similar and persistent, if the present writer can trust his judgment.
They may be described as, first and foremost, a marked but not
exclusive predilection for the exercises and amusements of out-door
life, the result of sound bodies and minds, and in part, no doubt, of
a long connection with old county families of a high type. And next
a certain pertinacity, perseverance, power of endurance, doggedness,
patriotism, solidarity, or by whatever other name the spirit may be
called which leads men to do what they are doing with all their might,
to undergo training and discipline for the sake of the College, and
hang together like a cluster of bees in view of a common object.
The Headship of the River for any length of time cannot possibly be
obtained by fitful effort, or the unsustained enthusiasm of a single
leader; but rather (and herein consists its value) by a continuous,
often unconsciously continuous, effort of several years, backed up
by the general support of the College. Lastly, Brasenose seems to be
singularly central, intermediate, and in a good sense average and
mediocre. Its position and buildings, its history, its achievements,
the roll of Brasenose authors, all give evidence that the College is
a good sample of the best sort of academical foundation. A writer
who might wish to select a single College for study as a specimen of
the kind, would find the history of Brasenose neither startling nor
commonplace, neither eccentric nor uninteresting, neither full of
strong contrasts nor deficient in the signs of healthy corporate life.
Among the _alumni_ of Brasenose in this period, to omit the names of
living persons, are the following: Thomas Carte the historian (1699);
John Napleton (matr. 1755), an academical reformer; Dr. John Latham,
president of the College of Physicians (1778); Bishop Reginald Heber
(1800); Richard Harris Barham, author of the _Ingoldsby Legends_, after
whom a College club is named the Ingoldsby (1807); Henry Hart Milman,
Dean of St. Paul’s (1810); and the Rev. Frederick William Robertson,
of Brighton, the preacher (1837). Mr. Buckley has compiled a list of
more than four hundred Brasenose authors, and twenty-seven bishops or
archbishops.
VI. THE BUILDINGS, PROPERTY, ETC., OF THE COLLEGE.
The front quadrangle of the College is as it stood when the College was
first built, except that as usual an extra story was added in about
the time of James I., and that for the old mullioned windows have
been unhappily substituted in a few places modern square ones. The
Principal’s lodgings were at first, as always in Colleges, above and
about the gateway.
The _Chapel_ was originally the room now used for the Common Room,
namely, on the first floor of No. 1 staircase, and the foundation stone
was no doubt placed there as leading to the chapel. The shape of the
old chapel windows may still be seen on the outside of the south side
of the room. The present chapel was built between 26th June, 1656,
and the day of consecration (to St. Hugh and St. Chad) 17th Nov.,
1666. There is a persistent tradition that the design of the chapel
was due to Sir Christopher Wren, and that the roof at least came from
the chapel of St. Mary’s College (now Frewen Hall). In support of
this latter belief are the two facts that the roof does not appear
precisely to fit the window spaces of the building, and that the
principal rafters of the chapel and of the western part of the hall are
numbered consecutively, as if they once belonged to a single building.
The architecture of the chapel is interesting as a genuine effort to
combine classical and Gothic styles. The ceiling, with its beautiful
and ingeniously constructed fan-tracery, and the windows are Gothic,
but the internal buttresses and altar decoration are Grecian. The East
window[225] is by Hardman (1855), the West (by Pearson) was given by
Principal Cawley in 1776. Among the other painted glass is one on the
north side to F. W. Robertson. The brass eagle was given in 1731 by T.
L. Dummer; the two candelabra were replaced within the last few years,
having been formerly presented to Coleshill Church, in Buckinghamshire,
by the College. The pair of pre-Reformation chalices with pattens form
a unique possession.
The first _Library_ was the room now known as No. 4 one pair right,
and still retains a fine panelled ceiling with red and gold colouring.
The present library is of the same date as the chapel, having been
finished in 1663, and is no doubt by the same architect. The internal
fittings date from 1780, and not till then were the chains removed from
the books. Among the few MSS. are a tenth century Terence (once in
the possession of Cardinal Bembo, and therefore periodically raising
unfulfilled hopes in foreign students that it might exhibit the unique
recension of the other “Bembine Terence”) and the only MS. of Bishop
Pearson’s minor works. A large folio printed Missal of 1520 bears a
miniature of Sir Richard Sutton, with other fine illuminations. Among
the printed books are several given by the founder, Bishop Smith, and
by John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln. There is a copy on vellum of
Alexander de Ales’s commentary on the _De Animâ_ of Aristotle, printed
at Oxford in 1481; a copy of Cranmer’s Litany (1544), and of Day’s
Psalter (1563) for four-part singing. In general the library has a
large number of controversial theological pieces and pamphlets, both
of the latter part of Elizabeth’s reign and of the period succeeding
the Restoration. For the former the College is indebted to a large and
(at the time) extremely valuable donation from Dr. Henry Mason, who
died in 1647. There is also a very large quantity of the theological
literature of the eighteenth century, partly bequeathed by Principal
Yarborough, who also presented the library of Christopher Wasse; many
county histories; and many pamphlets on Oxford Reform up to and
including the time of the first Commission. In all there are about
15,000 volumes, and there is an adequate endowment from the legacy of
Dr. Grimbaldson. Mr. Willis Clark has remarked in his _Architectural
History of Cambridge_ that College libraries before the sixteenth
century usually, in both Universities, had their sides facing east and
west, the early morning light being so important; that from that time
to the Restoration, when more luxurious habits had come in, they face
north and south, and afterwards again east and west. It is singular
that of each change Brasenose Library is the earliest example.
The _Hall_ has remained almost untouched from the first. The open
fireplace in the centre under a louvre was retained until 1760 (when
the Hon. Ashton Curzon gave the present chimney-piece), and the louvre
itself is still intact but hidden above the ceiling.
The north-west corner of the quadrangle affords a striking view of
the dome of the Radcliffe and the spire of St. Mary’s, which has been
often painted and engraved. The present grass-plot was once a formal
maze or Italian garden, which is to be seen in Loggan’s view, and was
removed in October 1727, much to Hearne’s disgust, to allow of a “silly
statue” of Cain and Abel, the gift of Dr. George Clarke, who bought
it in London, being erected in the centre. This well-known statue was
for a long time believed to be an original by Giovanni da Bologna; and
its removal in 1881 and subsequent destruction excited the wrath of
the writer of the article on “Sculpture” in the ninth edition of the
_Encyclopædia Britannica_. But the external evidence points to it being
only a copy of the valuable original presented to Charles I. at Madrid,
and by George III. to the great-grandfather of the present possessor,
Sir William Worsley, of Hovingham Hall, Yorkshire.
The _Kitchen_, which forms the western part of the second quadrangle is
(as at Christ Church) as old as any part of the College. The eastern
side was till about 1840 an open cloister beneath the library, and in
it and in front of it many former members of the College were buried.
Early in the last century the College purchased the houses between
St. Mary’s and All Saints, and the idea of a front to the High Street
soon forced itself on the mind. Some very heavy classical designs are
preserved, by Nicholas Hawksmoor (about 1720), who erected the High
Street front of Queen’s College; by Sir John Soane (1807); and by
Philip Hardwick (1810); until at last a pure Gothic design by Mr. T.
G. Jackson was accepted; and by the end of 1887 a gateway and tower,
a Principal’s house, and some undergraduates’ rooms were erected,
forming on the inside a large third quadrangle, and by its front a
notable addition to the glories of the High Street. A drawing of a
more ambitious design by the same architect is framed and hung in the
College library.
The chief benefactors and property of the College are the
following--Bp. William Smith, founder, gave Basset’s Fee near Oxford,
and the entire property of the suppressed Priory of Cold Norton, lying
chiefly in Oxfordshire. Sir Richard Sutton gave lands in Burgh or
Erdborowe in Leicestershire; the White Hart in the Strand, London;
and lands in Cropredy, North Ockington, Garsington, and Cowley. The
earliest gift of all was from Mrs. Elizabeth Morley, who in 1515 gave
the manor of Pinchpoll, in Faringdon, coupled with conditions of
undertaking certain services in St. Margaret’s, Westminster. Joyce
Frankland in 1586 gave the Red Lion in Kensington, &c., and money.
Queen Elizabeth, 1572 and 1579, founds Middleton School in Lancashire,
and connects it with the College by scholarships, and by giving the
manor of Upberry and rectory of Gillingham. Sarah Duchess of Somerset
in 1679 gave Somerset Iver and Somerset Thornhill scholarships, and
alternate presentation to Wootton Rivers. William Hulme, 1691, land
producing £40 a year for four exhibitions, tenable at Brasenose, from
Lancashire; the property increased enormously in value, being in the
Hulme district of Manchester, and now provides, besides High Schools
for boys and girls at Manchester, and a Hulme Hall connected with the
Victoria University, eight Senior and twelve Junior Exhibitions, of the
value of £120 and £80 respectively. Sir Francis Bridgeman in 1701 gave
money for an annual speech, originally in praise of James II.
_Pictures, busts, &c._
In the Hall are pictures of King Alfred[226] (modern), Bp. William
Smith (founder), Sir Richard Sutton (founder), Joyce Frankland
(benefactress, with a sixteenth century watch in her hand), Alexander
Nowell (Principal), Bp. Frodsham Hodson (Principal), William Cleaver
(Principal), Thomas baron Ellesmere, Dr. John Latham, John Lord
Mordaunt (benefactor), Samuel Radcliffe (Principal, two), Sarah Duchess
of Somerset (benefactress), Robert Burton, Thomas Yate (Principal),
Francis Yarborough (Principal), Bp. Ashurst Turner Gilbert (Principal),
Edward Hartopp Cradock (Principal). The Brazen Nose is fixed in a frame
beneath the picture of King Alfred. A picture of the first Marquis of
Buckingham once here is now in the possession of the representatives of
the family.
In the north window at the east end of the Hall are portraits of the
two founders, and a face with a grotesque nose, in painted glass. The
glass of the south window is modern.
In the _Library_ are busts of Lord Grenville by Nollekens, and of Pitt.
In the _Bursary_ is a second picture of Joyce Frankland.
In the _Chapel_ are an old copy of Spagnoletto’s Entombment of Christ,
a copy of Poussin’s Assumption of St. Paul, and busts of the two
founders, formerly in niches in the middle of the north side of the
Hall outside and engraved in Spelman’s _Ælfredi Magni Vita_ (Oxon.
1678).
On the gateway outside is a metal gilt Nose of a grotesque type,
probably derived from the painted glass in the hall.
On the entrance to the hall are two worn busts of Johannes Scotus
Erigena and King Alfred.
In the _Buttery_ are pictures of the Child of Hale (John Middleton,
_d._ 1623, a Lancashire man distinguished for size and strength, after
whom the Brasenose boat is always named), of Joyce Frankland, and of
the Brasenose Boat in about 1825.
In the Principal’s lodgings are pictures of Lord Mordaunt, Bp. Cleaver,
and Joyce Frankland.
The _title_ of the College is “the King’s Hall and College of
Brasenose in Oxford” (Aula Regia et Collegium de Brasenose in Oxonia),
the spelling of the chief word being in chronological sequence,
omitting minor variations, Brasinnose, Brazen Nose (eighteenth
century), Brasenose; but the latest spelling is also found early in
the seventeenth century, probably showing that it was at all times
pronounced as a disyllable. The phrases _King’s College_ and _Collegium
Regale_ are also found at an early date, the latter occurring on the
College seal, which consists of three Gothic niches or compartments,
with St. Hugh and St. Chad on either side and the Trinity in the
centre: underneath is a small shield with Smyth’s arms, and round is
the legend, “Sigillum commune colegii regalis de brasinnose in oxonia.”
The _Arms_ of the College are: The escutcheon divided into three
parts paleways, the centre or, thereon an escutcheon charged with the
arms of the See of _Lincoln_ (gules, two lions passant gardant in pale
or, on a chief azure Our Lady crowned, sitting on a tombstone issuant
from the chief, in her dexter arm the Infant Jesus, in her sinister a
sceptre, all or), ensigned with a mitre, all proper: the dexter side
argent, a chevron sable between three roses gules seeded or barbed
vert, being the arms of the founder William _Smyth_: on the sinister
side the arms of Sir Richard _Sutton_ of Prestbury, knight, viz.
quarterly first and fourth, argent a chevron between three bugle-horns
stringed sable, for _Sutton_, second and third, argent a chevron
between three crosses crosslet sable, for _Southworth_.
A coat of arms tripartite paleways is a very rare phenomenon, but
is found among Oxford Colleges at Lincoln and Corpus. The cause at
Brasenose was no doubt an attempt to combine symmetrically on one
shield the arms of the founders, the see of Lincoln being given a
disproportionate amount and a central position, from the honour brought
by connection with it as both the Founder’s and the Visitor’s see. For
the sake of appearance also the arms of Lincoln are placed within the
field, the mitre with which they are ensigned being included in the
pale. The only variations are that (1) in some old examples the arms
of Lincoln cover the whole central pale, the entire College arms being
ensigned with a mitre or stringed, and sometimes with a crosier and
key in saltire; (2) the crosses crosslet are found as crosses crosslet
fitchy or crosses patoncé. The nearest approach to an early official
declaration of the arms is to be found in Richard Lee’s report from the
best evidence he could obtain, made at the same time as his Visitation
in 1574, and to be found in MS. H 6 of the College of Arms.
The College seems never to have had a motto, but Bishop William Smyth’s
(“Dominus exaltatio mea”) has been occasionally and unofficially used,
as in the new Principal’s house.
VII. STATISTICS.
_1. Principals of Brasenose Hall._
MENTIONED IN
1435 William Long, B.A.
1436 R. Marcham or Markham, M.A.
1438 Roger Grey.
1444 R. Marcham, again.
1451 William Curth or Church, M.A., _d._ 1461.
1461 William Braggys, M.A.
1461 William Wryxham, M.A.
1462 William Braggys, again.
1462 John Molineux, again.
In 1468 the Hall was repaired by
1469 William Sutton, M.A., who occurs also as late as 1483.
1501 } Edmund Croston, M.A., who died 27th Jan., 1507/8; his
1503 } brass in St. Mary’s church is engraved in Churton’s
_Lives of the Founders_.
1502 }
1505 } John Formby, M.A., resigned 24th Aug., 1510.
1508-10 }
1510-12 Matthew Smyth, B.D.
_2. Principals of the College._
ELECTED
1512 Matthew Smyth.
(_Original Fellows_: John Haster, probably first
Vice-Principal, John Formby, Roland Messenger, John
Legh. Shortly after: Richard Shirwood, Richard
Gunston, Simon Starkey, Richard Ridge, Hugh
Charnock, Ralph Bostock).
1547/8 Feb. 27 John Hawarden.
1564/5 Feb. Thomas Blanchard.
1573/4 Feb. 16 Richard Harrys.
1595 Sept. 6 Alexander Nowell (Head-master of Westminster School
1543-55, Dean of St. Paul’s 1560-1602).
1595 Dec. 29 Thomas Singleton.
1614 Dec. 14 Samuel Radcliffe (ejected by the Oxford Commissioners
6th Jan., 1647. Died 26 June, 1648).
1648 July 13 Thomas Yate (ejected, but reinstated 10th Aug., 1660).
1648 April 13 Daniel Greenwood (ejected Aug. 1660).
1681 May 7 John Meare.
1710 June 2 Robert Shippen (Professor of Music in Gresham College,
London, 1705-11?).
1745 Dec. 10 Francis Yarborough.
1770 May 10 William Gwyn.
1770 Sept. 4 Ralph Cawley.
1777 Sept. 14 Thomas Barker.
1785 Sept. 10 William Cleaver (Bishop of Chester 1788, Bangor 1800,
St. Asaph 1806-15).
1809 June 21 Frodsham Hodson.
1822 Feb. 2 Ashurst Turner Gilbert (Bishop of Chichester, 1842-70).
1842 June 9 Richard Harington.
1853 Dec. 27 Edward Hartopp Cradock.
1886 Feb. 26 Albert Watson.
1889 Oct. 1 Charles Buller Heberden.
VIII. NOTANDA.
Proverb: _Testons are gone to Oxford to study in Brazen Nose_, when
Henry VIII. debased the coinage.
Census in Aug. 1552: Principal, 8 M.A.’s, 12 B.A.’s, 49 who had not
taken a degree, including the steward and cook; in all 70 in residence.
Census in 1565/6: Principal, 31 graduates, 57 undergraduate scholars
and commoners, 8 poor scholars, 5 matriculated servants: in all 102
names on the books.
Census in 1612: Principal, 21 Fellows, 29 scholars, 145 commoners,
17 poor scholars, 14 batellers and matriculated servants: in all 227
members in residence. Revenue £600 a year. (Principalship £80.)
Plate presented to the King, January 1642/3, by the College, 121_lb._
2_oz._ 15_d._
A scheme of amalgamation with Lincoln College was proposed in Oct.
1877, and on March 22, 1878, there was a meeting of both governing
bodies in Brasenose Common Room; but by the end of that year the plan
had come to nothing, partly owing to a vigorous pamphlet by H. E. P.
Platt, Fellow of Lincoln.
XII.
CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE.
BY T. FOWLER, D.D., F.S.A., PRESIDENT OF CORPUS.
This College was founded by Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester and
Lord Privy Seal to Kings Henry VII. and VIII., in the year 1516. For
the life of Foxe, which is full of interest, and thoroughly typical
of the career of a statesman-ecclesiastic of those times, I must
refer the reader to my article on Richard Foxe in the _Dictionary of
National Biography_.[227] Foxe had, in early life, linked his fortunes
with those of Henry VII., then Earl of Richmond, while in exile in
France; and, after the battle of Bosworth Field (22nd August, 1485),
he became, in rapid succession, Principal Secretary of State, Lord
Privy Seal, and Bishop of Exeter. He was subsequently translated to
Bath and Wells (1491-2), Durham (1494), and Winchester (1501), then the
wealthiest See in England. The principal event in his life (at least
in its far-reaching consequences) was his negotiation, while Bishop of
Durham, of the marriage between James IV. of Scotland and the Princess
Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII., which resulted, a century
later, in the permanent union of the English and Scottish crowns under
James VI.
It is probable that Foxe, who, as we learn from his woodwork in the
banqueting-hall of Durham Castle, had, so early as 1499, adopted, as
his device, the pelican feeding her young, was early inspired with
the idea of founding some important educational institution for the
benefit of the Church. This idea, shortly before the foundation of
his present College, had taken the shape of a house in Oxford for
the reception of young monks from St. Swithin’s Priory in Winchester
while attending academical lectures and disputations in Oxford.
There were other such houses in Oxford, such as Canterbury College,
Durham College,[228] and the picturesque staircases, connected with
various Benedictine monasteries, still standing in Worcester College.
But his friend, Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, more prescient than
himself, already foresaw the fall of the monasteries and, with them,
of their academical dependencies in Oxford. “What, my Lord,” Oldham is
represented as saying by John Hooker, _alias_ Vowell (see _Holinshed’s
Chronicles_), “shall we build houses and provide livelihoods for a
company of bussing[229] monks, whose end and fall we ourselves may live
to see; no, no, it is more meet a great deal that we should have care
to provide for the increase of learning, and for such as who by their
learning shall do good in the Church and commonwealth.” Thus Foxe’s
benefaction (to which Oldham himself liberally contributed, as did also
the founder’s steward, William Frost, and other of his friends) took
the more common form of a College for the education of the secular
clergy. A site was purchased between Merton and St. Frideswide’s (the
monastery subsequently converted into, first, Cardinal College, and
then Christ Church), the land being acquired mainly from Merton and
St. Frideswide’s, though a small portion was also bought from the nuns
of Godstow. It has been suggested that the sale by Merton (comprising
about two-thirds of the site on which Corpus now stands) was a forced
one, a supposition which derives some plausibility from the fact that
the alienation effectually prevented the extension of the ante-chapel
of Merton College as well as from Foxe’s powerful position at Court.
But against this theory we may place the fact that the then Warden of
Merton (Richard Rawlyns), when subsequently accused, amongst other
charges, before the Visitor, of having alienated part of the homestead
of the College, does not appear to have pleaded, in extenuation, any
external pressure from high quarters.
Foxe induced his friend John Claymond, who, like himself, was a
Lincolnshire man, to transfer himself from the Presidentship of
Magdalen to that of the newly-founded College, the difference in
income being made up by his presentation to the valuable Rectory of
Cleeve in Gloucestershire. Robert Morwent, another Magdalen man, was
made perpetual Vice-President, to which exceptional privilege was
subsequently (1527-8) added that of the right of succession to the
Presidency. Several of the original Fellows and scholars were also
brought from Magdalen, so that Corpus was, in a certain sense, a
colony from what has usually been supposed, and on strong grounds of
probability, to have been Foxe’s own College.
The statutes were given by the founder in the year 1517, and
supplemented in 1527, the revised version being signed by him, in an
extremely trembling hand, on the 13th of February, 1527-8, within
eight months of his death, which occurred on the 5th of October, 1528,
probably at his Castle of Wolvesey in Winchester. These statutes are
of peculiar interest, both on account of the vivid picture which they
bring before us of the domestic life of a mediæval college, and the
provision made for instruction in the new learning introduced by the
Renaissance.