BEAU BRUMMELL

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 December 1934, Page 4

BEAU BRUMMELL

LAST RESTING PLACE The gi’.aye. of Beau. Brummell, a century after his death, draws a steady stream of British and American visitors to the little Protestant cemetery in Caen, France. George Bryan Brummell, once the tsar of London’s fashion, and the intimate of kings, princes, lords, and wits, who died in dire want, a victim of his own honesty and public spirit. Gaining table losses drove him to Calais in 1816. In 1830 the influence of some of his few remaining friends obtained for him the British Consul ship at Caen. After two years he replied truthfully to a circular from the Foreign Office that there was insufficient business to justify a Consulate. It was abolished. Deprived of this last resource, Brumniell lingered on in a debtors’ prison or a hotel room until he had sold all of his possessions Falling ill, he was taken to the asylum of the Good Sav-

iour, where he died. A simple stone marks the last resting place. The epitaph reads: “In memory of George Brummell, Esq., who departed this life on the 29th day of March, 1840, aged 62 years.”