RYE-HOUSE PLOT 



RYTINA 



55 



Fig. 2. Italian Rye-grass (Lolium 

 italicum) in flower: 

 a, spikelet in flower. 



perennial. It is admitted to be of short duration 

 on poor, dry soils, or in soils soaked with stagnant 

 water, but its claim to be ranked as a lasting 

 plant where the circumstances are even moderately 

 favourable has been incontestibly established. A 

 kind called Common or Annual Rye (L. vulgare, 

 L. annum), iiot really an annual plant, although 



useful only for 

 one year, is some- 

 times cultivated, 

 but is, in almost 

 every respect, in- 

 ferior. Italian 

 Rye (L. italicvm, 

 or L. multiftorum, 

 or L, bouchi- 

 anum), a native 

 of the south of 

 Europe, is much 

 esteemed as a for- 

 age and hay grass. 

 and is preferred 

 by cattle to the 

 perennial rye- 

 grass. In many 

 apils and situa- 

 tions in Britain 

 it succeeds ex- 

 tremely well, and 

 is remarkable for 

 its verdure and 

 luxuriance in 

 early spring. 

 There are many 

 varieties of rye- 

 grass. It is no- 

 where so much 



valued or cultivated as in Britain, and was grown 

 as a crop in England before the end of the 17th 

 century. Rye, along with other grass seeds and 

 the seeds of clovers, is generally sown along with 

 some kind of corn, and, vegetating for the first 

 year amongst the corn, appears in the second year 

 with the other grasses and clovers as the proper 

 crop of the field. See Stebler and Schroter, The 

 Best Forage Plants (Eng. trans, by M'Alpine, 

 1889), from which our illustrations are copied. 



Rye-house Plot. In 1682-83, whilst a scheme 

 was formed among the leading Whigs to raise the 

 nation in arms against Charles II., a subordinate 

 scheme was planned by a few fiercer spirits of the 

 party including Colonel Rumsey and Lieut. - 

 colonel Walcot, two military adventurers : Go<xl- 

 nough, nnder-sheritf of London ; Ferguson, ' the 

 Plotter;' and several attorneys, merchants, and 

 tradesmen of London the object of which was to 

 waylay and assassinate the king on his return from 

 Newmarket The deed was to be perpetrated at a 

 farm near Hertford, belonging to Rum bold, one of 

 i In- conspirators, called Rye-house, whence the plot 

 >;ot it name. The Rye-house Plot is supposed to 

 have been kept concealed from Monmouth, Russell, 

 Shaftfsbiiry, and the rest of those who took the 

 I'-iwl in the greater conspiracy. It owed its defeat 

 to the circumstance that the house which the king 

 o.'1-upied at Newmarket took fire accidentally, ami 

 Charles was tlnis obliged to leave that place eight 

 days sooner than 22d March. Both the greater and 

 leaner conspiracy were discovered before long, and 

 from the connection subsisting between the two it 

 was difficult altogether to dissever them. The 

 indignation excited by the Rye-house Plot was 

 extended to the whole Whig party ; Russell, 

 Algernon Sidney, and Walcot were brought to the 

 lil'ck for treason ; John Hampden, grandson of 

 the patriot, was fined 40,000 ; and scarcely one 



escaped who had been concerned in either plot. 

 See Ferguson the Plotter, by J. Ferguson ( 1887 ). 



Ryle, JOHN CHAKLES, Bishop of Liverpool, was 

 born at Macclesfield, May 10, 1816, studied at Christ 

 Church, Oxford, carried oft' the Craven Scholarship, 

 and graduated with a classical first-class in 1837. 

 He took orders, and was successively curate at Ex- 

 bury, Hants ; rector of St Thomas', Winchester 

 (1843), of Helmingham, Suffolk (1844); vicar of 

 Stradbroke, Suffolk (1861); rural dean (1870), 

 honorary canon of Norwich (1872) ; select preacher 

 at Cambridge (1873-74), and at Oxford! (1874- 

 76). In 1880 he was nominated by Beaconsfield 

 Dean of Salisbury, and before he had taken pos- 

 session was raised to the newly-formed see of 

 Liverpool. A prominent member of the Evangeli- 

 cal party, Bishop Ryle has written countless tracts 

 of vast popularity, and the following books : 

 Coming Events and Present Duties ( 1867) ; Bishops 

 and Clergy of Other Days ( 1868 ) ; The Christian 

 Leaders of the Last Century (1869); and Exposi- 

 tory Thoughts on the Gospels (7 vols. 1856-69). 



1C) IIKT. THOMAS, compiler of the Fcedera, was 

 born at Northallerton in 1639, studied at Sidney 

 Sussex College, Cambridge, and entered at Gray s 

 Inn in 1666. He published translations, critical 

 discussions on poetry, dramas of his own, and 

 works on history, and was appointed historio- 

 grapher royal ; but he died in poverty, 14th Decem- 

 ber 1714. Pope considered him 'one of the best 

 critics we ever had;' Macaulay 'the worst critic 

 that ever lived ' both rather overstating the case. 

 His principal critical work is The Tragedies of the 

 Last Aye Considered ( 1678) ; but he is chiefly re- 

 membered as the compiler of the invaluable collec- 

 tion of historical materials called Fcedera, Conven- 

 tiones, Literte et cujusmmque generis Ada Pvblica 

 inter Reges Anglite et alias quosms Jmperatores, 

 Iteges, Pontifices, Principes vel Communitates, ex- 

 tending from the llth century to his own time. 

 Vols. i.-xv. were published before Rymer's death ; 

 vols. xvi.-xx. by his assistant, Sanderson, in 1715- 

 35 ; Tonson's reprint of the first 17 vols. in 1727- 

 29 ; the Hague edition in 1737-45 ; that ( incom- 

 plete, 4 vols.) of the Record Commission in 1816- 

 69 ; and Sir Thomas Hardy's Syllabus of the whole, 

 in 2 vols., in 1869-73. 



Rymonr. See THOMAS THE RHYMER. 



Ryot. See INDIA, Vol. VI. p. 115. 



Rysbrach, MICHAEL, sculptor, born at Ant- 

 werp on 24th June 1693, settled in London in 1720, 

 and executed numerous works, in particular the 

 monument to Sir Isaac Newton in Westminster 

 Abbey (1731), that to the Duke and Duchess of 

 Marlborough at Blenheim, a bronze equestrian 

 statue of William III. for Bristol ( 1733), a colossal 

 statue of George II. for the parade at Greenwich 

 Hospital ( 1735), a Hercules at Stourhead, a statue 

 of Queen Anne at Blenheim, one of Locke in 

 Christ Church, Oxford ( 1757), and busts of Admiral 

 Vernon, Earl Stanhope, Kneller, Gay, Rowe, Milton. 

 Ben Jonson, Palladio, Inigo Jones, the Dnkes of 

 Somerset, Beaufort, and Argyll, Sir Hans Sloane, 

 Pope, Sir R. Walpole, Bolingbroke, &c. He died 

 8th January 1770. 



Ryswlck, PEACE OF, was signed at Ryswick, a 

 Dutch village, 2 miles S. of the Hague, by France, 

 England, the Netherlands, and Spain, on Septem- 

 ber 20, and by Germany on October 30, 1697. It 

 wound up the sanguinary contest in which England 

 and her allies had been engaged with France, by 

 putting an effectual check upon the power and 

 overweening ambition of France. 



It vt ina. See RHYTINA. 



