Blue Stocking Circle

Blue Stocking Circle, Blue Stocking Ladies; an informal group of intelligent, learned, and sociable women, which flourished in London in the second half of the 18th cent. The origin of the name almost certainly lies with the stockings of Benjamin Stillingfleet, too poor to possess fine evening clothes, who came to the circle's evening receptions in his blue worsted stockings. The chief hostesses and female members were Mrs Vesey, Mrs Montagu, Mrs Carter, Mrs Chapone, Mrs Boscawen, Mrs Delany, and, later, H. More. As described later by Hannah More, the sole purpose of a Blue Stocking evening was to be conversation. Learning was to be given free expression, but not be disfigured by pedantry; politics, scandal, and swearing were not allowed. The company was divided evenly between men and women; among the most famous of the men in regular attendance were Garrick, Horace Walpole, Dr Johnson, Beattie, Boswell, Sir Joshua Reynolds, S. Richardson, and Lyttelton. Hannah More wrote a poem Bas Bleu (1786), describing the charm of Blue Stocking society, and characterizing the chief of her friends. The expression ‘Blue Stocking’ seems to have been applied in the 18th cent. both affectionately and derisively, but it is now used only pejoratively to describe a pedantic, earnest woman.