Sept. 3. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



221 



the communication of any letters, sermons, or other 

 writings of the bishop, or by reference to any in- 

 cidents not to be found in printed accounts of his 

 life. 



Hohhes, Po7'irait of. — In the Memoirs of 

 T. Hobbes, it is stated that a portrait of him was 

 painted in 1669 for Cosmo de Medici. 



I have a fine half-lenrrth portrait of him, on the 

 back of whicli is the following inscription : 



" Thomas Ilobbes, aet. 81. 1669. 

 Jo". Wick Wrilps, Londiensis, Pictor Carol! S'". R. 

 pinx'." 



Is this painter the same as John Wycke, who 

 -died in 1702, but who is not, I think, known as a 

 portrait painter ? 



Can any of your readers inform me whether a 

 portrait of Hobbes is now in the galleries at Flo- 

 rence, and, if so, by whom it was painted ? It is 

 possible that mine is a duplicate of the picture 

 which was painted for the Grand Duke. 



W. C. Tkevelyan. 



Wallington. 



Brascnose, Oxford. — I am anxious to learn the 

 •origin and meaning of the word Srasenose. I have 

 somewhere heard or read (though I cannot recall 

 where) that it was a Saxon word, b7-asen haus or 

 " brewing-house ;" and that the college was called 

 by this name, because it was built on the site of 

 the brewing-house of King Alfred. All that 

 Ingram says on the subject is this : 



" This curious appellation, which, whatever was the 

 origin of it, has been perpetuated by the symbol of a 

 brazen nose here and at Stamford, occurs with the 

 modern orthography, but in one undivided word, so 

 «arly as 1278, in an Inquisition, now printed in the 

 Hundred Rolls, though quoted by Wood from the 

 manuscript record." — See his Memorials of Oxford. 



CUTHBERT BedE, B.A. 



[Our correspondent will find the notice of King 

 Alfred's brew-house in the review of Ingram's Memo- 

 rials 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 so- 

 cieties still existing, University, Oriel, and Brascnose, 

 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 

 ills laws, calls his palace ; and it has its present sin- 

 gular name from a corruption of hrasinium, or brasin- 

 huse, as having been originally located in that part of 

 the royal mansion which was devoted to the then im- 

 portant accommodation of a brew-house." Churton, 

 in his Life of Bishop Simjth, 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 J., 1278, it was known by the name of 

 Braseti Nose Hall, which peculiar name was undoubt- 

 edly owing, as the same author observes, to the cir- 

 cumstance 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 leo- 

 pard 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.* "J 



^ 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. 



A. T. C- 



[In Pepys's Diary, vol. i. p. 2. edit. 1848, occurs the 

 following notice of Sir George Downing : — " Wood 

 has misled us in stating that Sir George Downing was 

 a son of Dr. Calibut Downing, the rector of Hackney. 

 He was beyond doubt the son of Emmanuel Downing, 

 a London merchant, who went to New England. It 

 is not improbable that Emmanuel was a near kinsmaa 

 of Calibut ; how related has not yet been discovered. 

 Governor Hutchinson, in his History of Massachusetts, 

 gives the true account of Downing's affiliation, which 

 has been fartiier confirmed by Mr. Savage, of Boston^ 

 from the public records of New England. Wood calls 

 Downing a sider with all times and changes ; skilled 

 in the common cant, and a preacher occasionally. He 

 was sent by Cromwell to Holland, as resident there. 

 About the Restoration, he espoused the King's cause, 

 and was knighted and elected M. P. for Morpeth, in 

 1661. Afterwards, becoming Secretary to the Trea- 

 sury and Commissioner of the Customs, he was in 166S 

 created a Baronet of East Hatley, in Cambridgeshire, 

 and was again sent ambassador to Holland. His 

 grandson of the same name, who died in 1749, was the 

 founder of Downing College, Cambridge. The title 

 became extinct in 1764, upon the decease of Sir John 

 Gerrard Downing, the last heir male of the family.'* 

 According to Hutchinson, Sir George died in 1684.] 



Unhid. — Can any of your readers inform me as 

 to the derivation of this word, or give any instance 

 of its recent use ? I have frequently heard it ia 

 my childhood (the early part of the present cen- 

 tury) among the rural population of Oxon and 

 Berks. It was generally applied to circumstances 

 of a melancholy or distressing character, but some- 

 times used to express a peculiar state of feeling, 

 being apparently intended to convey nearly the 

 same meaning as the ennui of the French. I re- 



