# A Sudden Flurry of Thomases **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 24, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sudden-flurry-of-thomases/782955 "2017-03-24T20:22:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sudden-flurry-of-thomases/782955/1 "2017-03-24T20:22:05Z")
So, I was looking up **[Edwin Landseer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Henry_Landseer)**, and came across not only his painter brother **[Thomas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Landseer)** — who went to learn under Haydon alongside\*\*[William Berwick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bewick)\*\*, who appears no relation to the better-known **[Thomas Berwick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bewick)** but was employed by **[Sir Thomas Lawrence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Lawrence_%28painter%29)**, the portraitist — but also his painting of some polar bears making a snack of dead explorers [no, I don’t know if polar bears eat carrion, but they don’t strike one as fussy eaters] entitled: _**[Man Proposes, God Disposes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Proposes,_God_Disposes)**_ which is a quote from the German theologian **[Thomas à Kempis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_%C3%A0_Kempis)** who lived to 91, son of a schoolmistress and whose volume _The Imitation of Christ_ — recommended by the rascal **[Sir Thomas More](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_More)** — I had since the age of six, but never got around to reading. The painting is owned by **[Royal Holloway College](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Holloway,_University_of_London)** — and is covered over during exams since it hath the ability to drive students mad ( Landseer himself died insane ) — which was founded as a chicks-only institution by **[Thomas Holloway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Holloway)**, Maker of Patent Medicines, in 1879. Holloway [\* (he had an unconcealed prejudice against doctors, lawyers and parsons)\* Wiki] owned paintings by **[Thomas Gainsborough](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gainsborough)** and purchased **[Tittenhurst Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tittenhurst_Park)**, a Georgian pile that later belonged to Thomas Hermann Lowinsky, ‘the former general manager of the Hyderabad (Deccan) Co coal mines in India’, and then to some pop stars. This one goes out to all the Thomases out there. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sudden-flurry-of-thomases/782955/2 "2017-03-25T07:12:37Z")
A flurry, huh? Is that the group denomination for Thomases? I think there should be different ones for every name. A brace of Bruces. A chatter of Charleses (or Chucks). A kindle of Keiths. And so on. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sudden-flurry-of-thomases/782955/3 "2017-03-25T13:19:25Z")
Try being an Elizabethan literature scholar. [Thomas Nashe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nashe), [Thomas Heywood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Heywood), [Thomas Kyd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kyd), [Thomas Dekker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dekker_(writer)), [Thomas Middleton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Middleton), [Thomas Sackville](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sackville,_1st_Earl_of_Dorset), [Thomas Norton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Norton), [Thomas Deloney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Deloney), [Thomas Churchyard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Churchyard), [Thomas Lodge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Lodge)… ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sudden-flurry-of-thomases/782955/4 "2017-03-25T15:51:57Z")
> [@](#): > > This one goes out to all the Thomases out there No, you have to drone it out correctly… “This one goes out toooo the Thom-as-sessss…” ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sudden-flurry-of-thomases/782955/5 "2017-03-25T18:46:44Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > Try being an Elizabethan literature scholar. [Thomas Nashe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nashe), [Thomas Heywood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Heywood), [Thomas Kyd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kyd), [Thomas Dekker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dekker_(writer)), [Thomas Middleton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Middleton), [Thomas Sackville](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sackville,_1st_Earl_of_Dorset), [Thomas Norton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Norton), [Thomas Deloney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Deloney), [Thomas Churchyard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Churchyard), [Thomas Lodge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Lodge)… I tried being an Elizabethan literature scholar. Once. I got cut in the preseason.