[Our correspondent will find the notice of King Alfred's brew-house in
the review of Ingram's _Memorials_ in the _British Critic_, vol. xxiv.
p. 139. The writer says, "There is a spot in the centre of the city
where Alfred is said to have lived, and which may be called the native
place or river-head of three separate societies still existing,
University, Oriel, and Brasenose. Brasenose claims his palace, Oriel
his church, and University his school or academy. Of these Brasenose
College is still called, in its formal style, 'the King's Hall,' which
is the name by which Alfred himself, in his laws, calls his palace; and
it has its present singular name from a corruption of _brasinium_, or
_brasin-huse_, as having been originally located in that part of the
royal mansion which was devoted to the then important accommodation of
a brew-house." Churton, in his _Life of Bishop Smyth_, p. 277., thus
accounts for the origin of the word:--"Brasen Nose Hall, as the Oxford
antiquary has shown, may be traced as far back as the time of Henry
III., about the middle of the thirteenth century; and early in the
succeeding reign, 6th Edward I., 1278, it was known by the name of
Brasen Nose Hall, which peculiar name was undoubtedly owing, as the
same author observes, to the circumstance of a nose of brass affixed to
the gate. It is presumed, however, this conspicuous appendage of the
portal was not formed of the mixed metal, which the word now denotes,
but the genuine produce of the mine; as is the nose, or rather face, of
a lion or leopard still remaining at Stamford, which also gave name to
the edifice it adorned. And hence, when Henry VIII. debased the coin,
by an alloy of _copper_, it was a common remark or proverb, that
'Testons were gone to Oxford, to study in _Brasen_ Nose.'"]
_G. Downing_.--Can any one point out to me a biography of G. Downing, or at
least indicate a work where the dates of the birth and death of this
celebrated statesman may be found? He was English ambassador in the Hague
previous to and in the year 1664, and to him Downing Street in London owes
its name. A very speedy answer would be most welcome.--From the
_Navorscher_.