Famous in Literature

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6626, 12 August 1931, Page 10

Famous in Literature

Who: LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU. Where: England. When,: Seventeenth to eighteenth centuries .

Why famous: An English letterwriter and a tamous figure in literary circles of tfie first hau of tfie eigfitcenth century. Sho was left to tfie care of her father, later Duke of Kingston, and, having been even as a cniid extraordinarily beautiful and witty, sho was his great joy and pride. There has long been a favourite tradition that, when only eight years old, Lady Mary had tho toast of tho KitKat Club as her father boastfully held her aloft for all to admire. Though she received little education of tne stereotyped sort, one or two of her eiders abetted her own natural intelligence. It was the period of pompous and leisurely letter-writing, and imdy Mary early took up the habit. She carried on an animated correspondence with her friend, Mary Asteil, champion of women's rights, and witn her future sister-in-law, Anne Wortley Montagu. It was excellent practice for her later, more brilliant and polished products. When her father put obstacles in the way of her marriage, the spirited girl eioped with Edward Wortley Montagu, in 1712. For a time they lived a simple, obscure life in the country ; then Montagu was appointed Ambassador to Constantinople which meant for them the thrill of an important progress to Venice, then proceeding further east. The expencnce increased vastly the lady's flow of minutely written, criss-crossed letters, there was so much to describe of the colour and custom of tho East. Many of her letters were addressed to Alexander Fope, who replied in kind and appears to have used his correspondence as a means to the pointing and polishing of his already fluent style. After the Montagus returned to London, the letters to Fope ceased and a quarrel took place, as to the cause of which there is considerable conjecture. Again and again Fope attached Lady Alary in print, in veiled allusions, of course, as was the fashion of the day ; but the offense was there nevertheless. For 20 years Lady Mary adorned social and literary circles of London; then she vanished again abroad, living at Avignon and at Brescia, visiting Horace Walpole at Florence. Bhe returned to England only as an elderly woman, to finish her days in the company of her daughter, Countess of Bute.