jilted over a cabbage

Beau Brummel was, for a period, the fashion arbiter for Regency England. His dictum was “A life of leisure is a difficult art… boredom is as depressing as an insistent creditor.”

He became a friend of the future George IV, who was a good bit older but impressed with Brummel’s wit and dress. The Prince of Wales, or Prinny*** as he was called, was quite a flashy dresser. For his first speech in the House of Lords he showed up in pink high heels which matched the pink satin lining of his black velvet, gold-embroidered (and pink-spangled) suiting. While known as a flashy dresser today, Brummel in fact believed in a much more sober style and less bright colors and he quickly converted the Prince from a fop into a dandy.

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Brummel favoured starched muslin neckcloths which had to be tied just so. The collar, which was always fixed to the shirt, was so large that, before being folded down, it completely hid his head and face, and the white neckcloth was at least a foot in height. The first coup d’achet was made with the shirt collar, which he folded down to its proper size, and then, standing before the looking glass, with his chin poked up towards the ceiling, by the gentle and gradual declension of his lower jaw he creased the cravat to reasonable dimensions.

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Asked for the address of his hairdresser Brummel replied: “I have three: the first is responsible for my temples, the second for the front and the third for the occiput.” When he was asked at a dinner whether he liked vegetables, he said he had never eaten any, adding after a pause: “No, that is not quite true – I once ate a pea.” He was said to have jilted a woman because she ate cabbage.

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***Today, George IV is remembered mostly for his extravagant lifestyle of drinking, womanising and gambling that scandalised the country and got him heavily into debt. It is reported that every time he had intimate relations with a woman he would cut a lock of her hair and place it in an envelope with her name on it. Upon his death an astounding 7000 such envelopes were discovered.

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