NAPOLEON'S HAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 5, 6 January 1934, Page 11

NAPOLEON'S HAIR.

An "Observer" correspondent writes this amusing letter: — Long ago at No. 80, Piccadilly, prior to the occupancy of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, lived an old physician who counted among his treasured possessions a small blue enamel box containing a lock of the Emperor's hair. The hair was wrapped within a letter from the giver to my great-great-uncle, an aide-d'e-camp of Napoleon. In due time the casket, with its contents, passed to my mother, who likewise placed the utmost value on her possession. One day my'sister, greatly daring, took the little casket from the cabinet where it was kept and carried it —along with a large wooden horse — into the garden. Smitten with curiosity she opened the casket and unfolded the letter. A gust of wind' blew the Emperor's hair heavenward. Terrified, my sister cut off a tiny lock from the hair of the wooden horse's tail—about the same in colour —and placed it within the letter in the casket. To Tier dying day, I am thankful to relate, my mother never knew of the real contents within that valued letter and its casket.