# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Montagu, Elizabeth

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MONTAGU, ELIZABETH,
Daughter of Matthew Robinson, of Horton, Kent, was a lady of great natural abilities which were much improved under the tuition of Dr. Conyers Middleton. About 1742, she married Edward Montagu, of Allesthorpe, Yorkshire, son of Charles, fifth son of the first Earl of Sandwich. By him she had one son, who died in his infancy. She devoted herself to literature, and formed a literary club, called the Blue Stocking Club, from a little incident that occurred there and is thus explained by Madame D'Arblay:
"These parties were originally insulated at Bath, and owed their name to an apology made by Mr. Stillingfleet, in declining to ​accept an invitation to a literary meeting at Mrs. Vesey's, from not being, he said, in the habit of displaying a proper equipment for an evening assembly. 'Pho!' cried she, with her well-known, yet always original simplicity, while she looked inquisitively at him and his accoutrements, 'Don't mind dress I come in your blue stockings!' With which words, humorously repeating them as he entered the apartment of the chosen coterie, Mr. Stillingfleet claimed permission to appear, and these words, ever after, were fixed in playful stigma upon Mrs. Vesey's associations.
While to Mrs. Vesey, the Bas Bleu Society owed its origin and its epithet, the meetings that took place at Mrs. Montagu's were soon more popularly known by that denomination, for though they could not be more fashionable, they were far more splendid."
In 1775, the death of Mr. Montagu left Mrs. Montagu a widow with an immense property; and among the earliest acts of her munificence was that of settling one hundred pounds per annum on her less affluent friend Mrs. Carter, with whom she was on terms of affectionate intimacy. Herself and her style of living at this period are described by one of her Mends, who was only then beginning her subsequent career of brilliancy and utility. Hannah More, at the age of thirty, thus writes of Mrs. Montagu, who was then about fifty-five years of age:—
"Mrs. Montagu received me with the most encouraging kindness; she is not only the finest genius, but the finest lady I ever saw; she lives in the highest style of magnificence; her apartments and table are in the most splendid taste; but what baubles are these when speaking of a Montagu! Her form (for she has no body) is delicate even to fragility; her countenance the most animated in the world; the sprightly vivacity of fifteen with the judgment and experience of a Nestor. But I fear she is hastening to decay very fast; her spirits are so active, that they must soon wear out the little frail receptacle that holds them."
Fortunately, in this, Hannah More did not evince herself a true prophetess, for Mrs. Montagu's life was prolonged for nearly thirty years after the date of this prediction.
In 1781, she built her magnificent house in Portman Square, and also continued her building and planting at her country residence, Sandleford. Here Mrs. Hannah More was a frequent visitor, and has given some spirited sketches of their mode of living, in her correspondence.
Mrs. Montagu published an "Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakspere," which deserved and acquired great celebrity. She was an intimate friend of Lord Lyttleton, and is said to have assisted him in some of his writings. She lost the use of her sight several years before her decease, but retained her mental faculties to the last. She died August 25th., 1802, in her eighty-second year, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The body of her infant son, who had been dead nearly sixty years, was, by her own desire, removed out of Yorkshire, and placed in her tomb; a circumstance displaying the maternal tenderness of her heart in a touching manner.
Mrs. Montagu was a woman of great talents, yet notwithstanding her high attainments in literature, benevolence was the most striking feature in her character. She was the rewarder of merit, the friend of her own sex, and the poor always found in her a liberal ​benefactress. For some years before her death, she had been in the habit of giving a yearly entertainment, on May-day, to the chimney-sweeps of London, who mourned her loss with great grief. Her published works are "Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shakspere," 1799; "Four Volumes of Letters," 1809 and 1813; "Dialogues of the Dead, in part," 1760