Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/342

322 band of women, mockingly known as "Blue Stockings," pioneered a new movement This little circle, which numbered in their midst Elizabeth Montague, Elizabeth Carter, Fanny Burney, and Hannah More, were the first to encourage intelligence in women, and to see that it was no hindrance to personal charm or matrimony. They gave a more serious turn to the frivolous society of their day, and shook the time-worn prejudice which had treated study as "unbecoming in a woman."