Volume II Part 33 (2/2)
Brummell took flight to Dover, and crossed to Calais. 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 d.u.c.h.ess 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'., lines 79, 80):
”Why should I faint when all with patience hear, And laureat Pye sings more than twice a year?”
His birthday odes were so full of ”vocal groves and feathered choirs,”
that George Steevens broke out with the lines:
”When the 'pie' was opened,” etc.
Pye's 'magnum opus' was 'Alfred' (1801), an epic poem in six books.]
[Footnote 4: David Mallet, or Malloch (1705-1765), is best known for his ballad of 'William and Margaret', his unsubstantiated claim to the authors.h.i.+p of 'Rule, Britannia', and his edition of Bolingbroke's works.
He was appointed, in 1742, under-secretary to Frederick, Prince of Wales.]
240.--To Professor Clarke [1].
St. James's Street, June 26, 1812.
Will you accept my very sincere congratulations on your second volume, wherein I have retraced some of my old paths, adorned by you so beautifully, that they afford me double delight? The part which pleases me best, after all, is the preface, because it tells me you have not yet closed labours, to yourself not unprofitable, nor without gratification, for what is so pleasing as to give pleasure? I have sent my copy to Sir Sidney Smith, who will derive much gratification from your anecdotes of Djezzar, [1] his ”energetic old man.” I doat upon the Druses; but who the deuce are they with their Pantheism? I shall never be easy till I ask _them_ the question. How much you have traversed! I must resume my seven leagued boots and journey to Palestine, which your description mortifies me not to have seen more than ever. I still sigh for the aegean. Shall not you always love its bluest of all waves, and brightest of all skies? You have awakened all the gipsy in me. I long to be restless again, and wandering; see what mischief you do, you won't allow gentlemen to settle quietly at home. I will not wish you success and fame, for you have both, but all the happiness which even these cannot always give.
[Footnote 1: Edward Daniel Clarke (1769-1822), appointed Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge, in 1808, was the rival whose travels Hobhouse was anxious to antic.i.p.ate. He is described by Miss Edgeworth, in 1813 ('Letters', vol. i. p. 205), as
”a little, square, pale, flat-faced, good-natured-looking, fussy man, with very intelligent eyes, yet great credulity of countenance, and still greater benevolence.”
<script>