Transcribers’ Note Words in italics are marked with _underscores_. Words in small capitals are shown in UPPER CASE. Please also see the note at the end of this volume. ELIZABETH MONTAGU THE QUEEN OF THE BLUE-STOCKINGS HER CORRESPONDENCE FROM 1720 TO 1761 [Illustration: _C. F. Zincke. Pinx._ _Emery Walker Ph. Sc._ _Mrs. Montagu_ _née Elizabeth Robinson_ _from a miniature in the possession of Miss Montagu_] ELIZABETH MONTAGU THE QUEEN OF THE BLUE-STOCKINGS HER CORRESPONDENCE FROM 1720 TO 1761 BY HER GREAT-GREAT-NIECE EMILY J. CLIMENSON AUTHORESS OF “HISTORY OF SHIPLAKE,” “HISTORICAL GUIDE TO HENLEY-ON-THAMES,” “PASSAGES FROM THE DIARIES OF MRS. P. LYBBE POWYS,” ETC., ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL. I [Illustration: Publisher’s colophon, a coat of arms] LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1906 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED LONDON AND BECCLES AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO MY COUSINS MAGDALEN WELLESLEY AND ELIZABETH MONTAGU BY THE AUTHORESS PREFACE. From my early youth I heartily desired to know more of the life of my great-great-aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu. Every scrap of information I could pick up respecting her I accumulated; therefore when my cousins, Mrs. Wellesley and her sister, Miss Montagu, in October, 1899, gave me the whole of her manuscripts contained in 68 cases, holding from 100 to 150 letters in each, my joy was unbounded! In 1810 my grandfather, the 4th Baron Rokeby (her nephew and adopted son), published two volumes of her letters; these were followed by two more volumes in 1813. To enable him to perform this pleasing task he asked all her principal friends to return her letters to him, beginning with the Dowager Marchioness of Bath,[1] daughter of the Duchess of Portland, who gave him back the earliest letters to her mother, many carefully inserted in a curious grey paper book by the duchess, who placed the date of reception on each, and evidently valued them exceedingly. The Rev. Montagu Pennington returned her letters to his aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, the learned translator of Epictetus; Mrs. Freind those to her husband; and many other people did the same. From General Pulteney, at Lord Bath’s death, she had asked for and received her correspondence with Lord Bath, which she carefully preserved. At the death of Lord Lyttelton, the executors, at her request, returned her her letters; those to Gilbert West and other correspondents were returned in the same manner. Meanwhile she kept all letters of her special friends, as well as notabilities, so that one may deem the collection quite unique, though doubtless many letters have disappeared, notably those of Sir Joshua Reynolds, many of whose letters were destroyed by an ignorant caretaker of Mrs. Montagu’s house, Denton Hall, near Newcastle-on-Tyne. There are none of Horace Walpole’s, from whom she must have received some; and those from