The legend that she had no female friends is further debunked by newly-discovered letters. She formed a close group with Lydia, Lady Clerke
, Sylvia (Braithwaite) Thornton
, and her fellow-writer Susannah Dobson
. The friendship between Lennox and Clerke weathered various ups and downs; when Clerke's husband died in debt, Lennox, though badly off herself, suggested in terms fitting for a sentimental heroine that they should share her current home and pool their resources.
Carlile, Susan. Charlotte Lennox. An Independent Mind. University of Toronto Press, 2018.
290-6
Sylvia Thornton owned a portrait of Lennox which she bequeathed to her sister in a codicil to her will (proved in 1793). While she left objects of sentimental value to Clerke, she left Lennox five guineas and various items of clothing: a bequest of practical value for a friend in financial straits. It remains true, however, that the Bluestocking group appears to have found CL
socially undesirable.
Perry, Ruth et al. “Introduction”. Henrietta, edited by Ruth Perry et al., University Press of Kentucky, 2008.
n39
Isles, Duncan. “The Lennox Collection (Continued)”. Harvard Library Bulletin, Vol.
JL
was taught at home by a governess; she later pronounced this the safest, healthiest, the pleasantest and most effectual as well as the cheapest form of education—though she also believed that governesses needed to be better educated and better paid, and that modern education suffered from trying to pack in too much in too short a time.
qtd. in
Howe, Bea. Lady with Green Fingers. Country Life, 1961.
27
At the time she did not want to study too much: she had an awful idea of a learned lady or bluestocking, whom I always pictured as a cross old maid, who did not like little children, and who talked in a high-flown language that very few could understand.
qtd. in
Howe, Bea. Lady with Green Fingers. Country Life, 1961.
27
Her travels with her father were also undertaken with educational aims: while abroad she worked at German, French, and Italian.
Howe, Bea. Lady with Green Fingers. Country Life, 1961.
28
Back at home she felt, ironically, a positive dislike for the study of botany, but became skilled in country arts like dairying and raising poultry.
Howe, Bea. Lady with Green Fingers. Country Life, 1961.
At the time it was supposed in upper-class circles that no well-bred girl would want to attend university, and LOM
's family were much disturbed at the idea of her turning into a bluestocking and becoming a target of gossip in their circle. Being ill-prepared academically for such a rigorous course, Lady Ottoline withdrew and returned home, but she continued to correspond with Ritchie for some years.
Darroch, Sandra Jobson. Ottoline: The Life of Lady Ottoline Morrell. Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1975.
JOF
's mother used to tell her suspense-driven fairy-tales, most of which were later published.
O’Faolain, Julia. Trespassers, A Memoir. Faber and Faber, 2014.
6
When Julia was very young they gave her nightmares.
O’Faolain, Julia. Trespassers, A Memoir. Faber and Faber, 2014.
2-3
Her father agreed to give her The Child's Encyclopedia when she asked for it as a gift, but warned her against becoming a bluestocking: Literary ladies grow hair on their faces.
O’Faolain, Julia, and Sean O’Faolain. “Afterword”. Vive Moi!, edited by Julia O’Faolain and Julia O’Faolain, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1993, p. vii - xvi.
O’Faolain, Julia. Trespassers, A Memoir. Faber and Faber, 2014.
60
Timeline item
31 May 1766 Coalmine-owner and bluestocking Elizabeth...
Coalmine-owner and bluestockingElizabeth Montagu
, who had already commented acidly on the narrowness of Newcastle streets, wrote of its people as little better than Savages.
Child, Elizabeth. “Elizabeth Montagu, Bluestocking Businesswoman”. Reconsidering the Bluestockings, edited by Nicole Pohl and Betty Schellenberg, Huntington Library, 2003, pp. 153-73.
19 June 1725 Dorothy Stanley, née Milborne, published...
The London Journal welcomed the book with a poem by an anonymous male reader who recorded how it had overcome his initial prejudice against the idea of a woman author. Richardson
probably took the name Pamela from this work. BluestockingElizabeth Vesey
owned a copy. Clara Reeve
commented in 1785 that in this version Arcadiawas thought to lose more beauties than it gained,
Reeve, Clara. The Progress of Romance through Times, Countries, and Manners. 1st ed., Printed for the author, 1785, 2 vols.
1: 79
but it was the shape in which most eighteenth-century readers encountered Arcadia. It has been edited by Dianne Osland
, as volumes 2 and 3 of Continuations to Sidney's Arcadia, 1607-1867, Pickering and Chatto
, 4 volumes, 2014.
Timeline item
19 August 1775 Exactly three months after the battle of...
Exactly three months after the battle of Lexington, bluestockingFrances Boscawen
, still eaten up with anxiety for her only surviving son, demanded rhetorically whether the colonies would, when destroyed, yield either taxes or traffic?
Guest, Harriet. Small Change: Women, Learning, Patriotism, 1750-1810. University of Chicago Press, 2000.
190
Guest, Harriet. Small Change: Women, Learning, Patriotism, 1750-1810. University of Chicago Press, 2000.
189-90
Timeline item
1785 Benjamin Stillingfleet, writer and male member...
Benjamin Stillingfleet
, writer and male member of the Bluestocking circle, edited and introduced a volume of scientific Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Natural History, Husbandry, and Physick.
Shteir, Ann B. Cultivating Women, Cultivating Science. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
16
Timeline item
13 March 2008 The National Portrait Gallery in London opened...
The National Portrait Gallery
in London opened an exhibition entitled Brilliant Women, featuring paintings and rarely seen portraits, satirical prints and personal artefacts of the Bluestocking Circle.
“Brilliant Women: 18th-Century Bluestockings”. National Portrait Gallery.
Bibliography item
M.P.; or, The Bluestocking
Moore, Thomas. M.P.; or, The Bluestocking. J. Power, 1811.
Bibliography item
Clara Reeve, Provincial Bluestocking: From the Old Whigs to the Modern Liberal State
Kelly, Gary. “Clara Reeve, Provincial Bluestocking: From the Old Whigs to the Modern Liberal State”. Reconsidering the Bluestockings, edited by Nicole Pohl and Betty Schellenberg, Huntington Library, 2003, pp. 105-25.
Bibliography item
The Bluestocking Circle: Women, Friendship, and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England
Myers, Sylvia Harcstark. The Bluestocking Circle: Women, Friendship, and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England. Clarendon, 1990.
Bibliography item
'Rags of Mortality': Negotiating the Body in the Bluestocking Letters
Magrath, Jane. “’Rags of Mortality’: Negotiating the Body in the Bluestocking Letters”. Reconsidering the Bluestockings, edited by Nicole Pohl and Betty Schellenberg, Huntington Library, 2003, pp. 235-56.
Bibliography item
Bluestocking Sapphism and the Economies of Desire
Lanser, Susan Sniader. “Bluestocking Sapphism and the Economies of Desire”. Reconsidering the Bluestockings, edited by Nicole Pohl and Betty Schellenberg, Huntington Library, 2003, pp. 257-75.
Bibliography item
Bluestocking Feminism
Chisholm, Kate. “Bluestocking Feminism”. New Rambler, 2003, pp. 60-6.
Bibliography item
Bluestocking Feminism
Guest, Harriet. “Bluestocking Feminism”. Reconsidering the Bluestockings, edited by Nicole Pohl and Betty Schellenberg, Huntington Library, 2003, pp. 59-80.
Bibliography item
The Politics of Sociability: Public Dimensions of the Bluestocking Millennium
Major, Emma. “The Politics of Sociability: Public Dimensions of the Bluestocking Millennium”. Reconsidering the Bluestockings, edited by Nicole Pohl and Betty Schellenberg, Huntington Library, 2003, pp. 175-92.
Bibliography item
Susanna Watts (1768 to 1842): author of Leicester's first guide, abolitionist and bluestocking
Aucott, Shirley. Susanna Watts (1768 to 1842): author of Leicester’s first guide, abolitionist and bluestocking. Shirley Aucott, 2004.
Bibliography item
Introduction: A Bluestocking Historiography
Pohl, Nicole, and Betty Schellenberg. “Introduction: A Bluestocking Historiography”. Reconsidering the Bluestockings, edited by Nicole Pohl and Betty Schellenberg, Huntington Library, 2003, pp. 1-19.
Bibliography item
Bluestocking Feminism: Writings of the Bluestocking Circle, 1738-1790
Kelly, Gary, editor. Bluestocking Feminism: Writings of the Bluestocking Circle, 1738-1790. Pickering and Chatto, 1999, 6 vols.
Bibliography item
Elizabeth Montagu, Bluestocking Businesswoman
Child, Elizabeth. “Elizabeth Montagu, Bluestocking Businesswoman”. Reconsidering the Bluestockings, edited by Nicole Pohl and Betty Schellenberg, Huntington Library, 2003, pp. 153-73.