Table Of ContentBY 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
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. , 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
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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
