London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History -- 1800-1950
Let us conclude this short account of the poor moth, basking in the
royal sunshine for awhile, with one or two anecdotes. One day a
youthful beau approached Brummell, and said: ’Permit me to ask you where
you get your blacking?’ ’Ah,’ said the beau, ’my blacking positively
ruins me. I will tell you in confidence—it is made with the finest
champagne!’ He was once at a party in Portman Square. On the cloth
being removed, the snuff-boxes made their appearance; Brummell’s was
particularly admired; it was handed round, and a gentleman, finding it
somewhat difficult to open, incautiously applied a desert-knife to the
lid. Brummell was on thorns, and at last could contain himself no
longer, and addressing the host, he said, loud enough to be heard by the
company: ’Will you be good enough to tell your friend that my snuff-box
is not an oyster?’
England has had no regular beau since the time of Brummell, though
occasionally some crack-brained individual has attempted to wear his
mantle. Such a one was Ferdinand Geramb, a tight-laced German General
and Baron, who in the second decade of this century strutted about the
parks, conspicuous for his ringlets, his superb moustaches, and immense
spurs. It was asserted that he was a German Jew, who, having married the
widow of a Hungarian Baron, assumed her late husband’s title. His fiery
moustaches were closely imitated by many illustrious personages, and
gold spurs several inches long became the fashion—one fool makes many.
It is to him the British army is indebted for the introduction of hussar
uniforms. Having to leave England under the Alien Act, he went to
Hamburg, where he set himself to writing against the Emperor Napoleon,
who shut him up in the Castle of Vincennes. There, in terrible fear of
being shot, he made a vow that should he regain his liberty he would
renounce the devil and his works, and join the Trappist community. He
was released at the Restoration, and at once entered a Trappist
monastery, under the name of Brother Joseph, and in course of time
became Abbot and Procurator-General of the Order. No more fighting of
duels now, no more keeping the bailiffs who wanted to seize him for debt
at bay for twelve days in an English country house which he had
fortified; he submitted to the severest rules of the Order, and in 1831
made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and died at Rome in 1848.
*XI.*
*LONDON SEEN THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES.*
In the year 1765 a Frenchman, who did not give his name, visited London,
and afterwards published in Paris an account of his visit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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