Revised and Annotated Edition from the Author's With Forty Portraits in Colour of Brummell and his Contemporaries IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME the first LONDON JOHN C. NIMMO 14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. 1886 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. "THE Life of George Brummell, commonly called Beau Brummell," by the late Captain Jesse, has been a scarce book for a long time. It is now reprinted, and a large quantity of new matter has been introduced, which had been collected by the author, but which it was not deemed prudent or delicate to insert in former editions. Many notes have also been added, as well as forty illustrations, after Dighton and others, of contemporaries of Brummell-a man who, without birth, rank, fortune, or great intelligence, established himself as the arbiter elegantiarum among a proud and exclusive aristocracy, and whose latter career was too pitiable even for comment. The Editor of this new edition has to thank the son of the late Captain Jesse for the use of his father's interleaved copy of the first edition, and also for his suggestions and supervision of the proof sheets. September, 1885. |