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 manuscript 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 passed 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 prone 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."