Here are the nine passages I had found in Wodehouse (in addition to the two in the Quiz) about aristocrats and tumbrils:

I saw him off in a cab. The last view I had of him was of his pale, drawn profile. He looked, I thought, like an aristocrat of the French Revolution being borne off to his doom on a tumbrel. (The emulator of aristocrats is Clarence Mulliner; "The Romance of a Bulb-Squeezer," Meet Mr. Mulliner)

“Then the only thing I can do is square the shoulders and face the inevitable.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Like some aristocrat of the French Revolution popping into the tumbril, what? The brave smile. The stiff upper lip.” (Bertie Wooster, “The Love That Purifies,” Very Good, Jeeves)

"I have only two things to say to you, Lord Tilbury. One is that you have ruined a man's life. The other is Pip-pip."

He passed from the room, erect and dignified, like some young aristocrat of the French Revolution stepping into the tumbril. (Monty Bodkin, Heavy Weather, Chapter 2)

Feeling like some aristocrat of the old régime sneaking away from the tumbril, Lord Emsworth edged to the exit and withdrew. (“Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend,” Blandings Castle)

I don’t say that even now we were exactly like a couple of French aristocrats waiting for the tumbril, but there was a certain resemblance. (Bertie and Gussie Fink-Nottle, The Code of the Woosters, Chapter 5)

Then slowly he turned and started for the door, moving slowly but with steady eye and squared jaw, like an aristocrat of the French Revolution walking to the tumbril. (Lord Uffenham, Money in the Bank, Chapter 27)

It seemed to me a fair cop, as I believe the expression is, and I saw nothing to be gained by postponing the inevitable. I rose, and wiped the lips with the napkin, like a French aristocrat informed that the tumbril is at the door. (Bertie again, Joy in the Morning, Chapter 27)

She did not swoon, as many an aunt would have done in her place, merely repeated the monosyllable in a slightly lower tone—-meditatively as it were, like some aristocrat of the French Revolution on being informed that the tumbril waited. (Aunt Dahlia, Much Obliged, Jeeves, US title Jeeves and the Tie That Binds, Chapter 16)

“Oh, really James, must you make such a crisis of it? You are behaving like an aristocrat of the French Revolution waiting for the tumbril.” (Sir James Piper, Sunset at Blandings, Chapter 1)

Tom Boye Poulsen found another passage that I had overlooked:

It was with something of the spirit of the old aristocrat mounting the tumbrel that I forced myself to wear the mask. (Thank You, Jeeves, Chapter 22)

http://home.lagrange.edu/arobinson/wodehousetumbrils.htm

Last updated 25 July 2010