Watier's Club died
a natural death, in 1819, from the ruin of most of its members.
Amongst Brummell's effects at Chesterfield Street was a screen which he
was making for the Duchess of York. The sixth panel was occupied by
Byron and Napoleon, placed opposite each other; the former, surrounded
with flowers, had a wasp in his throat (Jesse's 'Life', vol. i. p. 361).
At Calais Brummell bought a French grammar to study the language. When
Scrope Davies was asked, says Byron ('Detached Thoughts'),
"what progress Brummell had made in French, he responded 'that
Brummell had been stopped, like Buonaparte in Russia, by the
'Elements'' I have put this pun into 'Beppo', which is 'a fair
exchange and no robbery;' for Scrope made his fortune at several
dinners (as he owned himself) by repeating occasionally as his own
some of the buffooneries with which I had encountered him in the
morning."
Brummell died, in 1840, at Caen, after making acquaintance with the
inside of the debtor's prison in that town--imbecile, and in the asylum
of the 'Bon Sauveur'. He is buried in the Protestant cemetery of Caen.
France has raised a more lasting monument to his fame in Barbey
d'Aurevilly's 'Du Dandysme et de Georges Brummell' (1845).]
[Footnote 3: Henry James Pye (1745-1813) was, from 1790 to his death,
poet laureate, in which post he succeeded Thomas Warton, and was
followed by Southey. Mathias, in the 'Pursuits of Literature' (Dialogue
ii. lines 69, 70), says:
"With Spartan Pye lull England to repose,
Or frighten children with Lenora's woes;"
and again ('ibid'.
Pages:
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197