Beau Brummell PDF
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BY THE SAME AUTHOR History and Biography Josephine Laval Things for the Surgeon First Gentleman of the Bedchamber Christophe: King of Haiti Fouche: The Unprincipled Patriot The Betrayers: Joachim and Caroline Murat The Wars of the Roses The Black Prince Fiction Hawkwood Hawkwood in Paris Hawkwood and the Towers of Pisa Beau Brummell HUBERT COLE ..~ ,>~)}}),, . , MASON/ CHARTER NEW YORK 1977 Copyright© 1977 by Hubert Cole All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published in the United States by Mason/Charter Publishers, Inc. Printed in Great Britain Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Cole, Hubert. Beau Brummell. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Brummell, George Bryan, 1778-1840. 2. Great Britain-Court and courtiers-Biography. 3. London Social life and customs. DA538.B6C54 1977 941.07'3'0924 [BJ 77-2462 ISBN 0-88405-593-0 To RICHARD ~ --- Contents ~ 1 Con1ing Up in the World II z Prince/y Patronage 34 3 The Dandy Club 65 4 Who's Your Fat Friend? 89 5 A Man of Fashion, Gone to the Continent IZZ 6 His Britannic Majesty's Consul 164 7 Hotel d' Angleterre 183 8 Stra111 and Bran Bread, My Good Fel/0111/ zo6 Sources zz6 Index zz9 vii --------------- Illustrations ~ Frontispiece: Beau Brummell Britifh M11reum William Brummell, the Beau's father facing page 32 . Private Collection The Brummell children: William and George The GLC at Tmrteer of the Iveagh Beq11ert, Kenwood George III, with the Prince of \Vales in his uniform as Colonel of the 10th Light Dragoon Guards 33 Reproduced by gracio11t permiuion of HA1 the Queen The entrance to Hyde Park on a Sunday 33 Radio Timer H11lto11 Picture Library An aristocratic soiree at Almack's 33 Radio Timer Hulton Picture Library The first quadrille danced in London at the beginning of the nineteenth century 33 Radio Timer Hulton Picture Library Frederica Duchess of York with some of her dogs 64 Reproduced by graciout permiuion of HM the Queen Great Subscription Rooms at Brooks's, St. James's, 1808 65 Afa,ue/1 Collection A game of whist 65 Radio Timer Hulton Picture Library ILLUSl'RAl'IONS Full dresses for May 1 808 facing page 96 Radio Ti,1,es Hulton Picture Library Dandies and dandiyettes in Hyde Park, 1818 Radio Times Hulton Picture Library Sporting inclinations 97 Mansell Collection The dandy's toilette and the dandy in public 128 Radio Times Hulton Piclztre Library Brummell in 181 5 129 Collection of the late Major]. C. Daniell 'A Voluptuary under the Horrors of Digestion': the Prince Regent 160 Radio Times Hulton Picture Library The Pavilion at Brighton, c. 1810 161 Radio Times H1ilton Picture Library Mrs Fitzherbert 192 Reprod11ced by permission of the Trustees of the Wallace Collection Queen Caroline 1 92 Victoria and Albert M11seum A banquet in the Royal Pavilion Radio Times Hulto11 Picture Library Extract from Brummell's letter to Palmerston Public Record Office, Lo11do11 The broken Beau-Bow; sketch by Brummell The British Library Brummell walking in Caen The British Library ... CHAPTER ONE Coming Up in tbe World --------------------- ----- ·- It was a warm Wednesday night in June 1780 and London was in flames. On the previous Friday the Member of Parliament for Luggershall, Lord George Gordon, had summoned a great rally of the Protestant Association in St George's Fields to support his petition for the repeal of Lord North's Catholic Relief Act of 1778. The 50,000 demonstrators marched eight abreast to West minster, going the long way round over London Bridge and the City and sweeping up the riff-raff of the rookeries and grog shops as they went. In New Palace Yard they assaulted Members and prevented them from leaving Parliament until ten o'clock at night. The drunks and mischiefmakers then began smashing the Catholic chapels attached to foreign embassies. They did the same on three succeeding nights, destroying private houses in Moor fields, where there was a large Irish Catholic colony. On Tuesday they set fire to Newgate and released three hun dred prisoners. They moved farther afield to Clerkenwell, where they broke into the Bridewell and the New Prison, and to Blooms bury, where they burned the houses of the Archbishop of York and the Lord Chief Justice. Any citizens in the neighbourhood who did not illuminate their houses in honour of these achieve ments had their windows shattered. On Wednesday morning regular soldiers and militiamen marched in from the Home Counties; on the advice of the Privy Council the King issued a Royal Proclamation authorising troops to fire without the pre sence of magistrates; artillery rumbled through the streets; by lI
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