Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-08-08
Beau BrummelI.

The London correspondent of the Sunday
Times gives the following account of Beau
Brummell:
The real story of Brummell, had the people
been SO astute as to seize its leading points, is
amusing as romance. The audacious inso-
lence with which he trampled down the haugh-
tiness of the high nobility Of England was
splendid because successful. His grandfather
kept small confectionery shop in Bury street,
st. Jamess, London, and let lodgings. The
first Lord Liverpool, then almost obscure,
lodged in his house, took his son as secretary,
got him office under Lord North, and allowed
him to feather his nest so well that on his death,
in 1884, there was f65,000 to divide among
two sons and a daughter. George, the second,
was educated at Elton, and dressed SO well, while
early in his teens, that the prefix of Beau y
was then put to his name. In Oxford, he at.
fected to be exclusive, and, on his fathers
death, in 1854, at the age of sixteen, was pre-
sented with a cornetcy, in the 10th Hussars, by
the Prince of Wales, colonel of that regiment.
Henceforth, he was the princes constant COM
panion. In two years he was captain, and
then threw up his commission, and set up as
gentleman at large. This was before he was
twenty-one, and the only reason assigned was,
that the regiment was ordered to Manchester,
which he considered decidedly vulgar.
He started as an independent gentleman, on
ESQ, 000-a small sum for carrying on such a
Observation-Disclosures small for one whose
wardrobe cost him $4,000 year, and who en-.
tertained fashion and even royalty at his table.
No man dressed better; simply, but rich, with
elegance and taste. In this he eclipsed his
much pulled successor, d. Orsay, whose snowy
attire made him look what he was-a tailor's
walking advertisement. The Prince of Wales,
whose wardrobe has cost 100000, vas Brum.
mell's greatest rival, until corpulence, which he
hated, destroyed all his reasonable pretensions
to the throne Of dandyism. Simplicity, of the
most studied kind, was Brummell's great sys-
tenn.
He mixed and visited in the first circles, for
he was young, handsome, satirical, and the
fashion. He rode well and was good shot,
but affected to despise Melton and the phea.
SAINTS, on the plea that both were too trouble
some. His great reform was in the neckcloth,
which then was sort of white muslin padding.
He introduced the moderate use Of starch,
| which gave the necessary stiffness, and dis
pensed with the pad. He was curious in his
tie; if the cravat did not glide into it at the
first touch, he threw it aside and tried another.
His valet, who was met with heap of these
rumpled neckcoths on his arm, solemnly said
These are our failures"
The Prince of Wales euarreled with him,
after nearly twenty years intimacy. The story
runs that, in the Princes drawing room he
said, Wales, ring the bell" which was done,
and when the servant came in, the Prince said |:
Order Mr.. Brummell's carriage The beau
denied this, and attributed his quarrel to some
thing he had said about Mrs. Fitzherbert stout.
ness. This was about 1911. Brummell con-
tinued king of fashion though he had quarreled
with the prince. But he took to gaming. In
1914, he lost all he had, and 10000 more !;
raised what money he could and retreated to
Calais attributed his bad luck to his having
parted with "a lucky sixpence," which, he
maintained, Rothschild must have got posses
sion of; was supported in his exile by his
brother and sister; was so liberal, when his
remittances came, that the beggars called him
"Le Roi de Gals Isl" was made British consul
at Caen, on the mediation of Wellington with
George ~; was removed, without compensa-
ton, when that consulate was abolished; lost
his senses spent his last hours in hospital,
for lunatic mendcants and died March I'd,
1910.
There, in q nutshell, is the true history of
Brummell.