MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
579 
the first to diagnose the nature of the serious illness of His Royal 
Highness the Prince of Wales. In 1883 I)r. Lowe was President 
of the East Anglian Branch of the British Medical Association, 
in which year the meeting was held in Lynn and on relinquishing 
practice in that town he resided in London. He was one of the 
Physicians Extraordinary to the King. 
In his early years Dr. Lowe was a frequent contributor to the 
Transaction of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, and while 
resident in Norfolk he devoted much of his scanty leisure to 
cryptogamic botany, turning his attention to fungi, mosses, lichens 
and algie. His best known botanical work is perhaps his book on 
the ‘Yew Trees of Great Britain and Ireland.’ He contributed the 
article on Fishes to the ‘Victoria History of Norfolk’ and also, 
compiled a list of the Flowering Plants of West Norfolk. 
XVII. 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
St. Helen’s Swan-Pit. — The accompanying view of the Swan- 
pit at the Saint Helen’s Hospital, is from a photograph taken 
some time ago by Mr. W. H. Bidwell, and as the continuance of 
this ancient institution has become jeopardised it is thought the 
members would be glad to possess a copy by way of a possible 
memento. 
The origin of this probably unique establishment, which has 
already formed the subject of two communications to the Society 
( Vide ‘Transactions’ vol. v. p. 265 and vol. vi. p. 387*), is lost in the 
obscurity of the past, but as has been mentioned, the first reference 
to it hitherto discovered was an entry in the Corporation accounts 
of a payment to William Bylney of 3s. 4d. for keeping the Swans of St. 
Giles’ Hospital for the year 1487 — 8, and up to the year of the 
Municipal Reform Act (1833) a sum of two guineas was annually 
paid to the “ Swanner,” since which time the Swans for fatting 
have been consigned to the care of the master of the Hospital. It 
* See also ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ vol. iii. p. 90. 
