Story and Photography by Terry Wieland

On the evening of May 16, 1816, just as the play was ending at Covent Garden, George Bryan Brummell slipped out of the theatre, climbed into a hired coach, and hurried south across the Thames.

At Clapham Common, hidden where it would not be recognized, his personal coach was packed and waiting.  They galloped through the night, arriving at Dover before dawn.  There he chartered a boat to carry him across the channel to Calais.