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
William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough 1765 jointly with Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham, until he resigned in 1766, his initial offer to resign having been refused. Upon William Ponsonby's death on 11 March 1793 his son, Frederick Ponsonby, succeeded to his titles. William Ponsonby was the son of Brabazon Ponsonby, 1st Earl of Bessborough, and his wife Sarah Margetson, and elder brother of John Ponsonby. On 5 July 1739 William married Lady Caroline Cavendish, eldest daughter of William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, who died in 1760 aged 40. They had three surviving children: Parkstead House, Roehampton, was built in 1750 for William Ponsonby, and