Brasenose College. By John Buchan. "Oxford University College Efistories." (F.
E. Robinson. 5s.)—Mr. Buchan is a clever' young Scotsman who, with the intellectual precocity of his race, has produced several volumes while still an undergraduate. He can scarcely be accounted a typical product of his College, but he has done his business of chronicling very thoroughly. The subject forbade his making an interesting book, for Brasenose, except on the river and (in the days of Mr. Ottaway) at Lords, has never
been conspicuous ; although, as Mr. Buchan points out it is , curiously well known outside the University, thanks probably to .its sufficiently distinctive name. It was almost inevitable that Mr. Verdant Green should matriculate there, if Only for the sake of pleasantries about the famous emblems over the gateway. Its intellectual celebrities have been somewhat mediocre articles— Heber. Milman, and Barham of the" Ingoldsby Legends." Burton, the Anatomist of Melancholy, has left no tradition, though he graduated there, and his Oxford references are to the days when he dwelt in Christ Church. Still, old B.N.C. men will probably be glad to have the book, which has gone with much thoroughness into the history of the Phoinix and Hellfire Clubs ; they will read, probably with a slight incredulity, of the year (1809)in which Braga- nose monopolised the entire first-class in the final school ; and they will value the illustrations, and be sorry to learn that Brasenose Ale verses are a thing of the past. For the outside public Brase- nose will chiefly be of interest as the curiously inappropriate setting for Mr. Pater's delicate qualities of mind. It is probably due to the influence of Dr. F. W. Bussell that in the latter years of his life he no longer confined himself to lecturing pass-men on the "Apology" of Socrates, which was during the writer's residence at the College -his sole active tutorial function,—a fine instance of cutting blocks with a razor. Mr. Buchan, however, points out that Mr. Pater appreciated the pass-man's qualities, and "opposed grandmotherly legislation," so far that he retorted upon the present Bishop of London : "At present the under- graduate is a child of nature; you want to turn him into a turnip, rob him of ell his grace and plant him out in rows." One would like to know under what vegetable figure he conceived the exist- ing creature which was to be turned into a turnip. There is also a pretty story Of his assisting to read over the essays in a scholar- ship examination. Asked for marks or criticism, he could only "explain Wearily, They did not much impress me.'" Names were then read out to him in alphabetical order to try to stimulate his memory; but he could only murmur : "I do not recall him." "At last," says Mr. Buchan, "came the name of Sanctuary; at once Pater's face brightened up and he said, yea, I remember ; I liked his name.' " Mr. Buchan, we should add, gives up the far-fetched derivation from " brewin-honse," and explains that Halls, before they became Colleges, may have paraded signs like any other place of entertainment.
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