Mrs. Vesey was another literary character whose salon, made thoroughly delightful, was frequented only by persons of the greatest culture. Just how the name _bas-bleu_ came to be identified with the assembly which Mrs. Vesey gathered about her is not known. One explanation which was current at the time attributes the term to a foreign gentleman who was invited to go to either Mrs. Montagu's or Mrs. Vesey's, and was assured as to the informality of the occasion by an acquaintance, who told him that full dress was quite optional, and, in fact, he might go in blue stockings if he was so minded. Other accounts do not agree with this; one lays the phrase at the door of Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, the naturalist, who always wore blue stockings; but it is asserted by Miss Carter's biographer that Stillingfleet died before the name came into vogue. Hannah More, in some whimsical lines, describes a _bas-bleu_ assembly: "Here sober Duchesses are seen, Chaste wits and critics void of spleen: Physicians fraught with real science, And Whigs and Tories in alliance; Poets fulfilling Christian duties, Just Lawyers, reasonable Beauties, Bishops who preach and Peers who pray, And Countesses who seldom play, Learn'd Antiquaries who from college Reject the rust and bring the knowledge; And hear it, _age_, believe it, _youth_,-- Polemics really seeking truth; And Travellers of that rare tribe Who've seen the countries they describe." The brilliant woman who gathered about her such a representative gathering of celebrities as is suggested by these lines--an assemblage in which Dr. Johnson could discourse in one corner on moral duties, and Horace Walpole amuse another group with his lively wit, while the younger portion discussed the opera or the fashions--was the daughter of Sir Thomas Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam. By her second marriage--with a relative, Mr. A. Vesey--she resumed her maiden name. Prominent persons, other than those mentioned, who were attracted to her salon were Burke, Pulteney, Garrick, Lord Lyttleton, Dr. Burney, and Lord Monboddo.