The majority of the books in Mrs. Vesey's Library bear her autograph or bookplate. To many of them there has been added the bookplate of her nephew, Colonel George Vesey, who succeeded to his uncle's estates. He generously provided for Mrs. Vesey in her decline, and there is little doubt that it is to his care that we owe the preservation of her library in so complete a state. L

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

LIZABETH VESEY, the daughter of Sir Thomas Vesey, Bishop of Ossory, was born about 1715. She was twice married, her first husband being William Handcock.

death she took as her second husband her cousin, in 1791 at the age of 76.

Some years after Handcock's Agmondisham Vesey. She died

No biography

Of the personal history of this remarkable woman little is known. or autobiography has ever come to light, nor were the letters of which she was a prolific writer ever collected. Fortunately, nearly all the celebrated literary men and women with whom she was on intimate terms have found time and space for her in their written works. Boswell, Bennett Langton, Horace Walpole, Fanny Burney, Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Carter, and Hannah More, each and all have something to say about this "exceedingly well bred woman of such charming manners."

Through the influence of Edmund Burke Mr. Vesey was elected a member of the 'Club,' the famous coterie of literary men founded by Dr. Johnson. The' Club' was in the habit of meeting for dinner every other Tuesday, and later in the evening the members frequently repaired to Mrs. Vesey's drawing-room. These were the famous blue-stocking parties. The origin of the term is by no means clear. There is reason to believe that the following is the true account. At Bath Mrs. Vesey met Benjamin Stilling fleet, the disinherited grandson of the illustrious Bishop of Worcester. He had renounced Society, and was compelled to decline an invitation on the grounds that he did not possess clothes suitable for an evening gathering. Mrs. Vesey, with a swift glance at his everyday attire, which included small clothes and worsted stockings, exclaimed “Don't mind

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dress, Come in your blue stockings."

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Stilling fleet obeyed; and subsequently he became so popular at the conversations' that' blue stockings,' as he was called, was in great request. Such was the excellence of his conversation wrote Boswell, "that it came to be said, we can do nothing without the blue stockings, and thus by degrees the title was established." For many years Mrs. Vesey was Johnson's hostess on these occasions. The company used to collect four The company used to collect four or five deep round the Doctor's chair to hear him talk, and he was regarded as a literary lion" whose roar was deeper in its tone when he meant to be civil." A blue-stocking picture of the great literary autocrat is given by Bennett Langton who, knowing Boswell's amiable beroworship, sent him an account of an evening at Mrs. Vesey's, in which he describes how Johnson, surrounded by duchesses, lords, knights and ladies, held converse while the company listened with respectful attention.

It was in 1755 that Elizabeth Vesey first met Mrs. Montagu at Bath. The acquaintance thus formed soon ripened into a friendship that was destined to be lifelong. Mrs. Montagu's correspondence is filled with kind, sympathetic and appreciative references to the "Sylph," the title by which Mrs. Vesey was universally acclaimed. Mrs. Montagu found in her "an easy politeness that gains one in a moment, while in reserve she has good sense, and an improved mind." Of all the blue-stocking hostesses she was without question the best loved, and even Walpole was led to exclaim "What English heart ever excelled hers?"

Of Mrs. Vesey's own letters hardly any have appeared in print. Mr. Reginald Blunt, who in 1921 edited Mrs. Montagu's letters, found amongst that lady's correspondence over one hundred letters from Mrs. Vesey. A number of extracts from these letters are incorporated in his admirable essay on " The Sylph " in the October issue of "The Edinburgh Review," and I am greatly indebted to Mr. Blunt, and to the editor of the "Edinburgh" for permission to quote from that Essay.

To use Mr. Blunt's own words "That the woman who was caressed by Sterne, cherished by Walpole, and beloved by so many of the brightest and best of her day should have left so little of herself on record seems curious indeed; still more that there should be such scant chronicle of one whose drawing-room was the acknowledged centre of literary and social London, and the chosen after-dinner resort of the famous Club."

Still we can gather little characteristic glimpses of this versatile woman here and there in her letters. In 1774 she writes to Mrs. Montagu: "What think you of our admired Lord Chesterfield's letters-our country has not been long enough between the Pillars to relish his morality, but I dare say he will be the admiration of France & translated into every language, and perhaps the time is not far off when honest John may have no other Alma Mater-I adored him, not suspecting his wicked opinion of us poor harmless creatures—I wish you had begun your coquetry with him

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