religionsphilosophische Lehre Saadja Gaons,” in Baeumker’s Beiträge, iv. 4 (Münster, 1903) (containing a German translation of part iii. of the Kitãb al-Amãnãt); A. Harkavy, Sludien, v. (St Petersburg, 1891) (in Hebrew); S. Schechter, Saadyana (Cambridge, 1903) (texts from the Geniza, repr. from the Jewish Quarterly Review).
(A. Cy.)
SEAFIELD, EARLS OF. The 1st earl of Seafield, in the
Scottish peerage, was James Ogilvy (1663–1730), son and heir
of James Ogilvy, 3rd earl of Findlater. Although in the convention
parliament of 1689 he had spoken for James II., he took
the oath of allegiance to William and Mary, and after filling some
minor official positions he was made secretary of state in 1696,
and lord chancellor in 1702. In 1707 he was made chief baron
in the court of exchequer. In 1701 he was created earl of Seafield,
and in 1711 succeeded to his father’s earldom of Findlater.
When his great grandson, James, 7th earl of Findlater and
4th earl of Seafield died in October 1811 the earldom of Findlater
became dormant or extinct, while the earldom of Seafield passed
to a cousin, Lewis Alexander Grant (1767–1840), who was
descended from Margaret, a daughter of the 2nd earl. He took
the name of Grant-Ogilvy and was succeeded as 6th earl by
his brother, Francis William Ogilvy-Grant (1778–1853), whose
descendant, James Ogilvie-Grant (b. 1876) became the 11th
earl in 1888. The earl of Seafield is a peer of the United Kingdom
as Baron Strathspey.
SEAFORD, an urban district and watering-place in the Eastbourne
parliamentary division of Sussex, England, 58 m. S. by
E. from London by the London, Brighton & South Coast railway.
Pop. (1901) 3355. In recent years there has been a considerable
increase in the number of visitors. The climate is bracing,
and the town is sheltered by high cliffs. There are golf links
on the neighbouring downs. The church of St Leonard is
Norman of various dates, but received large additions in the
Perpendicular period. In former days the river Ouse entered the
English Channel here, and the natural harbour so formed accounts
for the origin of Seaford (Sefford, Safford, Seford), probably in
Roman times. In the “Domesday of Cinque Ports” (which
existed in the reign of Edward III., but was lost before 1728),
it stood first among the members of Hastings, and was doubtless
of considerable importance until about the end of the 14th
century, when its rapid decline began owing to the constant
alteration of the sea-coast and the decay of the harbour. In the
16th century the town was finally deserted by the Ouse, which
now runs into the sea at Newhaven, 2 m. westward, and no
revival of its prosperity occurred until the early 19th century,
when it began to be frequented as a watering-place. Fishing has
always been the chief industry.
Seaford is not mentioned in Domesday Book, but evidently pertained to the lordship of the 1st Earl Warenne and his descendants, who were succeeded in 1347 by the earls of Arundel. It was probably a mesne borough in the 12th century, growing up under the protection of the earls of Warenne, and was certainly called a borough in 1236. Bailiffs are mentioned in the 14th century, but the town was not incorporated until 1544, when notwithstanding its decayed condition Henry VIII. annexed it to Hastings by charter, and incorporated it under the title of bailiff and commonalty, presumably as a reward for assisting the head port to provide its proportion of ships to the crown. The corporation was dissolved by an act of 1883. The town returned two representatives to parliament from 1298 to 1399, and again from 1640 until 1832, when it was disfranchised. In the 13th century the earls of Warenne held a market or fair, or both, apparently by prescriptive right. In 1792 the fairdays were Whit-Monday and the 10th of August, and the market-days Wednesdays and Saturdays, but no market or fair now exists.
SEAFORTH, Earl of, a Scottish title held by the family
of Mackenzie from 1623 to 1716, and again from 1771 to 1781.
The Mackenzies trace their descent to one Colin of Kintail
(d. 1278), and their name is a variant of Mackenneth. Kenneth,
the twelfth head of the clan, was made Lord Mackenzie of Kintail
in 1609, and his son Colin, who succeeded his father as 2nd Lord
Mackenzie in March 1611, was created earl of Seaforth in 1623.
Colin’s successor was his half-brother George (d. 1651), who
became the 2nd earl in 1633. George was alternately a royalist
and a covenant er between 1636 and 1646, and was afterwards
in Holland with Charles II., who made him secretary of state
for Scotland. His grandson, Kenneth, the 4th earl, followed
James II. to France and was with the dethroned king in Ireland.
Sent by James in 1690 to head a rising in Scotland, he was
captured and imprisoned, but in 1697 he was released and he died
in Paris in January 1701. His successor was his son William,
who joined the Jacobite standard at Braemar in 1715, and then,
having raised 3000 men, was present at the battle of Sheriffmuir
and was appointed lieutenant-general of the northern counties.
He also took part in the Jacobite enterprise of 1719, being
wounded at Glenshiel. In 1716 he was at tainted and his titles
and estates forfeited; before his death in January 1740, he had
been relieved of some of the penalties of his treason, although
his titles were not restored. His son Kenneth (c. 1718–1761),
who but for the attainder would have been the 6th earl, helped
the English government during the rising of 1745, and was a
member of parliament for some years. His son Kenneth (c. 1744–1781)
was created earl of Seaforth in 1771, but his peerage became
extinct when he died in August 1781, although there were still
heirs to the older earldom, which was under attainder. This earl
raised the regiment of Highlanders, the 78th, known later as the
2nd battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders.
SEAHAM HARBOUR, a seaport and urban district, in the
South-eastern parliamentary division of Durham, England,
6 m. S. of Sunderland by a branch of the North-Eastern railway.
Pop. (1901) 10,163. The harbour was built (1828) by the third
marquis of Londonderry to facilitate the export of coal from the
mines on his adjacent property. Besides the coal trade there are
extensive bottle and chemical works.
SEA-HORSE. Sea-horses (Hippocampina) are small marine
fishes which, with pipe-fishes (Syngnathina), form the Lophobranchiate
division of the suborder Thoracostei. The gills of
the members 'of this group are not arranged in leaf-like series as
in other fishes, but form a convex mass composed of small rounded
lobes attached to the bronchial arches, as shown in the accompanying
figure (fig. 1) of the head of a sea-horse, in which the
gill-cover has been pushed aside to show the interior of the gill-cavity.
Fig. 1.—Gills of Hippocampus abdominalis.
Sea-horses differ from pipe-fishes by having a prehensile and invariably finless tail; it is long, slender, tapering, quadrangular in a transverse section, and, like the rest of the body, encased in a dermal skeleton, which consists of horny segments, allowing of ventral, and in a less degree of lateral, but not of dorsal, flexion. The typical sea-horse (Hippocampus) can coil up a great portion of its tail, and firmly attach itself by it to the stems of sea-weeds or similar objects. The body is compressed and more or less elevated, and the head terminates-~ in a long tubiform snout, at the end of which is the small mouth. The configuration of the fore part of the body, as well as the peculiar manner in which the head is joined to the neck-like part of the trunk, bears a striking resemblance to a horse’s head. Seahorses are bad swimmers and are unable to resist currents. With the aid of their single dorsal fin, which is placed about the middle of the fish’s body and can be put into a rapid undulatory motion, they shift from time to time to some object near them, remaining stationary among vegetation or coral where they find the requisite amount of food and sufficient cover. Their coloration and the tubercles or spines on the head and body, sometimes with the addition of skinny flaps and filaments, closely resemble their surroundings, and constitute the means by which these defenceless creatures escape detection by their enemies. These protective
