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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Beau Brummell
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(George Brummell, 1778–1840) The epitome of the *Regency rake and dandy. A sharp wit, a good dress sense, a private fortune and the friendship of the prince of Wales (the future *George IV) made him in his twenties the arbiter of taste in London. But he was no royal sycophant. He quarrelled with his patron in 1812, and when meeting Lord Alvanley and the prince at a ball the following year is said to have asked Alvanley: 'Who's your fat friend?' By 1816 his gambling debts were such that he fled to France, where he lived a long and pathetic existence before dying in an asylum.
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