ROCHELLE SALT 



ROCHESTER 



753 



noteworthy public buildings are the h&tel-de-ville 

 (1486-1607), the palais-de-justice (1614), and the 

 heavy Grecian cathedral ( 1742-1862). Besides the 

 fine promenade of the Place du Chateau, there are, 

 outside thecity, two extensive public gardens, known 

 as La Promenade du Mail and the Champs de Mars. 

 Shipbuilding is actively carried on, especially in 

 -connection with the Newfoundland fishing trade ; 

 and besides this branch of industry, and the manu- 

 facture of briquettes and cotton yarns, Roehelle 

 .has numerous glass-works, sugaf-relineries, and 

 brandy distilleries. Pop. (1872) 19,070; (1891) 

 23,924. Roehelle, which was known till the 12th 

 century under its Latin name of Ritpella, ' Little 

 Kock,' of which its present name is a mere trans- 

 lation, originated in a colony of serfs of Lower 

 Poitou, who, fleeing from the persecution of their 

 lord, settled on the rocky promontory between the 

 ocean and the neighbouring marshes. On the 

 marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine with Henry II. 

 of England, Rochelle, as part of her dowry, came 

 into the possession of the English kings, by whom 

 it was retained till 1224, when it was taken by 

 Louis VIII. ; and, although it was ceded to Eng- 

 land at the treaty of Bretigny in 1360, in the 

 subsequent wars it was retaken by France, under 

 whose sway it has remained since 1372. A strong- 

 hold of the Huguenots (q.v.), it was unsuccessfully 

 besieged in 1573, and in 1627-28 it for fourteen 

 months again offered a heroic though unavailing 

 resistance, under its mayor Guitpn, to Cardinal 

 Richelieu. Buckingham's expedition to relieve it 

 failed, and at last the defenders, reduced from 

 27,000 to 5000, had to surrender to the troops of 

 Louis XIII. With the exception of three towers 

 \ 1384-1476) its old fortifications were destroyed, 

 and new lines of defences subsequently erected by 

 the great Vauban. Reaumur, Bonpland, Billaud- 

 Varenne, Fromentin, Bouguereau, and Admiral 

 Duperre (1775-1846) were natives. Of the last a 

 statiie was erected in 1869. See Barbot's ffistoire 

 de la Rochelle (ed. by Denys d'Aussy, 1886-91). 



Roehelle Salt is the popular name of the 

 tartrate of soda and potash (KNaC 4 H 4 O + 4H.,O), 

 this salt having been discovered in I(i72 by a 

 Rochelle apothecary named Seignette. It occurs, 

 when pure, in colourless transparent prisms, gener- 

 ally eight-sided ; and in taste it resembles common 

 salt. It is prepared by neutralising cream of tartar 

 (bitartrate of potash) with carbonate of soda. 

 After a neutral solution has been obtained, it is 

 boiled and filtered, and the resulting fluid is con- 

 centrated till a pellicle forms on the surface, when 

 it is set aside to crystallise. This salt is a mild 

 and efficient laxative, and is less disagreeable to 

 the taste than most of the saline purgatives. From 

 half an ounce to an ounce, dissolved in eight or ten 

 parts of water, forms an average dose. A drachm 

 of Rochelle Salt added to one of the ingredients of 

 an effervescing draught (bicarbonate of soda or tar- 

 taric acid, for example) forms one of the varieties 

 :>( what are called Seidlitz powders. 



Roches montonne'es, smooth, rounded, hum- 

 mocky bosses and undulating surfaces of rock, of 

 common occurrence in regions which have been 

 overflowed by glacier-ice. Those which have not 

 been much acted upon by the weather generally 

 show the scratches and groovings which are the 

 characteristic markings of glacial action. Some- 

 times roches moutonnees are smoothed and polished 

 all over, and have the appearance of whales' or 

 dolphins' backs. At other times they are smoothed 

 only on one side that side, namely, which faces 

 the direction from which the glaciating agent 

 flowed ; the other side, protected from abrasion, 

 being left in its original rough, unpolished condi- 

 tion. The name roches moutonnees is that used by 

 412 



the Swiss peasants the bare rounded rocks of a 

 valley-bottom when seen from above having a 

 fanciful resemblance to a flock of sheep lying down. 



Rochester, a city of Kent, 29 miles ESE. of 

 London, lies chiefly on the right bank of the tidal 

 Medway, continuous with Chatham, and joined to 

 Strood by an iron swing bridge, constructed in 

 1850-56 at a cost of 170,000. The castle or keep, 

 which crowns a steep eminence near the bridge, 

 was the work of Archbishop William de Corbeuil 

 (1126); but the wall overlooking the river con- 

 tains Norman masonry of earlier date, built upon 

 Roman foundations. It is 104 feet high and 70 

 feet square, with walls 12 feet thick, and is a very 

 fine specimen of Norman architecture ; it was taken 

 by John ( 1215, the south-east corner being rebuilt 

 shortly afterwards), vainly attacked by De Mont- 

 fort (1264), and taken again by Tyler (1381). 

 Both castle and grounds were purchased in 1883 by 

 the corporation from the Earl of Jersey. The 

 episcopal see was founded in 604 by St Augustine, 

 and the foundations of the cathedral then built 

 have lately been discovered. Bishop Gnndnlf 

 (1077-1107) built a new cathedral, of which part 

 of the crypt remains. This cathedral was rebuilt 

 by Ernulf and John of Canterbury (1115-37 ), whose 

 nave remains ; and the choir was again rebuilt and 

 enlarged in the 13th century in part out of offerings 

 of pilgrims at the shrine of St William of Perth, a 

 Scotch baker, who, on a pilgrimage to the Holy 

 Land, was murdered near Chatham by his com- 

 panion and adopted son ; the tower rebuilt by 

 Cottingham (1825-26), the choir and transepts re- 

 stored by Scott ( 1871-77), and the west front being 

 restored by Pearson in 1891. It measures 306 feet 

 in length, and has double transepts ; and special 

 features of interest are the Norman west doorway 

 and nave, the Early English choir, of singular plan 

 and early character, the spacious crypt, and a fine 

 Decorated doorway leading to the modern library. 

 The ruins of an early Norman keep or residence ( ? ) 

 built by Gundulf, the architect of the Tower of 

 London, stand on the north side of the choir. Of 

 Rochester's bishops since 604, some eighty in 

 number, may be mentioned Paulinus (previously 

 first bishop of York), Gundulf, Walter de Merton, 

 Fisher, Ridley, Atterbury, and Horsley. St 

 Bartholomew's Hospital, founded by Gundulf in 

 1078 for lepers, was refonnded in 1863 ; the Nor- 

 man chapel remains. \Vatts' Charity House, 

 founded in 1579 to lodge 'six poor travellers, not 

 being rogues or proctors,' has been immortalised by 

 Dickens, whose home, Gadshill (q.v.), is 3 miles 

 distant, and who introduces Rochester into Pick- 

 wick, Ec/win Drood, and others of his novels. 

 Three schools are the cathedral grammar-school 

 (Henry VIII.), Williamson's mathematical school 

 (1701 ; reopened tinder a new scheme, 1880), and a 

 grammar-school for girls (1888); and other build- 

 ings are Satis House, Restoration House (Charles 

 II. slept here in 1660), the guild-hall (1687), and 

 the corn exchange (1871). Rochester the Roman 

 station Durobrivce and Anglo-Saxon Hrofe-ceastre 

 was made a municipal oorough by Henry II. 

 It lost one of its two members in 1885. James II. 

 embarked here in his flight (1688). Pop. (1851) 

 16,508; (1871) 18,352; (1891)26,170. 



See Wharton's Anglia Sacra (1691) ; Thorpe's Regis- 

 triim Roffense (1769) and Cuttumale Rt>ffenie ( 1788 ) ; 

 and other works by Rawlinson ( 1717 ), Fisher ( 1772 ), Rye 

 (two, 1861-65), \V'alcott (1866), Langton (Dickens and 

 Rochester, 1880 ), and Pearman ( 1898 ). 



Rochester, ( 1 ) capital of Monroe county, New 

 York, is on both sides of the Genesee River, 7 

 miles above its entrance into Lake Ontario, and on 

 the Erie and Genesee Valley canals, by rail 67 

 miles ENE. of Buffalo and 360 NW. of New York. 



