Montagu_1

Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley (1690-1762). daughter of Evelyn, Duke of Kingston, and Lady Mary Fielding, daughter of the Duke of Denbigh, was born at Thoresby, in Nottinghamshire. She was a child of great promise, and learned Greek, Latin, and French with her brothers. At twenty she translated part of Epictetus's works, and at twenty-two she married, living for a time with her husband at Wharncliffe, till on his becoming a minister she accompanied him to London, where she made the acquaintance of Addison, Congreve, Pope, and other men of mark. In 1716 Mr. Montagu was appointed ambassador to the Porte, and she accompanied him to Turkey, whence she wrote her wellknown Letters. While here she adopted the Turkish practice of inoculation for the small-pox, and endeavoured to introduce it into England. In 1718 she returned to England, and, at Pope's request, took ,up her abode at Twickenham, where the poet and she were fast friends for a time, but then quarrelled and became as keen enemies. From 1739-61 she lived on the Continent, mostly at Venice, but at her husband's death she returned, and herself died the next year. She wrote poems of some merit, but her great point was correspondence, in which she ranks second only to Madame Sfjvigne among female letter-writers. Her Correspondence, Poems, Essays, with Life (6 vols.), were published in 1803, and there have been several later editions.