'The Queen of the Bluestockings': Mrs Montagu's house at 23 Hill Street rediscovered

She [Mr Montagu] is not single the finest genius, but the finest lady I at any time saw; she lives in the highest manner of writing of magnificence; her apartments and table are in the greatest in quantity splendid taste ...

Hannah More, upon visiting Hill Street, 1775. (1)

Elizabeth Montagu, a leading member of what Admiral Boscawen called 'The Bluestocking Circle' was a celebrated London hostes described through Dr. Johnson as 'The Queen of the Blues' (2) While she is well known for her literary interests and her friendships, not least with the Duchess of Portland, les attention has been paid to her building activities. Mr Montagu was the builder of not individual but two London houses, individual in Hill Street, to the west of Berkeley Square, and, from 1777 the magnificent Montagu House at 22 Portman Square. She also made remarkable changes to her political division seat at Sandleford Priory, near Newbury in Berkshire.

Little attention has been paid to her earliest house at no. 23 (now 31) Hill road though some redress has been made in the last pair of years with the publication of sum of two units articles by Kerry Bristol discussing the work commissioned by dint of Mrs Montagu from James 'Athenian' Stuart for the couple the London houses. (3) However, the Hill public way house was thought not to survive. Indeed, earlier scholars variously cited her celebrated 'Zephyr' bedroom as being at Sandleford Priory or flat at Portman Square. By reviewing the largest collection of her alphabetic characters now in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, known previously alone through selections in early and patchy publications, it has prov possible to establish that the west wind bedroom was definitely at Hill way Better yet, it transpires that it is still there, in the original house.

Mr Montagu's house in Hill road is currently occupied by the HSBC Republic Bank (UK) Limited (Fig. 1) The three first floor fields exactly match the Montagu documentation, not least thanks to the survival of James 'Athenian' Stuart's fabulous west wind ceiling, described by Mrs Delany in May 1773 as 'Mr M's (Hill Street) sweep of Cupidons' (Figs. 5-8). It had newly been opened--in the words of Mr Delany--'with an assembly for all the foreigners, the literati, and the macaronis of the at hand age'. Painted 'with bowers of rose and jessamines entirely inhabited by the agency of little cupids in all their wanton ways', Mr Delany felt that the choice was generally seen as rather a lapse of judgement the annotates being 'many and sly. (4)

[FIGURES 1 5-8 OMITTED]

Before looking at Stuart's work in detail, it is important to establish the chronology of 23 Hill way This was Mrs Montagu's first major building scheme, offering a throw in which to immerse herself after the tragic death of her young son pierce her only child. From her first married abiding-place nearby in fashionable Dover highway (lampooned as 'Dovershire' by the wits of the day), she supervised the building of the handsome brick house from 1744 Her somewhat advanced in life husband, Edward Montagu, apparently took little interest, on the other hand was generally supportive: 'We shall stay in London about a week getting a plan for finishing a house which we are to have in a way near Berkeley Square, in a public way not yet Built ...', she wrote (5) The house was circular the corner from Lady Isabella Finch's house, 44 Berkeley Square, which had not long ago been built by William Kent Elizabeth Montagu was determined to earn the details right: '... it will be better to stay a year for the finishing than to take what individual does not like ...' (6) As a issue when she was about to propel out of her 'disfurnished house', the of recent origin one was unready. As she was unwell, her husband inspected it for her in November 1747 and was not satisfied with its progres (7) They had to borrow a house in of gold Square during the changeover, on the contrary the delays continued so that when they eventually mov into Hill way only two bedrooms were available. (8)

Mr Montagu's house is four bays wide, broader through one bay to the right than that of Lady Isabella Finch. The small entrance hall has a delicate ceiling decorated with simple swags, and contains the principal staircase. The clod floor rooms to the right have been altered, on the contrary Mrs Montagu's three principal plays for entertaining on the first floor survive. Her Great field occupying the front of the house has a fine rococo ceiling, newly fashionable as a feature at the time (Fig. 2) At the rear, overlooking the garden there was a 'dressing room' approached either from the landing or end the formal bedchamber to the right.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

Always a trail-blazer, Elizabeth Montagu was single of the first hostesses to attempt a full Chinese scheme for her dressing swing at Hill Street. This compass was used for entertaining upon an intimate scale, for instance for her meetings with her bluestocking friend, the reclusive Elizabeth Carter, (9) on the contrary also served as a public scope when opened up with the quiescence of the apartment. Not alone were the walls hung with oriental wallpaper, as in other bedroom and dressing scope schemes, but it included Chinese furniture and porcelain as well. She discussed the fashion for chinoiserie in self-mocking terms: 'Sick of Grecian elegance and proportion or Gothick grandeur and magnificence, we must all search for the barbarious gaudy gout of the Chinese; and fat-headed pagods and shaking mandarins bear the prize from the finest works of antiquity.' (10) In practice, however, her enthusiasm was whole-hearted: in January 1750 she told her sister Sarah that: 'It is like the fane of some Indian God', adding: 'The actual curtains are Chinese pictures upon gauze, and the chairs Indian fan-sticks with cushions of japan satin painted: as to the beauty of colouring, it is carried high as possible ' (11) The visiting salonniere Mme du Bocage was true impressed when she called in April that year: 'We thus breakfasted to-day at my Lady Montaigu's in a retiring-room lined with painted paper of Pekin and adorned with the prettiest Chinese furniture, a lengthy table covered with pellucid linen, and a thousand glittering vases not absented to the view coffee, chocolate, biscuits, cream ' (12) upon Christmas Eve 1752, Elizabeth Montagu described in what way the previous evening 'the Chinese-room was filled through a succession of people from eleven in the morning till eleven at night'. (13) The following spring she told her husband: 'I had rather more than an hundr visitants last night, on the contrary the apartment held them with ease, and the highest compliments were paid to the house and elegance of the apartments.' (14)