e 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 brother