The "Ladies of Llangollen" Part 2

A GREEN HOUSE OF GREAT BEAUTY, ORNAMENTED WITH PAINTED AND STAINED GLa.s.s;

An extensive Collection of Plants, Dairy and Brewing Utensils; SERVICES OF CHINA AND GLa.s.s, In complete sets, for the Table, the Dejeune, the Dessert, &c. &c.

SIDEBOARD OF PLATE,

Comprising many rare chased and antique items; dishes and covers, salvers, waiters, tea and coffee equipages, candlesticks, liquor and cruet frames, spoons and forks;

AND A VARIETY OF USEFUL ARTICLES FOR THE SIDEBOARD AND TABLE.

JEWELLERY AND ELEGANCIES,

Presenting many pleasing and valuable Ornaments for the person, in necklaces, car-rings, crosses and brooches, most of them inclosing the hair of the donors, particularly one of great interest, possessing

A LOCK OF "MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS" HAIR.

INTERESTING MISCELLANIES, CURIOSITIES AND RELICS, VIZ.

Very fine missals, beautifully illuminated; autographs of numerous renowned personages, particularly a letter by "Charles the First" to Lady Fisher, from Whitehall, during his confinement; presentation snuff boxes, many of value, and most with lines of dedication; relics of great antiquity, and many of modern date, presented by travellers, forming altogether a Museum of great interest and amus.e.m.e.nt.

SEVERAL REMARKABLY FINE CAMEOS AND INTAGLIOS.

A MODEL OF THE WARWICK VASE, IN SILVER,

Richly Chased, most exquisite in Workmans.h.i.+p and perfectly Unique.

Many curious models, bronze busts, and in Sevres bisquit; MUSICAL AND OTHER ELEGANT CLOCKS, in ormolu; China essence, and flower vases; a large AEolian harp, telescopes, microscopes, &c.

AN EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE LIBRARY OF BOOKS,

Comprising many Thousand Volumes, elegantly bound in folio, quarto, and octavo, (large and small.)

A SERIES OF ETCHINGS.

THE POWER AND PROGRESS OF GENIUS, EXECUTED BY THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH, AND PRESENTED BY HER TO THE PRINCESS AMELIA;

AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM THE PRESENT KING OF FRANCE,

Accompanying the Memoirs du Duc de Montressor, in scarlet and morocco, a present from His Majesty to Lady Butler and Miss Ponsonby; with many other contributions and valuable presents from persons of the highest rank and literary acquirements to these highly gifted Ladies.

PICTURES, VALUABLE DRAWINGS, AND PRINTS,

In frames and in portfolios, comprising a collection the most choice and valuable, many by the first Artists of the day, Portraits of Kings, exalted and renowned Characters, and Views of the most celebrated Scenery of various Countries. A small quant.i.ty of

RARE WINES AND LIQUEURS;

Viz., Old Port, Sherry, Madeira, Lisbon, Bucellas, Vidonia, Maraschino, Noyeau, Eau de la Reine, and other estimable Liqueurs.

*** The entire Sale will be on View at the Chateau from the 4th to the 13th of August.

The CATALOGUES will be ready Three Weeks prior to the Sale; and may be had at 3s. each, at the Villa; Phillips's Hotel, and the King's Head, Llangollen; the Lion, Shrewsbury; the Owen Glendower, Corwen; the Great Hotel, at Bangor; the Waterloo Hotel, Liverpool; the Hen and Chickens, Birmingham; York Hotel, Bath; of Mr. Guernon, Molesworth-street, Dublin, and at Mr. GEORGE ROBINS' Offices, Covent Garden."

The present occupiers were also purchasers of many of the rare "curiosities and relics."

We shall now proceed to cite the descriptions which have been put upon record by several distinguished and popular authors, relative to the "Ladies of Llangollen."

It appears from Volume VI. of the published Letters of the late Miss Anna Seward, that a friendly intimacy was cultivated between that clever _literateur_ and the recluses of Plas Newydd; and it would seem from her correspondence, that their tastes were very comprehensive and multifarious; poetry and politics, music and mystery, tragedy and tattle, being alike acceptable. In a letter addressed to Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Ponsonby, under date Lichfield, October 4, 1802, Miss Seward exclaims:--

"Ah! dearest ladies, it is under the pressure of a severe cold, fierce cough, and inflamed lungs, that I address you. A duty so delightful had, but for this incapacitating malady, been earlier paid.

"I have to thank dear Miss Ponsonby for a ma.n.u.script of many verses, which she had the goodness to make for me in hours so engrossed, amid engagements so indispensable. I had the honour to receive it as I was stepping into the chaise which was to convey Mrs. Smith and myself far from that Edenic region where we had recently pa.s.sed so many happy hours; from those bowers in Llangollen Vale, whence the purest pleasures have so often flowed to my heart and mind, as from a full and overflowing fountain."

From Lichfield, Nov. 9, 1802, Miss Seward discourses to Miss Ponsonby on modern tragedy, and concludes with the following bit of "blue-stocking gossip:"--

"Though I know her not, I am pleased that Mrs. Spencer has had the good fortune to interest and delight you; for I am always desirous that men of genius should not do what they are so p.r.o.ne to do, marry every-day women.

"Naughty brook, for having behaved outrageously again! That little stream of the mountain is a true spoiled child, whom we love the better for its faults, and for all the trouble and alarm they occasion. You see I presume to involve myself, as if, in some sort, the interesting little virago belonged to me. Certainly it is my peculiar pet amongst your scenic children, dear to my taste, as they are beautiful; to my heart as being yours."

In a letter from Lichfield, June 13, 1805, Miss Seward begins:--

"'With a trembling hand, my beloved Miss Ponsonby, do I take up the pen to thank you for a thrice kind letter. It had not remained several weeks unacknowledged, but for this terrible malady of the head, which has oppressed me with so much severity during the interim. I think it must soon lay me low. Not at my time of life does the const.i.tution, pushed from its equipoise by long enduring disease, regain it amid the struggles.

"Immediately on receiving your last, I sent for Madoc; by far the most captivating work of its genuinely inspired author."

In the same letter the following pa.s.sage occurs:--

"Our young friend Cary has published his translation of Dante's Inferno. It is thought the best which has appeared, and the sale goes on well. He presents a copy to yourself and Lady Eleanor, and I trust you will receive it soon."

After some literary disquisitions on the Inferno, the Lay of the Last Minstrel, and Madoc; and an allusion to King George's visit to Lichfield, the letter thus concludes:--

"Present me devoutly to your beloved Lady Eleanor. Most interesting is your description of that visit, mutually paid to that desolate and silent Dinbren. How worthy of yourselves that hour of consecration, with all its tributary sighs! Too happy were the days and weeks which I pa.s.sed beneath its roof, and in its beautiful and sublime environs, to permit such revisitation from me.

"It would break my heart amid its present consciousness, spread over with a dark and impervious pall, which can never be drawn away.

"Dear, and amiable Miss Ponsonby, farewell."

From Lichfield, October 31st, 1805, we have another letter to Miss Ponsonby, with the following tremendous opening:--

"Nothing, my dear Madam, is so common as hypocrisy and treachery where property is concerned; but a greater excess of them never poured their dark currents from the vulgar heart, than in those circ.u.mstances which your last letter narrates.

"Thus ever be extortionate villany baffled--and long unclouded be the peace which succeeds to that attempted injury. I cannot express how much I am obliged that you took the kind trouble of retracing the road of peril, which had so nearly engulfed a scene, whose beauties rise perpetually in my sleeping and waking dreams."

What ever could have happened at Plas Newydd to excite so grand a burst of tragic pa.s.sion: here _is_ matter for curious speculation! Then Miss Seward runs into a not very wise dissertation on politics; then reverts to literary subjects, of which Horace Walpole's genius is the chief topic; bemoans her own dizziness of the head; has another touch at Mr.

Pitt; and finally e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.es "Adieu, dearest Madam! Your beloved Lady Eleanor will accept my affectionate devoirs!" Why did not Miss Seward go to Llangollen, to end her days in peace?

In the lively Memoirs of that celebrated Comedian, the late Mr. Charles Matthews, we have the following humourous letters, descriptive of the "Ladies of Llangollen:"--

"Oswestry, Sept. 4th. 1820.