Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/27

Rh And connected with these by intellect and taste, as well as with the higher aristocracy by birth and rank, was the Bas Bleu, a society of ladies, of whom the foremost was Mrs. Montagu, the daughter of a Yorkshire squire, and whose husband, Edward Montagu, was the grandson of the Earl of Sandwich. She was very charming in conversation, and had obtained considerable celebrity by publishing a vindication of Shakespeare against the attacks of Voltaire, somewhat disappointing to read after seeing all the encomiums lavished on it, but a wonderful performance for a woman at that time. Her house, at the corner of Portman Square, was one of the old aristocratic mansions enclosed in a court, and here on May Day she was wont to give a dinner to the chimney sweeps of London. One of her rooms had hangings of peacocks' feathers, admired and be-rhymed at that time, but thought less beautiful by the next generation. Other members of this delightful society were Mrs. Vesey, called by her friends the Sylph, wife of a member of the Irish Parliament; Mrs. Delany, of the old loyal Granville family, and wife of Dean Delany, is well known through Lady Hall's biography; Mrs. Boscawen, the widow of a distinguished admiral, and a woman of high culture; Mrs. Chapone, noted for some excellent letters to her niece on self-culture; and Elizabeth Carter, daughter to the perpetual curate of Deal, knew about