Editing Ladies of Llangollen (section)

==Recognition and popularity==
They devoted their time to hosting a range of friends and curious visitors, extensive correspondence, private studies of literature and languages, and improving their estate. Over the years they added a circular stone dairy and created a sumptuous garden. Eleanor kept a diary of their activities. Llangollen people simply referred to them as "the ladies".<ref name=Telegraph/>

After a couple of years, their life attracted the interest of the outside world.<ref name="Mavor 1971"/> Their house became a haven for visitors travelling between Dublin and London, including writers such as [[Anna Seward]],<ref name=":2" /> [[Robert Southey]],<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://longreads.com/2018/04/17/the-ladies-who-were-famous-for-wanting-to-be-left-alone/|title=The Ladies Who Were Famous for Wanting to Be Left Alone|last=Hampl|first=Patricia|date=April 2018|work=Longreads|access-date=2018-04-20|language=en-US|type=Excerpt adapted from ''The Art of the Wasted Day''}}</ref> [[William Wordsworth]],<ref name=":1" /> [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Percy Shelley]],<ref name=":1" /> [[Lord Byron]]<ref name=":1" /> and [[Walter Scott|Sir Walter Scott]],<ref name=":1" /> but also the military leader the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]]<ref name=":1" /> and the industrialist [[Josiah Wedgwood]];<ref name=":1" /> aristocratic novelist [[Lady Caroline Lamb]],<ref name=":1" /> who was born a Ponsonby, came to visit too. [[Anne Lister]] from Yorkshire visited the couple, and was possibly inspired by their relationship to informally marry her own lover.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=Feminist Frontiers |edition=8th |last1=Taylor |first1=Verta|author1-link= Verta Taylor |last2=Whittier |first2=Nancy |last3=Rupp |first3=Leila J. |publisher=McGraw Hill |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-07340-430-1 |location=Boston, USA |page=391}}</ref> Even travellers from continental Europe had heard of the couple and came to visit them, for instance [[Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau]], the German nobleman and landscape designer, wrote admiringly about them.<ref name=Telegraph/>

The ladies were known throughout Britain, but have been said to have led "a rather unexciting life".<ref name="rte">{{Cite web|url=https://www.rte.ie/radio/doconone/2011/0428/646686-radio-documentary-an-extraordinary-affair-first-lesbians-ladies-of-llangollen/|title=An Extraordinary Affair|last=O'Donnell|first=Leeanne|date=30 April 2011|website=[[RTÉ Radio 1]] |publisher=[[Doc on One]]}}</ref> [[Queen Charlotte]] wanted to see their cottage and persuaded [[King George III]] to grant them a pension. Eventually their families came to tolerate them.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}