page_title: New Burlington Street
section_title: Mary Boyle's "blue-stocking" parties
hierarchical_section_title: New Burlington Street / Mary Boyle's "blue-stocking" parties
caption_attribution_description: English: Mary Boyle (presumably oil on canvas)
context_page_description: New Burlington Street is a street in central London that is on land that was once part of the Burlington Estate. The current architecture of the street bears little resemblance to the original design of the street when first built in the early eighteenth century.
context_section_description: Mary Boyle, Countess of Cork and legendary bluestocking, had a house in the street and died there in 1840. Her home was the site of numerous literary parties over more than fifty years, attended by figures such as Dr. Samuel Johnson, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, King George IV, British Prime Minister George Canning (who once practised his debating skills at the nearby Clifford Street Club), the actors Sarah Siddons and her brother John Kemble, and the poet Lord Byron.
  Her house was described as "most tastefully fitted for the reception of her illustrious guests: every part of it abounded in pretty things — objets, as they are sometimes called, which her visitors were strictly forbidden to touch. Beyond her magnificent drawing-rooms appeared a boudoir, and beyond it a long rustic room, with a moss-covered floor, with plants and statues".
  Boyle's parties were of two kinds: "fine-lady parties, which she called pink; her blue-stocking parties, which she called blue; and, more frequently, a mixture of both. At the last, she would assemble two or three fine ladies, two or three wits or poets, two or three noblemen and distinguished members of the House of Commons, and one or two of her own family, seldom exceeding ten or twelve, at a round table".
caption: Mary Boyle, Joshua Reynolds, c.1777–1778
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