embraced the royal cause, and maintained for four years at his own expense, with a garrison of eight hundred men, his castle of Raglan, in which the king repeatedly found shelter. The royal standard continued to float from the walls of this magnificent old mansion, until every other fortress in England had capitulated. At length, when the cause of Charles was completely ruined, the gallant and venerable marquis surrendered to Fairfax, after an affecting correspondence which places his character in a very estimable light. After the capitulation the castle was demolished, and the timber in the surrounding parks cut down and sold by the committee of sequestration, occasioning a loss to its noble proprietor of at least £100,000. His large possessions had already been confiscated by the parliament, so that he was prevented from becoming, at eighty-five years of age, a houseless dependent on the bounty of his enemies only by his death, which followed immediately after his arrival in London in 1646. The marquis retained to the last the fire and activity of his youth, and was distinguished by the readiness and sprightliness of his wit, no less than for his remarkable bravery and unswerving loyalty.—Edward Somerset, second marquis, like his father attached himself zealously to the royal cause, and was appointed by Charles lord-lieutenant of North Wales, and created Earl of Glamorgan. He was a sanguine and injudicious man; and being himself a Roman catholic, he was commissioned by the king to conclude a treaty with the confederate Irish Romanists, not merely promising the repeal of the penal laws, but the establishment of their religion in far the greater part of Ireland. When these proceedings were discovered, Charles disavowed Glamorgan, and the marquis of Ormond the lord-lieutenant committed the earl to prison on a charge of treason. But this was a mere blind to deceive the people. Glamorgan was released after a short confinement, and immediately proceeded to Kilkenny to renew his negotiations with the Roman catholics. He succeeded, with their assistance, in collecting six thousand men, with the promise of four thousand more; but on learning that Chester had been taken by the parliament, he dispersed his forces, as no port remained at which they could be landed. The whole of the proceedings connected with this affair "appear," says Clarendon, "to be inexcusable to justice, piety, and prudence," and cast discredit on both the king and his agent. On the death of his father, the earl succeeded him in the marquisate. He became author on a small scale, and published in 1663 a book entitled "A century of the names and scantlings of such inventions as I can at present call to mind to have tried and perfected," &c. The work contains a list of a great number of whimsical and curious projects, such as how to write with a single line; with a point; how to use all the senses indifferently for each other, as to talk by colours, and to read by the taste; to make an unsinkable ship; how to sail against wind and tide; how to form an universal character; how to converse by jangling bells out of tune; how to take towns, or prevent their being taken; how to write in the dark; how to cheat with dice, &c. The sixty-eighth in the list, which the author entitles, "An admirable and most forcible way to draw up water by fire," appears to be in fact a description of the power and application of the steam-engine. He states distinctly that he had carried the idea into effect, and speaks of having made use of a cannon for his boiler. He adds, "I have seen the water run like a constant fountain, stream forty feet high; one vessel of water rarified by fire driveth up forty feet of cold water." Solomon de Cans, a French engineer, had anticipated his lordship in the discovery of the principle, but there can be no doubt that the marquis is entitled to the credit of having invented and constructed the first actual steam-engine. He erected one of his engines of about two-horse power on the banks of the Thames at Vauxhall, and it was employed in supplying the city with water. The marquis died in 1667.—His son and successor, Henry Somerset, was created Duke of Beaufort in 1682. The family were long Jacobites, and then keen tories. Their titles and estates are now possessed by Henry-Charles, eighth duke.—Lord Fitzroy Somerset, the distinguished general, belongs to this family, and on his elevation to the peerage, took his title of Lord Raglan from the famous castle so gallantly defended by his ancestor.—J. T.
SOMERSET, Charles Seymour, sixth duke of, styled the Proud, was born August 12, 1662. He signed, as a member of the privy council, the proclamation for James XI.'s accession, and assisted in collecting the militia of Somersetshire to oppose Monmouth; but having refused to introduce Ferdinando Dada, the pope's nuncio, to the public audience at Windsor, he was discharged from court, and deprived of his colonelcy of the 32nd dragoons. He then joined in the Revolution, and received tokens of William's esteem. He became president of the council and a lord-justice, and subsequently under Queen Anne was master of the horse. George I. confirmed him in his high position, but afterwards deprived him of it. George II. named him of his council, but he then declined taking any share in political life. He had two wives: the first was Eliza, only child of Joscelyne Percy, earl of Northumberland; and his second was Charlotte, daughter of Daniel, earl of Winchelsea, by both of whom he had children. The duke made his second wife aware of the distinction in rank which he considered to exist between a Percy and a Finch. His duchess, Charlotte, once familiarly tapped him on the shoulders with her fan, when he turned round, and with indignation said, "My first duchess was a Percy, and she never took such a liberty." He died in 1748.—F.
SOMERSET, Robert Kerr or Carr, Earl of, the notorious favourite of James I., was a cadet of the Scottish border family of Kerr of Ferniehirst. When very young he was sent to France, where he acquired many courtly graces and accomplishments. He returned from the continent in 1606, when scarcely of age; and on his appearance at court as page to Lord Dingwall, his personal beauty, gay dress, and winning manners attracted the attention of the king, who received him into favour, superintended his classical studies, which had been sadly neglected, knighted him in 1607, made him a gentleman of the bed-chamber, and in a short time was guided almost wholly by his advice. All important offices connected with the court passed through his hands; the nobility fawned upon him with the veriest servility, and heaped rich presents upon him, and his power both in the court and the kingdom became supreme. In 1611 he was created Viscount Rochester. Two years later James exerted all his influence to obtain the divorce of the countess of Essex from her husband, in order that his favourite might marry that lady, whom he had already seduced, and created him Earl of Somerset in order that she might not lose rank by her union with his minion. Sir Thomas Overbury, Somerset's intimate friend, having strongly advised him against this step, the profligate countess vowed revenge, procured his imprisonment in the Tower, and caused him to be poisoned there. (See Overbury.) This atrocious murder was not brought to light until 1615, when the rise of a new favourite in the person of George Villiers made the king very readily consent to the disgrace and ruin of his former minion. Somerset and his countess were imprisoned, and after considerable delay were ultimately brought to trial and found guilty. Several of their accomplices were executed, but the principals in the murder were ultimately pardoned by the king, who, it is stated, dreaded the disclosure of some dreadful secret of which the earl was possessed. He even allowed the discarded favourite a pension of £4000 a year for life. The countess died in 1632. The earl survived her thirteen years. Their only child, who was born in the Tower, became the wife of William, first duke of Bedford, and mother of the celebrated patriot, Lord William Russell.—J. T.
* SOMERVILLE, Mary, an eminent writer upon astronomy, physical geography, and the kindred sciences, was born in 1790, at Burntisland in Fifeshire. She was carefully trained by her father, an officer in the royal marines. She spent part of her early life at a school at Musselburgh near Edinburgh. Besides the usual accomplishments of music and painting, she acquired a knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages. The bent of her mind towards serious study was further encouraged by her first husband, a naval officer named Greig, and a near relative of the celebrated Admiral Greig of the Russian service. Her extraordinary aptitude for mathematics rapidly developed itself, and she soon surpassed her teachers. Being early left a widow, she quitted London and settled in Edinburgh. There she married Dr. Somerville, and came before the public as a writer in her new name. The suggestion to write for publication came from Lord Brougham, who requested Mrs. Somerville to make a condensed translation of La Mecanique Celeste of Laplace for the Library of Useful Knowledge. The work she wrote under the title of "Mechanism of the Heavens," has many claims to be considered original, and it so far exceeded the limits prescribed by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, that it was published in 1831 on its merits, and in a distinct form, with a
