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Rabat is a polishing material made of potter's clay that has failed in the firing.
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In popular language, a rabble is an unruly, disorganised crowd of people. A rabble was a shovel formerly used by charcoal burners to remove the covering from the burned pile. In metallurgy, a rabble is an iron bar with a bent end used for stirring and skimming the molten metal.
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Rabot is a rubber of hard wood used in smoothing marble to be polished.
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A race is a strong or rapid current of water.
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The Radcliffe Library is a library founded in connection with Oxford University, out of funds provided by John Radcliffe and opened in 1749.
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The radian is the SI unit (symbol rad) of plane angles, an alternative unit to the degree. It is the angle at the centre of a circle when the centre is joined to the two ends of an arc equal in length to the radius of the circle. There are 2 pi (approximately 6.284) radians in a full circle (360 degrees). One radian is approximately 57 degrees, and 1 degree is pi/180 or approximately 0.0175 radians. Radians are commonly used to specify angles in polar co-ordinates.
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The Radio Times is a British television and radio listing magazine. It was first published in September 1923 listing the official programmes of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Today it lists details of all British terrestrial television channels, many satellite and digital networks, BBC radio networks and also local radio in the region - different regions being covered by regional editions of the magazine.
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The Ragman Roll is the name of the collection of those instruments by which the nobility and gentry of Scotland were constrained to subscribe allegiance to Edward I of England in 1296, and which were more particularly recorded in four large rolls of parchment consisting of thirty-five pieces sewed together. It is kept in the Tower of London.
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A railway is a road made by placing on the ground on a specially prepared track, continuous parallel lines of iron or steel rails, on which carriages with flanged wheels are run with little friction and consequently at high velocity. The necessity for railways originated in the requirements of the coal-traffic of Northumberlandshire, where the first railways were constructed. In 1676 near Newcastle the coals were conveyed from the mines to the banks of the river by laying rails of timber straight and parallel; and bulky carts were made, with four rollers fitting those rails, whereby the carriage was made so easy that one horse could draw four or five chaldrons of coal.
The first railway (railroad) constructed in America was projected by Gridley Bryant in 1825, and extended from Quincy, Massachusetts, to the nearest tide-water. It was four miles long. The second railway extended from mines near Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania to the Lehigh River. It was begun in 1827. Stephenson's locomotive came into use in 1829, and by 1830 there were twenty-three
miles of railway completed in the United States.
The New York Central road was projected in 1825; the Boston and Albany in 1827; the Baltimore and Ohio in 1828; the Pennsylvania in 1827; the Maryland and South Carolina in 1828.
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Rain is condensed moisture from the atmosphere which falls to the ground in visible separate drops.
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In geography, a raised beach is a line of former sea shore left dry through a rise in the land.
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Ralph Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall and printed in 1566, was the earliest known English comedy.
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The Rambouillet Decree was a decree issued by Napoleon, on March the 23rd,1810, ordering the immediate seizure and sale of American vessels, whether in French ports or those of territories occupied by French armies. This decree was not known in the United States until July. The decree was issued in retaliation for the repeal of the American non-intercourse act, Napoleon avowing his determination to prohibit any commercial intercourse with the allies of France which was not enjoyed by that country also.
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A ranch is an establishment maintained for raising livestock under range conditions, that is with wide open pasture.
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The Randolph Plan was the scheme of an American Federal constitution proposed in the Convention of 1787 by Edmund Randolph of Virginia. It was the first plan submitted, being presented on May the 29th. It was composed of fifteen resolutions and proposed a correction of the Articles of Confederation; representation by population in two branches of Congress, the first chosen by the people, the second by State Legislatures; congressional control of taxation and commerce; congressional veto of State enactments; that Congress should choose the executive; that the executive with part of the judiciary should have a limited veto on Acts of Congress, and other less important provisions. The plan was favourably reported and many of its suggestions were used in the drafting of the American Constitution.
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Rape is defined as the act of forcing a woman or girl to have sexual intercourse against her will, or of buggering a man or boy against his will. The ancient Jews, Romans and Goths punished rape with death. During the reign of William I rape was punishable by mutilation and having the eyes removed. This punishment was mitigated by the statute of Westminster in 1274. In 1338 rape was made a felony in Britain, being made punishable by transportation in 1841 and penal servitude for life or a lesser period in 1861. The causes of what leads a person (usually a man, although sometimes women are committed as accessories to rape) to commit a rape are unclear. Some people advocate that it is not about sexual pleasure at all, but about power. But this simplistic explanation does not take into consideration the crime of 'date rape' where by a victim is raped following a date with her assailant. Nor does it take into consideration victims being forced into having sex under the influence of drugs or alcohol, many of which incidents are never reported, but are most likely perpetrated for sexual pleasure.
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Rattening was the practice of removing and hiding a workman's tools as a punishment for non-payment of trade union dues, or for opposition to trade unions.
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The Readjusters were an American political faction formed from the Democratic party of Virginia in 1878. Its formation was due to a bill which passed the State Legislature in March of that year for refunding the State debt. The party was led by William Mahone and was violently opposed to the payment of the debt. In 1879 and 1881, by a fusion with the Republicans they gained control of the State government, and sent William Mahone to the United States Senate.
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The ream is a unit of writing paper measurement equal to 20 quires or 480 sheets of writing paper, 516 sheets of printing paper.
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The Rebecca Riots were a series of disturbances generated by bands of Welshmen who from 1842 to 1844 gave violent expression to the popular demand for the abolition of tolls and turnpike gates. The rioters were dressed in women's clothes, and in allusion to Isaac's bride the leader and his followers were known as 'Rebecca and her daughters'. The rioters destroyed turnpike gates and tollhouses at night, generally without harming the toll keepers, and were very successful. In 1844 Lord Cawdor's Act was passed which amended the turnpike trust laws in South Wales and reduced the burden of the tollgate system.
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Recluses is the name given to men and women who, in pre-reformation times, left the world to live a life of prayer and contemplation, dwelling in a cell, usually attached to a church, sometimes with the precincts of a monastery. They were also called anchorites and anchoresses. The recluse was enclosed in the cell by the bishop, the entrance was bricked up, and he sealed it with his ring, and except in case of serious illness, it was not reopened until the death of the inmate. A special office for the enclosing of anchorites is found in the Sarum missal, and also in Bishop Lacy's pontifical. The size of the cell varied: the Bavarian rule for solitaries ordered it to be 3.65 metres square and to be built of stone. It generally had three windows - one looking into the church, at which the recluse could assist at mass and receive holy communion; one glazed with horn or glass, for admitting light; one grated, closed with a shutter, and curtained, through which food was supplied, and visitors received.
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A rector is usually the incumbent of a parish church in England, but the title is sometimes also given to the head of a college or school. A rector used to differ from a vicar in his taking the great tithes - such as corn, hay and wood, while the vicar took the small tithes, such as hops and potatoes.
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A recusant is a person who refuses to attend his parish church on holy days. Attendance was rendered compulsory by an Act of 1581, and many other statutes to the same effect passed down until 1688. The Religious Disabilities Act of 1846 abolished fines for non-attendance and relieved in toto those who usually attend some other place of worship, such as a Mosque.
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Red is a colour ranging from pink (purple-red) to orange (yellow-red). Red is traditionally associated with danger, stop, blood, warnings, prohibition. Red can evoke images of blood, and hence of murder, of ghoulishness and of horror. Red is associated with energy, activity, anger, fertility and is associated with the planet Mars and with war.
- Apple - Almost any shade of red you wish. A purely poetic term, though more usually applied to a pale green.
- Auburn - A reddish-brown colour, the colour of an orang-utan's hair. Auburn is usually used to describe the colour of hair.
- Burgundy - A dark, purplish-red colour of Burgundy wine.
- Crimson - A deep rich-red inclining towards purple.
- Carmine - A deep tone of crimson.
- Cherry - A brilliant, bright red.
- Cerise - A moderate, dark red.
- Claret - A purplish-red.
- Cardinal Red - A deep, vivid red.
- Carnation - A pinkish-red colour.
- Dubonnet - A dark, purplish-red colour.
- Maroon - A dark, purplish-red colour intermediate between red and purple.
- Poppy - A scarlet red.
- Ruddle - A deep orange-red ochre-based pigment used for marking sheep.
- Ruddy - Tinged with red. Reddish. Implying a colour of blood.
- Rusty - Reddish-brown or brownish-orange colour of iron oxide (rust). Rusty implies decay, age, weathering.
- Rufous - Rust-coloured. Rufous implies more organic than mineral, an animal may be described as being rufous in colour, while a weathered piece of iron is more likely rusty.
- Russet - Reddish-brown. Russet is more usually applied to flora, such as apples or potatoes, while rufous may describe an animal and rusty a mineral or metal item.
- Rubicund - Tinged with red. Rubicund is used to describe a person's complexion, and implies the appearance that occurs as a result of excessive good living. The ruddy complexion one might achieve from plenty of alcohol consumption, for example.
- Sanguine - A rather archaic term for the red colour of blood, implying blood.
- Scarlet - A vivid red inclining towards orange.
- Vermillion - The brilliant scarlet red colour of cinnabar
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The Red Cross is an international organisation established to secure neutral rights and protection for wounded soldiers irrespective of nationality, and for all places and persons devoted to their care. The organisation was formed at an international conference in Geneva in 1863 following public sympathy aroused during the Crimean War and the Austrian-Italian War and especially the Battle of Solferino in 1859. The original notion of such a body can be traced back to the Order of St Mary which was instituted at the siege of Acre in 1190.
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A red dwarf is a cool, faint star.
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A red giant is a cool, bright star.
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The Red Line Map was a map made by the Frenchman D'Anville in 1746. It had been sent to Vergennes, the French Minister, by Franklin in 1782, and was discovered among the Paris archives by Jared Sparks. A strong red line drawn near the ridge, in which the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers rise, more than favoured the English claims, respecting the north-east boundary of the United States. Jared Sparks sent it to Webster, who was anxious lest the English should hear of it. It was used in a secret session of the Senate, and with the Maine commissioners to induce a ratification of the treaty, and was afterward made a ground of reproach against Webster by opponents of the treaty.
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Red-letter days were days specially set apart by the Roman Catholic Church for the more important festivals. They were so called because they were indicated in the calendar in red-letter characters.
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Redondillas is the name given to a species of versification formerly used in the south of Europe, consisting of a union of verses of four, six or eight syllables, of which generally the first rhymed with the fourth, and the second with the third. At a later period verses of six and eight syllables in general, in Spanish and Portuguese poetry, were called redondillas, whether they made perfect rhymes or assonances only.
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A refectory table is a long, narrow, low table with a single stretcher between trestle-like supports at the ends. The name refectory table is also given to a narrow dining table with extensible ends.
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The Reformed Dutch Church is a Christian Protestant denomination that originated in Holland, and held its first synod at Antwerp in 1563. Emigrants from Holland took its teachings to America and a church was organized as early as 1619 in New Amsterdam. The denomination grew slowly, owing partly to persecutions from the English, but about 1737 felt strong enough to ask for a separate organization from the parent church in Holland. This was finally effected in 1772 through the agency of Dr. John H Livingston, and in 1793 the new organization was completed. At that time there were 136 churches and fifty ministers. The constitution then adopted was revised in 1842, and again in 1874.
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The Reformed Episcopal church separated from the Protestant Episcopal in December, 1873, on the ground that the parent church was drifting from evangelism and the true principles of the church. The Reverend G D Cummins, assistant bishop of the diocese of Kentucky, was the leader of the movement.
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In 1743 members of the Scottish Reformed Presbyterians church, who were settled in the American colonies, organized and subscribed to the Old Scottish Covenant. In 1798 the first Presbytery was formed, and two years later it ordained that no slave-holder should be admitted to membership. In 1833 a schism took place on the church's attitude toward the State. The main body now ruled that its members should not act as American citizens nor in any way identify themselves with the political system of the United States, a position that was still maintained as late as 1897.
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Regicide is the legal term for the murder of a king.
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Regurgitate means to pour or cast out again. The term is especially applied to the act of bringing swallowed food back up to the mouth. This should not be confused with vomiting which is the ejection of ingested food through the mouth. Rather, regurgitation is a usually conscious act carried out by cows when chewing the cud and many other animals when feeding their young. The parent will partially chew the food and then regurgitate it and deliver it to the young which is still too young to masticate its own food. The term regurgitate is also used to describe recalling facts in an educational environment, rather than paraphrasing the information previously delivered by a lecturer or essay.
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The Reichstag was the German parliament building.
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The Relief Party were an American political party existing in Kentucky between the years 1820 and 1826. This party advocated the relief of delinquent debtors. They elected the Governor, and passed a bill to this end in 1824. The bill was deemed unconstitutional. The Anti-Relief party regained control in. 1826.
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The Religious Tract Society was founded in 1799 by the reverend George Burder with the object of distributing religious tracts. In 1804 it spawned another organisation; the British and Foreign Bible Society.
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The Renaissance was that change in the outlook of Europe which took place during the centuries from the fourteenth to the sixteenth. In its broadest sense the Renaissance affected every department of human life. But in its narrower sense it refers to the revival of the learning of ancient Greece, and to the effects of that revival on the arts and literature of modern peoples. The Church in the Middle Ages had taught men to revere authority and to find in her teaching an answer to all the problems of life, whereas the Greeks taught men to inquire and to explore rather than to accept, and to enjoy rather than to suffer. It was this attitude of mind, more than anything else, which shook the medieval world to its foundations. The views of the ancient Greeks, now re-born into the world, were in sharp contrast with the ideals of the Middle Ages. From these ideals many men for a time turned with a feeling of contempt.
The Renaissance was a many-sided movement: it deeply influenced learning and education, art and architecture, science and invention, geography and exploration, and, above all, religion. After the fall of Rome, a knowledge of Greek had rapidly died out in the West and no provision was made for its teaching similar to that made for Latin. In Italy, owing to the closeness of its relations with the East, the number of scholars, monks, and others, who learnt some Greek was greater than elsewhere. It is not, surprising, therefore, that the revival of learning received its main impulse from Italy. From the time of Petrarch and Boccaccio, Italian scholars became more and more devoted to ancient studies, and they began to visit Constantinople, where Greek learning had been preserved. There they hunted out, copied, and eagerly studied the precious manuscripts of the past, and these opened up a new world of thought. Further, from the time that the Turks' crossed from Asia into Europe, some of the Greeks themselves began to travel westwards and to accept well-paid teaching posts in the wealthy Italian cities. And, though the revival began in Italy, the new ideas were rapidly circulated by the new printing presses invented at the time, and every nation in due course played its part in the Renaissance.
The great and wealthy city of Florence was the centre of the Italian Renaissance. Cosimo de Medici, a merchant prince who became ruler of the city, was a patron of the New Learning, and he encouraged Greek scholars to settle in Florence. His grandson, Lorenzo de Medici, known as The Magnificent, loved to gather round him the learned men of the day; he spent 60,000 pounds a year on books; and he caused 200 rare manuscripts to be brought from the East to the Medici library. Rome was second only to Florence as a centre of the New Learning. The Popes themselves became great patrons of learning. Nicholas V founded the Vatican Library. When the son of Lorenzo de Medici became Pope as Leo X, the Renaissance in Rome reached its highest point. Leo made Rome, as he said, ' the capital of the world in literature, as it is in everything else'. He provided a hundred professors for his Greek college in Rome, and he brought his father's library to the Holy City. The library was afterwards restored to Florence by his cousin Clement VII, another member of this remarkable Medici family. The New Learning influenced England from the time of Edward IV, and it made great headway in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII when the scholars known as the Oxford Reformers were flourishing.
The first Englishman to bring Greek manuscripts to England was William Selling. One of his pupils was Thomas Linacre, who went to Florence and shared the instruction given to the young Medici princes; he read in the Vatican Library, and made the acquaintance of Aldo at Venice. Another Oxford teacher who drew his inspiration from Italian sources was William Grocyn, one of the first men to give lectures on Greek literature at his University.
One of Grocyn's pupils was John Colet, who visited Italy in 1496 and returned to lecture on the Gospels in the Greek original at Oxford. He and Sir Thomas More, were friends of Erasmus, a Dutch scholar of international fame. Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, was herself a patroness of the New Learning. She founded two Cambridge colleges, Christ's and St. John's, and two Lady Margaret Professorships of Divinity, one at Oxford and one at Cambridge. The Revival of Learning was one aspect of the Renaissance; the outburst of artistic energy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was another. The painters of the new period broke away from the conventional art of the Middle Ages and began again to draw from living models. As with the artists, so with the sculptors. Donatello 'went straight with his mighty chisel to original sources - to youth and manhood, and the love of living'. The great figures of that age - Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian - still dominate the history of European art. Examples of their works, and of many other Italian artists of the Renaissance, as well as of the Northern artists - Holbein, Durer, and others - are to be seen in the magnificent collection at the National Gallery.
It was natural that men who sought their inspiration from the Greeks should turn with renewed interest to classical architecture. The ruins of ancient Rome provided examples ready to hand; and soon churches planned like classical temples were rising in every city in Italy. St. Peter's, Rome, was designed by Bramante, and the famous dome added by Michelangelo. But great as was the enthusiasm for this architecture Renaissance architecture did not establish itself in England until the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, though Henry VII's tomb at Westminster Abbey is an example of the Florentine art of the period.
The Renaissance period, filled as it was with a love of experiment, naturally produced a renewed interest in science. With the exception of isolated geniuses like Friar Roger Bacon, there were no medieval scientists worthy of the name. Practically no scientific discoveries had been made for centuries. Modern Science begins its history with the Renaissance and owes a good deal to Leonardo da Vinci. He was the first of a long line of experimenters whose work has continued to the present day. The greatest shock to the medieval notions of the universe was given by Copernicus. For two thousand years mankind with few exceptions had believed that the earth was the centre of the universe, and that the sun revolved round our planet every twenty-four hours. Such had been the teaching of Ptolemy, the Greek scientist. Another Greek, Pythagoras, had questioned it, and advanced the extraordinary notion that the sun, not the earth, was the centre of the universe; but there were few who accepted his theory until Copernicus turned his attention to the 'solar system'. Through slits cut in the walls of his house, Copernicus watched the movements of the planets. Just before he died in 1543 he published a book - 'The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies' - giving to the world the results of his observations.
Twenty years later the famous Galileo was born at Pisa, and it was he who perfected the telescope. He lived to popularise the theory of Copernicus, but he was nearly put to death for his pains and was forced by the Court of Inquisition to recant. The Italian Galileo, and the English Newton who discovered the laws of gravity, were the two greatest scientists of the seventeenth century. In the realm of geographical discovery, no age in the world' s history was more momentous than the Age of the Renaissance. Columbus, who discovered America; Vasco De Gama, who found the Cape Route to India; Cabot, Cartier, and Cortez, the discoverers of Newfoundland, Canada, and Mexico; Balboa, who first sailed on the Pacific; Magellan, whose ship was the first to sail round the world - all these and many more make the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries an era without parallel in the annals of discovery.
The new ideas which came surging into the world during the Renaissance acted in many respects as disruptive forces. This was particularly true in the realm of religion. An unquestioning acceptance of authority - i.e. of the teaching of the Catholic Church - was the keynote of the medieval attitude to life, but an eager, inquiring generation began to question this attitude. Men, too, were shocked by the moral decay of the Church and of the Papacy; voices were raised demanding reforms. Some reformers, like Colet and Erasmus, tried to reconcile the new ideas with the Church of Rome and worked to reform it; others, of whom Luther was the greatest, rejected altogether its authority.
The revolution in European history known as the Reformation was an indirect result of the Renaissance - of the New Learning which invited comparison between the present and the past; of the invention of printing which scattered broadcast the new ideas; and again, of the growing idea of the Nation and with it the supremacy of the State.
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A rent table was an 18th century English drum table with six drawers used by landlords for storing rent money and papers pertaining to their estate.
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In English law, replevin is an action brought to recover possession of goods illegally seized, the validity of which seizure it is the regular mode of contesting.
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The name of Republicans was, in the earlier history of the United States, taken by the party formed by Jefferson, as distinguishing them from their Federalist opponents (later known as the Democratic Party), stigmatised as monarchists. In 1854 the name was revived, to be applied to a new political party, at first characterized primarily by opposition to the extension of slavery to the territories.
The compromise of 1850 had resulted in the disruption and decay of the Whig party. There was a brief interval before parties could be re-formed upon the basis of the slavery question purely. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by the Democrats in 1854 caused a general coalition of Northern Free-Soilers, Whigs, Democrats, Know-Nothings and Abolitionists, united in opposition to that measure and the consequent repeal of the Missouri Compromise. At first known as 'Anti-Nebraska Men', the coalitionists took in that same year the name of Republicans. They at once won a plurality of Congress, and in 1856 held their first national convention at Philadelphia, which nominated Fremont and Dayton. Defeated then, in 1859 they again controlled the House. In 1860 Democratic divisions enabled them to elect Abraham Lincoln.
For the next' fourteen years the party, reinforced for a time by 'War Democrats', was supreme. It controlled the National Government, enlarged its powers by broad construction of the Constitution, carried on the American Civil War, abolished slavery, reconstructed the governments of the seceding States and controlled them, maintained the protective system and refunded the debt. It carried the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and of Grant in 1868 and 1872. The Liberal Republican schism of 1872 indicated a reaction from the radical policy followed in regard to reconstruction, and was followed by extensive defeats in the tidal wave of 1874, due partly to official corruption in high places.
Yet the party managed, though barely, to carry the election of Hayes in 1876, and elected Garfield in 1880. In 1884 the nomination of Blaine caused the bolt of the mugwumps, and the election of a Democratic President. The party then became, more distinctly than in the years just preceding, the party of high protection. In 1888 it elected Harrison. Defeated in 1892, it was again successful in State elections in 1893. Its strength traditionally lay in the North. During the later part of the 19th century the Republican Party advocated a more stirring foreign policy than that of the Democrats, and larger expenditures for pensions and other national objects.
During the 20th century the Republican Party became more right-wing, represented by presidents such as Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W Bush.
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In Roman law, rescripts were answers returned by the emperor, written in purple ink, when consulted on questions of law, either by the parties in some controversy, or, more commonly, by officers charged with the administration of justice. These rescripts constituted one of the most important sources of the law during the early empire, and Justinian preserved them in his Institutes.
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Respect, the Unity Coalition, is a British left-wing political party formed directly out of the anti-war movement in the UK which followed the invasion of Iraq in 2002. Some of those involved in the anti-war movement felt that a political movement was needed to further the aims of those millions who marched against the war. A public meeting was called in January 2004 in London at Friend's House and from that meeting, which was attended by more than 1500 people, an executive was formed. Among those instrumental in founding Respect were George Galloway MP (who had been expelled from the ruling Labour party for revealing truths about the illegality of the invasion of Iraq), Lindsey German, Convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, Ken Loach the film maker and Salma Yaqoob, of the Birmingham Stop the War group. Many British political observers see Respect as an attempt to recreate the true Socialist Labour party which had become a party - renamed 'New Labour' - with almost identical aims to the Tory party, and in so doing had misled and cheated its supporters who traditionally believed in values such as the national ownership of railways and public services and which they had thought would be re-nationalised by the Tony Blair led Labour government.
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In Roman times, a retiarius was a gladiator who wore a short tunic and was armed with a trident and net. He would face an opponent protected by a helmet and shield, and armed with a sword.
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Reuters is a news agency. It was founded in 1851 at the London Royal Exchange by Paul Reuter - who had previously been supplying newspapers from an office in Aix-la-Chapelle, but wasn't successful until adopted by the Times in 1858. Today Reuters is famous as perhaps the premier news agency supplying news stories to the worlds newspapers and broadcasters.
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The Revenue Flag was an American flag instituted by an act of Congress, on March the 2nd, 1799, to consist of 'sixteen perpendicular stripes, alternate red and white, the Union of the ensign bearing the arms of the United States in dark blue on a white field'.
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The Revolt of Naples occurred in 1647 when a dispute arose over payment of a tax on fruit. The Neapolitans under Asaniello rose up against the Spanish government and held the city for a week.
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Rhabdomancy is divination by use of a stick or wand, such as a divining-rod used to discover mineral ores or water.
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The Rhea Letter was an American political scandal. On January the 6th, 1818, Andrew Jackson, then department commander in the South-west, wrote to President Monroe regarding the Seminole troubles in Florida and advising the prompt seizure of East Florida, which he declared could be done 'without implicating the Government'. He offered to accomplish the seizure himself within sixty days, if. it should be indicated to him that it were desirable. John Rhea, a Congressman from Tennessee, was the secret channel through which he hoped Monroe's assent might be signified. It was not. In 1831, during Andrew Jackson's administration, in the height of his quarrel with Calhoun, which turned in part upon the Seminole affair, John Rhea wrote to Monroe, hoping to elicit from him something that would implicate him as approving Andrew Jackson's plan. Monroe, on his death-bed in New York, denounced John Rhea's insinuations as utterly false.
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The Rhode Island Gazette was a newspaper established at Newport, Rhode Island on September the 27th, 1732, by James Franklin, and was the first newspaper of Rhode Island. Publication was suspended in May, 1733.
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Rhodesian refers to someone or something coming from Rhodesia, a South African country now called Zimbabwe.
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A rhyton was an ancient Greek drinking vessel made of pottery or metal with a base in the form of the head of an animal or a woman.
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Ribble-Row is rambling, meaningless chatter.
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The Richmond Enquirer was a newspaper established at Richmond, Virginia, USA in 1804 by T Ritchie. It continued for many years, and exercised great influence in the politics of Virginia.
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A ricochet is the rebounding of a projectile.
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A riddle is a question designed to test ingenuity or give amusement.
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In American politics, a rider is an objectionable party measure, likely to be vetoed on its own merits, which is added to an important bill so as to secure its passage. The first use of the rider, of national importance, was the joining in 1820 of the bill for the admission of Maine to that permitting slavery in Missouri, so as to compel the acceptance of both or neither. These were afterward separated. The Army Appropriation Bill of 1856 had a rider attached prohibiting the
employment of Federal troops for the enforcement of territorial law in Kansas. The President signed this measure, but protested against the rider. In 1879 the Democrats in Congress attempted by riders on appropriation bills to bring to an end the Federal interference in Southern politics. President Hayes, by firm use of the veto, dealt a severe blow at this objectionable practice. State Constitutions have frequently prevented it by allowing the Governor to veto separate items in appropriation bills.
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In geography, a ridge describes a land form which rises to a maximum line or crest. It is distinguished from a range, which consists of more than one ridge. A ridge with uniform slopes is called a hog's back; if one slope is steep and the other gentle, they form a scarped ridge. For submarine forms, the term ridge is used to describe a relatively narrow elevation, which is prominent on account of the steep angle at which it rises.
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Riding the marches was the Scottish name for the ceremony of Beating the Bounds.
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In astronomy, the right ascension is the distance of a star or other heavenly body from the first point of Aries, or the point of intersection of the sun's path with the celestial equator. The right ascension, together with the declination of a star, fixes its position. Right ascension is stated in hours and minutes, fifteen degrees being equal to one hour.
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In art, a riglet is a thin piece of wood used for stretching the canvas of a picture.
In printing a riflet was formerly a thin piece of wood used to regulate the margins.
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A rimer is a hand tool used to enlarge a hole in a metal plate.
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The ring drop swindle was a popular confidence trick employed by criminals in Victorian London. In the swindle, a stranger makes a show of picking up a diamond ring from the floor close by to the victim. The confidence trickster then offers to sell the valuable diamond ring to the victim for a fraction of its obvious worth, on the pretext that he is far too busy to seek a more lucrative market. Naturally the ring was not found, but rather dropped deliberately by the confidence trickster, and is worth far less than the money extracted from the victim, who in fairness is swindled in part by his own greed.
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The River Brethren were an American religious denomination which came into existence about the close of the American War of Independence. They were named probably from their baptizing only in rivers, or perhaps because they originated near the Susquehanna River. They were akin in doctrine to the Mennonite Baptists.
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Rivington's New York Gazetteer or, the Connecticut, New Jersey, Hudson's River and Quebec Weekly Advertiser was an American newspaper established in New York City on April the 22nd, 1773. It was distinctly royalist in its sympathies, its circulation extended exclusively among the Tories, and it was issued under the protection of the king's army. James Rivington was obliged to suspend publication in 1775, but renewed in 1777 under the title Rivington's New York Loyal Gazette afterward changed to Royal Gazette. The publication was finally suspended in 1783, when the British withdrew from New York.
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The Road House Mystery was a murder that occurred in Wiltshire in 1860 in which four-year old Francis Savile Kent disappeared from his cot during the night and was found the next day in an outside privy - where his body had been thrown down the toilet but had caught on a splash board and so not disappeared into the cess pit beneath - with his throat cut and a stab wound to the heart. The case was investigated by detectives Jonathan Whicher and Adolphus Williamson of the Metropolitan Police. The police concluded that the murderer was the boy's sixteen-year old step-sister, Constance, but with insufficient evidence she was never convicted. She later confessed to the murder to a priest.
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The roaring forties are the seaman's name for the steady north-west anti-trade winds between latitudes 40 degrees and 60 degrees South.
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A robin was a British measure of coffee equivalent to between 1 and 1.5 hundred weight, in use during the 19th century.
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The rockaway was an American light, four-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage with two or three seats and a fixed top.
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A rocker is a curved bar fixed to an item so that it may rock.
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A rod, also known as a pole or a perch, was a British unit of linear measurement used in land-surveying and equivalent to 15.5 feet. A square rod was used in brickwork, and was equivalent to 272.25 square yards.
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In the Christian calendar, rogation days are the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day which are appointed for prayer and abstinence.
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Roi d'Yvetot (king of Yvetot) was a title conferred by Clotaire I in 534 upon the lord of the petty French principality of Yvetot, near Rouen. The dignity was annulled in 1681.
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The roll was a British measurement of parchment equal to 60 skins.
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In horology, a roller table is a flat disk on the arbor of the balance of a watch, holding the jewel which rolls in and out of the fork at the end of the lever of the escapement.
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Rolls-Royce is an international company best known for its luxurious cars, but also providing power systems, aero engines and marine propulsion equipment.
Rolls-Royce grew from the electrical and mechanical business established by Henry Royce in 1884. Royce built his first motor car in 1904 and in May of that year met Charles Rolls, whose company sold quality cars in London. Agreement was reached that Royce Limited would manufacture a range of cars to be exclusively sold by CS Rolls & Co they were to bear the name Rolls-Royce. In 1906 following success with the cars the Rolls-Royce company was formed to the launch of the six-cylinder Silver Ghost car which, within a year, was hailed as 'the best car in the world'. At the start of the Great War, in response to the nation's needs, Royce designed his first aero engine the Eagle, which provided half of the total horsepower used in the air war by the allies. In 1953 Rolls-Royce entered the civil aviation market with the Dart in the Vickers Viscount which was to become the cornerstone of the universal acceptance of the gas turbine by the airline industry.
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Romaika is a book detailing Roman history from its earliest times to the first century. It was written by Dion Cassius, the Roman historian.
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When the Romans conquered Britain in 43 AD, they set about imposing their civilisation in the way they knew best - by providing it with towns and joining them up by roads. Every town laid out by the Romans was arranged on a chess board or grid iron plan of intersecting streets, and was usually protected by a massive square stone wall with a gate in the middle of each side. Most of these towns came into existence as fortified places; the Roman word 'castrum' or 'chester' means 'a military encampment'. Almost all the towns whose names end in this way, such as Winchester, Chichester, Dorchester and Manchester, as well as those whose name endings have been modified, such as Lancaster, Worcester and Gloucester, began their existence as Roman fortified places. The core of the city was the Forum, a group of buildings which comprised the town hall, the court of justice, a shopping centre and spacious meeting place for the people of the town and its surrounding countryside. Roman ideas in town planning were fundamental to the later development of the English town.
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The rood is an imperial unit of measurement of area, equal to 40 square perches or poles, or 1210 square yards.
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The Root-and-Branch Men was a name assumed about 1641 by the extreme Puritan party, who advocated the abolition of the established church. The chief leaders were Nathaniel Fiennes, Vane, and Hampden.
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Rope is a stout cord in excess of one inch in circumference.
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A rosary is a string of beads used in religion to count prayers. Generally the beads are of different sizes, in the Roman rosary the smaller beads represent the Ave Marias, the larger the Paternosters. There are normally fifty-five beads in the Roman rosary, each ten Ave Marias being separated by a Paternoster. Rosary beads are also employed by Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists.
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The Rosetta stone is a tablet of basalt found near Rosetta in the Nile delta, bearing an inscription in Greek, and hieroglyphics. It's discovery by Napoleon's soldiers in 1799 made the deciphering of hieroglyphics possible. The inscription is a decree of Ptolemy Epiphanes, promulgated at Memphis in 196 BC.
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Rosewood is the timber of various tropical trees, including the Brazilian Dalbergia nigra and other species of the same genus. Rosewood is hard, heavy and usually straight-grained with a red-purplish colour and takes a fine finish making it very popular for cabinet making. Rosewood is so named on account of the rose-like odour of its fresh heartwood.
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The Rota Club was a society who met at Miles' Coffee-house in New Palace yard, Westminster during the administration of Oliver Cromwell. Their plan was that all the great officers of state should be chosen by ballot, and that a certain number of members of parliament should be changed annually by rotation from whence they took their title.
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The Rover 25 (later renamed the MG 25) was a range of British small cars of the 'Supermini' genre. The Rover 25 was powered by various engines from a 1.1 litre engine providing a top speed of 100 mph through to a 2.0 litre model providing a top speed of 113 mph.
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The Rover Metro was a British motor-car produced from 1990 to 1994. Best described as a 'super-mini' the Metro featured a reliable engine, precise handling and incredibly low running costs but provided little protection in the case of a crash. Various engine sizes were produced, all four cylinder: a 1.1 litre providing 59 BHP and about 47 mpg; a 1.4 litre providing 75 BHP and 45 mpg; a 1.4 fuel injection with 16 valves providing 94 BHP and 42 mpg; a later 1.4 fuel injection with 16 valves providing 89 BHP and 40 mpg but which ran on unleaded petrol; a 1.4 litre fuel injection providing 74 BHP and 43 mpg and a 1.4 litre diesel engine which provided 52 BHP and 62 mpg. In January 1995 the Rover Metro was replaced by the Rover 100 model.
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Rowton houses or 'poor men's hotels' were dwelling-houses for unmarried working men in London, the first was erected in Vauxhall in 1892 by Lord Rowton, and accommodated 484 persons. This was so successful that a company - Rowton Houses Ltd - was formed and five other houses subsequently established - in Calthorpe Street in 1896, Newington Butts in 1897, Hammersmith Road in 1899, Fieldgate Street in 1902 and in Camden Town in 1905. The business was conducted on strictly commercial lines with customers charged for a bed and the use of public rooms.
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Royal is a size of paper 25 inches by 20 inches.
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The Royal African Company was an English slave-trading corporation organized about 1720 for the special purpose of transporting slaves to the colonies. In the Carolinas special care was enjoined upon the Government to encourage this trade.
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Royal Air Maroc (RAM) is the national Airline of Morocco.
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The royal assent is the approbation given by the British sovereign in Parliament to a bill which has passed both houses, after which it becomes a law. It may either be done in person, when the sovereign comes to the House of Peers and the assent (in Norman French) is declared by the clerk of parliament; or it may be done by letters-patent under the great seal, signed by the sovereign.
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In Britain, the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 decreed that no descendant of George II, except princesses who have married into foreign families, may marry without the consent of the sovereign in council. If consent is refused, the descendant in question, being twenty-five years old, may give notice to the Privy Council, and after a lapse of twelve months may marry unless both houses of Parliament first signify their disapproval. Marriages infringing the act are void, and persons abetting infringement are subject to the penalties of Praemunire. Members of the royal family are not subject to the Marriage Acts. They can be married without banns, or licence, but not in a registry office or by a registrar, or according to the nonconformist rites. The sovereign may not marry a Roman Catholic.
The Royal Marriages Act of 1772 was passed following the marriages of the Dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester, which were considered unsuitable by their brother, King George III.
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The Royal Red Cross is a decoration for lady nurses distinguished by their services to sick or wounded soldiers and sailors. It was instituted by Queen Victoria on April the 23rd 1883. The cross, of crimson enamel, gold-edged, is fastened to the left shoulder by a bow of dark blue, red-edged ribbon.
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The Royal Society is a discussion and philosophical organisation organised in 1660 and constituted by Charles II as The Royal Society of London, with the aim of 'improving natural knowledge'.
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The Royal Standard is a flag bearing the royal national arms, flown only by the Sovereign.
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The Royal Tournament is a British annual naval and military spectacle held in London. Formerly known as the Royal Naval and Military Tournament, it dates from 1879. The Royal Tournament was originally held in the Royal Agricultural Hall, later being removed to Olympia before being moved again to Earl's Court.
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Rugby School is a famous British public school in Warwickshire. It was founded in 1567 by Lawrence Sheriff, a London tradesman. The school prospered under the headmastership of Dr Thomas Arnold who entered it in 1828.
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The Rule of 1756 was a rule of international law laid down by the English Courts in the War of 1756, to the effect that where a European country has forbidden trade with its colonies in times of peace, it shall not open it to neutrals in time of war. In 1793 the English Prize Courts enforced this doctrine against American neutral carriers, the US Government protesting.
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The American Rum Romanism and Rebellion faux pas occurred at a meeting of clergy, in which all denominations were supposed to be represented, held in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, during the Presidential campaign of 1884 in the interest of the Republicans. The Reverend R. B. Burchard described the Democrats as the party of 'Rum, Romanism and Rebellion'. This remark was unfortunate for the Republicans, and aided in a great measure to win the election for the Democrats.
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The Rump Parliament was the remnant of the English Long Parliament, which continued to sit after Pride's Purge in 1648. In 1649 it ordered Charles I's execution, abolished both monarchy and the House of Lords, and established the Commonwealth. Its members were mostly gentlemen, motivated by self- interest, and its policies were generally unpopular. Oliver Cromwell expelled the Rump in April 1653. Six years later it was recalled to mark the end of the Protectorate; in 1660 the members excluded by Pride were readmitted, and the Long Parliament dissolved itself in preparation for the Restoration of the monarchy.
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In the German fairy tale Rumpelstilzchen is a passionate little deformed dwarf. The story tells how a miller's daughter was required by a king to spin straw into gold, and the dwarf did it for her, on condition that she would give him her first child. The maiden married the king, and grieved so bitterly when her first child was born that the dwarf promised to relent if within three days she could find out his name. Two days were spent in vain guesses, but the third day one of the queen's servants heard a strange voice singing:
'Little dreams my dainty dame Rumpelstilzchen is my name.'
The queen, being told thereof, saved her child, and the dwarf killed himself with rage.
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A runcible spoon is a fork curved like a spoon and having three broad prongs, one of which has a slightly sharp edge. The term was invented by the English lyricist, Edward Lear in the 19th century.
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Running the gauntlet was a British naval punishment metered out to those convicted of theft. It involved the perpetrator being required to pass between two lines of the ships crew each of which was armed with a stick or lump of rope with which they struck the passing thief. Running the gauntlet was abolished as a punishment in 1806.
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Running Thursday was the name given to Thursday December the 13th, 1688, when a rumour circulated in England that French and Irish Papists had invaded the country. The rumour led to widespread panic with people running for their lives to the country.
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A rusca was an old English vessel made from straw or bark and used for storing butter and the like.
The rusca was a unit of measurement for butter employed in Cheshire, England at the time of the Norman invasion.
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Rutgers Vs Waddington was an American legal case tried before Mayor James Duane, of
New York, in 1784. Under the provisions of the Trespass Act, passed some time before by the New York State Legislature, Elizabeth Rutgers had sued Joshua Waddington, a wealthy Tory merchant, for unlawful trespass upon and possession of certain real estate. Alexander Hamilton appeared for the defendant. It was alleged that the Trespass Act was contrary to the provisions of the Treaty of 1783, by which protection was promised the Tories, and likewise violated principles of the law of nations. The court, however, refused to assume jurisdiction over acts of Assembly, to set them aside on any ground. It gave the case to the defendant by an equitable interpretation of the statute itself.
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The Rye-House Plot was a plan to secure the succession of the duke of Monmouth to the throne in preference to the duke of York (afterwards James II), a Roman Catholic. Some of the conspirators planned to assassinate the king, Charles II and his brother. However, the plan was frustrated by the king's house at Newmarket accidentally catching fire which caused the royal party to leave eight days before the plot was to take effect, on March 22nd 1683. The plot was discovered on June 12th and Lord William Russell and Algernon Sidney were arrested and illegally convicted and executed. The plot was so named after the conspirators meeting place, the Rye-House at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
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