Path: Lesbians : Famous lesbians : Eleanor Butler
(This is a computer translation of the original article in Spanish. It should not be regarded as complete or accurate.)
Lady Eleanor Butler was born in Cambrai (France) in 1739. She was the minor of three sisters. She was coming from a noble family of Irish Catholics and she was educated in a convent in France. Eleanor was not showing any interest in the marriage and preferred devoting herself to the study. In 1768 she met Sarah Ponsonby, the thirteen-year-old daughter of a well-off family of Dublin, and her friendship was growing in the course of ten years across letters and visits. In 1778 they made something unheard-of for the epoch: disguised with man's clothes they escaped together. When her families looked for them and found them, they escaped again, this time successfully. They settled in Wales and bought a small farm close to the city of Llangollen (in Plas Newydd) where they would remain together up to her death. There they initiated a rigorous system of personal improving, the one being read to other one every day and studying foreign languages, literature and geography. In particular, they were excited by the work of the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau. They tried to emulate the vision of Rousseau of the human, kind beings, near to the nature and incorrupt before the temptations of the city. This interest in Rousseau provided to them contacts with important personalities of the world that were sending mail with them or were coming to visit them, as for example the Duke of Wellington, Sir Walter Scott, Edmund Burke, Lady Caroline Lamb, Josiah Wedgewood and Robert Southey. Many of these personalities were bringing to them gifts. The King of England even granted to Sarah Ponsonby a pension in 1787 to improve her economic situation. They w as one of the first (and scandalous) examples of romantic friendship between women, going on to the posterity with the nickname of "ladies of Llangollen". Lady Eleanor Butler died in 1829 whereas Sarah Ponsonby did it two years later. They were buried in the church of St Collen, in Llangollen. Across their numerous volumes of letters and newspapers, today it is possible to know more about their life together. At present their house is a tourist attraction in Wales.
Description: biography for eleanor butler, history of the ladies of llangollen, life of lady eleanor butler.
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