While I’m in Wales, working on my ‘dead lesbians project’ at Gladstone’s Library, top of my list for a day trip was Plas Newydd, home to the Ladies of Llangollen.

I’d already read Elizabeth Mavor’s excellent account of their lives, ‘The Ladies of Llangollen: A Study in Romantic Friendship’, and the snippets from Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby’s journals and letters had helped me to develop a sense of their characters.

Stepping into Plas Newydd, the home the women shared for over fifty years, deepened that sense, and I was particularly drawn to the portrait of Mrs Tatters, their cat, the carved dogs on the oak bannisters, and the chairs drawn up to the bedroom fire. It was so easy to picture the Ladies there, and I felt that even more so when I walked through the dell, where the Cyflymen stream tumbles through ferns and wild garlic.

Back at Gladstone’s Library, I discovered that a letter from Eleanor Butler to Lady Glynne (mother of Catherine Gladstone) is preserved in the archive, and I was able to make an appointment to view it. This was one of the absolute highlights of my residency so far. It was a huge privilege to be able to see up close, and even to touch, this letter from such a remarkable woman.

The neatness and evenness of Eleanor’s handwriting was striking, as was its tiny size. I could only decipher it with the help of a magnifying glass, so I feel like I have a new understanding of what it took for Eleanor and Sarah to commit to up to six hours of correspondence a day, without electric lighting.

And as for the letter’s contents, the most interesting thing is Eleanor’s recommendation of a recipe for Ginger Beer which she apparently enclosed with the letter (the archivists are trying to track this down), and her insistence that Lady Glynne guards it rather than sharing it with the neighbourhood!

Through all of this, I have a rich bank of material for a poem about the Ladies of Llangollen, and am going to include a first draft of this new poem in my reading at Gladstone’s Library tomorrow evening – Tuesday 12th May.

Meanwhile you can read more about the letter from the archives, and see some images of it, in this Gladstone’s Library blog post.