confirmed it. (Hearne's _Diaries_, v.2.)

{6} Mrs. Thrale writes Dr. _Lee_, but there can be no doubt of the
identity of person.

{31} The celebrated Beau Brummel, who was so intimate with George IV. as
to be able to quarrel with him, was born in 1771. It is reported that
when he was questioned about his parents, he replied that it was long
since he had heard of them, but that he imagined the worthy couple must
have cut their own throats by that time, because when he last saw them
they were eating peas with their knives. Yet Brummel's father had
probably lived in good society; and was certainly able to put his son
into a fashionable regiment, and to leave him 30,000 pounds. {31a} Raikes
believes that he had been Secretary to Lord North. Thackeray's idea that
he had been a footman cannot stand against the authority of Raikes, who
was intimate with the son.

{31a} Raikes's Memoirs, vol. ii p. 207.

{35} See 'Spectator,' No. 102, on the Fan Exercise. Old gentlemen who
had survived the fashion of wearing swords were known to regret the
disuse of that custom, because it put an end to one way of distinguishing
those who had, from those who had not, been used to good society. To
wear the sword easily was an art which, like swimming and skating,
required to be learned in youth. Children could practise it early with
their toy swords adapted to their size.

{41} Mrs. Gaskell, in her tale of 'Sylvia's Lovers,' declares that this
hand-spinning rivalled harp-playing in its gracefulness.