The Annals of Almack's by E. Beresford Chancellor

Author:E. Beresford Chancellor [Chancellor, E. Beresford]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 19369168
Publisher: Anglocentria
Published: 2012-05-17T14:00:00+00:00

“The fair damsel is gone; and no wonder at all

That, bred to the dance, she is gone to a ball.”

Of Jack Talbot, that champion and idol of the fair sex, who used to say that he would sooner disoblige his father or his best friend than a pretty woman, I need not say much. He was a friend of Brummell and Alvanley, and, indeed, so far as can be ascertained, of anyone with whom he was brought in contact; he had, however, two failings, and they were—claret and sherry. Alvanley once said that if he were tapped, more of the former wine than of blood would have been found in his veins; and he is known to have drunk the latter at breakfast, as an ordinary man drinks tea or coffee.

It was hardly appropriate that he should be found dead in his chair, with half a bottle of sherry still left standing on the table beside him!

Another of the same gay set was Scrope Davies, who was such an admirer of Tom Moore's genius that he used to say the proper translation of the Horatian line, “Ubi plura nitent, non ego paucis offendar maculis,” was “Moore shines so brightly that I cannot find fault with Little’s vagaries”; while he rendered Ne plus ultra as “Nothing better than Moore” He was, indeed, particularly ready in repartee and quotation, and was the type of the Dandy—plus mind. It is probable that he is best remembered by his reply to Brummell’s appeal for money on the eve of the latter’s departure for Calais:

“My dear Scrope,” wrote Brummell, “Lend me £500 for a few days; the funds are shut for the dividends, or I would not have made this request.” Quick as lightning came the reply: “My Dear Brummell, all my money is locked up in the funds.”

The name of “Poodle” Byng is one that greets us continually in the pages of the social annals of this period. As we have seen, his familiar prefix was the hook on which Brummell hung one of his witty sayings; and, indeed, it was asserted that the nickname had been first given him because he was accustomed to drive out in his “tilbury“ with a poodle by his side. Had this been so, then Brummell’s remark would have lacked what little wit can be attached to it; but, as a matter of fact, Byng, or rather the Hon. Frederick Byng, to give him his proper designation, himself once gave its true origin. When young, he was noted for his thick curly head of hair, and Lady Bath and Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, were both wont to call him “their poodle” on this account.

“Kangaroo” Cooke, so called because, on once being asked by the Duke of York what sort of food he got in the Peninsula, replied that “he could get nothing to eat but kangaroo,” and “Dan” Mackinnon, noted for his agility and his love of practical joking, and of whom Grimaldi once said that ‘Colonel Mackinnon

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