SOURCE: Wharton, Grace and Philip Wharton. “Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu.” In The Queens of Society, Vol. 2, pp. 222-47. London: J. W. Jarvis & Son, 1890.

In the following essay, the authors provide a summary of Montagu's life, works, and significance.

Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, in his Diary, speaks of Mrs. Montagu's ‘palace, as it would be termed at Rome or Naples, in Portman Square.’ ‘The palace’ exists: we see it, somewhat secluded from public gaze, yet not secluded as in the time of its first owner, when it was encompassed with fields. In spring the earliest budding trees shade its entrance; in autumn the planes and elms near it are the first to shed their leaves. Compared with modern edifices Montagu House is not even stately: it is, at all events, only so because it stands apart; but it has the dignity of tradition. Within those walls, now blackened by London smoke...