eleanor was thirty-nine, which would have made her an old maid by the standards of her day, so marrying her off probably didn't seem like much of an option. Convent-caging her on the other side of the Channel, on the other hand, apparently did. - back to text
[4] I've no idea what it looked like, but the general impression I have is that bedroom cupboards were, as pieces of furniture go, something like a large walk-in closet. Don't think of Harry Potter in a cupboard under the stairs. Think of the wardrobe leading to Narnia. THAT size.- back to text
***