About this time, lady Mary Wortley Montagu conferred a great blessing upon England, and the civilized world, by introducing inoculation for the small pox, after her return from Turkey. The custom was opposed with the utmost violence of ignorance and prejudice; but lady Mary persevered in her generous purpose, and to prove her sincerity, she first tried it upon her own son, about three years old. In Litchfield cathedral stands a cenotaph raised to her memory by a lady, who had herself derived benefit from this salutary practice. The monument represents Beauty weeping for the loss of her preserver. Some of the best English writers appeared during the latter part of the seventeenth century; but the romances of the day were exceedingly prosaic, love-sick, and sentimental. The hero and heroine always fell in love at first sight, and always had innumerable difficulties to contend with, in consequence of the cruelty of relations and the plots of libertines. Love, instead of being acted upon and developed by circumstances, was represented as the chief end and aim of life, and all the events of this busy world were merely its accessories. About this time was introduced the word “blue-stocking,” which has ever since been applied to literary ladies, who were somewhat pedantic. It is said to have originated at a literary club, where several women assembled. A gentleman who wore blue stockings was regarded as the lion of the menagerie; and when he was detained, it was common to observe, “We can do nothing till the blue stockings come.” The manner in which the phrase has ever since been used leads to the conclusion that the members of this club were pedantic. It is now common to say of a sensible, unaffected woman, “She knows a great deal, but has no tinge of blue.” Byron wittily remarked, “I care not how blue a woman’s stockings are, if her petticoats are long enough to cover them;” and this pithy observation comprises all that ever need be said about the cultivation of female intellect. English history presents many instances of women exercising prerogatives now denied them. In an action at law, it has been determined that an unmarried woman, having a freehold, might vote for members of parliament; and it is recorded that lady Packington returned two members of parliament. Lady Broughton was keeper of the Gate-house prison; and in a much later period a woman was appointed governor of the house of correction at Chelmsford, by order of the court.