I love a period dramas. I love everything about them. The costumes, the repressed longing, and of course the immersion into a long lost culture, which is at once inately ours and yet so very alien. Yet whilst these reproductions of eras long gone are today of astounding quality and almost flawless historical accuracy there is one way in which they consistantly fail to reflect the truth; a lack of diversity. Because, whilst we may like to think the modern generation was the first truly multicultural one the fact is that trade routes and travel go back almost as long as human history. A black shop keeper or chinese sailor might not have been the norm but they certainly were a part of the scenery, particularly in our bigger cities. Disability too was if anything more visible, with injury being more common and less open to repair than today. The same white washing is true for the LGBTQ+ community. Whilst same sex couples and relationships may not have been particularly open they did exist, and some were even widely known about. Some like the Ladies of Llangollen.
Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby were two young Irish women from aristocratic families. Sarah was the younger of the two, some sixteen years the junior of Eleanor, and a penniless orphan living with her father’s cousins. Paintings of her in her younger years show a delicate fair skinned woman with high fashionable hair and large eyes. Eleanor by contrast was dark haired, round cheeked, and described as a sharp witted woman, of slightly masculine demeanour.
As was often typical of an aristocratic young women, Eleanor was educated in a French convent until she was 18 years of age. Returning to her family home she found nothing particularly welcoming, with a mother and father who viewed her rather as a burden. Well-educated, fluent in French and keen on reading she was labelled as an aging spinster, refusing every match her parents brought to her. In a final attempt to rid themselves of the problem, and gain favour with the Catholic church, they began to make plans for Eleanor to join a convent.
The two women met when Sarah was still at school, in 1768 when Eleanor was brought in to tutor the young girl. Although thirteen and twenty-nine respectively the pair quickly became close friends. As their correspondence became more frequent the families became increasingly worried about the growing confidence between the two woman. Yet it wasn’t till Sarah finally left schooling at the age of eighteen, moving in to live with her guardians Lord and Lady Fawnes, that matters took a more dramatic turn. Whilst Lady Fownes was perhaps not the most agreeable woman to live with, being somewhat controlling, the greatest danger to Sarah came from the Lord of the house. As he began to make some inappropriate remarks to his young ward, who it is suggested he was lining up as his new wife once his current lady passed away, Sarah began to feel increasingly uncomfortable. Some reports go as far as make claims of attempted rape.
So it was that the two women decided to escape the misery of their domestic arrangements and make a life together. Their first attempt, idyllically romantic enough to capture the imaginations of the time, saw the two women dress as men and, carrying pistols and Eleanor’s favorite dog, disappear into the night. Yet it was a miserable failure. Recaptured and taken back as prisoners the two women refused to give in to their families demands and Eleanor escaped once more, only to be found hiding in Sarah’s room. Finally, as their violent persistence continued, the families gave into their demands and let them go.
Having left their homes in Ireland their travels landed them in Llangollen, Wales, where the dramatic scenery suited their sense of beauty. Even today the rocky river, the craggy ruins of Dinas Bran and the rolling peaks, make this a wonderful area to visit.
Selecting an old sandstone farmhouse they began their new life together. Renaming the building Plas Newydd they began altering it to their tastes as best as their fortunes could allow. Though they were now poor the two women tried to recreate something of the aristocratic living they had once known, hiring two maids and a gardener and filling their house with books and small luxuries such as powder closets. All in all they led a fairly ordinary life together, reading, writing, gardening and producing butter to supplement their meagre income. Yet what makes Plas Newydd a surprising treasure to visit today is the ingenuity they used to make their home feel majestic despite its size.
We are today often told about the value of repuposing old items within our homes, yet in this sense Sarah and Eleanor were well before their time. Plas Newydd is a veritable patchwork, its walls covered in wooden panels taken from churchs, decorative bed posts and old door panels, all sown together so nearly they look as though they were intended to be one great piece. Here the names of kings sit alongside many headed monsters, the leafy faces of the green man and the naked torsos of women. Stainglass too has been saved, pieced together to make beautiful windows and doorway arches within the building. Though the house is not large it gives the feeling of being a grand hall, well decorated as it is.
Even more astoundingly many of the pieces fixed into the building were brought as gifts by famous visitors. Visiting the Ladies of Llangollen became somewhat of a top ten tourist attraction with Queen Charlotte, the Duke of Wellington and Lord Byron being amongst a few who came to marvel at these curious women. Indeed the diary of the ladies is packed with sometimes several visits a day from interested tourists.
Yet despite their fame, their shared bedroom and their diary entries naming each other as their true loves, the Ladies openly protested being labelled as lesbians. In many ways they seemed to be content with what they had without needing to name it. Perhaps this should be a lesson for us in the modern day as we become more obsessed to attributing labels to one another.
For fifty years the Ladies of Llangollen lived together, happy, eccentric and actively accepted and respected within their community. They passed away leaving the house to be taken on as a kind of curiosity, later owner even making improvements to exaggerate the style begun by Eleanor and Sarah.
Whatever else they were the Ladies were certainly intelligent, brave and unstoppable, taking on a life so unfamiliar to them with so many unknown dangers. And through this daring they acquired a fame which brought them directly into contact with some of those who have most influenced the British culture. And through inspiring these people with their story and their wit Sarah and Eleanor have long since been embedded in some of the great art, poetry and stories which their lives and persons then inspired.
A year of firsts 