Canonum secundi libri Directionum qui in Regiomontani Opere desiderantur,' 4to, Tübingen, 1554. In this work the table of tangents was first extended to each minute of the quadrant from 0° to 89°, and to every 10" from 89° to 90°. The last figure of the tangents here given can nowhere be depended on, and above 70° the error is much greater. Like Müller, he showed himself very little acquainted with the use to which such a table is applicable, notwithstanding the epithet "fæcundus" which they applied to it. Reinhold supposed, with Copernicus, that the obliquity of the ecliptic varied from 23° 28' to 23° 52'. 5. Tabulæ Ascensionum Obliquarum à 60° Gradu Elevationis Poli usque ad Finem Quadrantis, per Erasmum Reinholdum supputatæ,' appended to the edition of Müller's 'Tables of Directions,' printed in 1584. 6. There is also an anonymous work, printed in 1568, 8vo, entitled 'Hypotyposes Orbium Cælestium quas vulgo vocant Theoricas Planetarum Congruentes cum Tabulis Astronomicis,' which is supposed to be the composition of Reinhold. See 'Astron. Moderne,' i., pp. 142 and 146. (Astronomie du Moyen Age, pp. 272-274; Astron. Moderne, i., p. 164; Zedler, Grosses Universal Lexicon, fol., Leip., 1742, band 31, p. 206; Vossius, De Scientiis Mathematicis, c. 36, p. 14; Dappelmayer, De Mathem., &c.)

REINHOLD, ERASMUS, son of the preceding. He possessed some knowledge of astronomy, and submitted to Tycho a copy of the Prutenic Tables calculated to each 10"; but the want of fortune obliged him to adopt the medical profession.

REISKE, JOHANN JACOB, a physician, and celebrated scholar, whose fame rests chiefly on his knowledge of the Arabic, was born on the 25th of December 1716, at Zorbig, a small town near Leipzig. His grandfather was an innkeeper, and his father a tanner. At the age of twelve he was sent to the orphan-school at Halle, and was entered at the University of Leipzig in 1733, where, being destined by his relations to the theological profession, he spent five years chiefly in the study of the rabbinical writings and Arabic. He was soon induced to renounce the first of these pursuits, but he became extremely devoted to the second; and his passion for Arabic books was so strong that he almost deprived himself of the common necessaries of life in order to purchase them. The learned Wolf of Hamburg having, in 1736, sent him the Narrations' of Hariri, he copied it with great eagerness, and in the following year printed at Leipzig the twenty-sixth Consessus' with Arabic scholia and a Latin version. The success of this essay caused him to take the resolution, contrary to the advice of his friends, of going to Holland for improvement in the Arabic language. He ransacked all the Oriental treasures of the library at Leyden, whilst for his subsistence he was obliged to become a corrector of the press. He passed his time in a state of indigence and discountenance that brought upon him hypochondriac affections, the effects of which never left him. During his stay at Leyden, he made use of the advantages the place afforded for the study of medicine, and on his return to Leipzig he was presented with a gratuitous degree of Doctor of Physic; but his manners and habits were altogether unsuited for the obtaining of professional practice. Poverty was his perpetual companion, and his scanty resources were derived from correcting the press, translating, and performing other tasks for booksellers. His condition soured his temper, and he made many enemies by the severity of his censures. In the meantime, many valuable works in Oriental and Greek literature were occasionally proceeding from his pen, which made him well known to the learned world, and he was at length nominated rector of the college of St. Nicholas in Leipzig. Thus placed in happier circumstances as to fortune, he pursued his literary labours more according to his inclination, and fulfilled the duties of his office with exemplary diligence. At the age of forty-eight he married Ernestine Christine Müller, a young woman of twenty-nine, noticed below, who was afterwards of great use to him in his editorial employments. He died on the 14th of August 1774.

The following is a list of some of the most valuable of his works, beginning with those on Oriental subjects:-1, Miscellaneæ aliquot Observationes Medicæ ex Arabum Monimentis,' 4to, Lugd. Bat., 1746, a little work of much importance to all who take an interest in the Arabic physicians, which was republished after Reiske's death by Christ. God. Grüner, 8vo, Halæ, 1776. 2, Abilfedæ Opus Geographicum.' This translation of the Geography of Abdulfeda is to be found in Büsching's Magazin für die neue Historie und Geographie,' vols. iv. and v., Lips. 1770, 8vo. Unfortunately Reiske did not possess sufficient mathematical knowledge to understand the systematic part of such a work. 3, 'Proben der Arabischen Dichtkunst in verliebten und traurigen Gedichten, aus dem Motanabbi, Arabisch und Deutsch, nebst Anmerkungen,' Leipzig, 1765, 4to. This contains only a part of the poems of Motanabbi, the whole of which he had copied out during his residence at Leyden, and wished to publish. A German translation of the whole of his poems is among his unpublished manuscripts. 4, 'Abilfedæ Annales Moslemici,' Leipzig, 1754, 4to. This volume contains the translation of the Annals of Abulfeda [ABULFEDA], from the birth of Mohammed to A.H. 406 (A.D. 1015-16): it is scarcely twofifths of that part of Abulfeda's work which treats of the history of the Mohammedans. Reiske did not translate the first part of this work, which has for its object the history of the time anterior to Mohammed. His other works consist of editions of various classical authors, as 'Constantinus Porphyrogennetus,' Gr. et Lat., fol., Lips., 1751, 1754; 'Ciceronis Tusculana Quæstiones,' 12mo, Lips, 1759;

RELAND, ADRIAN.

54

'Theocritus,' Gr. et Lat., 4to, 2 vols., Lips., 1766; 'Oratores Græci,' Gr. et. Lat., 8vo, 12 vols., Lips., 1774-75; Plutarchi Opera Omnia,' Gr. et Lat., 8vo, Lips., 12 vols., 1774-82, of which only the first appeared during his life; Maximus Tyrius,' Gr. et Lat., 8vo, 2 vols., Lips., 1774; Dionysius Halicarnassensis,' Gr. et. Lat., 8vo, Lips., 6 vols., 1774-77, of which the last four were published after his death. Some of these latter works, as well as several translations, were hastily executed in order to gain a livelihood, and most of them have been superseded by more recent and accurate editions. A complete list both of his published works and his manuscripts is given by Reiske's wife, in her continuation of his memoirs, which were published at Leipzig, 8vo, 1783, under the title, J. J. Reiskens von ihm selbst aufgesetzte Lebensbeschreibung,' pp. 816. His knowledge of Greek was considerable, and he is universally allowed to have been one of the best Arabic scholars that ever lived; in both these languages however he is much too bold and hasty a critic to be implicitly trusted, and his alterations and conjectures are frequently unnecessary and absurd.

REISKE, ERNESTINE CHRISTINE, whose maiden name was Müller, the wife of the preceding, and a woman of great literary accomplishments, was born on the 2nd of April 1735, at Kumberg, a small town near Wittemberg in Prussian Saxony. In 1755 she became acquainted with Reiske at Leipzig, where she was paying a visit, and notwithstanding that he was twenty years her senior, they conceived a mutual love and esteem for each other; owing however to the war which raged all over Saxony, they were not married till 1764. This union, which contributed so much to Reiske's happiness during the rest of his life, was also of service to the cause of literature, and Christine Reiske deservedly occupies a distinguished place in the list of learned women. In order to help her husband by dividing with him his literary labours, she acquired under his instructions such a knowledge of Latin and Greek that she was soon able to understand the writers in those languages. From this time she was of the greatest assistance to him: she copied and collated manuscripts for him, arranged the various readings that he had collected, and read and corrected the proof sheets of his works. Her attachment for him and her respect for his memory are strongly shown in the supplement to his Autobiography,' which she completed, from the 1st of January 1770, to the time of his death in 1774. The gratitude of Reiske, and the ardour of his affection for one who lived only for him, are not less strongly expressed both in the Autobiography' just mentioned and in the prefaces to some of his works. On the occasion of his publishing his Demosthenes,' we have the following interesting note by his wife in his 'Memoirs':-" When the work went to press, only twenty thalers of the subscription money had come in. The good man was quite struck down with this, and seemed to have thrown away all hope. His grief went to my soul, and I comforted him as well as I could, and persuaded him to sell my jewels, which he at length came into, after I had convinced him that a few shining stones were not necessary to my happiness." After her husband's death she published several works that he had left unfinished, namely, the last three volumes of the 'Oratores Græci,' 8vo, Lips., 1775; ‘Libanii Sophista Orationes et Declamationes,' Altem., 4 vols. 8vo, 1783-87, Græce; 'Dionis Chrysostomi Orationes,' Græce, 2 vols. 8vo, Lips., 1784. She also published two works herself, one at Mitau, 2 vols. 8vo, 1778-79, with the title of 'Hellas,' and another entitled 'Zur Moral: aus dem Griechischen ubersetzt von E. C. Reiske,' 8vo, pp. 364, 1782, Dessau and Leipzig, containing several moral works, translated by her from the Greek into German. Concerning this last work see the 'Bibliotheca Critica,' by Wyttenbach (part viii. page 142), Amstel., 1783. She also gave to M. Boden, for his edition of the Greek romance of 'Achilles Tatius' (8vo, Leipzig, 1776), the various readings of a manuscript collated by herself. After her husband's death she lived successively at Leipzig, Dresden, and Brunswick, and died at her native town, Kumberg, of apoplexy, on the 27th of July 1798.

RELAND, ADRIAN, was born at Ryp, a village in North Holland, on the 17th of July 1676. His father was a minister of that village, but afterwards removed to Amsterdam, where Reland was educated. He made such progress in learning that at eleven years of age he had passed through the usual classical course. The next three years he spent in making himself acquainted with the Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, and Arabic languages, under the tuition of Surenhusius. At fourteen he was sent to Utrecht, where he studied under Grævius and Leusden, and three years after was admitted to the degree of Doctor in Philosophy, on which occasion he sustained a thesis, 'De Libertate Philosophandi.' At seventeen he entered upon a course of divinity, under the direction of Herman Witsius and others; but he did not abandon the Oriental languages, which were always his favourite studies. After a residence of six years at Utrecht he removed to Leyden, and soon after the Earl of Portland chose him as preceptor to his son. In 1699 he was elected professor of philosophy at Harderwick, but did not continue long in that situation; for the University of Utrecht, on the recommendation of King William, offered him the professorship of Oriental languages and ecclesiastical history, which he readily accepted, and filled with high reputation during the remainder of his life. He died of the small-pox at Utrecht, on the 5th of February 1718, in the forty-second year of his age. He wrote and published a great number of works on sacred and Oriental learning, the chief of which are the

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an eye, and being the only son of a widow, exempted him from the ordinary conscription, but in 1814, when the allied armies entered France, there was a danger of his being called upon, but Napoleon I., through the intercession of M. Silvestre de Sacy and the Duc de Feltre, granted him a special exemption on account of his learned labours. In 1818 he succeeded M. Visconti as editor of the 'Journal des Savants;' and in 1824 he was appointed keeper of the oriental manuscripts in the royal library. His known adherence to the party of Charles X. occasioned a probability of his being displaced when that monarch was dispossessed, but in acknowledgment of his peculiar fitness he was allowed to retain his offices. He died on June 3, 1832. His principal works are a translation from the Chinese of a 'Livre des Récompenses et des Peines,' 1817; Recherches sur les Langues Tartares,' 1820, in which he has given the best view hitherto presented of the Manchow, Mongol, Oujein, and Thibetian languages; Éléments de la Grammaire Chinois,' 1722; 'Mélanges Asiatique,' 1825, continued in 1829 as Nouvelles Mélanges Asiatiques;' these contain many of the papers which had previously appeared in the Journal Asiatique,' Journal des Savants,' 'Mines de l'Orient,' 'La Biographie Universelle,' &c. The novel of Yu-Tiao-li, ou les keux Cousines,' and 'Contes Chinois,' 1827; and a posthumous work, Fou-kou-ki, ou Relation des Royaumes Bouddhiques, traduit du Chinois et commenté, revu par Klaproth et Landresse,' 1836, besides numerous detached papers in various periodical works, some of which were afterwards published separately. He was also member of various learned societies, among them the Asiatic Societies of London and Calcutta. His life has been written by M. Silvestre de Sacy. RENAUDOT, EUSE'BIUS, was born at Paris in 1646. His father was first physician to the dauphin of France (afterwards Louis XIV.). Renaudot was educated at the Jesuits' college, and entered the congregation of the Oratoire, though he did not remain long in it. From his early youth he was particularly inclined to the study of the Arabic, Syriac, and Coptic languages, by means of which he was afterwards enabled to enter so deeply into the origin and history of the Eastern church. He became well known at court, where his vast learning made him much esteemed and admired, and Colbert being then desirous of establishing printing-presses for the Oriental languages at Paris, consulted him upon the subject, engaged his services, and offered him the reversion of a place in the Royal Library; but that minister having died before his views could be realised, Renaudot was not appointed to the vacant office. He seems however to have been employed by the king in various negociations with the governments of England and Spain, his time being so much taken up by these occupations, that, while they lasted, he almost entirely discontinued his favourite studies. In 1689 he was made a member of the French Academy, and, three years after, of that of the 'Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.' In 1700 he accompanied to Rome Cardinal de Noailles, archbishop of Paris, and acted as his 'conclavista' in the conclave which elected Clement XI. to the papal dignity. While at Rome, Renaudot resumed his favourite studies, and the library of the Vatican furnished him with ample materials for the history of the Eastern church-a subject which he had long in mind, and to which he now devoted his whole attention. In this design he was assisted by the new pope, who persuaded him to remain in Rome several months after the departure of Cardinal de Noailles, and gave him the priory of Frossey in Bretagne. On his return to France, Renaudot devoted himself entirely to letters, and composed a great number of learned dissertations, which are printed in the 'Memoirs' of the Academy. He died in 1720, at the age of seventy-four, greatly regretted by the learned men of his time. His fine and extensive collection of Oriental manuscripts he bequeathed to the abbey of St. Germain des Prés. They remained there until the Revolution, when they were incorporated with the Oriental collection in the Royal Library. Renaudot wrote the following works:-1, A collection of controversial pieces on the celebrated work by Nicole, entitled 'Défense de la Perpetuité de la Foi contre les Monuments authentiques de la Religion des Grecs,' Paris, 8vo, 1708; 2, 'Historia Patriarcharum Alexandrinorum Jacobitarum,' &c., Paris, 4to, 1713; 3, Liturgiarum Orientalium Collectio,' Paris, 2 vols. 4to, 1716; 4, 'Ancient Account of India and China,' written by two Mohammedan travellers of the 9th century, translated from the Arabic, Paris, 8vo, 1718. This has subsequently been found to be only a translation of part of a geographical and historical work, entitled 'Murúju-dhdhahab wa Mádanu-jauhar' ('Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems'), by the celelebrated Masudí, an Arabian writer of the 10th century. 5, Gennadii Patriarchæ Constantinopolitani Homilia de Eucharistia,' together with other Latin treatises on the same subject, Paris, 4to, 1703. RENÉ OF ANJOU, born in 1409, was the son of Louis II., duke of Anjou and count of Provence. In 1434 he succeeded his brother, Louis III. Before this time, Réné had married Isabella of Lorraine. After the death of Queen Joanna II. in 1435, Réné laid claim to the kingdom of Sicily and Naples, but he had a powerful rival in Alfonso of Aragon. [ALFONSO V.; JOAN II.] Réné was then a prisoner of the Duke of Burgundy, who opposed his succeeding to the inheritance of Lorraine, which he also claimed after the death of the duke, his father-in-law. He sent however his wife Isabella to Naples with her younger son Louis. She was received with acclamations by the old and numerous partisans of the house of Anjou. Alfonso of Aragon

was then a prisoner in the hands of Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan, but soon after having recovered his freedom he repaired to South Italy to dispute the crown of Naples with his rival. In 1438 Réné proceeded to Naples, and a desultory warfare was carried on for three years in the Abruzzo and other provinces of the kingdom. The death of the Condottiere Caldora, Réné's best officer, decided the struggle in favour of Alfonso, who laid siege to Naples, and took it in 1442. Réné escaped on board a Genoese vessel to Provence. He was the last of the dynasty of Anjou who sat on the throne of Naples. In 1445 Réné gave his daughter Margaret in marriage to Henry VI. of England, on which occasion he obtained the restoration of his territories of Anjou and Maine, which were in the possession of the English. Réné now resided sometimes at Angers and occasionally at Aix in Provence, occupying himself with the administration of his territories, and also with the arts of painting, poetry, and agriculture. He wrote several works both in prose and verse, among others one on tournaments, the manuscript of which, enriched with drawings, is preserved in the National Library at Paris. In 1449-50 Réné attended Charles VII. of France in his successful war against the English, after which he returned to his dominions to pursue his favourite occupations. His eldest son John attempted to take Naples from Ferdinand of Aragon, who had succeeded Alfonso, but his enterprise failed. In 1473 Louis XI. of France seized Anjou under some pretence, and Réné retired to Aix in Provence, where he died in 1480, regretted by his subjects, among whom he has retained the enviable appellation of 'le bon Roi Réné,' for he continued to style himself King of Sicily and Jerusalem. He introduced several useful trees and plants into Provence, among others the muscadel grape, and encouraged manufactures of woollens and glass. A Précis Historique' of his life was published by Boisson de la Salle (Aix, 1820), and a marble statue was raised to his memory in one of the squares of Aix in 1823. Réné's sons having died before him, he was the last representative of the house of Anjou, and after his death Provence was united to France. Bargemont, vicomte de Villeneuve, published a 'Histoire de Réné d'Anjou, Roi de Naples, Duc de Lorraine, et Comte de Provence,' Paris, 1825.

RENNELL, JAMES, born near Chudleigh in Devonshire in 1742, entered the navy at an early age as a midshipman. His father was a captain in the artillery. Young Rennell went with Admiral Parker to India, and rendered some effectual service at the siege of Pondicherry. At the age of twenty-four he quitted the navy, and entered the corps of engineers in the service of the East India Company. He distinguished himself in the campaigns of Lord Clive, received some severe wounds, and was promoted to a majority. It was during this period that he produced his first work, 'A Chart of the Bank and Currents of Cape Agulhas,' the most southern point of Africa. While he was stationed in Southern Africa, he surveyed Adam's Bridge and the Paumbeen Passage between the island of Ramisseram and the continent, and he expressed his conviction of the practicability of widening the passage for ships. This suggestion has been lately acted upon, after a lapse of seventy years. While he held the appointment of surveyor. general of Bengal he published his 'Bengal Atlas,' with an account of the Ganges and the Brahmapootra, in which he conjectured that the Sampoo of Tibet was the main feeder of the latter river. On his return to England in 1782 Major Rennell published a Map of Hindustan, accompanied by a 'Memoir,' 4to, 1788. He was also elected member of the Royal Society, and became intimate with Dr. Vincent, Sir William Jones, Dr. Horsley, bishop of St. Asaph, and other learned men of his time. In 1793 he published 'Marches of the British Army in the Peninsula of India during the Campaigns of 1791.' He also published 'Memoir of a Map of the Peninsula of India, exhibiting its Natural and Political Divisions, the latter conformably to the Treaty of Seringapatam of March 1792;' and also 'Elucidations of African Geography, from the Communications of Major Houghton and Mr. Magra in 1791, with a Map.' In 1794 Major Rennell published a political pamphlet, entitled War with France the only Security of Great Britain at the present Momentous Crisis, by an Old Englishman.' The French Convention had already placed themselves out of the pale of international law by their resolutions of the 19th of November 1792, in which they offered their aid to any people in any country of Europe who wished to overthrow the existing government. In 1798 he assisted Mungo Park in the arrangement of his African travels, and illustrated his work by a map and a memoir in the appendix. His next work, and that by which he is most generally known, was 'The Geographical System of Herodotus examined and explained,' 4to, 1800. He also wrote:-1, 'Observations on the Topography of the Plain of Troy; 2, A Treatise on the Comparative Geography of Western Asia,' with an Atlas, a work of great labour and research; 3, 'Illus trations, chiefly Geographical, of the History of the Expedition of the younger Cyrus from Sardis to Babylon, and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand;' 4, 'An Investigation of the Currents of the Atlantic Ocean, and of those which prevail between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic. For this important work he examined and collated the log-books of all the ships of war and Indiamen which had traversed those seas during the last thirty or forty years, recomputing their observations and reducing them to one general system. The results of all this prodigious labour were ready for the press at the time of his death, and were shortly afterwards published by his daughter, Lady Rodd,

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RENNIE, JOHN:

in several large charts, showing by an infinite number of arrows the direction and force of the currents throughout the Atlantic Ocean, and accompanied by a thin volume which ought to be studied by every seafaring person. More recently Lieutenant Maury, superintendent of the Washington Observatory, has, with the sanction of the United States government, largely extended the range of observations by procuring the logs of a vast number of vessels, and has methodised and simplified the results. Major Rennell also wrote some papers in the Transactions' of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, such as a disquisition on the Melita island of St. Paul's voyage; the place of Julius Cæsar's landing in Britain, in which he proves that the principal mouth of the Thames was then to the southward of the Isle of Thanet, &c. Major Rennell died on the 29th of March 1830, and on the 6th of the following April his remains were interred in Westminster Abbey, where a tablet with an appropriate inscription is placed over his tomb. Biographical notices of him were inserted in the periodicals of the time, in which both his public and his private character were spoken of in those terms of praise which he justly deserved.

The merits of Major Rennell as a laborious investigator and an acute critic are universally acknowledged. Love of truth, patient and persevering research, and sound judgment, are eminently displayed in all that he did. It is a matter of surprise, with the limited means at his command, that he accomplished so much in the department of comparative geography; and though we are now enabled by new discoveries to rectify many of his conclusions, the results to which he did attain will always remain as evidence of his unrivalled sagacity. His Geographical System of Herodotus' is a monument worthy of the writer whom he illustrated. Though unacquainted with the Greek language, and obliged to trust to the very inaccurate version of Beloe, he succeeded in producing a commentary on a classical author which is not surpassed by the labour of any scholar. The blundering of Beloe, and his occasional complete perversion of the original, did not mislead the geographer, who could detect the author's meaning even under the disguise of the translation. (Journal of Education,' vol. i., p. 330, &c.) As a geographer, Major Rennell was one of the first Englishmen who has earned any permanent reputation; and in illustrating Herodotus and the 'Retreat of the Ten Thousand,' he occupies a place by the side of D'Anville.

RENNIE, JOHN, was born on the 7th of June 1761 at Phantassie in Haddingtonshire, Scotland, where his father was a respectable farmer. He acquired the rudiments of education at the school of the place, and afterwards received instruction in the elementary part of mathematics at Dunbar, where, on the promotion of the master, he for a short time conducted the school. It does not appear that Rennie pursued his studies far in pure mathematics, but his taste leading him to contemplate the nature and properties of machines, he probably applied himself chiefly to those parts of science which relate to elementary mechanics, and it is certain that he made himself a proficient in the useful art of drawing machinery and the different objects which belong to practical architecture. He also took advantage of such opportunities as his avocations afforded to attend the courses of lectures on mechanical philosophy and chemistry which were then given at Edinburgh by Drs. Robison and Black. Prepared thus with what books and professors could teach, he entered the world; and it may be said that during all the course of his useful life he was adding to his stock of knowledge or seeking the means of improving his practice by observing the operations and effects of his own works, as well as of those which were executed by other men.

Mr. Rennie was employed for a time as a workman by Mr. Andrew Meikle, a mechanist of his native parish, under whose superintendence he assisted in the erection of some mills in the neighbourhood; and he is said to have rebuilt, on his own account, one near Dundee. Soon after this work was finished, or about 1780, he set out for London. On his way he visited the docks at Liverpool, and spent some months at Soho near Birmingham, in examining the works of Messrs. Boulton and Watt, to whom he had brought letters of introduction from the professors at Edinburgh. Soon after he was established in the metropolis, Mr. Rennie was employed by those gentlemen in the construction of two double steam-engines and the machinery connected with them, at the Albion flour-mills near Blackfriars Bridge. All the wheel-work was made of cast-iron instead of wood, which had before been used in such machinery; and the talents of Mr. Rennie were particularly manifested in the methods which he adopted to render the movements steady. The works were finished in 1789; but they continued in operation only during two years, the whole of that great establishment having been unfortunately destroyed by fire in 1791.

Mr. Rennie continued to the last to be employed in the construction of steam-engines, or of the different kinds of machinery to which, as a motive power, steam is applied; and at the same time he was almost constantly engaged in designing or superintending those public works which have given his claim to celebrity. Between 1799 and 1803 he constructed the elegant stone bridge at Kelso, below the junction of the Tweed and Teviot; this bridge consists of five elliptical arches, carrying a level roadway. Mr. Rennie also built stone bridges at Musselburgh and other places in Scotland; but his master-piece of this kind is the Waterloo Bridge over the Thames. This bridge, so much distinguished by its grandeur and simplicity, was begun in 1811, and finished in six years. It consists of nine equal elliptical arches

125 feet in span, and the faces of the piers are ornamented with coupled Doric columns. Besides the elegantly designed iron bridge over the Witham in Lincolnshire, he also built that which is called the Southwark Bridge, over the Thames. The latter consists of three cast-iron arches resting on stone piers, and the span of the centre arch is 240 feet.

Mr. Rennie superintended the formation of the Grand Western Canal, which extends from the mouth of the Ex to Taunton; and, in conjunction with Mr. Murray, that of the Polbrook Canal between Wade-bridge and Bodmin, in Cornwall. He also superintended the execution of the Aberdeen canal uniting the Don and the Dee, and of that between Arundel and Portsmouth. But his chief work in connection with inland navigation is the Kennet and Avon canal, which extends from Bath to Newbury, and which required all the skill of the engineer to conduct it through the rugged country between those places. He also gave a plan for draining the fens at Witham in Lincolnshire, which was executed in 1812.

The London Docks, and the East and West India Docks at Blackwall, are among the great works which were executed from his plans and under his direction. He formed the new docks at Hull (where also he constructed the first dredging machine which was used in this country), the Prince's Dock at Liverpool, and those of Dublin, Greenock, and Leith, of which the last is remarkable for the particularly strong construction of its sea-wall. To these must be joined the insular pier or break water protecting Plymouth Sound from the waves which during high winds used to roll in with tremendous force. Mr. Rennie also gave plans for improving the harbours of Berwick, Newhaven, and other places, and the dockyards of Portsmouth, Plymouth, Pembroke, and Chatham: he also built the pier at Holyhead. Before his death he had given plans for improving the docks at Sheerness; which have since been executed by his first and second sons, Messrs. George and John (now Sir John) Rennie, of whom a brief notice will be found below. It should be observed also that Mr. Rennie, sen., gave the designs for the present London Bridge; and that the charge of its construction was confided to Sir John Rennie, who, in 1831, finished that magnificent structure. Mr. Rennie married in 1789, and had six children; four sons and two daughters. He survived his wife, and, till within a few years of his death, he enjoyed excellent health. He died of an inflammation of the liver, October 16, 1821, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

The sums expended in the construction of Mr. Rennie's bridges have appeared so great as to give rise to an opinion that the measures adopted for the stability of those structures exceeded those which a due regard to economy should warrant. It is true that the Waterloo Bridge cost more than a million sterling, but several circumstances contributed to make the expense of that bridge greatly exceed that of the bridges before built over the Thames; it is, in the first place, longer, the material is granite, and the piers were built in coffer-dams. Now, granite is more costly than any other species of building stone, both at the quarry and in the charges for working it into form; and a coffer-dam, with the engines necessary to keep out the water, is much more so than a caisson. But in a great public work durability is a primary consideration; and this is ensured by the employment of the best materials and by taking the most effectual means of securing the foundations. The extensive repairs which the bridges at Westminster and Blackfriars have required, and will continue to require, will probably, in the end, afford a full justification of the measures which have been followed in the construction of the Waterloo and the new London bridges. In the execution of machinery, Mr. Rennie may be said to have been the first who made that skilful distribution of the pressures, and gave those just proportions to the several parts, which have rendered the work of Englishmen superior to that of any other people.

RENNIE, GEORGE, the eldest son of the preceding, was born in Surrey on Jan. 3, 1791. He received the first rudiments of a classical and mathematical education under Dr. Greenlaw, at Isleworth in Middlesex, and afterwards under Dr. Roberts, the master of St. Paul's school, London. In 1807 he accompanied his father on a tour through England, Ireland, and Scotland, visiting the engineering works then conducted by his father, and was present at the laying of the foundation of the Bell Rock lighthouse. He was then placed at the Edinburgh University under the care of Dr. Robertson, but was afterwards removed to that of Professor Playfair, in whose house he had for a fellow-student the present Lord John Russell. He studied classics, mathematics, chemistry, and natural philosophy, under Professors Dunbar, Christison, Leslie, and Hope. In 1811 he returned to London, and commenced the study of mechanical and civil engineering under his father. His first attempt was the construction of the model of a steam engine, for which the tools were selected for him by Mr. Watt, senior. From this time he assisted his father in designing many of his great works, which he continued to do until his father's death in 1821. In 1818, on the recommendation of Mr. Watt of Aston, he had been made clerk of the irons (keeper of the money dies) and superintendent of machinery in the Royal Mint, which situation he held for several years, when he resigned it, and entered into business with his brother Sir John, as civil engineers and manufacturers of machinery. Among the works executed by them we may

mention, the continuance of most of their father's works, docks at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Gosport, Plymouth, and Pembroke; Plymouth Breakwater; and the Royal Clarence and Royal William Victualling Establishment. In London, East and West India Docks, London Dock: Leith and Sunderland Docks. The harbours of Liverpool, Whitehaven, Port Patrick, Donaghadee, Kingstown, Holyhead, &c. The drainage of Bedford Level, Eau Brink Cut, Witham, Lynn harbour, Norfolk estuary, &c.; canals and river navigations in various parts. The bridges of London, Southwark, Staines, Hyde-park, and in various parts of England and abroad. The Messrs. Rennie were the first who surveyed and laid down many of the present lines of railways. They made the coining machinery, in conjunction with Messrs. Boulton and Watt, of the Royal Mints of Calcutta and Bombay; and of the Mints of Lisbon, Mexico, and Peru; the great Armoury of Constantinople; the biscuit, chocolate, and great flour mills of Dept ford, Gosport, and Plymouth; the great dock gates of Sebastopol (ten pair in number); the block and other machinery at Nicholaieff; the biscuit machinery at Sebastopol; the dredging machinery for the harbour of Odessa, the Mouth of the Danube, and Cronstadt; the great steam factory at Cronstadt; the steam factory at Astrachan on the Volga, besides many other works in Russia, France, Spain, Belgium, and the Transatlantic Colonies; the land engines of Messrs. Cubitt, four in number of forty horse power on the Woolf principle, besides many land engines in government yards. Of marine engines they have made many for the English government; the engines of the Archimedes, the first which were constructed, besides engines of large steamers of war, such as the Samson, Bulldog, &c., the Queen's yacht Elfin, the Reynard cruiser; and they made the engines of the celebrated Wladimir, and others, at Sebastopol. In the Baltic they made the first screw steam engine ever furnished for the Russian Navy, besides steam frigates, and two steam yachts, for Nicolas I. Also many large steamers, such as the Peninsular and Oriental Navigation Company's vessel Pera of 2620 tons and 453 horse power, and the Candia of 1960 tons and 454 horse power. Also many steam engines for vessels in France, Italy, the Mediterranean, and Mexico, &c. They have also built ships both of wood and iron. The Namur and Liège and the Mons and Manage railways were constructed under the direction of Mr. G. Rennie in the years 1846-49. Sir John Rennie having retired from the partnership in 1845, Mr. Rennie carried on the business alone during several years, and was then joined by his two sons, who now carry it on. Mr. Rennie was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1822. He is a Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy, the Academy of Turin, Rotterdam, &c. He is the Author of 'Experiments on the Strength of Materials;' on 'The Frictions of Solids;' and on 'The Frictions of Fluids,' published in the 'Philosophical Transactions.' He is also the author of articles on Hydraulics, two Papers read before the British Association, and of many papers on scientific subjects in the Transactions' of the Civil Engineers. [See SUPPLEMENT.]

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* SIR JOHN RENNIE, his younger brother, has borne an important part in the works above mentioned, and also constructed many on his own account. He was knighted on occasion of opening the new London Bridge. Since the dissolution of the partnership with his brother, he has practised as an architect.

*REPP, THORLEIF GUDMUNDSSON, an Icelandic scholar of some eminence, and remarkable as being perhaps the only native of Iceland who ever held a literary post in Britain, was born on the 6th of July 1794, at Reykiadal in Aruas-Syssel, where his father Gudmund Bothvarson was the parish priest. After studying at the school of Bessastad (the Eton of Iceland), he went in 1814 to the University of Copenhagen, where he gained some academical prizes, and in 1821 he paid a visit to England, from which he returned in the following year. In 1825 the curators of the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh were desirous of procuring a learned foreigner for their under-librarian, and made proposals to Professor Rask [RASK] the great philologist, which he declined. "We are still anxious, however," wrote Dr. Irving, the librarian, to P. E. Müller [MÜLLER], bishop of Seland, “to procure a librarian from Denmark, and I should for my own part be disposed to prefer a young Icelander educated at Copenhagen, and alike familiar with the languages of both countries, of three or four years' standing in the university, and completely skilled in Greek and Latin; and if he were likewise acquainted with Swedish, German, and French, he would be a still greater acquisition." He could hardly have specified more accurately the very qualifications possessed by Repp, except that in addition to the languages named the young Icelander was acquainted with Spanish and Portuguese, and had a critical knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic. He was accordingly recommended by Rask and Müller and several other distinguished men of Copenhagen, and appointed to the office, but with the stipulation that the appointment was not necessarily a permanent one.

"The circumstance of express invitations to foreigners from large public bodies, is," says Mr. Repp in a subsequent pamphlet, "excessively rare in this country, so much so, that Mr. Repp verily believes that this is the only one that has occurred during several centuries." The experiment did not end satisfactorily to all parties. Mr. Repp contributed the article on the Advocates' Library to the 'Penny Cyclopædia' in 1833, and in it he remarked that "a collection of Spanish books containing nearly 3000 volumes was in the year 1824 bought from a London bookseller at very great expense," and that "of

the librarians, or, as they are called in Scotland, Keepers of the Advocates' Library, the two first only deserve to be mentioned as men of literary attainments, viz., Thomas Ruddiman and David Hume." The collection of the Marquis of Astorga had been purchased as containing 8000 volumes, and no keeper of a library for the time being was likely to acquiesce in such a remark respecting his distinguished predecessors. Mr. Repp's colleagues complained of infirmities in his temper; and he complained that his colleagues employed him in a way less suited to a man of acquirements than to a clerk or porter. After a contest which produced two or three pamphlets and Reports of some interest, which may be found in the library of the British Museum, Mr. Repp was informed by the curators that his future services would be dispensed with. In 1834 he was a candidate for the office of teacher of modern languages at an institution at Dollar in Fife, and printed a series of very high testimonials from Sir William Hamilton, Professor Wilson, and others; but in 1837 he returned to Denmark. He obtained permission to give public lectures on the English language and literature at Copenhagen, and has since continued in that capital, engaged in teaching English, in bringing out a dictionary, and in other literary labours. Mr. Repp is the author of several works in Latin, Danish, and English, and edited one of the Sagas in his native Icelandic, the 'Saxdæla-Saga,' or History of the Inhabitants of Saxdal,' published with a Latin translation at Copenhagen, in 1826. One of the most original of his Danish works is a pamphlet entitled 'Dano-Magyariske Opdagelser (Dano-Hungarian Discoveries,' Copenhagen, 1843), in which he points out some resemblances which he considers to exist between Danish and Hungarian. His most important English work is his Historical Treatise on Trial by Jury, Wager of Law, and other co-ordinate Forensic Institutions formerly in use in Scandinavia and in Iceland,' Edinburgh, 1832-38. It treats on an interesting subject, and contains much information that might be sought for in vain in any other English book; but a smile is occasionally excited by the pertinacity with which the Icelandic author vindicates the moral and intellectual supremacy of the Icelanders, alleging that those who migrated from Norway to that island were "the most distinguished men in the former country-the flower of that stock of which less illustrious branches, emigrating to different parts of the world, became conquerors and rulers of the nations they visited, and indeed the patriarchs of modern European culture." A long preface in English by Repp, embracing a view of the Danish language and literature, is prefixed to Ferrall and Repp's Danish and English Dictionary' (12mo, Copenhagen), which, though on a small scale, is considered the best dictionary of the two languages extant. Erslew, in his Forfatter-Lexicon,' enumerates several theological works of some length, which were translated by the Icelandic librarian from German into English for the Edinburgh Biblical Cabinet' and similar works, and also some articles in the 'Penny Cyclopædia,' 'Encyclopædia Britannica,' and Blackwood's Magazine.'

REPTON, HUMPHRY, who first assumed professionally the title of 'Landscape Gardener,' was born May 2, 1752, at Bury St. Edmund's, where his father held the lucrative situation of Collector of Excise. After being placed first at the grammar-school at Bury, and then at that of Norwich, he was sent by his father, who intended to make a man of business of him, to Gorkum in Holland, in the summer of 1764. At the age of sixteen he returned to England, and was placed in a merchant's counting-house at Norwich, but all his leisure was devoted to poetry, music, and drawing. At the age of twenty-one he married, and was set up in business as a general merchant by his father, and for a while affairs prospered with him, but after a few years took an unfavourable turn, owing to losses of vessels at sea, and other circumstances in trade; wherefore having lost both his parents, he determined upon following his own inclination. He accordingly settled at Sustead, near Aylsham, in Norfolk, where he passed five years occupying himself with farming experiments, gardening, and the study of rural scenery. But in 1783 his friend and neighbour Mr. Wyndham of Felbrigg being appointed secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Reptou agreed to accompany him as his confidential secretary. The flattering expectations thus suddenly raised were as suddenly blighted, for his patron gave up his post almost immediately, and Repton returned to Sustead. There however he did not long remain, for, compelled to retrench, he took a small house at Harestreet, Essex, to which he became so much attached as ever after to reside there. Just at this time (1784) he became acquainted with Mr. Palmer, who introduced the mail-coach system, and he joined with him in his project; but though eventually the scheme prospered, Repton had to put up with pecuniary loss. He resolved to try whether he could not extricate himself from his embarrassments by gratifying his own tastes at the same time, and accordingly announced to his friends his intention of practising as a 'Landscape Gardener.' The field was open, for Brown had been dead some years [BROWN], and there was no one besides of any note. With what success this last scheme was crowned needs hardly be said, for business soon began to pour in upon him, and he was consulted by the owners of 'Places' in almost every part of the kingdom. Repton continued to enjoy uninterrupted prosperity and good health up to January 29th, 1811, when, being upset in his carriage, he received a severe injury to the spine, which rendered him a long while an invalid. He died suddenly on the 24th of March 1818.