Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/247

 followed by the death of her mother in 1746 and of her second brother, Thomas, barrister-at-law, in 1747. In search of distraction, she paid long visits to Bath (always a favourite resort of hers) and to Tunbridge Wells. She drank the waters assiduously, made the acquaintance of the poet Young at Bath, discussed religion with Gilbert West [q. v.], and humorously described in a voluminous correspondence the many books she read, and the valetudinarian eccentricities of her neighbours.

Conscious of great social gifts, she soon found that permanent residence in London could alone supply adequate scope for their development. From 1750 onwards she sought to make her husband's house in Hill Street, Mayfair, 'the central point of union' for all the intellect and fashion of the metropolis, but she invariably gave intellect the precedence of rank. 'I never invite idiots to my house,' she wrote to Garrick in 1770 (Mr. Alfred Morrison's manuscripts, Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. pt. ii. p. 480 a). In the early days of her London career she mainly confined her efforts as a hostess to literary breakfast parties, of which Madame Bocage, a French visitor to London in 1750, gave a very nattering description {Letters, 1770, i. 7). But Mrs. Montagu soon added to this modest form of hospitality more elaborate evening assemblies, which were known as 'conversation parties;' and their resemblance to similar meetings in the Rue St. Honoré in Paris gave her a right to the title, according to Wraxall, of 'the Madame du Deffand of the English capital.' Card-playing was not permitted, and the guests were only encouraged to discuss literary topics. But occasionally Garrick or a distinguished French actor was invited to recite.

Other ladies Mrs. Montagu's friend the Duchess of Portland, Mrs. Ord, Mrs. Vesey, wife of Agmondesham Vesey, Mrs. Boscawen, wife of the admiral, and Mrs. Greville, wife of Fulke Greville endeavoured to rival Mrs. Montagu's entertainments; but for nearly fifty years she maintained a practically undisputed supremacy as hostess in the intellectual society of London, and to her assemblies was, apparently for the first time, applied the now accepted epithet of 'blue-stocking.' Two explanations of the term have been suggested. According to the ordinary account, which was adopted by Sir William Forbes in his 'Life of Seattle,' in 1806 (i. 210), full dress was not insisted on at Mrs. Montagu's assemblies, and Benjamin Stillingfleet [q. v.], who regularly attended them, as well as the rival assemblies presided over by Mrs. Vesey or Mrs. Boscawen, habitually infringed social conventions by appearing in blue worsted instead of black silk stockings ; consequently, Admiral Boscawen, a sooner at his wife's social ambitions, is stated to have applied the epithet 'blue-stocking' to all ladies' conversaziones. On the other hand, Lady Crewe, daughter of Mrs. Greville, who was one of Mrs. Montagu's rival hostesses, stated that the ladies themselves at Mrs. Montagu's parties wore 'blue stockings as a distinction,' in imitation of a fashionable French visitor, Madame de Polignac (, Life of Mrs. Piozzi, 1861).

Despite ridicule, Mrs. Montagu helped to refine contemporary London society. Hannah More, in her poem 'Bas Bleu,' written in 1781, divides among Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Vesey, and Mrs. Boscawen the credit of having, by the invention of 'blue-stocking' assemblies, rescued fashionable life from the tyranny of whist and quadrille. Among Mrs. Montagu's regular visitors bet ween 1750 and 1780 were Lord Lyttelton, Horace Walpole, Dr. Johnson, Burke, Garrick, and Sir Joshua Reynolds. She undoubtedly had a rare faculty of exciting enthusiasm among her distinguished friends. William Pulteney, earl of Bath, who, like another frequent guest, Dr. Messenger Monsey [q. v.], was currently reported to have fallen madly in love with her, declared that he did not believe a more perfect human being was ever created; and when Reynolds repeated the remark to Burke, the latter, who often invited her to Beaconsfield, replied, 'And I do not think that he said a word too much.' Dr. Johnson thoroughly enjoyed a conversation with her. 'She diffuses more knowledge,' he told Mrs. Thrale, 'than any woman I know, or, indeed, almost any man,' 'Conversing with her,' he said on another occasion, 'you may find variety in one' (cf., iv. 275). She patronised Beattie when he came to London in 1771, and sent a copy of his 'Minstrel' to Lord Chatham as soon as it was issued. Beattie dedicated to her the first collected edition of his poems (cf., Autob. v. 165), named a son Montagu after her (FORBES, Beattie, iii. 163), and was for twenty years a 'very punctual correspondent.' Another of her proteges, Richard Price, the philosopher, she introduced to Lord Shelburne. She delighted in the society of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter [q. v.], whose acquaintance she made in 1758, and of Mrs. Hester Chapone [q. v.], and she came to know Mrs. Thrale, who openly endeavoured to outshine her in conversation whenever they chanced to meet (, Mrs. Piozzi, i. 22).