"Brummel's morning dress was similar to that of every other gentleman.
Hessians and pantaloons, or top-boots and buckskins, with a blue coat
and a light or buff-coloured waistcoat, of course fitting to admiration
on the best figure in England. His dress of an evening was a blue
coat and white waistcoat, black pantaloons, which buttoned tight to
the ankle, striped stockings, and opera-hat; in fact he was always
carefully dressed, but never the slave of fashion.
"Brummel's tailors were Schweitzer and Davidson in Cork Street; Weston;
and a German of the name of Meyer, who lived in Conduit Street. The
trousers which opened at the bottom of the leg, and were closed by
buttons and loops, were invented either by Meyer or Brummel. The Beau,
at any rate, was the first who wore them, and they immediately became
quite the fashion and continued so for some years."
Brummel was addicted to practical jokes, one of which may be related.
The victim was an old French emigrant, whom he had met on a visit
to Woburn or Chatsworth, and into whose hair-pouch he managed to
introduce some finely-powdered sugar. Next morning the poor Marquis,
quite unconscious of his head being so well-sweetened, joined the
breakfast-table as usual; but scarcely had he made his bow and plunged
his knife into the Perigord pie before him, than the flies began to
desert the walls and windows to settle upon his head. The weather was
exceedingly hot; the flies of course numerous, and even the honeycomb
and marmalade upon the table seemed to have lost all attraction for
them. The Marquis relinquished his knife and fork to drive off the
enemy with his handkerchief. But scarcely had he attempted to renew
his acquaintance with the Perigord pie, than back the whole swarm
came, more teazingly than ever. Not a wing was missing. More of the
company who were not in the secret, could not help wondering at this
phenomenon, as the buzzing grew louder and louder every moment. Matters
grew still worse when the sugar, melting, poured down the Frenchman's
brow and face in thick streams; for his tormentors then changed their
ground of action, and having thus found a more vulnerable part, nearly
drove him mad with their stings. Unable to bear it any longer, he
clasped his head with both hands, and rushed out of the room in a cloud
of powder, followed by his persevering tormentors, and the laughter of
the company.
Brummel was the autocrat of the world in which he moved. It has been
said that Madame de Staël was in awe of him, and considered her having
failed to please him as her greatest misfortune; while the Prince of
Wales having neglected to call upon her, she placed only as a secondary
cause of lamentation. The great French authoress, however, was not
without reason in her regrets; to offend or not to please Brummel was
to lose caste in the fashionable world, to be exposed to the most
cutting sarcasm and the most poignant ridicule.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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