2-J S. IX. Mar. 10. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



183 



"The Upper Ten Thousand." — A friend states 

 that this expression is now often used, and begs 

 information as to its origin and signification. 



S. M. S. 



[The expression is supposed to come from the United 

 States, and is said by Bartlett, in his Americanisms, to 

 have been invented by that talented and amusing writer 

 N. P. Willis. 



"The upper ten thousand, and contracted The 

 upper ten : the aristocracy ; the upper circles of our 

 large cities. A phrase invented by N. P. Willis. 



" ' The seats for the first night are already many of 

 them engaged ; and engaged, too, by the very cream of 

 our upper ten.' — Letter from Philad. N. Y. Herald." 



Wilh " Upper Ten," cf. " Upper Crust." 



" Upper Crust. The aristocracy ; the higher circles. 



"'I want you to see Peel, Stanley, Graham, Shiel, 

 Russell, Macaulay, old Joe, and so on. They are all xipper 

 crust here.' — Sam Slick in England"] 



COLONEL FREDERICK. 

 (2 ud S. viii. 399. 502. ; ix. 93.) 



The query of A. A. having brought into notice 

 this unfortunate gentleman, I transcribe a few 

 memoranda respecting him from my Soho and its 

 Associations, a work which I am now preparing 

 for the press. 



In early life Colonel Frederick was secretary to 

 the great Frederick, King of Prussia, but he was 

 treated by that monarch with such proud 

 austerity that he grew tired of the service, and 

 particularly as Voltaire and other profligate 

 philosophers were suffered to converse with the 

 king at table, while Frederick was obliged to 

 retire to a corner of the room. At length, having 

 applied to the Duke of Wirtemberg, to whom 

 his father was related, he was offered protection 

 at his court. When he informed the King of 

 Prussia of this arrangement, the latter said, " Ay, 

 you may go, it is fit that one beggar should live 

 with another." The colonel afterwards joined his 

 father during his adversity in this country, and 

 supported himself as a teacher of languages, for 

 which he was well qualified. 



He used to relate that while his father was in 

 the King's Bench Prison for debt, Sir John 

 Stewart was a fellow prisoner on the same ac- 

 count. The latter had a turkey presented to him 

 by a friend, and he invited King Theodore and 

 his son to partake of it. Lady Jane Douglas was 

 of the party. She had her child, and a girl with 

 her as a maidservant, to carry the child ; she 

 lived in an obscure lodging at Chelsea. In the 

 evening, Colonel Frederick offered to attend her 

 home, and she accepted his courtesy. The child 

 was carried in turn by the mother, the girl, and 

 the colonel. On their journey he said there was a 

 slight rain, and common civility would have 

 induced hira to call a coach, but that he had no 



money in his pocket, and he was afraid that Lady 

 Jane was in the same predicament. He was 

 therefore obliged to submit to the suspicion of 

 churlish meanness or poverty, and to content 

 himself with occasionally carrying the child to 

 the end of the journey. 



This, alas ! was not the first, time that the son 

 of King Theodore had been in want of a shilling. 

 He related to the late John Taylor, of " Sun " 

 celebrity, that he was once in so much distress, 

 that when he waited the result of a petition at 

 the Court of Vienna, he had actually been two 

 days without food. On the third day a lady in 

 attendance on the Court, whom he had previously 

 addressed on the subject of his petition, observing 

 his languid and exhausted state, offered him some 

 refreshment ; he of course consenting. She 

 ordered him a dish of chocolate with some cakes, 

 which rendered him more able to converse with 

 her ; in a short time they conceived a regard for 

 each other, and were afterwards married. 



The lady, it is supposed, died a few years after 

 their marriage. The colonel had two children by 

 her; the boy became an officer in the British 

 army, and was killed in the American War ; the 

 girl was, I fancy, the " Miss Frederick " who sang 

 at some of the fashionable concerts towards the 

 latter part of the last century. She married a 

 person named Clarke, but what became of her or 

 her children I have not been able to ascertain. 

 Mr. Taylor relates that in a short interview he 

 had with her, after her father's melancholy death, 

 she showed him the great seal and some regalia of 

 the crown of Corsica, which her grandfather had 

 retained in the wreck of his fortunes. 



When Prince Poniatowski, who was afterwards 

 Stanislaus, the last King of Poland, was in this 

 country, his chief companion was Colonel 

 Frederick. They were accustomed to walk to- 

 gether round the suburbs of the town, and to dine 

 at a tavern or common eating-house. On one 

 occasion the prince had some bills to discount in 

 the city, and took Frederick with him to transact 

 the business. The prince remained at Batson's 

 Coffee-house, Cornhill, while the colonel was 

 employed on the bills. Some impediment oc- 

 curred, which prevented the affair from being 

 settled that day, and they proceeded on their 

 usual walk before dinner round Islington. After 

 their walk they went to Dolly's, in Paternoster 

 Row. Their dinner was beef-steaks, a pot of 

 porter, and a bottle of port. The bill was pre- 

 sented to the prince, who on looking over it said 

 it was reasonable, and handed it to Colonel 

 Frederick, who concurred in the same opinion, 

 and returned it to the prince, who desired him to 

 pay. " I have no money," safd Frederick. " Nor 

 have I," said the prince. " AVhat are we to do ? " 

 he added. Frederick paused a few moments, 

 then desiring the prince to remain until he 



