As his almost unpronounceable
name indicates, was a native of Italy. He came to Edinburgh about the
year 1768, and was the first public teacher of riding in Scotland,
having been appointed "Master of the Royal Riding Menage," for which he
had a salary from Government. The people of Scotland are proverbial for
a hatred to long names ; so in then- hands Angelo dwindled down to plain
"Ainslie," and Tremamondo was unceremoniously discarded. " Ainslie "
lived in Nicolson Square, and was reputed to be wealthy. Having
accidentally got a small piece of steel into one of his eyes, nearly all
the physicians in Edinburgh were consulted, but without effect. At last
Tremamondo was directed to Miller, the famous occulist, who succeeded in
restoring him to his sight; but, unfortunately for the Italian, he
succeeded also in becoming his son-in-law very soon after. The Doctor,
perhaps, loved Miss Tremamondo well enough, but it afterwards appeared
he had likewise "cast an eye" on her papa's purse ; and, thinking that
the old fellow did not " tell out" fast enough, a lawsuit was the
unhappy consequence. Like all other lawsuits, where there is anything
like a fat goose to be plucked, it was carried on for a length of time
with various success. Kay's MS. mentions that, when Tremamondo received
the first summons from his friend of the lancet, he was transported into
a regular tornado of passion. He tore down a picture of his daughter
which hung iu the parlour, and, dashing it in pieces, threw it into the
fire. While the old Italian and his son-in-law were thus pulling aud
hauling, the daughter, like a too sensitive plant, died of a "broken
heart." Tremamondo died at Edinburgh, in April, 1805, aged eighty-four.
Of the Riding-Master's early history, very little
is known; but from a work published by his nephew in 1880, entitled "Eeminiscences
of Henry Angelo," we are made acquainted with the fact of his having an
elder brother of the same profession, and who resided principally in
London.
In these
reminiscences Angelo the younger speaks very highly of his father,
Dominico Angelo Malevolti Tremamondo—not only was he the best "master of
equitation," but one of the most "scientific swordsmen of the day;" and
so well proportioned in lith and limb, as to be equally fitted for a
"gallant in love, or a hero in war."
Angelo the elder was a native of Leghorn. His
father being a wealthy merchant there, intended him for the
counting-house, but the ledger had no charms for the handsome Tremamondo,
who determined to push his fortune by other means. He accordingly
visited various parts of the Continent, and soon found his way to Paris,
at that time if not now the gayest and most polite city in the world;
and so effectually did Tremamondo cultivate every external
accomplishment, that he became proverbially one of the most elegant men
of the age, "the gayest of the gay."
Not long before he left Paris, a public
fencing-match took place at a celebrated hotel, at which were present
the most renowned professors and amateurs of the science. Tremamondo was
persuaded by the Due de Nivernois to try his skill. No sooner had he
entered the lists than a celebrated English beauty, Miss Margaret
Woffington, the well-known actress, presented him with a bouquet of
roses, which, as we are told, he placed on his breast with the most
exquisite gallantry, and, addressing the other knights of the sword,
exclaimed, "This will I protect against all opposers." Tremamondo fenced
with the best of them, but none could disturb a single leaf of his
bouquet.
While in Paris,
Treaiamondo had formed an acquaintance with a French officer, who
boasted much of his fencing abilities. Motives of jealousy induced him
to waylay our hero one night, who happened to be only armed with a
couteau de chasse, a small sword usually worn in undress. Tremamondo,
acting on the defensive for some time, at last made a home-thrust at the
officer, who fell, and there was every reason to think he was mortally
wounded. The officer was taken home. Next day Tremamondo visited him,
and although he found him in bed gasping, he did not think there was
enough of alteration in the officer's countenance for so serious an
injury. He immediately suspected there had been deception, and, throwing
the bed-clothes suddenly off, discovered the officer's cotte de maille.
The officer ashamed at his cowardly conduct, and dreading the stigma,
implored secrecy and forgiveness.
Shortly after our hero's arrival in London, he
married Miss Masters, whose father had commanded the Chester man-of-war.
About the year 1758, he was engaged by the Princess Dowager of Wales,
"to teach the young princes the use of the small sword, and subsequently
to teach them to ride in the menage."—"During this time," continues
Angelo the younger, "my father frequently took me thither, when he
attended his royal pupils, and I rarely came away without a pocketful of
sweetmeats." At an interview with the King, on which occasion Tremamondo
displayed the various styles of riding on his favourite horse Monarch,
among others that of riding the "great horse," his Majesty was pleased
to declare that Angelo was the most elegant horseman of his day; and it
was in consequence of this interview that the King persuaded Mr. West,
the celebrated artist, when he was commissioned to paint the picture of
the "Battle of the Boyne," to make a study of Tremamondo for the
equestrian figure of King William. He also sat to the sculptor for the
statue of King William, subsequently set up in Merrion Square, Dublin.
While in London, Tremamondo was challenged to a
trial of skill with a Dr. Keys, reputed the most expert fencer in
Ireland. The scene of action was in an apartment of the Thatched House
Tavern, where many ladies and gentlemen were present. When Tremamondo
entered, arm-in-arm with his patron, Lord Pembroke, he found the Doctor
without his-coat and waistcoat, his shirt sleeves tucked up, and
displaying a pair of brawny arms—the Doctor being a tall athletic
figure. After the Doctor had swallowed a bumper of Cogniac, he began the
attack with great violence. Tremamondo acted for some time on the
defensive, with all the grace and elegance for which he was renowned,
and after having planted a dozen palpable hits on the breast of his
enraged antagonist, be made bis bow to the ladies, and retired amid tbe
plaudits of the spectators.
Angelo the younger relates another anecdote of his
father, which he calls "a fencing-master's quarrel." Shortly after
Tremamondo's appointment as fencing-master to the Prince of Wales and
the Duke of York, a Mr. Eedman, an Irishman, who bad been formerly
patronised by tbe royal family, was continually abusing Tremamondo for a
foreigner, and for having supplanted him. They met one day in the
Hayrnarket, where words ensued, and then blows—the Irishman with a
shillelah, and the Italian with a cane. On this occasion also,
Tremamondo was victorious, having broke bis opponent's head; but next
day, to wipe off the disgrace of having fought like porters, be
challenged bis rival to meet him with swords, but Eedman answered that
be would put him in "the Crown Office," and immediately entered an
action against him in the King's Bench, which ended in Tremamondo having
to pay £100 damages, and £90 costs.
So much for the gallant Dominico Angelo Malevolti
Tremamondo. We find little more recorded of him than that he was
acquainted with almost all the celebrated characters of his day, whether
of the "sock and buskin," or the gymnastic "art of equitation." He was
generous in the extreme, and Angelo the younger bad an opportunity at
his father's well-replenished table of forming a most extensive and
interesting acquaintance.
Old Dominico died at Eton in 1802, aged eighty-six, and was so much in
possession of his faculties that be gave a lesson in fencing the day
before his death. |