Anna Seward made friends with, and had a great admiration for, the celebrated recluses, “the ladies of Llangollen Vale,”—Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby. They were so called because when they arrived their names were unknown. It is said that they never left their home for 50 years, and were so absolutely devoted as to be inseparable from each other. They adopted a semi-masculine attire. These curious ladies,—“extraordinary women,”—are described as ladies of genius, taste and knowledge—who were “sought by the first characters of the age, both as to rank and talents.” She kept up a considerable correspondence with both of them. Their house at Plas Newydd is described minutely and at great length in one of her letters. It is still standing, and continues to be visited by scores of tourists. Lady Eleanor Butler died in 1829, and Miss Sarah Ponsonby in 1831. One of Anna Seward’s poems is entitled “Llangollen Vale,” and was inscribed to these ladies, as likewise were some more of her verses. In 1782 Anna Seward produced “Louisa,” a poetical novel in four epistles. It ran through five editions. She says that she received the highest encomiums upon the poem “by the first literary characters of the age.” It is now rarely read. However, the writer of an article in “The Lady’s Monthly Museum” for March, 1799, vol. 2, wrote that, “the story, though interesting enough, is but a secondary object. It is told in strains, which, for energy, voluptuousness, and dignity of description, are rarely found in our language.” The writer further states that “our readers will be amply gratified by a perusal of the whole poem, which is everywhere equally replete with genius and taste, happy invention, and a luxury of glowing description.” She found another writer of the time ready to defend her against a reviewer who had brought a charge of “accumulating in her dramatic characters glaring metaphors,” and of aiming “to dazzle by superfluity of ornaments.” In 1790 Canon Seward died. He was deeply beloved by his daughter, who most dutifully nursed him for some ten years before his death.