urbis). Rutilius boasts his career to have been no less distinguished than his father's, and particularly indicates that he had been secretary of state (magister officiorum) and governor of the capital (i. 157, 427, 467, 561). It is probable that a certain Namatius named in the Theodosian Code (6, 27, 15) as magister officiorum of the year 412 is no other than our poet. The true literary man is apt to be inordinately proud of political distinction, and Rutilius celebrates his own praises in a style worthy of Cicero or Pliny. At all events, he had lived long in the great world of the Western empire, and knew much of the inner history of his time. After reaching manhood, he had passed through the tempestuous period that stretches between the death of Theodosius (395) and the fall of the usurper Attalus, which occurred near the date when our poem was written. He had witnessed the chequered career of Stilicho as actual, though not titular, emperor of the West; he had seen the hosts of Radagaisus rolled back from Italy, only to sweep over the helpless provinces of Gaul and Spain, the defeats and triumphs of Alaric, the three sieges and final sack of Rome, followed by the marvellous recovery of the city, Heraclian's vast armament dissipated by a breath, and the fall of seven pretenders to the Western diadem. Undoubtedly the sympathies of Rutilius were with those who during this period dissented from, and, when they could, opposed, the general tendencies of the imperial policy. We know from himself that he was the intimate of distinguished men who belonged to the circle of the great orator Symmachus,-men who had scouted Stilicho's compact with the Goths, and had led the Roman senate to support the pretenders Eugenius and Attalus in the vain hope of reinstating the gods whom Julian had failed to save. While making but few direct assertions about historical characters or events, the poem, by its very texture and spirit and assumptions, forces on us important conclusions concerning the politics and religion of the time, which are not brought home to us with the same directness by any other authority. The attitude of the writer towards paganism is remarkable. The whole poem is intensely pagan, and is penetrated by the feeling that the world of literature and culture is and must remain pagan, that outside paganism lies a realm of barbarism. The poet wears an air of exalted superiority over the religious innovators of his day, and entertains a buoyant confidence that the future of the ancient gods of Rome will not belie their glorious past. Invective and apology he scorns alike, nor troubles himself to show, with Claudian, even a suppressed grief at the indignities put upon the old religion by the new. As a statesman, he is at pains to avoid offending those politic Christian senators over whom pride in their country had at least as great power as attachment to their new religion. Only once or twice does Rutilius speak directly of Christianity, and then only to attack the monks, whom the temporal authorities had hardly as yet recognized, and whom, indeed, only a short time before, a Christian emperor had forced by thousands into the ranks of his army. Judaism Rutilius could assail without wounding either pagans or Christians, but he intimates, not obscurely, that he hates it chiefly as the evil root whence the rank plant of Christianity had sprung. We read in Gibbon that "Honorius excluded all persons who were adverse to the catholic church from holding any office in the state," that he "obstinately rejected the service of all those who dissented from his religion," and that "the law was applied in the utmost latitude and rigorously executed." Far different is the picture of political life impressed upon us by Rutilius. His voice is assuredly not that of a partisan of a discredited and overborne faction. We see by the aid of his poem a senate at Rome composed of past office-holders, the majority of whom were certainly pagan still. We discern a Christian section whose Christianity was political rather than religious, who were Romans first and Christians afterwards, whom a new breeze in politics might easily have wafted back to the old religion. Between these two sections the broad old Roman toleration reigns. Some ecclesiastical historians have fondly imagined that after the sack of Rome the bishop Innocent returned to a position of practical predominance. No one who fairly reads Rutilius can cherish this idea. The air of the capital, perhaps even of Italy, was still charged with paganism. The court was far in advance of the people, and the persecuting laws were in large part incapable of execution. Perhaps the most interesting lines in the whole poem are those' in which Rutilius assails the memory of "dire Stilicho," as he himself to be feared," annihilated those defences of Alps and names him. Stilicho, "fearing to suffer all that had caused Apennines which the provident gods had interposed between the barbarians and the Eternal City, and planted the cruel Goths, his "skin-clad" minions, in the very sanctuary of the empire. His' wile was wickeder than the wile of the Trojan horse, than the wile of Althæa or of Scylla. May Nero rest from all the torments of the damned, that they may seize on Stilicho, for Nero smote his own mother, but Stilicho, the mother of the world! We shall not err in supposing that we have here (what we find nowhere else) an authentic expression of the feeling entertained by a majority of the Roman senate concerning Stilicho. He had but imitated the policy of Theodosius with regard to the barbarians; but even that great emperor had met with passive opposition from the old Roman families. The relations, however, between Alaric and Stilicho had been closer and more mysterious than those between Alaric and Theodosius, and men who had seen Stilicho surrounded by his bodyguard of Goths not unnaturally looked on the Goths who assailed Rome as Stilicho's avengers. It is noteworthy that Rutilius speaks of the crime of Stilicho in terms far different from those used by Orosius and the historians of the lower empire. They believed that Stilicho was plotting to make his son enperor, and that he called in the Goths in order to climb higher. Rutilius holds that he used the barbarians merely to save himself from impending ruin. The Christian historians assert that Stilicho designed to restore paganism. To Rutilius he is (recorded by our poet alone) was the destruction of the Sibylline the most uncompromising foe of paganism. His crowning sin books-a sin worthy of one who had decked his wife in the spoils of Victory, the goddess who had for centuries presided over the deliberations of the senate. This crime of Stilicho alone is afterwards befell the city, just as Merobaudes, a generation or two sufficient in the eyes of Rutilius to account for the disasters that later, traced the miseries of his own day to the overthrow of the ancient rites of Vesta. With regard to the form of the poem, Rutilius handles the elegiac couplet with great metrical purity and freedom, and betrays many signs of long study in the elegiac poetry of the Augustan era. The Latin is unusually clean for the times, and is generally fairly classical both in vocabulary and construction. The taste of Rutilius too is comparatively pure. If he lacks the genius of Claudian, he also lacks his overloaded gaudiness and his large exaggeration, and the directness of Rutilius shines by comparison with the laboured complexity of Ausonius. It is common to call Claudian the last of the Roman poets. That title might fairly be claimed for Rutilius, unless it be reserved for Merobaudes. At any rate in passing from Rutilius to Sidonius no reader can fail to feel that he has left the region of Latin poetry for the region of Latin verse. Of the many interesting detaus of the poem we can only mention a few. At the outset we have an almost dithyrambic address to the goddess Roma, whose glory has ever shone the brighter for disaster, and who will rise once more in her might and confound her barbarian foes. The poet shows as deep a consciousness as any, modern historian that the grandest achievement of Rome was the spread of law. Next we get incidental but not unimportant references to the destruction of roads and property wrought by the Goths, to the state of the havens at the inouths of the Tiber and the general decay of nearly all the old commercial ports on the coast. Most of these were as desolate then as now. Rutilius even exaggerates the desolation of the once important city of Cosa in Etruria, whose walls have scarcely changed from that day to ours. The port that served Pisa, almost alone of all those visited by Rutilius, seems to have retained its prosperity, and to have foreshadowed the subsequent greatness of that city. At one point on the coast the villagers everywhere were "soothing their wearied hearts with holy merriment," and were celebrating the festival of Osiris. All existing MSS. of Rutilius are later than 1494, and are copies from a lost copy of an ancient MS. once at the monastery of Bobio, which disappeared about 1700. The editio princeps is that by J. B. Pius (Bologna, 1520), and the principal editions since have been those by Barth (1623), P. Burman (1731, in his edition of the minor Latin poets), Wernsdorf (1778, part of a similar collection), Zumpt (1840), and the critical edition by Lucian Müller (Teubner, Leipsic, 1870). Müller writes the poet's name as Claudius Rutilius Namatianus, instead of the usual Rutilius Claudius Namatianus; but if the identification of the poet's father with the Claudius mentioned in the Theodosian Code be correct, Müller is probably wrong. Rutilius receives more or less attention from all writers on the history or literature of the times, but a lucid chapter in Beugnot, Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme en Occident (1835), may be especially mentioned. It should be noted that in using the passage concerning Stilicho we have ventured to read the line at ii. 45 thus-Iliacae cladis deteriore dolo; the change from the MSS. reading Illatae cladis liberiore dolo (preserved in all editions) seems demanded (J. S. R.) by the context, as well as by the sense. 1 vol. xiv. RUTLAND, the smallest county in England, is bounded See N. and N.E. by Lincolnshire, S.E. by Northamptonshire, PI. VI. and W. by Leicestershire. Its shape is extremely irregular. The greatest length from north-east to south-west is about 20 miles, and the greatest breadth from east to west about 16 miles. The area is 94,889 acres, or about 148 square miles. The surface is pleasantly undulating, ridges of high ground running east and west, separated by rich and luxuriant valleys, generally about half a mile in breadth. The principal valley is that of Catmoss to the south of Oakham, having to the north of it a tract of table-land commanding an extensive prospect into Leicestershire. Street traversed it in the north-cast, and there was an important At The The Welland, which is navigable to Stamford, flows north-east, forming the greater part of the boundary of the county with Northamptonshire. The Gwash or Wash, which rises in Leicestershire, flows eastwards through the centre of the county, and just beyond its borders, enters the Welland in Lincolnshire. The Chater, also rising in RUTLAND, a township and village of the United States, Leicestershire and flowing eastwards enters the Welland capital of Rutland county, Vermont, 117 miles north-northabout two miles from Stamford. The Eye flows south-west of Boston. It is an important railway junction, eastwards along the borders of Leicestershire. The county being the terminus of several minor lines and the seat of belongs almost entirely to the Jurassic formation, consist-machine-shops and engine-houses; but its name is even ing of Liassic and Oolitic strata-the harder strata, chiefly better known through its quarries of white marble. limestone containing iron, forming the hills and escarp- population of the township was 12,149 and that of the ments, and the clay-beds the slopes of the valleys. The village 7502 in 1880. oldest rocks are those belonging to the Lower Lias in the north-west. The bottom of the vale of Catmoss is formed of marlstone rock belonging to the Middle Lias, and its sides are composed of long slopes of Upper Lias clay. The Upper Lias also covers a large area in the west of the county. The lowest series of the Oolitic formation is the Northampton sands bordering Northamptonshire. The Lincolnshire Oolitic limestone prevails in the east of the county north of Stamford. It is largely quarried for building purposes, the quarry at Ketton being famous beyond the boundaries of the county. The Great Oolite prevails towards the south-east. Formerly the iron was largely dug and smelted by means of the wood in the extensive forests, and the industry is again reviving. Agriculture. In the eastern and south-eastern districts the soil is light and shallow. In the other districts it consists chiefly of a tenacious but fertile loam, and in the fertile vale of Catmoss the soil is either clay or loam, or a mixture of the two. The prevailing redness, which colours even the streams, is owing to the ferruginous limestone carried down from the slopes of the hills. The name of the county is by some authorities derived from this characteristic of the soil, but the explanation is doubtful. The eastern portions of the county are chiefly under tillage and the western in grass. Out of 94,889 acres no fewer than 86,477 acres in 1885 were under cultivation, corn crops occupying 22,820 acres, green crops 7520 acres, rotation grasses 6553 acres, and permanent pasture 47,816 acres. Over 3000 acres were under woodland. The principal corn crop is Darley, which occupied 9484 acres, but wheat and oats are also largely grown. Turnips and swedes occupy about five-sixths of the area under green crops. The rearing of sheep and cattle occupies the chief attention of the farmer. Large quantities of cheese are manufactured and gold as Stilton. Cattle, principally shorthorns, numbered, 19,810, of which 8054 were cows and heifers in milk and in calf. Sheep-Leicesters and South Downs-numbered 80,881, horses 3062, pigs 3054, and poultry 27,876. According to the parliamentary return of 1873 the number of proprietors was 1425, of whom 861 possessed less than one acre. The largest proprietors were the earl of Gainsborough 15,076, Lord Aveland 13,634, marquis of Exeter 10.713, and George H. Finch 9182. Railways.-The main line of the Great Northern intersects the north-eastern corner of the county, and branches of that system, of the London and North-Western, and of the Midland connect it with all parts of the country. Administration and Population.-Rutland comprises nve nundreds and contains fifty-seven civil parishes, and part of the parish of Stoke-Dry, which extends into Leicestershire. Formerly represented by two members of parliament, since 1885 it returns one only. There is no municipal or parliamentary borough. The county has one court of quarter sessions, but is not subdivided for petty sessional purposes. Ecclesiastically it is entirely in the diocese of Peterborough. The population was 21,861 in 1861, 22,073 in 1871, and 21,434 in 1881. The average number of persons to an acre in 1881 was 0.23, and of acres to a person 4'43. History and Antiquities.-In the time of the Romans the district now included in Rutlandshire was probably inhabited by the Coritani, and was included in Flavia Cesariensis. Ermyn Chartered by New Hampshire in 1761 and again chartered as Socialborough in 1772 by New York, Rutland became in 1775 a fortified post on the great northern military road, and in 1781 was made the chief town of Rutland county. Between 1784 and 1804 it was one of the capitals of the State. RUYSBROECK, or RUYSBROEK, JOHN, mystic, was born at Ruysbroek, near Brussels, about 1293, and died as first prior of the convent of Groenendael, near Waterloo, in 1381. See MYSTICISM, vol. xvii. p. 133. RUYSCH, FREDERIK (1638-1731), anatomist, was born at The Hague in 1638, and died at Amsterdam on February 22, 1731. See ANATOMY, vol. i. p. 812. RUYSDAEL, or RUISDAAL, JACOB (c. 1625-1682), the most celebrated of the Dutch landscapists, was born at Haarlem about 1625. The accounts of his life are very conflicting, and recent criticism and research have discredited much that was previously received as fact regarding his career. He appears to have studied under his father Izaac Ruysdael, a landscape-painter,. though other authorities make him the pupil of Berghem and of Albert van Everdingen. The earliest date that appears on his paintings and etchings is 1645. Three years later he was admitted a member of the guild of St Luke in Haarlem; in 1659 he obtained the freedom of the city of Amsterdam, and we know that he was resident there in 1668, for in that year his name appears as a witness to the marriage of Hobbema. During his lifetime his works were little appreciated, and he seems to have suffered from poverty. In 1681 the sect of the Mennonites, with whom he was connected, petitioned the council of Haarlem for his admission into the almshouse of the town, and there the artist died on the 14th of March 1682. The works of Ruysdael may be studied in the Louvre and the National Gallery, London, and in the collections at The Hague, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Dresden. His favourite subjects are simple woodland scenes, similar to those of Everdingen and Hobbema, or views of picturesque mills and cottages, or of ruined towers and temples, set upon broken ground, beside streams or waterfalls. He is especially noted as a painter of trees, and his rendering of foliage, particularly of oak leafage, is characterized by the greatest spirit and precision. His views of distant cities, such as that of Haarlem in the possession of the marquis of Bute, and that of Katwijk in the Glasgow Corporation Galleries, clearly indicate the influence of Rembrandt. He frequently paints coastscenes, and sea-pieces with breaking waves and storiny skies filled with wind-driven clouds, but it is in his rendering of lonely forest glades that we find him at his best. The subjects of certain of his mountain scenes, with bold rocks, waterfalls, and fir-trees, seem to be taken from Norway, and have led to the supposition that he had travelled in that country. We have, however, no record of such a journey, and the works in question are probably merely adaptations from the landscapes of Van Everdingen, whose manner he copied at one period. Only, a single architectural sub The art of Ruysdael, while it shows little of the scientific knowledge of later landscapists, is sensitive and poetic in sentiment, and direct and skilful in technique. Figures are sparingly introduced into his compositions, and such as occur are believed to be from the pencils of Adrian Vandevelde, Philip Wouwerman, and Jan Lingelbach. In his love of landscape for itself, in his delight in the quiet and solitude of nature, the painter is thoroughly modern in feeling. Ruysdael etched a few plates, which were reproduced by Amand Durand in 1878, with text by M. Georges Duplessis. The "Champ de Blé" and the "Voyageurs" are characterized by M. Duplessis as "estampes de haute valeur qui peuvent être regardées comme les spécimens les plus significatifs de l'art du paysagiste dans les Pays-Bas." ject from his brush is known-an admirable interior of the New | Ryazañ is an intermediate link between the central Great Church, Amsterdam, in the possession of the marquis of Bute. The Russian governments and the Steppe governments of the prevailing hue of his landscapes is a full rich green, which, however, has darkened with time, while a clear grey tone is character-south-east,-the wide and deep valley of the Oka, by which istic of his sea-pieces. it is traversed from west to east, with a broad curve to the south, being the natural boundary between the two. On the left of the Oka the surface often consists of sands, marshes, and forests; while on the right the fertile blackearth prairies begin, occupying especially the southern part of the government (the districts of Ranenburg, Sapojok, and Dankoff). The whole of Ryazañ is a plateau about 700 feet above the sea, but deeply cut by the river valleys and numerous ravines. The geological formations represented are the Devonian, the Carboniferous, the Jurassic, and the Quaternary. The Devonian appears in the deeper valleys in the south, and belongs to the wellknown "Malevka-Muraevnya horizon," now considered as Devonian deposits of the Eifel. The Carboniferous deposits are widely spread, and appear at the surface in the bottoms of the ravines and valleys. They contain strata of excellent coal between plastic blue clays, which are worked at several places. Upper Carboniferous limestones, as also sandstones, the age of which has not yet been determined, but which seem to be Lower Jurassic, cover the Carboniferous clays. The Upper Jurassic deposits are widely spread, but they have been much destroyed and now appear as separate insular tracts. They belong to the Oxford and Callovian horizons, the former containing corals, which are very rare on the whole in the Russian Jurassic deposits. The Quaternary deposits are represented by the Glacial boulder clay and more recent alluvial deposits, which occupy wide areas in the valley of the Oka. Iron-ores, limestone, grindstone grits, potters' clays, and thick beds of peat are worked, besides coal. The northern parts of Ryazan belong to the forest regions of Russia, and, notwithstanding the wholesale destruction of forests in that part of the country, these (chiefly Coniferous) still cover one-third of the surface in several districts. In the south, where the proximity of the Steppes is felt, they are much less extensive, the prevailing species being oak, birch, and other deciduous trees. They cover an aggregate area of more than 2 million acres. RUYSSELÈDE, or RUISSELÈDE, a market-town of Belgium, in the province of West Flanders, 15 miles south-equivalent to the Cypridina serrato-striata Upper east of Bruges. It is best known as the seat of a great reformatory for boys, founded by the Government in 1849. The population was 6663 in 1874, and 6670 in 1881. RUYTER, MICHAEL ADRIAN DE (1607-1676), a distinguished Dutch naval officer, was born at Flushing, 24th March 1607. He began his seafaring life at the age of eleven as a cabin boy, and in 1636 was entrusted by the merchants of Flushing with the command of a cruiser against the French pirates. In 1640 he entered the service of the States, and, being appointed rear-admiral of a fleet fitted out to assist Portugal against Spain, specially distinguished himself at Cape St Vincent, 3d November 1641. In the following year he left the service of the States, and, until the outbreak of war with England in 1652, held command of a merchant vessel. In 1653 a squadron of seventy vessels was despatched against the English, under the command of Admiral Tromp. Ruyter, who accompanied the admiral in this expedition, seconded him with great skill and bravery in the three battles which were fought with the English. He was afterwards stationed in the Mediterranean, where he captured several Turkish vessels. In 1659 he received a commission to join the king of Denmark in his war with the Swedes. As a reward of his services, the king of Denmark ennobled him and gave him a pension. In 1661 he grounded a vessel belonging to Tunis, released forty Christian slaves, made a treaty with the Tunisians, and reduced the Algerine corsairs to submission. From his achievements on the west coast of Africa he was recalled in 1665 to take command of a large fleet which had been organized against England, and in May of the following year, after a long contest off the North Foreland, he compelled the English to take refuge in the Thames. On June 7, 1672, he fought a drawn battle with the combined fleets of England and France, in Southwold or Sole Bay, and after the fight he convoyed safely home a fleet of merchantmen. His valour was displayed to equal advantage in several engagements with the French and English in the following year. In 1676 he was despatched to the assistance of Spain against France in the Mediterranean, and, receiving a mortal wound in the battle on the 21st April off Messina, died on the 29th at Syracuse. A patent by the king of Spain, investing him with the dignity of duke, did not reach the fleet till after his death. His body was carried to Amsterdam, where a magnificent monument to his memory was erected by command of the states-general. See Life of Ruyter by Brandt, Amsterdam, 1687, and by Klopp, 2d ed., Hanover, 1858. RYAZAŇ, a government of Central Russia, is bounded by Moscow and Tula on the W., by Vladimir on the N., and by Tamboff on the E. and S., with an area of 16,255 square miles, and a population of 1,713,581 in 1882. The Oka is the chief river; it is navigable throughout, and receives the navigable Pronya, Pra, and Tsna, besides a great many smaller streams utilized for floating timber. Steamers ply on the Oka to Kasimoff and Nijni Novgorod. The Don and the Lyesnoi Voronezh belong to Ryazañ in their upper courses only. On the whole, the south districts are not well watered. Small lakes are numerous in the broad depression of the Oka and elsewhere, while extensive marshes cover the north-east districts; a few attempts at draining several of these on the banks of the Oka have resulted in the reclamation of excellent pasture lands. The climate is a little warmer than at Moscow, the average temperature at Ryazañ being 41°. The territory of Ryazan was occupied in the 9th century by Finnish stems (Mordvinians, Mers, Muroms, and Meschers), which for the most part have either given way before or disappeared amongst the Slavonian colonizers. The population is now Great Russian throughout, and contains only a trifling admixture of some 6000 Tartars! 1500 Poles, and 500 Jews in towns. Some Tartars immigrated into the Kasimoff region in the 15th century, and are noted for their honesty of character as well as för their agricultural prosperity. The people of the Pra river are described as Mescheriaks, but their manners and customs do not differ from those of the Russians. The chief occupation in Ryazan is agriculture. Out of 10,100,000, acres only 838,000 are unfit for tillage. 5,482,000 acres are under crops, and the annual produce is estimated at about 4.948.000 quarters of corn and 972,000 quarters of potatoes. The area under The capital of Ryazan principality was Ryazan- -now Old Rycza, a village close to Spassk, also on the Oka. It is mentioned in annals as early as 1097, but continued to be the chief town of the principality only until the 14th century. In the 11th century one of the Kieff princes-probably Yaroslaff Svyatoslavitch in 1095-founded, on the banks of a small lake, a fort which received the name of Pereyaslaff-Ryazanskiy. In 1294 (or in 1335) the bishop of Marom, compelled to leave his own town and probably following the usual policy of that epoch,-that of selecting a new town with no municipal traditions, as the nucleus of a new state, -settled in Pereyaslaff-Ryazanskiy, and thus gave new importance to this formerly insignificant settlement. The great princes of Ryazan followed his example and by-and-by completely abandoned the old republican town of Ryazan, transferring also its name to, Pereyaslaff-Ryazanskiy. In 1300 a congress of Russian princes was held there, and in the following year the town was taken by the Moscow prince. It continued, however, to be the residence of the Ryazan princes until 1517. In 1365 and 1377 it was plundered and burned by Tartars, but in the two following centuries (in 1460, 1513, 1521, and 1564) it was strong enough to repel them. Earthen walls with towers were erected after 1301; and in the 17th century a "kreml" still stood on the high crag above the Truhej. Ryazan became chief town of the Ryazan lieutenancy in 1778. RYBINSK, or RUBINSK, though but a district town of the governsent of Yaroslavl, with a permanent population (1883) of only 18,900, is, as being virtually the port of St Petersburg on the Volga, one of the most important towns of the northern part of Central Russia. It lies 54 miles to the north-west of Yaroslavl, and is connected by rail (186 miles) with Bologoye, on the line between St Petersburg and Moscow. It derives its importance from its situation on the Volga, opposite the mouth of the Sheksna,-one of those tributaries which, flowing from the north-west, have since the dawn of Russian history connected the Volga with the regions around Lake Ladoga. Russians settled there as early as the 12th century, or perhaps earlier; subsequently it seems to have become a mere fishing station under Moscow, with perhaps some shipbuilding. It became a considerable centre for traffic when the Vyshnevolotsk, Tikhvinsk, and Mariinsk canal systems, connecting St Petersburg with the Volga, were opened. The cargoes of the larger boats from the lower Volga, consisting mainly of corn and flour, as also of salt, spirits, potash, and tallow, are here transferred to smaller boats capable of accomplishing the navigation to St Petersburg, and vice versa. The amount of goods thus transhipped is estimated at 16,000,000 cwts., worth 32,800,000 roubles. Since the opening of the line to Bologoye, a large proportion of this merchandise is sent to St Petersburg by rail (9,293,000 cwts. in 1880). The total number of boats visiting Rybinsk annually is estimated at 5000 to 7000, their aggregate cargoes amounting to nearly 20,000,000 cwts. (about 40,000,000 roubles). Upwards of 100,000 labourers (male and female) assemble at Rybinsk during the navigation, and the number of vessels is so great as to cover the Volga and the Sheksna like a bridge. Besides. the business of transhipment, Rybinsk has an active trade in corn, hemp, &c., from and its sanitary condition leaves very much to be desired, the neighbouring districts. The town is but poorly built, especially in summer. RYCAUT, or RICAUT, SIR PAUL (d. 1700), traveller and diplomatist, was the tenth son of Sir Peter Ricaut, a Royalist who on account of his support of King Charles had to pay a composition of £1500. The son was admitted a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1647, and took his B.A. degree in 1650. After travelling in Europe and in various parts of Asia and Africa, he in 1661 accompanied as secretary the earl of Winchelsea, ambassador extraordinary to Turkey. During a residence there of eight years he wrote The Present State of the Ottoman Empire, in three books; containing the Maxims of the Turkish Politie, their Religion and Military Discipline (1670; 4th ed., 1686; Fr. transl. by Briot, 1670; and another with notes by Bespier, 1677). In 1663 he pub lished at Constantinople The Capitulation, Articles of Peace, &c., concluded between the King of England and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Subsequently he was for eleven years consul at Smyrna, and at the command of Charles II. wrote The Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches, Anno Christi 1678, which on his return to England he presented to the king and published in 1679. In 1685 Lord Clarendon, lord lieutenant of Ireland, made him principal secretary for the provinces of Leinster and Connaught. He at the same time received from James II. the honour of knighthood, was made a member of the privy council of Ireland, and named judge of the high court of admiralty, which office he retained till 1688. From 1690 to 1700 he was employed by King William as English resident at the Hanse towns, and shortly after his return to England, worn out with age and infirmities, he died on the 16th December 1700. Rycaut was a fellow of the Royal Society, and wrote an article on Sable Mice which was published in their Transactions. In addition to the works already mentioned he was the author of A Continuation of Knolles' History of the Turks from 1623 to 1677 (1680), and from 1679 to 1699 (1700); A Translation of Platina's Lives of the Popes, with a Continuation from 1471 to the Present Time (1685); The Critick, from the Spanish of Gracian (1686); and the Royal Commentaries of Peru, from the Spanish of Garcilasso (1688). RYDE, a municipal borough and watering place of the Isle of Wight, is finely situated on a sloping eminence above the Solent, 5 miles south by west of Portsmouth, and 7 (12 by rail) from West Cowes. It occupies the site of a village called La Rye or La Riche, which was destroyed by the French in the reign of Edward II. About the close of the 18th century it was a small fishing hamlet, but when the beauty of its site attracted attention it rapidly grew into favour as a watering-place. The streets are wide, regular, and well-paved, and there are a large number of fine villas on the slopes of the hill. It is connected by rail with the principal other towns in the island, and there is also steamboat communication with Portsmouth, Southampton, Southsea, Portsea, and Stoke's Bay. The pier, built originally in 1812, but since then greatly extended, forms a delightful promenade half a mile in length. The principal buildings are All Saints church, erected in 1870 from the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott, and other churches, the market-house and town hall, the Royal Victoria Yacht club-house, the theatre, and the Royal Isle of Wight Infirmary. The town was incorporated in 1868, and is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors. The population of the municipal borough (area 792 acres) in 1871 was 11,260 and in 1881 it was 11,461. RYE. As in the case of other cereals, it is doubtful if rye (Secale cereale) exists at the present time in a truly wild state. The best evidence on this point goes to show that the plant is a native of the regions between the Black and Caspian Seas. It is also recorded from Afghanistan and Turkestan; but botanists are very chary about admitting the validity of the evidence hitherto adduced. Aitchison, the latest investigator of the flora of Afghanistan, mentions it as growing in wheat-fields, where it is considered as a weed, not being intentionally sown. In some fields "it almost eradicates the wheat crop." But this merely shows that the conditions are more favourable to the growth of rye than to that of wheat. In spite of the uncertainty as to the precise origin of the cultivated plant, its cultivation does not appear to have been practised at a very early date, relatively speaking. Alphonse de Candolle, who has collected the evidence on this point, draws attention to the fact that no traces of this cereal have hitherto been found in Egyptian monuments or in the earlier Swiss dwellings, though seeds have been found in association with weapons of the Bronze period at Olmütz. The absence of any special name for it in the Semitic, Chinese, and Sanskrit languages is also adduced as an indication of its comparatively recent culture. On the other hand, the general occurrence of the name in the more modern languages of northern Europe, under various modifications, points to the cultivation of the plant then, as now, in those regions. The origin of the Latin name secale, which exists in a modified form among the Basques and Bretons, is not explained. The circumstances that the cultivation of rye is relatively not of great antiquity, and that it is confined to a relatively restricted area must be taken into account, in connexion with the fact that the variations of this cereal are much fewer than are noted in the case of other plants of like character. The fact stated by Müller that the anthers and stigmas of the flowers come to maturity at the same time would tend to "close fertilization" and a consequent constancy of "characters" in the offspring, and, as a matter of fact, the varieties of this grass are not numerous. Rye is a tall-growing annual grass, with fibrous roots, flat, narrow, ribbon-like bluish-green leaves, and erect or decurved cylindrical slender spikes like those of barley. The spikelets contain two or three flowers, of which the uppermost is usually imperfect. The outer glumes are acute glabrous, the flowering glumes lance-shaped, with a comb-like keel at the back, and the outer or lower one prolonged at the apex into a very long bristly awn. Within these are three stamens surrounding a compressed ovary, with two feathery stigmas. When ripe, the grain is of an elongated oval form, with a few hairs at the summit. In the southern parts of Great Britain rye is chiefly or solely cultivated as a forage-plant for cattle and horses, being usually sown in autumn for spring use, after the crop of roots, turnips, &c., is exhausted, and before the clover and lucerne are ready. For forage purposes it is best to cut early, before the leaves and haulms have been exhausted of their supplies to benefit the grain. In the northern parts of Europe, and more especially in Scandinavia, Russia, and parts of northern Germany, rye is the principal cereal; and in nutritive value, as measured by the amount of gluten it contains, it stands next to wheat, a fact which furnishes the explanation of its culture in northern latitudes ill-suited for the growth o. wheat. Ryebread or black-bread is in general use in northern Europe, but finds little favour with those unaccustomed to its use, owing to its sour taste, the sugar it contains rapidly passing into the acetous fermentation. When the ovaries of the plant become affected with a peculiar fungus (Cordyceps), they become blackened and distorted, constituting ERGOT (q.v.). RYE, a municipal town and seaport at the eastern extremity of the county of Sussex, 63 miles south-southeast of London, is built upon a rocky eminence which two or three centuries ago was washed on all sides by the influx of the tide, but now, in consequence of the gradual recession of the sea, lies two miles inland. It is surrounded by rich marsh land through which flows the river Rother, uniting at the south-east foot of the rock with two rivulets to form a small serpentine estuary, Rye harbour, the mouth of which is connected with the town by means of a branch line of railway. In bygone years, when the adjacent marshes were flooded with tidal water, the efflux was so powerful as to effectually maintain safe and free entrance into Rye harbour; and in the reign of Charles II. a frigate of 50 guns, could enter and ride at anchor. Now the harbour suffers seriously from the shifting sand and shingle, and considerable sums of money have been expended by the harbour commissioners with the view of overcoming these impediments, with but partial success.. The trade is chiefly in coal, timber, |