28 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'>d S. VII. Jan. 8. '59. 



having been engaged in a duel, he was obliged to 

 quit the kingdom. He served in the Low Coun- 

 tries under the Veres, and was knighted in the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth. He afterwards distin- 

 guished himself in the wars of Ireland, and, in 

 December, 1605, was made Master of the Ordnance 

 in that kingdom, which office he continued to hold 

 until 1616. He thus spent the early part of the 

 reign of James I. in that country ; and we find 

 him taking a prominent position in the debates in 

 the Irish House of Commons in 1613 and 1614. 

 He seems, however, to have been in England in 

 1615 ; for in October of that year he was so much 

 in the confidence of the King as to be entrusted 

 with the custody of the Earl of Somerset, and in 

 the following April was appointed Lord Deputy 

 of Ireland. He could not, therefore, be the same 

 person who was prosecuted and received so severe 

 a sentence in April, 1615, as Mr. St. John of 

 Lincoln's Inn, who is nowhere spoken of as a 

 knight. Who, then, was that person ? From his 

 residence at Marlborough I am inclined to con- 

 clude that he was of the Lydiard Tregose family, 

 and on referring to the pedigree of that branch 

 recorded in the Heralds' College, I find that John 

 St. John had two sons ; John, the grandfather of 

 Oliver who became Lord Grandison, and Oliver, 

 who had a son of his own name. No farther de- 

 scent from this last Oliver is shown, but he may 

 have been' the Oliver of the Star Chamber, or, if 

 considered too early, the latter may have been 

 his son, and the Lord Chief Justice possibly his 

 grandson. I shall be very glad to receive any 

 clue to the elucidation of this interesting historical 

 question. It is not unlikely that the municipal 

 records or the parish registers of Marlborough 

 might afford some information. Even the date of 

 the death of " Black Oliver " would be an impor- 

 tant point in proving his identity. 



John Maclean. 

 Hammersmith. 



Sir Francis Seymour. — I have received the in* 

 formation sought in my Query inserted at 2"* S. 

 vi. 500., from an obliging communication made to 

 me direct by the Rev. John Ward, of Wath Rec- 

 tory, Ripon. That gentleman has given consider- 

 able attention to the elucidation of the Seymour 

 pedigree, and has proved by a copy of the register 

 of the burial of Edward Seymour, Lord Beau- 

 champ, 5071 of the Earl of Hertford, that that 

 nobleman died in July, 1612, instead of in January, 

 1618-9, as stated in all the printed books. The 

 child whose birth was chronicled in 1615, was, 

 therefore, the son of Edward Seymour, Lord Beau- 

 champ, the grandson of the Earl of Hertford. He 

 died before his great-grandfather, for the latter was, 

 in 1621, succeeded in his honours by his grandson, 



Sir William Seymour, afterwards Duke of Somer- 

 set. Can anyone state the date of the death of 

 this child ? I believe he did not survive his 

 father, who died Jan. 1619. John Maclean. 



Pork and Molasses. — Some years ago this used 

 often to be jocularly alluded to as the American 

 national dish. Does anybody actually eat such a 

 mixture as hot fat pork and treacle? I once, 

 when a lad, tasted it, as an experiment, but only 

 once. E. K. 



Learned Societies of America — Can any of the 

 readers of " N. & Q." furnish me with a list of 

 the learned Societies at present existing in the 

 United States of America, the British American 

 possessions, and the Colonies and dependencies of 

 Great Britain situated elsewhere ? I should also 

 be obliged for information on the following heads 

 with regard to each society : — 



Date of foundation. 



Size, number, and date of publications. 



Terms of membership. 



I use the term learned society in a wide sense. 

 Edward Peacock. 



The Manor, Bottesford, Brigg. 



Lowe Family. — I should be obliged for any in- 

 formation respecting the family of Lowe, of the 

 neighbourhood of Grantham, co. Lincoln. Sir 

 Hudson Lowe, of St. Helena fame, was a member 

 of this family, as also (I have reason to believe) 

 was Geo. Lowe, Master-Gardener to George II. 

 Tlie latter died in 1758, and mentions in his will 

 his brother, Hudson Lowe, but does not state his 

 residence or profession. R. C. W. 



Operation for Cataract. — Who introduced the 

 operation for the cataract ? — In Lettres familieres 

 ecrites d' Italic en 1739-1740, par Charles de 

 Brasses, I read (page 3.) : — 



" Je m'amusai, pendant mon s^jour, h voir reparation 

 singulifere d'un medecia Anglais, nomme Taylor, qui ote 

 le crestallin de I'oeil en fourcant dans la cornea ou le 

 blanc de I'oeil un petit fer pointu d'un demi-pied de long. 

 Cette operation, que I'on nomme lever, ou plutot baisser la 

 cataracte, est extremement curieuse, et fnt faite avec beau- 

 coup d'adresse par cet homme, qui me parut d'ailleurs 

 un grand charlatan." 



H. F. B. 



The Vales of Red Horse and White Horse. — 

 May I solicit some reader of " N. & Q." to give 

 information of the situation as regards the parishes, 

 the proprietors of the land, and the dimensions, 

 of these representations of the horse cut in pas- 

 ture? The red horse is in Warwickshire near 

 Tysoe. Of figures of white horses there are I be- 

 lieve two in Wilts, one near Calne, called Cherril 

 White Horse, which is the most conspicuous of 

 any, and which I have seen on a clear day from 

 high ground at Kingscote, Gloucestershire, I 

 should think full thirty miles. Of the locality of 



