ey kept up a close connection with the
brilliant world they had deserted. The romance of their action,
penetrating far and wide, through cultivated circles, brought many
distinguished visitors to their hospitality, literary and titular
celebrities from all parts of Great Britain, likewise from the
continent. Many of these became fast friends to them; and, in letters
to other persons, speak of their fine qualities of sentiment and
taste, their engaging traits of character and manners. Madame Geniis
writes rapturously of her tarry with them, the charms of their
residence, and especially of the Aeolian harp, which she there heard
for the first time, amid the befitting associations of the mystic
legends and natural minstrelsy of Welsh landscape. Mrs. Tighe also,
the winsome but unfortunate authoress of the "Loves of Psyche and
Cupid," on departing from their cottage after a delighted stay, left
upon her table a beautiful sonnet addressed to them.

But Miss Anna Seward; between whom and the pair of friends a warm
affection was cherished, has given the fullest description known to
us of the home and habits of the Ladies of Llangollen. She thought
that the compliment Hayley paid to Miers, the miniature painter,

"His magic pencil in its narrow space
Pours the full portion of uninjured grace"

might be transferred to the talents and exertion which converted a
cottage in two acres and a half of turnip ground to a fairy palace
amid the bowers of Calypso. It consisted of four small apartments;
the exquisite cleanliness of the kitchen, its utensils and auxiliary
offices, vying with the finished elegance of the light-some little
dining-room, as that contrasted with the gloomy grace of the library
into which it opened. This room was fitted up in the Gothic style,
the door and large sash windows of that form--the latter of painted
glass, shedding a dim religious light. Candles were seldom admitted
into this apartment. The ingenious friends had invented a kind of
prismatic lantern, which occupied the whole elliptic arch of the
Gothic door. This lantern was of cut glass, variously colored,
inclosing two lamps with their reflectors. The light it imparted
resembled that of a volcano--sanguine and solemn. It was assisted by
two glowworm lamps, that, in little marble reservoirs, stood on the
opposite chimney-piece. These supplied the place of the daylight,
when the dusk of evening sabled, or night wholly involved the
solitude. A large A