RUYSDAEL 



RYDE 



53 



but directed in the channels of practical charity, 

 gained for him the title of Doctor ecstaticus 

 Gerhard Groot (q.v. ) was his friend. Ruysbroek 

 wrote in Latin and in Flemish ; his works were 

 published in Latin in 1552, and in German in 1701. 

 See Lives by Engelhardt (Erlangen, 1838). Ch. 

 Schmidt (Strasburg, 1859), Otterloo (Amsterdam, 

 1874), and Maeterlinck (trans. 1894). 



Rliysdael. or RUISDAEL, JAKOB, the greatest 

 landscape-painter of the Dutch school, was born 

 at Haarjem about 1628. In 1648 he was enrolled 

 a member of the guild of St Luke at Haarlem, 

 and in 1659 was granted the freedom of the city oi 

 Amsterdam. He died in the almshouse of Haarlem 

 on 14th March 1682. He loved to paint forest 

 glades with oak-trees ; sleeping pools beneath 

 clusters of trees, with an old picturesque building, 

 a mill or a ruined temple, or a glimpse of a distant 

 town ; a waterfall with rugged rocks, and coast 

 scenes, where sea and earth meet. The scenes 

 were mainly taken from the neighbourhood of 

 Haarlem, partly from the districts of Germany 

 that border on Holland. His work shows that he 

 had a fine feeling for the poetic spirit of nature, 

 which he embodies with great skill. His pictures 

 e\-ist in Dresden, Berlin (probably the two best col- 

 lections ), the Louvre, the London National Gallery, 

 Amsterdam, and the Hague. See E. Michel, 

 li'uixdael et lea Puysogistes (f Harlem ( Paris, 1890). 

 Rliysselede, a town in the Belgian province 

 of West Flanders, 14 miles SE. of Bruges, has a 

 large reformatory for boys ( 1849). Pop. 6793. 



Rnyter, MICHAEL ADRIANSZOON (afterwards 

 De Kuyter), Dutch admiral, was born at Flushing 

 on 24th March 1607 of poor parents, who sent him 

 to sea as a cabin-boy when only eleven. He changed 

 into the navy, and by 16.35 had risen to the rank of 

 captain. From 1B43 to 1652 he was again in the 

 merchant service, and fought against the pirates 

 of Barbary. When war l>roke ont between England 

 and Holland in 1632, a fleet was given to Ruyt< i : 

 with it he beat off an attack made upon him (26th 

 August) by Sir G. Ayscue off the Lizard, but in 

 conjunction with De Witt was compelled to retire 

 after vainly attacking Blake off the mouth of the 

 Thames ( 28th September). They had their revenge, 

 however, two months later, when they defeated 

 Blake off I WIT. In the following year Rnyter took 

 part in the running fight in the English Channel of 

 18th-20th February against Blake ; in that of Sole- 

 nay or SouthwoliI (2d-3d June) against Monk and 

 Deane and Blake ; in the indecisive battle off 

 Katwyk ; and in that off the Texel (29th July), in 

 which his superior, Tromp, was killed and the 

 Dutch fleet defeated. After this Rnyter was made 

 vice-admiral of Holland. In 1654 peace was con- 

 cluded between the two countries. In the years 

 immediately following Ruyter was sent to block- 

 ade the coasts of Portugal, and then those of 

 Sweden (on behalf of Denmark); he compelled the 

 Swede* to surrender Nyborg in Fiinen in 1659. 

 On tlii- conclusion of the Dano-Swedish war (1660) 

 the kinj,' of Denmark ennobled him. The years 

 1WI i;:i were principally occupied with checking in 

 the M'-<literranean the piracy of the Turkish states 

 of North Africa. In 1664 war broke out again 

 between England and Holland, and De Ruyter 

 steered his fleet to the west coast of Africa, 'and 

 took from the English Goree and some forts 

 on the Guinea coast; in 1665 he preyed upon 

 English merchant-vessels in the West Indies, ni;idi; 

 his way home round Scotland, and was chosen 

 admiral in-chief of the Dutch fleet; in 1666 he 

 fought for four days (June 1-4) against Monk and 

 Prince Rupert olf Dunkirk, neither side gaining the 

 victory, though the English were the first to retire; 

 nevertheless in July he was beaten by Monk, and 



driven back to Holland. In 1667 he caused great 

 consternation in London by sailing up the Medway 

 as far as Rochester, and burning some of the 

 English ships, and entering the Thames a second 

 time as high as Gravesend, besides attacking 

 Harwich. Then came peace again; and in 1672 

 war once more, this time against England and 

 France combined. De Ruyter's principal achieve- 

 ments in this war were to attack the English and 

 French fleets under the Duke of York, the Earl of 

 Sandwich, and Count d'Estrees in Solebay (28th 

 May 1672), after which he retired to Holland; to 

 defeat Prince Rupert and D'Estrees off Schooneveldt 

 in June 1673, and again off Kijkduin and Helder 

 in August. Peace -was then made with England ; 

 but the war with France still went on. In the end 

 of 1675 De Ruyter set sail for the. Mediterranean, 

 to go and help the Spaniards against the French. 

 He encountered the French Heet under Duqnesne 

 near the Lipari Islands a few days before the New 

 Year, and again in April in the Bay of Catania, on 

 the east of Sicily. After the first encounter the 

 Dutch-Spanish fleet drew off towards Palermo ; in 

 the second they were routed, and De Ruyter was 

 seriously wounded in the right leg, the first serious 

 wound in his life of battles. He died exactly a 

 week later, on 29th April, in Syracuse. His body 

 was buried in the New Church at Amsterdam. 

 De Ruyter was a man of unaffected piety, simple 

 in his manners, and of unflinching courage ; as a 

 seaman he deserves to take rank along with Blake 

 and Nelson. 



See Life (anon. Amsterdam, 1677), by Brandt (Ainst 

 1698), and by Richer (1783), all in French. 



Ryan, LOCH, an arm of the sea, extending in a 

 south-easterly direction into Wigtownshire from the 

 southern entrance of the Firth of Clyde, fully 8 

 miles in length, with a breadth of from 1A to 

 almost 3 miles. From about tlie middle of its 

 western side a broad sandbank called the Scar 

 projects diagonally across it for about 2J miles ; 

 opposite is Cairn Point with a lighthouse (1847). 

 At its south-western corner stands the port of 

 Stninraer, with daily steamers plying to and from 

 Lame ; two miles west of its northern extremity 

 is Corsewall Point, a bold headland with a fine 

 lighthouse (1816). Locli Ryan affords safe and 

 commodious anchorage, being very deep close to 

 its eastern shores, which are sheltered by the high 

 hills of Finnart and Crait'oaftie, as its western are 

 by the beautifully wooded heights of Kirkcolm and 

 Leswalt. The Kerigonitis Sinus of Ptolemy, Loch 

 Ryan has l>een rendered classic, in name at least, 

 by the pathetic traditional ballad, ' Fair Annie of 

 Lochryan ' the question of its localisation is quite 

 another ^matter. Hew Ainslie's spirited song, ' The 

 Rover o' Lochryan,' deserves mention also. 



Rybinsk, a town of Russia, stands on the 

 right bank of the Volga, at the termination of a 

 branch-line (174 miles) of the Moscow and St 

 Petersburg Railway, and 48 miles NW. of Yaroslav. 

 It has a very large trade in transhipping and for- 

 warding to the capital by canal the goods brought 

 lither by large vessels up the Volga. Those goods 

 are corn, flour, tallow, spirits, metals, timber, pot- 

 ish, salt, &c. Boat-building, rope-making, brew- 

 ng, and distilling are the chief industries. Pop. 

 19,571, increased to 100,000 in the busy summer 

 season. 



Rydal Monnt. See LAKE DISTRICT. 

 Ryde, a flourishing and fashionable watering- 

 )lace on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight, 

 4J miles SSW. of Portsmouth, from which it is 

 separated by the roadstead of Spithead. It con- 

 lists of Upper and Lower Ryde, the former occupy - 

 ng the site of an ancient village, La Rye or La 

 Kiche, destroyed by the French in 1377, and the 



