RAM 



314 



RAM 



Ram 



II 



Ramsay, 

 Allan. 



signal, and was thus murdered in the sixty-sixth year 

 of his age. 



The different compositions of Raleigh's which were 

 poetical, geographical, political, philosophical, and his- 

 torical, were published in 2 vols. 8vo. in 1748. His 

 History of the World has been several times reprinted. 

 He brought it down no farther than the overthrow of 

 the Macedonian empire. See the Biographia Eritan- 

 nica ; Campbell's Lives of the Admirals ; and Cayley's 

 Life of Sir Walter Raleigh. Lond. 1806. 



RAM, HYDRAULIC Montgolfier's. See HYDRODY- 

 NAMICS, Vol. XI. p. 566. 



RAMEAU, JOHN PHILIP, a celebrated musical com- 

 poser and writer on music, was born at Dijon in 1683. 

 At an early period of his life he went into Italy, and 

 on his return he was appointed organist of Clermont 

 in Auvergne. In this situation he composed his Traite 

 de la Musique, which appeared in 1722, and which gain- 

 ed him great reputation. The principles which he laid 

 down were made the foundation of D'Alembert's work 

 on Music, which was entitled, Elemens de Musique 

 Theorique et Pratique Suivant les Principes de M. Ra~ 

 meau. From Clermont he went as organist to St. 

 Croix de la Bretonniere at Paris ; and he now employ- 

 ed himself chiefly in teaching music, and in drawing 

 up some theoretical works. At the age of fifty, how- 

 ever, he began in 1733 to publish his musical com- 

 positions, the first of which was the Opera of Hip- 

 polyte et Aricie, which excited general notice. Be- 

 tween 1733 and 1760, he composed twenty-one operas 

 of various degrees of merit. His Castor and Pollux 

 supported an hundred representations, and is said to 

 have been particulary admired. Rameau died in the 

 year 1767 at the age of eighty- four. 



RAMILLIES, BATTLE OF. See the article BRI- 

 TAIN, Vol. IV. p. 618. 



RAMISERAM ISLE, is the name of an island sa- 

 cred among the Hindoos, and situated between Cey- 

 lon and the continent. It is about eleven miles long 

 and six broad, and contains a large town called Pau- 

 ban. It is principally celebrated, however, for its 

 temple, dedicated to the demi-god Ram. This temple 

 is built in a style of massiveness resembling those in 

 Egypt. The entrance is through a lofty gateway 100 

 feet high, constructed of large stones, many of which 

 contain figures of the Hindoo gods in relievo. The 

 image of Ram is daily bathed in water, brought from 

 the Ganges, a distance of 1000 miles. It is a place of 

 great resort for pilgrims, and the rajahs of Travancore 

 are said to have spent 25,000 in their visits to it. 

 The strait which separates the island from the coast of 

 Coromandel is about a mile wide. East Long. 79 21'. 

 and North Lat. 9 17'. 



RAMSAY, ALLAN, a Scotish poet of considerable ce- 

 lebrity, was born at Leadhills in Lanarkshire in October 

 1686. His father was occupied in the management of Lord 

 Hopetoun's mines ; but having died early, and his wi- 

 dow having married again, their son Allan seems to 

 have been employed till his fifteenth year, in the ordi- 

 nary operations of working and preparing the lead ore 

 for smelting. 



In 1701, he was bound apprentice to a wigmaker in 

 Edinburgh ; and he seems to have exercised this pro- 

 fession till the year 1 716. One of the earliest of his 

 productions now known, was an Address to the Most 

 Happy Members of the Easy Club, which appeared in 

 1712, when he was only 26 years old. The reputation 

 among his acquaintances, which this and other pieces 

 obtained for him, induced him to exchange the occupa- 



tion of a wigmaker, for the more literary one of a book- Ramsden. 

 seller. In 1721, he published by subscription his de- 

 tached poems in 1 vol. 4to. In 1724, he published the 

 first volume of his well-known collection, called, The 

 Tea Table Miscellany ; the second appeared soon after ; 

 the third in 1727 ; and the fourth, after another similar 

 interval. He next published what he called the Ever- 

 green, a collection of Scotish poems, written prior to 

 1600, 



In the year 1725, Ramsay brought out his Gentle 

 Shepherd, a work which will continue to be read as 

 long as the Scotish language shall be understood. The 

 first part of the drama called Patie and Roger, appear- 

 ed in 1721, and the second, entitled Jenny and Meggy, 

 in 1723; but under its new title, it was formed into a 

 regular dramatic composition. 



A second volume of his poems appeared in 1728; 

 and so widely had these writings extended his fame, 

 that a new edition of his poetical works was published 

 by the London booksellers ; and two years afterwards, 

 they were re-printed at Dublin. Allan Ramsay is said 

 to have been the first person who established a circu- 

 lating library in Edinburgh. He published a collec- 

 tion of fables in 1730, which terminated his labours as 

 an author. 



But though he now laid aside his pen, yet his active 

 mind would not suffer him to be idle. He built, at 

 his own expence, the first theatre for dramatic perfor- 

 mances in Edinburgh, which was opened in Carruber's 

 Close, in the year ] 736. He was obliged, however, by 

 the Magistrates to shut it up, as he required his Ma- 

 jesty's letters patent for such an establishment. In 

 the year 1755, in the 6'9th year of his age, our author 

 quitted the profession of a bookseller, and retired to a 

 small house, which he had built on the north side of 

 the Castle Hill. He was now attacked with a severe 

 scorbutic complaint, by which he lost all his teeth, and 

 which put an end to his life, on the 7th of June 1758, in 

 the 71st year of his age. 



His son, Allan Ramsay, who was born in 1709, at- 

 tained to considerable eminence as a painter of por- 

 traits, his skill in which he had improved considerably 

 by four visits to Italy. He was the author also of some 

 literary productions, which never excited much notice. 

 He was a man of good character, was painter in or- 

 dinary to the King for England, and lived to the ad- 

 vanced age of 75. 



RAMSDEN JESSE, a celebrated English mathe- 

 matical and astronomical instrument maker. He was 

 born in 1735, and was the son of an innkeeper at Sal- 

 terhebble, near. Halifax in Yorkshire. From the free 

 school of Halifax, where he acquired, between the age 

 of 9 and 12, the elements of a classical education, he 

 went to his uncle at Craven, who sent him to the school 

 of the Rev. Mr. Hall, who had gained some credit in 

 teaching the mathematics. Here Ramsden studied ge- 

 ometry and algebra ; but his course was very short, as 

 his father soon afterwards apprenticed him to a clothier 

 of Halifax as a hot-presser. In 1755, he became a clerk 

 in a wholesale cloth warehouse in London, a situation in 

 which he continued for two years and a half; but his 

 passion for the sciences could no longer be controlled, and 

 he bound himself for four years to Mr. Barton in the 

 Strand, who was skilful in the division of mathemati- 

 cal instruments, as well as in the other branches of his 

 trade. When his period of servitude had expired, he 

 wrought as a journeyman with Mr. Cole, with whom 

 he afterwards connected himself as partner. He very 

 soon, however, opened a shop for himself, and acquir- 



