"Of the colleges of Oxford, Exeter is the most
proper for western, Queen's for northern, and
Brasenose for north-western men."
FULLER, /Worthies/.
[Plate XV. Bresenose College, Quadrangle and Radcliffe Library]
Brasenose college is in the very centre of the University, fronting
as it does on Radcliffe Square, where Gibbs' beautiful dome supplies
the Bodleian with a splendid reading-room. And this site has always
been consecrated to students; where the front of Brasenose now stands
ran School Street, leading from the old /Scholae Publicae/, in which
the disputations of the Mediaeval University were held, to St. Mary's
Church.
It was from this neighbourhood that some Oxford scholars migrated to
Stamford in 1334, in order to escape one of the many Town and Gown
rows, which rendered Mediaeval Oxford anything but a place of quiet
academic study. They seem to have carried with them the emblem of
their hall, a fine sanctuary knocker of brass, representing a lion's
head, with a ring through its nose; this knocker was installed at a
house in Stamford, which still retains the name it gave, "Brasenose
Hall." The knocker itself was there till 1890, when the College
recovered the relic (it now hangs in the hall). The students were
compelled by threats of excommunication to return to their old
university, and down to the beginning of the nineteenth century,
Oxford men, when admitted to the degree of M.A., were compelled to
swear "not to lecture at Stamford."
The old "King's Hall," which bore the name of "Brasenose," was
transformed into a college in 1511 by the munificence of our first
lay founder, Sir Richard Sutton; he shared his benevolence, however,
with Bishop Smith, of Lincoln. The College celebrated, in 1911, its
quatercentenary in an appropriate way, by publishing its register in
full, with a group of most interesting monographs on various aspects
of the College history.
The buildings are a good example of the typical Oxford college; the
Front Quad, shown in our picture, belongs to the time of the
Founders, but the picturesque third story of dormer windows, which
give it a special charm, dates from the reign of James I, when all
colleges were rapidly increasing their numbers and their
accommodation. Of the rest of the buildings of Brasenose, the chapel
deserves special notice, for it was the last effort of the Gothic
style in Oxford, and it was actually finished in the days of
Cromwell, not a period likely to be favourable to the erection of new
college chapels.
Brasenose (or B.N.C., as it is universally called) has produced a
prime minister of England in Henry Addington, whom the college record
kindly describes as "not the most distinguished" statesman who has
held that position: but a much better known worthy is John Foxe, the
Martyrologist, whose chained works used to add a grim charm of horror
to so many parish churches in England; the experiences of the young
Macaulay, at Cheddar, are an example which could be paralleled by
those of countless young readers of Foxe, who, however, did not
become great historians and are forgotten. Somewhat junior to Foxe,
at B.N.C., was Robert Burton, the author of the /Anatomy of
Melancholy/, who found both his lifework as a parish vicar, and his
burial-place in Oxford.
But these names, and the names of many other B.N.C. worthies, hardly
attain to the first rank in the annals of England's life. The
distinguishing features of the College have long been its special
connection with the Palatine counties, Lancashire and Cheshire, and
its prominence in the athletic life which is so large a part of
Oxford's attraction. To the connection with Lancashire, B.N.C. owes
the name of its college boat, "The Child of Hale"; for John
Middleton, the famous, giant, who is said to have been 9 ft. 3 in.
high (perhaps measurements were loose when James I was king), was
invited by the members of his county to visit the College, where he
is said to have left a picture of his hand; this the ever curious
Pepys paid 2s. to see. A more profitable connection between
Lancashire and B.N.C. is the famous Hulmeian endowment, which is
almost a record instance of the value of the unearned increment of
land to a learned foundation.
The rowing men of Brasenose are as famous as the scholars of Balliol.
The poet parodist, half a century ago, described her as:
"Queen of the Isis wave,
Who trains her crews on beef and beer,
Competitors to brave,"
and the lines written in jest were a true compliment. The young
manhood of England had maintained its vigour by its love of
athletics, and has learned, in the discipline of the athletic club,
how to obey and also how to command. Hence it was fitting that to
B.N.C. should fall the honour of giving to Britain her greatest
soldier in the Great War; Lord Haig of Bemerside was an undergraduate
member of the College in the 'eighties of the last century, and the
College has honoured him and itself by making him an Honorary Fellow.
Most Oxford colleges have their quaint and distinctive customs; that
of Brasenose was certainly not inappropriate to the character that
has just been sketched. Every Shrove Tuesday some junior member of
the College presented verses to the butler in honour of Brasenose
ale, and received a draught in return. The custom is recorded by
Hearne more than two hundred years ago, and may well be older,
though, as the poet of the Quatercentenary sadly confessed, its
attribution to King Alfred--
"Our woven fantasy of Alfred's ale,
By conclusive cut of critic dry,
Is shredded clean away."
The most distinguished poet who thus commemorated the special drink
of England and of B.N.C. was Reginald Heber, bishop and hymn-writer,
who composed the verses in 1806; the compositions have been collected
and published at least three times. When the old brew-house was
pulled down to make room for the New Quad, the College gave up
brewing its own beer, and its poets ceased to celebrate it; but the
custom was revived, as has been said, in 1909. It may be permitted to
a non-Brasenose man to quote and echo the patriotic expressions of
the versifier of 1886:
"Shall Brasenose, therefore, fail to hold her own?
She nerves herself, anew, for coming strife,
Her vigorous pulses beat with strength and life.
Courage, my brothers! Troubles past forget!
On to fresh deeds! the gods love Brasenose yet."