her visit, and the sound of an Æolian harp which was placed on the balcony of her bedroom window. The ill-fated Lord Edward Fitzgerald was a great favourite with the ladies. The carved apes over the mantelpiece in Lady Eleanor's bedroom are supposed to have been his gift, as an ape, with the motto "Crom a Boo," is the crest of the House of Leinster.
The last visit Lord Edward paid to Plas Newydd was early in '98, when he walked over the hills from Brynkinalt (Lord Dungannon's place near Chirk) to see the ladies, who were quite unconscious that a reward of £1,000 was offered by the Crown for his arrest. He had a foreboding that he was watched while at Pias Newydd. He fancied that he saw a shadow pass the front window of the library, and he escaped by the garden window, which is now canopied with rich carved oak, the roof being supported by bed-posts of Charles I.'s time.
When the ladies first went to Llangollen they were not very well off, and Miss Ponsonby's application for money to her kinsman, the Earl of Bessborough, was received with coldness. He sent her £50, and requested her not to send him any presents. Through the influence of the Duke of Wellington, who was their staunch friend, and had been a frequent visitor to Plas Newydd, they got a pension of £200 a year, which made
