A dashing young colonel
David Packer, a State Apartment Warder Team Leader at Hampton Court Palace, tells the tale of the dashing young man who melted women's hearts.
At the end of January 1827 Colonel Sir Horace Seymour moved into apartments in the southwest corner of Base Court. His arrival caused something of a stir among the younger ladies at Hampton Court. Very recently widowed, a Knight, a Colonel, a hero of Waterloo and still only in his mid thirties, he was a dashing and eligible figure indeed.
His attendance at Chapel Royal services was soon accompanied by fainting fits, the unfortunate ladies somehow always managing to fall into his arms!
After three successive Sundays these inexplicable episodes caused Seymour’s formidable aunt, Lady Seymour, also resident at the Palace, to post a note on the Chapel doors stating that any young ladies that were taken ill would henceforth be aided by “Branscome the Dustman” rather than her gallant nephew. Strangely enough the unfortunate fainting fits stopped as swiftly as they had begun.
