means dearly bought, for it rested, almost exclusively, on her “Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespear,” published by Dodsley in 1769.  Indeed, the only other writings which she committed to the press were three “Dialogues of the Dead,” appended to the Well-known “Dialogues” of her friend, Lord Lyttelton.  The “Essay” is an elegantly written little work, superficial when regarded in the light of modern criticism, but marked by good sense and discrimination.  One of the chief objects of the authoress was to defend Shakespeare against the strictures of Voltaire, and in this not very difficult task she has undoubtedly succeeded.  Johnson’s opinion of the “Essay” was unfavourable.  To Sir Joshua Reynolds’s remark, that it did honour to its authoress, he replied:  “Yes Sir:  it does her honour, but it would do nobody else honour;” and he goes on to observe that “there is not one sentence of true criticism in the book.”  But if the

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general applause which the book had excited was out of all proportion to its merits, Johnson’s unqualified condemnation was more than equally disproportionate to its defects.

Of Mrs. Montagu’s conversational abilities Johnson entertained a higher opinion. " Sir,” he would say, “that lady exerts more mind in conversation than any person I ever met with” (Miss Reynolds’s Recollections).  It was probably, indeed, to the fame of her conversation, and of the has biem parties which assembled at her house, that she owed the greater part of her reputation.  She was the acknowledged " Queen of the Blue Stockings,, although the epithet originated with a rival giver of literary parties, Mrs. Vesey, who, replying to the apology of a gentleman who declined an invitation to one of her meetings on the plea of want of dress, exclaimed, “Pho, pho! don’t mind dress!  Come in your blue stockings!” The term “Blue Stocking” (bas bleu) was thenceforward applied to the set which met at Mrs. Vesey’s, and was gradually extended to other coteries of similar character.

The charitable and beneficient disposition of Mrs. Montagu was as notorious as her intellectual superiority.  It may be interesting here to observe that after her husband’s death, in 1775, she doubled the income of poor Anna Williams, the blind poetess who resided with Dr. Johnson, by settling upon her an annuity of ten pounds.  The publication of Johnson’s “Lives of the Poets,” in 1781, occasioned a coolness between the doctor and Mrs. Montagu, on account of the severity with which, in that work, he had handled the character of Lord Lyttelton.  In September, 1783, however, Dr. Johnson wrote to the lady to announce the death of her pensioner, Miss Williams; and shortly afterwards he informs Mrs. Thrale that he has received a reply “not only civil but tender; so I hope peace is proclaimed.”  Mrs. Montagu died at her house in Portman Square, in the year 1800.-Ed.]

I was looking over the " Life of Cowley,” which Dr. Johnson had himself given me to read, at the same time that he gave to Mrs. Thrale that of Waller.’  But he bade me put it away.