Lesbian Fanny gladdens my heart:—You know not how I love her." Wollstonecraft's first novel "", in part, addressed her relationship with Fanny Blood. Perhaps the most famous of these romantic friendships was between Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, nicknamed the Ladies of Llangollen. Butler and Ponsonby eloped in 1778, to the relief of Ponsonby's family (concerned about their reputation had she run away with a man) to live together in Wales for 51 years and be thought of as eccentrics. Their story was considered "the epitome of virtuous romantic friendship" and inspired poetry by Anna Seward and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Diarist
The Newcastle Eccentrics of the 19th century and generally liked, respected and looked after by the population of hard working inhabitants. There was a famous picture painted in c1817 by Henry Perlee Parker, showing 14 of the characters (and a dog), all persons living in the area at the time. The painting is now known in some quarters as Hells Kitchen, (an alernateive name for "Newcastle Worthies", "Newcastle Props" or "Newcastle Eccentrics"), which was the room in which the group were positioned, a room in The Flying Horse, a “down market” drinking house. The property in the Groat Market, Newcastle, has since gone through several name changes