e name came into vogue. Hannah More, in
some whimsical lines, describes a _bas-bleu_ assembly:

"Here sober Duchesses are seen,
Chaste wits and critics void of spleen:
Physicians fraught with real science,
And Whigs and Tories in alliance;
Poets fulfilling Christian duties,
Just Lawyers, reasonable Beauties,
Bishops who preach and Peers who pray,
And Countesses who seldom play,
Learn'd Antiquaries who from college
Reject the rust and bring the knowledge;
And hear it, _age_, believe it, _youth_,--
Polemics really seeking truth;
And Travellers of that rare tribe
Who've seen the countries they describe."

The brilliant woman who gathered about her such a representative
gathering of celebrities as is suggested by these lines--an assemblage
in which Dr. Johnson could discourse in one corner on moral duties,
and Horace Walpole amuse another group with his lively wit, while the
younger portion discussed the opera or the fashions--was the daughter
of Sir Thomas Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam. By her second marriage--with
a relative, Mr. A. Vesey--she resumed her maiden name. Prominent
persons, other than those mentioned, who were attracted to her salon
were Burke, Pulteney, Garrick, Lord Lyttleton, Dr. Burney, and Lord
Monboddo.

Women were not only given to shining in exclusive social circles, but
brilliant representatives of the sex were keenly interested in the
political trend of the times. The Duchess of Marlborough was one of
the most notable and politically active women of the age of Anne.
This was a time of ascendency in politics of the Dissenters, who are
described by Burton in his history of that age as a clog upon the free
movements of the complicated machinery of British social and political
life. Another of the famous women at court was the Countess of
Suffolk, who appears in Swift's correspondence as Mrs. Howard. These
women were thoroughly informed as to the political movements of their
time, as is revealed by their correspondence; and they, with others
as noteworthy, often shaped state policy. Among names which appear
prominently in the political movements of the century are those of
the Countess of Bristol, Mrs. Selwyn, who was one of the ladies of the
bedchamber to the queen of George II., Lady Hervey, and the Duchess
of Queensborough. The latter declared herself so wearied of elections
that, in all good conscience, they ought to occur only once in an age.
The Countess of Hunting