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."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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