After Garrick's death More held a strange position in literary society. Anne Stott has suggested that at this point ‘she had reached a standstill in her career’; and indeed More published little for ten years, save the popular Sacred Dramas with Sensibility: a Poem (1782) and The Bas-Bleu, or Conversation (written in 1784, published 1786). This was perhaps unsurprising given the comments of More's publisher, Thomas Cadell, who in 1780 told her she was ‘too good a Christian for an author’. Yet Garrick's patronage had at least ensured More's place in London's intellectual gatherings, giving her permanent access to a network of friendship and support. More was particularly close to the members of Elizabeth Montagu's Bluestocking circle whom she had met when she first arrived in London. These women took an ‘interest in the general advancement of women writers’ through a ‘network of individuals with mutual interests’, whose acts of patronage added ‘lustre to the broader constituency of female authors’. This was a different model of patronage to that experienced by the protégées of Johnson and Garrick (More included), who received an apprenticeship from their mentors in return for flattery; here, the Bluestockings acted as patrons to each other, offering mutual assistance, friendship and encouragement. In place of the teacher–pupil or father–daughter binaries of More's patronage relationship with Garrick, Bluestocking patronage was collaborative. By ‘asking questions, forming proposals and expecting replies’ of other members of the circle, Bluestocking writers were ‘encouraged’ ‘to develop their literary and intellectual skills’.