Mrs Darcy vs The Aliens

Tux’d messages became briefly very popular in civilian life during the early nineteenth century, but as with so many modern inventions, they were in fact military in origin, going back to the Peninsular War. During the brief siege of the town of Tuxedo, a messenger was sent out to request help from Wellington, who was stationed thirty miles away in Fernando, taking advantage of the local craftsmen to repair his drums.

The task of carrying the message fell to a local fishmonger named Rojo d’Arenques, who set off wearing his traditional outfit of black suit and white shirt. On the journey, his neck was grazed by a shot from a French sniper, whereupon he tore off a strip from his jacket and tied it around his neck to staunch the flow of blood. He barely survived until the end of his journey, but he succeeded in delivering his message to Wellington, who immediately changed his plans and came to the relief of Tuxedo. One of his aides, a Swedish mercenary, asked him what he was going to do about the drums, and Wellington gave his famous mis-heard reply of “You can leave the drums here in Fernando.”

In honour of Rojo d’Arenques, all messengers from that day forth were ordered to dress in the same “Tuxedo” style, with the black suit, white shirt and black neckerchief – subsequently formalised into the bow tie that would have been familiar to Elizabeth Darcy and her sister Kitty. Of course, towards the end of the nineteenth century, when the tux’d messenger service became obsolete with the arrival of the telegraph, their uniform became popular as a type of gentleman’s formal attire instead.