Scrope Berdmore Davies

Scrope Berdmore Davies (1782–1852), often given incorrectly as Scrope Beardmore Davies, was an English dandy of the Regency period. He is known as a friend of Lord Byron, the dedicatee of Byron's poem Parisina. He is the subject of a 1981 biography.

Early life He was born in 1782 in Horsley, Gloucestershire, the second son in a family of six sons and four daughters—or four sons and three daughters, according to William Prideaux Courtney —of the Rev. Richard Davies (1747–1825), and his wife Margaretta Berdmore, daughter of Scrope Berdmore.

Associations to 1820 Davies was a noted Georgian and Regency period wit: his recorded witticisms include put-downs of Charles Augustus Tulk and Frederick Goulburn.

In London Davies became one of the group of close literary friends around Byron that comprised also John Hookham Frere, John Cam Hobhouse, and Douglas Kinnaird. Byron called them the "Synod" or "Utican Senate". Of Byron's friends, Davies and Hobhouse were the two who saw him off at Dover as he left England in April 1816, and Byron gave Davies a parcel and a message for Margaret Mercer Elphinstone.

Brummell was another of Davies's associates, from Eton days. He left England in 1816 too, escaping financial troubles. His last letter, written before departing, was to Davies, asking to borrow money. Davies refused to help. Later that year Davies and Hobhouse travelled to the Villa Diodati to visit Byron, and on the way saw Brummell in Calais. In 1813 Davies challenged Lord Foley to a duel: the matter was smoothed over by Byron. Charles Greville wrote of "that set of roués and spendthrifts who were at the height of the fashion for some years", including in it John Payne.

Also in 1816, Davies and Hobhouse joined Brooks's, in a group of other Whigs including Leicester Stanhope and Thomas Raikes. Raikes was a long-time friend, who kept in touch with Davies in his own exile.

At Burdett's house in Ramsbury, Davies met Thomas Moore in 1818, and for a time they were on good terms. Moore dined with Gentleman Jackson the pugilist in Davies's rooms. He went with Davies to see the prizefight between Jack Randall and Ned Turner at Crawley Down. Captain Gronow wrote that he was a "lucky player", but eventually had little more than his Cambridge fellowship to live on.

In exile In financial difficulties, Davies left the United Kingdom in January 1820. He settled in Ostend for a time, and did not return. Another correspondent was Christopher Hughes the American diplomat, a friend from about 1826, met perhaps in Ostend or Brussels.

Dress Surviving tailor's bills for Davies are evidence for the priorities of "dandy" dressing for followers of Brummell. This was in an understated style, which can be traced back to the traditions of the Eton Montem. Key items were white shirts and neckties, light-coloured waistcoats, braces to keep up pantaloons, Hessian boots, and dark blue jackets cut away into tails. Underwear was absent. Another supposed influence on the style was the rural dress of Coke of Norfolk.

Trunk legacy Before leaving the country in 1820, Davies packed a trunk with personal papers and some literary manuscripts, and deposited it at a London private bank, properly (from 1818) then called Ransom & Co., where Kinnaird was the manager. The bank later became part of the Barclays group, and Barclays had it opened, in 1976.

Of prime literary interest in the trunk were manuscripts of poems. There was one of the third canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and of Percy Bysshe Shelley's Hymn to Intellectual Beauty and Mont Blanc in early drafts. There were also letters: from Byron, and from Lady Frances Webster (not clearly dated, but written during the period after her 1818 separation from her husband, when Davies was seriously involved in a relationship with her, and in some way with Lady Caroline Lamb). The personal papers included notes on gambling.