Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 19, Scripture-SUG

SON P 47<
Somerton tet for corn is confiderable, and it has feveral fairs for
II cattle. The church has, what is not very frequent, an
■ 0V1^'u!,•, oBcmgular tower with fix bells. N. Lat. 51. 4. VV. Long.
I. 53.
SOMNAMBULI, perfons who walk in their deep.
See Sleepwalkers.
SOMNER, William, an eminent Englifli antiqua¬
ry, was born at Canterbury in 1606. His firft treatife
was The Antiquities of Canterbury, which he dedicated
to Archbifhop Laud. He then applied himfelf to the
ftudy of the Saxon language •, and having made himielf
mafter of it, he perceived that the old gloffary prefixed
to Sir Roger Twifden’s edition of the laws of King
Henry I. printed in 1644, was faulty in many places ;
he therefore added to that edition notes and obferva-
tions valuable for their learning, with a very ufeiul
gloffary. His Treatife of Gavelkind was finidied a-
bout 1648, though not publifhed till 1660. Our
author was zealoufly attached to King Charles I. and
in 1648 he publithed a poem on his fufferings and
death. His flcill in the Saxon tongue led him to in¬
quire into moil; of the European languages ancient and
modern. He afllfted Dugdale and Dodfworth in com¬
piling the Monajlicon An^hcanum. His Saxon Dic¬
tionary was printed at Oxford in 1659. He died in
1669.
SON, an appellation given to a male child confidered
in the relation he bears to his parents. See Parent
and Filial Piety.
SONATA, in Mujic, a piece or eompofition, intend¬
ed to be performed by inftruments only ; in which fenfe
it Hands oppofed to cantata, or a piece defigned for the
voice. See Cantata.
The fonata then, is properly a grand, free, humorous
compofition, diverfified with a great variety of motions
and expreffions, extraordinary and bold ftrokes, figures,
&c.* And all this purely according to the fancy of the
oompofer \ who, without confining himfelf to any ge¬
neral rules of counterpoint, or to any fixed number or
meafure, gives a loofe to his genius, and runs from one
mode, meafure, &c. to another, as he thinks fit. This
fpecies of compofition had its rife about the middle of
the 17th century \ thofe who have moil excelled in it
were Baffani and Corelli. We have fonatas of 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, and even 8 parts, but ufually they are per¬
formed by a fingle violin, or with two violins, and a
thorough bafs for the harpfichord ; and frequently a
more figured bafs for the bafs viol, &c.
There are a thoufand different fpecies of fonatas*,
but the Italians ufually reduce them to two kinds. Su-
tmate tie chiefa, that is, fonatas proper for church mufic,
which ufually begin with a grave folemn motion, fuit-
able to the dignity and fanftity of the place and the
fervice, after which they ftrike into a brifker, gayer,
and richer manner. Thefe are what they more pecu¬
liarly call fonatas. Suonale de camera, or fonatas^ for
the chamber, are properly feriefes of feveral little
pieces, for dancing, only compofed to the fame tune.
They ufually begin with a prelude or little fonata,
ferving as an introduction to all the reft : afterwards
©ome the allemand, pavane, courant, and other ferious
dances ; then jigs, gavots, minuets, chacons, paffecailles,
and other gayer airs : the whole compofed in the fame
tune or mode.
SONCHUS, Sow-thistle, in Botany, a genus of
: ] SON
plants belonging to the clafs of fyngenejia, and to the or- SoticW
der of polygamia a-qualis ; and in the natural fyftem ran-1 SoBg'
ged under the 49th order, Compofitce. The receptacle " ^
is naked j the calyx is imbricated, bellying and conical j
the down of the feed is limple, feffile, and very foft;
the feed is oval and pointed. There are 13 Ipecies j
the maritimus, paluftris, fruticofus, arvenfis, oleraceus,
tenerrimus, plumieri, alpinus, fioridanus, fibiricus, tata-
ricus, tuberofus, and canadenfis. Four of thefe are na¬
tives of Britain.— I. Pa/ujlris, marth fow-thiftle. 'J he
Item is ered, from fix to ten feet high, branched and
hairy towards the top ; the leaves are firm, broad, half
pinnated, ferrated, and iharp-pointed ; the lower ones
fagittate at the bafe : the Bowers are of a deep yellow,
large, and difperled on the tops of the branches : the
calyx is rough. It is frequent in marfhes, and flowers-
in July or Auguft.—2. Arverjis, corn fow-thiftle. The
leaves are alternate, runcinate, and heart fliaped at the
bafe ; the root creeps under ground \ the ftem is three
or four feet high, and branched at the top. It grows
in corn-fields, and flowers in Auguft —3. O/eraceus,
common fow-thiftle. The ftalk is fucculent, piftular,
and a cubit high or more ; the leaves are broad, embra¬
cing the ftem, generally deeply finuated, fmooth, or
prickly at the edges ; the flowers are of a pale yellow,
numerous, in a kind of umbel, and terminal j the calyx1
is fmooth. It is frequent in wafte places and cultivated
grounds.— 4. Alpinus, blue-flowered fow-thiftle. The
ftem is ereCI, purplith, branched, or Ample, from three
to fix feet high : the leaves are large, fmooth, and finu¬
ated *, the extreme fegment large and triangular : the
flowers are blue, and grow on hairy vifeid pedicles, in
long fpikes : the calyx is brown. This fpecies is found
in Northumberland.
SONG, in Poetry, a little compofition, confifting of
cafy and natural verfes, fet to a tune in order to be fung.
See Poetry, N° 120.
Song, in Mujic, is applied in general to a fingle piece
of mufic, whether contrived for the voice or an inftru-
ment. See AlR.
Song of Birds, is defined by the honourable Daines
Barrington to be a fucceflion of three or more different
notes, which are continued without interruption, during
the fame interval, with a mufical bar of four crotchets
in an adagio movement, or whilft a pendulum Irvings
four feconds.
It is affirmed, that the notes of birds are no more in¬
nate than language in man, and that they depend upon
imitation, as far as their organs will enable them to imi¬
tate the founds which they have frequent opportunities of
hearing : and their adhering fo fteadily, even in a wild
Bate, to the fame fong, is owing to the nefilings attend¬
ing only to the inftruflion of the parent bird, whilft
they difregard the notes of all others that may perhaps
be finging round them.
Birds in a wild ftate do not commonly fing above 10
weeks in the year, whereas birds that have plenty of
food in a cage fing the greateft part of the year ; and
we may add, that the female of no fpecies of birds ever
fings. This is a wife provifion of nature, becaufe her
fong would difeover her neft. In the fame manner, we
may rationally account for her inferiority in plumage.
The faculty of finging is confined to the cock birds;
and accordingly Mr Hunter, in diffetf ing birds of fe¬
veral fpecies, found the mufcles of the larynx to be
1 ftronger