of an earl's daughter was at the same time bestowed on Eleanor and her sisters. Some years previously—in 1774 according to one account, and in 1779 according to another—Lady Eleanor and a friend, Sarah Ponsonby, daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby, cousin of the Earl of Bessborough, had resolved to live together in complete isolation from society. According to a writer in 'Notes and Queries,' 4th ser. iv. 12, they were both born on the same day of the same year at Dublin, and lost their parents at the same time. But the obituary notice of Miss Ponsonby in the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' 1831, pt. i. 272, is probably correct in making her ten years younger than her companion. Their relatives dissuaded them from their plan, and, when they first left their homes, brought them back. Soon afterwards, however, they made their way to a cottage at Plasnewydd in the vale of Llangollen, accompanied by a maidservant, Mary Caryll. Their names were not known in the neighbourhood, and they were called 'the ladies of the vale.' Here they lived in complete seclusion for some fifty years, and neither left the cottage for a single night until their deaths. Their devotion to each other and their eccentric manners gave them wide notoriety. All tourists in Wales sought introduction to them, and many made the journey to Llangollen for the special purpose of visiting them. Foreigners of distinction figured largely among their visitors, and they received a number of orders from members of the Bourbon family. In 1796 Miss Anna Seward wrote a poem, 'Llangollen Vale' in their honour. In September 1802 she addressed a poetical farewell to them. Madame de Genlis, another visitor, has given an account of them in her 'Souvenirs de Félicie.' De Quincey saw them during his Welsh ramble (Confessions, 1856, p. 121). In 1828 Prince Pückler-Muskau saw them at their cottage, and wrote a very elaborate description of them. He says that his grandfather had visited them half a century before, that 'the two celebrated virgins' were 'certainly the most celebrated in Europe.' According to the prince they were invariably dressed in a semi-masculine costume. Lady Eleanor Butler died 2 June 1829, and her companion, Miss Ponsonby, died 8 Dec. 1831. With their servant, Mary Caryll, who died before either of them, they lie buried in Plasnewydd churchyard under a triangular pyramid inscribed with their names. Portraits of them and their cottage are often met with. A painting of them by Lady Leighton has been engraved by Lane.
[Gent. Mag. 1829, ii. 175–6, and 1832, i. 274; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. iv. 12, 220 (where Prince Pückler's account is translated from his Briefe eines Verstorbenen, Stuttgart, 1831, i. 18–22); Burke's Patrician(1841), v. 485; Brit. Mag. (ed. S. C. Hall), 1830. p. 8; Burke's Peerage, s.v. 'Ormonde'; Seward's Letters, iii. 70–80, 345.]
BUTLER, GEORGE, D.D. (1774–1853), head master of Harrow and dean of Peterborough, was born in Pimlico, London, 5 July 1774, being the second son of the Rev. Weeden Butler, the elder [q. v.], by Anne, daughter of Isaac Louis Giberne. He was educated in his father's school, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, and then became a foundation scholar of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he was senior wrangler and senior Smith's prizeman, January 1794, graduated B.A. in the same year, took his M.A. 1797, and his B.D. and D.D. in 1804 and 1805. His college elected him a fellow, and for some years he acted as mathematical lecturer, and then as classical tutor. It was also probably during this period that he commenced keeping his terms at Lincoln's Inn. He was elected a public examiner at Cambridge in 1804, and in 1805 was nominated one of the eight select preachers before the university. In April 1805 he became head-master of Harrow School in succession to Dr. Joseph Drury. In 1814 he was presented by his college to the rectory of Gayton, Northamptonshire. He continued in his arduous office at Harrow until 1829, when, after a head-mastership of four and twenty years, he retired to the living of Gayton, and devoted himself with the same unwearied zeal to the duties of a parish priest. In November 1836 he was named chancellor of the diocese of Peterborough, and he was appointed by Sir Robert Peel to the deanery of Peterborough 3 Nov. 1842. Few men could compete with Butler in versatility of mind, and in the variety of his accomplishments. Besides his great mathematical attainments he was also a distinguished classical scholar, and spoke German, French, and Italian with correctness and fluency. He was practically versed in chemistry and other branches of physical science. He was a good physician and draughtsman, and he excelled in all athletic exercises. His affection for Harrow School, in the service of which so many of the most active years of his life had been passed, amounted to a passion, and he maintained with his successors a constant and most friendly intercourse. On leaving Harrow he was presented by his pupils and others who had left the school with a piece of plate of the value of nearly 500l. His latter years were years of suffering; in 1849 disease of the heart declared itself, and a gradual failure of sight
