pit, but found, alas, that their dialect (Geordie) was "dreadful to the auditors' nerves." Horace Walpole wrote to George Montagu in 1768: "Our best sun is Newcastle coal." Salon and cultural life In London, Elizabeth began to be a celebrated hostess. She organized literary breakfasts with Gilbert West, George Lyttelton and others. By 1760, these had turned into populous evening entertainments. Card playing and strong drink were forbidden from these convocations, which came to be now known as Blue Stocking events. By 1770, Montagu's home on Hill Street had become the premier salon in London. Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, David Garrick, and Horace Walpole were all in the circle. For writers, being introduced there meant patronage, and Montagu patronized a number of authors, including Elizabeth Carter, Hannah More, Frances Burney, Anna Barbauld, Sarah Fielding, Hester Chapone, James Beattie, James Woodhouse and Anna Williams. Samuel Johnson's hostess, Hester Thrale, was also an occasional visitor to Hill Street. Among her persistent admirers was the physician Messenger Monsey. Among the Blue Stockings, Elizabeth Montagu was not the dominant personality, but she was the woman of greatest means, and it was her house, purse and power that made the society possible. As a literary critic, she was a fan of Samuel Richardson, both Fieldings (Henry Fielding and Sarah Fielding), and Fanny Burney, and she was pleased to discover that Laurence Sterne was a distant relation through the Botham family. He entrusted her with the disposition of his papers on his departure for France, as he was in ill health and the prospect of his dying abroad was real. She was a supporter of Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Montagu also held similar events at her residence in the centre house (No. 16) of the Royal Crescent, Bath. Some years after Montagu's death, there appeared a poem by James Woodhouse, who had served the family as land bailiff and steward. This criticized her for being proud and vain. Woodhouse wrote that she patronized poets: For they could best bestow delightful dow'rs, by flattering speech, or fam'd poetic pow'rs. Bluestocking work and writing Elizabeth as a Bluestocking called the "Queen of the Blues" led and hosted the Blue Stockings Society of England from about 1750. It was a loose organization of privileged women with an interest in education, but it waned in popularity at the end of the 18th century. It