Returning to the year 1781, it is to be observed that after that year, the Bluestocking assemblies gradually died out. Cumberland’s caricature of them excited the displeasure of good Queen Charlotte; and Miss Burney, who recognised herself as alluded to under the guise of an Arcadian nymph, has given a description of a breakfast at the palace in Portman Square, which did not the least resemble that which was described, a generation earlier, by Madame du Bocage. The later breakfast was sumptuous, gorgeous, overcrowded. In splendour of company, banquet, and locality, it could not be surpassed; and hundreds were there. But we miss the more select number of intellectual people, who used to fill the smaller house in Hill Street, where the Bluestockings met, and dignified their place of meeting. From the year 1781, Mrs. Montagu’s letters take a graver tone, which is occasionally enlivened by some of her old brilliancy of expression. The following letter is without date of the year, but it was written when Hill Street was about being abandoned for the palace in Portman Square. “_Hill Street, 2d March, 1781._ ... You will find this town more gay and splendid than ever; so little effect has the combined evil of wars, and devastation, and hurricanes. The profuse liberality to Vestris, ye dancer, and the enthusiastic admiration of his capers exceeds all the folly I ever knew. Making a visit to a wife of one of the _corps diplomatique_, the other night, I had the mortification of overhearing a group of foreigners ridiculing the English for the bustle made about Vestris. “... I have already on my chimney-piece a multitude of cards for assemblies for every day till near the end of passion week. I hope some of the fine people will spend the Easter holidays in ye country; for such a succession of assemblies is tiresome. “... I have, greatly to my satisfaction, got my new house finished and fit for habitation; and I should have taken possession at this very time, but the wise people and the medical people say it would be dangerous to go into a new house just after the winter damp.... As I always leave London early in May, I was convinced it was not worth while to run hazard for a few weeks’ pleasure. It is much the fashion to go and see my house, and I receive many compliments upon its elegance and magnificence, but what most recommends it to me is its convenience and cheerfulness. A good house is a great comfort in old age and among the few felicities that money will procure. “... I shall be much obliged to you if you will bring to London Thou’s History, which I lent to your caro sposo five years ago. I suppose he has long done with it, and I want to read it.”