28 LITERARY ASSOCIATION. 
and women from the dance and the gaming table to the 
disquisition of literature and science, as Mrs. Montagu.” 
These assemblies continued in their perfection for fifteen 
years, until 1785. It was to these assemblies that the 
term ‘‘ blue stockings’? was first applied. It originated 
from a remark made by Admiral Boscawen. One of 
those who frequently attended was Dr. Stillingfleet. 
He was a learned divine and admirable in conversation, 
but was somewhat of an oddity and sloven, and ap- 
peared in blue stockings. Whenabsent he wasso missed 
that it was said ‘‘ we can do nothing without the blue 
stockings.” From this the name ‘ Blue Stocking So- 
ciety’? was applied to these meetings, indicating that 
the full dress, then universally worn in society in the 
evening, was to be dispensed with. Hannah More has 
celebrated these gatherings in her poem entitled ‘* Bas- 
bleu or Conversation,’’?, depicting in their particular 
roles, those who especially shone there by their wit or 
learning, and distinguishing between the spirts which 
severally ruled here and in the equally noted Salons of 
Paris, and giving to the charms of conversation no 
stinted praise. 3 
Probably there is no part of the history of literary 
clubs which is so universally interesting as that which 
centres about the person of Samuel Johnson. It was he 
who coined the word ‘‘clubable’”’? and few if any have 
so exemplified it in their own persons. He has defined a 
club as ‘‘an assembly of good fellows, meeting under 
certain conditions,’ and in the different clubs of which 
he was the instigator or founder, those conditions al- 
ways were that serious and thoughtful conversation 
should rule. These clubs were his chief delight, and in 
them this hard worker found the relaxation and recrea- 
tion which lifted him above the bread-winning drudgery 
which was for a long time his lot. 
