ROWLEY 



ROY 



11 



of character, hated debt, and when he had played 

 the fool turned to his work as his resource. He 

 travelled over England and Wales, often visited 

 Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, and especi- 

 ally Yarmouth, and, being a humorist to the 

 marrow, enjoyed life to the full in his tavern, 

 with his tankard and his pipe, and the company 

 of friends like Moreland, Gillray, and Bunhnrv. 

 He died April 22, 1827. Rowlandson took little 

 pains over his work, yet his drawings never lack 

 the essential elements "of his strength, variety, and 

 humour. He possessed rare dexterity of touch, 

 fertility of imagination, and knowledge of the 

 human figure, and, though he was not seldom 

 vulgar, he was never feeble. He was a relentless 

 hater of Napoleon to his fall, belittling his great- 

 ness by countless travesties ; and though he took 

 his part in many of the i>olitical contests of his 

 day, he was never a mere party satirist. His 

 strength lay in broadly human humour, as seen at 

 its richest among the lower orders of the popula- 

 tion, as in his famous Vauxhall drawing. Some of 

 his best- known works are his Imitations of Modern 

 Drawings ( 1784-88), and his caricature illustrations 

 to Syntax's Three Tours, the Dance of Death, the 

 Military Adventures of Johnny Newcome, Sterne's 

 Sentimental Journey, Peter Pindar, the Bath Guide, 

 Munchausen's Travels, &c. 



See Joseph f Jrego'a exhaustive Rowlandson the Carica- 

 tvrM(2vol*. 1880). 



Rowley, WILLIAM, an actor and playwright 

 under James I., of whose life but little is known, 

 save that he was honoured by collaborating with 

 such illustrious dramatists as Dekker, Middleton, 

 Heywood, \VeIt<-r, Massinger, and Ford, most 

 probably for his skill in stage situation, not less 

 than the amiability of his character. Four plays 

 connected with his name are extant : A New Womli'r, 

 a Woman never vext ( 1632, in vol. xii. of Dodsley ) ; 

 All 's Lost by Lust, a tragedy ( 1633) ; A Match at 

 Mi'! night (1633); and A Shoemaker a Gentleman 

 (UK). 



Rowley Regis, a town of Staffordshire, 3 

 miles SE. of Dudley, within whose parliamentary 

 limits it partly lies. The parish church dates from 

 the 13th century, but was rebuilt in 1840 (the 

 tower in 1858). There are collieries, ironworks, 

 stone-quarries, potteries, implement-works, and 

 breweries. l>,,p. ( 1851 ) 14,249 ; ( 1891 ) 30,791. 



Rowton Heath, a battle of the Great Re- 

 bellion, fouglit under the walls of Chester, Sep- 

 tember 24, 1645. After the crushing disaster of 

 Naseby the king fled to Wales, and next formed 

 the desperate project to march northwards to 

 Montrose. The city of Chester was then being 

 besieged by Sir William Brereton, but the king 

 succeeded in finding an entrance, and charged Sir 

 M-muaduke Langdale to raise the siege. The 

 parliamentarians had just been reinforced by 

 Poynti's Yorkshire horse when Sir Marmaduke 

 attacked them. He was utterly defeated, with a 

 loss of 300 killed and 1000 prisoners, and the 

 disaster, added to Philiphaugh, stripped the un- 

 happy king ofliis last hope. 



Roxburghe C'liib. See BOOK-CLI-B. 



Roxburuliinreir, a natural order of mono- 

 !'!< .nous plants, perhaps better called Stem- 

 onaceit. Tim species are verv few, natives of 

 the hotter parts of the East Indies. The stems of 

 'mryhia ( Stemona ) mridiflora, a native of Chit- 

 tagong, the Malayan Islanps, &c., are sometimes 

 100 fathoms long. The thick tuberous roots are 

 boiled ami soaked in lime-water, to remove their 

 acridity, and are then candied with sugar and 

 taken with tea, but are considered rather insipid. 

 The name was given by Sir Joseph Banks, in 

 honour of the botanist Roxburgh. 



Roxburghshire, a Scotch Border county, 

 bounded bv Berwickshire, Northumberland and 

 Cumberland, Dumfriesshire, Selkirkshire, and Mid- 

 lothian. Its greatest length is 42 miles ; its greatest 

 breadth 30 miles ; and its area 670 sq. m., or 428,494 

 acres. In the north the Tweed winds 25 miles 

 eastward, receiving in this course Gala and Leader 

 Waters and the Teviot, which last runs 37 miles 

 north-eastward from above Hawick to Kelso, and 

 itself receives the Ale, Slitrig, Rule, Jed, <S:c. 

 Thus the whole county, often called Teviotdale, 

 drains to the German Ocean, with the exception 

 only of Liddesdale, or Castleton parish, in the 

 extreme south, whose 106 sq. m. belong to the 

 western basin of the Solway Firth. The Cheviots 

 (q.v. ) extend along the south-eastern Ixmndary, 

 their highest point here Auchopecairn (2382 feet) ; 

 in the interior rise Ruberslaw ( 1392) and the triple 

 Eildons ( 1385). Much of the low ground is of fair 

 fertility, and great improvements have been made 

 in agriculture ; but rather less than two-thirds of 

 the entire area is in cultivation, and the raising of 

 crops is of much less importance than the grazing 

 of half a million sheep. Rents, however, increased 

 two- or threefold, or even fourfold, l>etween 1750 

 and 1815, and the county valuation advanced 

 steadily from 254,130 in that year to a maximum 

 of 439,860 in 1877. since which date it has again 

 declined considerably owing to agricultural depres- 

 sion. Roxburgh, which gave the county it- name, 

 has been quite superseded by Kelso (q.v.); and 

 Jedburgh, the county town, is very much smaller 

 than Hawick ; other places are Melrose, Den- 

 holm, St Boswells, Yetholm, &c. Chief seats are 

 Floors Castle, Mount Teviot, Minto House, and 

 Abboteford ; and the dukes of Buccleuch and Rox- 

 Inirghe are much the largest proprietors. The 

 antiquities include hill-forts; long stretches of the 

 C'atrail and Watling Street ; the castles or peel- 

 towers of Hermitage, Branxliolm, Harden, Fernie- 

 hirst, Smailholm, &c. ; and the noble monastic 

 ruins of Melrose, Jedburgh, and Kelso. Besides 

 many more worthies, four poets James Thomson, 

 Jean Elliot, Leyden, and Aird were natives ; but, 

 although not his birthplace, Roxburghshire is pre- 

 eminently the land of Scott. It witnessed many 

 a fray, but no battle greater than Ancrum Moor 

 (q.v.). The county returns one member to parlia- 

 ment. Pop. (1801) 33,721; (1831) 43,663; (1861) 

 54,119; (1891)53,741. 



See Jeffrey's History of Roxburghshire (4 vols. 1857- 

 64 ), and other works cited at BORDERS, BALLAD, HAWICK, 

 TWEED, MKLHOSE, Ao. 



Roxbury, formerly a separate city of Massa- 

 chu-i'tts, annexed in 1867 to Boston (q.v.), of 

 which it forms the 13th, 14th, and 15th wards. 

 Pop. (1870) 34,772; (1890) 66,791. 



Roy, WILLIAM, the first of British geodesists, 

 was born May 4, 1726, at Miltonhead, in Carluke 

 parish, Lanarkshire, his father being factor ami 

 gardener to the Hamiltons of Hallcraig. He was 

 educated at the parish school and Lanark grammar- 

 school, and in 1747 is found acting as deputy- 

 quartermaster in the Royal Engineers corps, 

 engaged on the survey of Scotland. His name 

 first Hgnres in the Army List in 1757, and he 

 gradually rose to be lieutenant-colonel (1764), 

 colonel ("1777 ), and major-general (1781). In 1783 

 he undertook as a labour of love to measure a base 

 line (see ORDNANCE SURVEY) on Honnslow Heath, 

 of 27.404J feet, or about 5t miles, which, though 

 the first measurement of the kind in Britain pre- 

 tending to accuracy, was executed with such care 

 that, on being remeasured after Roy's death, the 

 difference between the two results was found to 

 be only 2J inches. For this splendid labour Roy 

 receive'd the Royal Society's Copley medal. His 



