BH likes to trace her ancestry back to Count Eustace II of Boulogne, favoured by a portrait on the Bayeux Tapestry. Quite by chance we have now found a more challenging target for her research into her family history, St. Eustace no less, the portrait of whom left being a Pisanello in Room 55 of the National Gallery, from whose impressive web site I have taken it. There is also a rather splendid 'The Virgin and Child with Saints' by the same artist in the same room.
The portrait is also an example of how personal names can mutate into family names. A rather different process from that which freezes a Williamson or a Fitzjames from a qualifier of a person into a family name. Perhaps in our case it is fame: if you have a very famous Mick, he might spawn a family called Mick. Jim Mick, Mary Mick and so on. Who might later mutate into the O'Micks or even the Mixons.
I have just learned that Saint Eustace is the patron saint of Jägermeister liqueurs, the word meaning a gamekeeper. A stag's head and a crucifix feature on the bottles.
ReplyDelete