Plas Newydd Is Much More Than a Pretty Country House in the North

4 4 Plas Newydd is much more than a pretty country house in the North Wales countryside; it is a memorial to two ladies and their remarkable friendship, as Deborah King discovered. Photography by Steve Lewis. A LADIES’ RETREAT The house we see today, including its mock Tudor battens, is mainly the result of changes made by owner General John Yorke in the late 1800s. PLAS NEWYDD OHN RUSKIN once wrote of ABOVE LEFT Llangollen,‘The Dee is a quite Although much of Jperfect mountain stream, and the the Ladies’ eclectic village... one of the most beautiful collection was sold and delightful in Wales.’The town over time, some of remains as attractive today but there is the original features, more to it than initially meets the eye, such as the for nestling in 15 acres above it lies Plas magnificent carved Newydd, the 18th-century home of fireplaces, remain. ‘the Ladies of Llangollen’. BELOW LEFT ‘The Ladies’ were an unconventional Gradually, the house couple in their time. Sarah Ponsonby and its contents are was an orphan in the care of Anglo- being restored. Irish aristocrats and was sent to ABOVE One of boarding school in Kilkenney.There the Chinese lions she met Lady Eleanor Charlotte Butler, presented to the who was 16 years her senior. Over the Ladies by the Duke years they forged a close relationship of Wellington. and in 1778, when Eleanor was 39 and Sarah 23 years old, they eloped and set RIGHT The only up home at Plas Newydd where, from portrait of the 1780, they lived for almost 50 years. two Ladies. Now attracting around 15,000 visitors each year, the house bears little floor windows, and the porch, made resemblance to the unpretentious stone of several large bedposts, and a tapestry cottage the Ladies first discovered and of wooden carvings pieced together began to rent in 1780. From the to form the roof. On either side of the to retain its cottage ‘feel’– around every outside, the quirky house resembles porch is a Chinese lion, presented to corner is another quirky artefact or a huge Liquorice Allsort, in front of the Ladies by the Duke of Wellington, antique waiting to be discovered. which are a parterre and topiary, both and some, including one from General Yorke probably introduced of which are almost one hundred years Llangollen church, of the many church the attractive Delft tiles in the old.The house you see today was the carvings to be found in the house. fireplaces, and his addition of a Spanish result of improvements made by This is a taste of things to come. bench in what was the original kitchen General John Yorke, who became the Inside, the house is decked out in oak has attracted much attention from owner of Plas Newydd in 1876. He carvings ranging from high-quality experts, as it is constructed from a added the Tudor-style black-and-white Renaissance to basic woodwork.A variety of fragments.The atmosphere of battens and a huge water tower in the walk through each room across the the room is made all the more austere grounds, but he kept many of the creaking floorboards is the best way to by a backdrop of painted dark leather Ladies’ features. He retained the heavily appreciate the grand size of the house, wallpaper.Above the mantelpiece is an ornamental canopies above the ground but its contents and furnishings allow it engraving,‘E.B & S.P 1814’, BEAUTIFUL BRITAIn / WINTER 2007 27 4 commemorating a visit by the Duke of Wellington. During their time at Plas Newydd, Sarah and Lady Eleanor transformed the building into a gothic retreat, full of oak carvings, old furniture, oriel windows and stained glass.As the Ladies’ many acquaintances, including some famous figures of the day, began to visit them, it became a tradition to bring them an antiquarian gift. Gradually their collection of assorted furniture and ornaments, including pictures, panels from church chests and bedsteads, grew to an immense size. It led one of their 18th-century visitors to describe the house as ‘an enormous wardrobe’.Another visitor noted that the house contained a ‘menagerie’ of cabinets, glass cases, nodding mandarins, china and whirligigs in every shape and hue. Much of the original collection no longer resides at the house, but work is underway to correct this. Returning the house to its original state, however, is not easy. In 1832, after the Ladies had died, most of the contents were sold at auction. Rose McMahon, the curator at Plas Newydd, has been working at the house for almost 18 years.‘We know which items were here from the original sale catalogue,’ she explains. ‘Numerous books have been returned to us and are now in the library. But a ABOVE & TOP RIGHT The Ladies’ bedroom and ABOVE Gary Lovelock has been returning the Walter Scott and Josiah Wedgwood but table and set of chairs, for instance, are the dressing room, now the exhibition room. gardens to their former grandeur. some visitors here wonder what sort reputed to be on the Isle of Man and of life young Sarah might have had had LEFT General Yorke probably added the ABOVE RIGHT Lady Eleanor’s Bower, surrounded we have no way of raising enough attractive Delft tiles to the fireplaces. by lush woodland in the grounds. she been more orthodox,’ she adds, money to purchase those.’ wistfully. Jane explains why the house Jane Horovitch has been a heritage and its occupants became so well assistant, employed by Denbighshire known in the 18th century:‘It wasn’t Council to look after the house, its A SPECIAL FRIENDSHIP safe to go abroad because of the tearoom and the house’s modern Napoleonic Wars, and those wishing visitors, for 16 years. Not surprisingly, t was not until 60 years after their death bonnets and powdered their hair, but many to take a Grand Tour came instead to her knowledge of the place is second- Ithat Lord Alfred Douglas wrote of ‘the people agreed that such ‘eccentricity’ was Scotland, the Lakes, and Wales. Of to-none. Her favourite item is the tiny Love that dare not speak its name’ but was simply practical for outdoor pursuits such course,Telford’s London to Holyhead portrait of the Ladies in the library, the Ladies’ friendship actually like this? We as gardening and riding.The most interesting road (now the A5) was a great help, as sketched and later painted by a friend shall perhaps never know. Many women of insight into the Ladies’ relationship was Lady it allowed easy access to the mountains without their knowledge. It is the only the time envied Sarah and Lady Eleanor’s Eleanor’s reply to a lesbian’s request to of Wales.’ authenticated portrait of the two decision to escape the pressures of share their life at Plas Newydd.‘You must Back outside the house, by one of women.Above it is a brooch fashionable aristocratic life, and many men be totally ignorant of who we are,’ she the oriel windows, Gary Lovelock is containing locks of their hair. admired them.The Ladies did share a bed, answered, appalled.Their idealistic, busy pruning. For the past five years, ‘They carved out a reclusive yet but this was not unusual at a time when it enlightened lifestyle was revolutionary Gary has been returning the grounds interesting life for themselves,’ says Jane. was common for strangers to share a bed at the time but the exact nature of their to their original glory, with the help of ‘They entertained the Duke of at an inn.They wore top hats instead of relationship still remains a mystery. a £1 million grant from the Heritage Wellington,William Wordsworth, Sir Lottery Fund, to.The Ladies were great BEAUTIFUL BRITAIn / WINTER 2007 BEAUTIFUL BRITAIn / WINTER 2007 29 ABOVE The house in its formal Edwardian gardens, with Castell Dinas Bran beyond. LEFT The medieval font taken from the ruins of nearby Valle Crucis Abbey. well, thus sacred in this hollow dell….’ The dell contains around 60 wych elm trees as well as a batch of young oak trees. One of the elms is more than 150 years old. Gary is justifiably proud of his work.‘The gardens are now completely organic and we have around 50 species of birds here, which is a good sign.’ From the garden there is a fine view plant collectors and keen gardeners and ahead of you and the dell was a thicket of the hill-fort, Castell Dinas Bran, in their rose garden was once legendary. of laurel, some of which was 40ft high,’ the distance. Most of the occupants of In 1789, Sarah Ponsonby made a note recalls Gary. Plas Newydd, including Sarah and Lady in her diary of 43 types of roses at Plas The gardens include a delightful Eleanor, would have climbed this 800ft Newydd.This is particularly impressive woodland walk and a summerhouse mound at some time.Today, it watches because before the end of the 18th with oak fretwork. Overlooking the over the lush valley below and the town century there were only about 100 Cyflymen stream below is Lady of Llangollen. It is easy to see why types of rose available. Eleanor’s bower, built in 1814 with Llangollen, and the Ladies’ retreat, are Today, the pathways have been the peeled-back, twisted branches as popular now as they were then. BB resurfaced using local crushed slate, reminiscent of a Romantic-period and the Georgian shrubbery has been idyll.Also in the dell is a font,‘rescued’ Plas Newydd in Denbighshire, North painstakingly replanted, based on along with much of the stained glass in Wales, is run by Denbighshire County paintings by Lady Leighton, a friend of the house from the nearby ruins of Council and is open from Easter until the Ladies.‘When I arrived, the gardens Valle Crucis Abbey.An inscription October.

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