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
Maria Ponsonby, Viscountess Duncannon Maria Ponsonby, Viscountess Duncannon Maria Ponsonby, Viscountess Duncannon (11 May 1787 – 19 March 1834), formerly Lady Maria Fane, was the wife of John Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough. She died before he inherited the earldom and thus was never Countess of Bessborough, but three of her sons were successively earls of Bessborough. She was the daughter of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, and his first wife, the former Sarah Anne Child. Her brother was John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland, and her sisters were Sarah Villiers, Countess of Jersey (1785–1867), Lady Augusta Fane (1786–1871; later Lady Boringdon) and