RAV 



324 



RAY 



Raynal. 



llavenglass bishopric, but was secularised at the peace of 1648. 

 11 Every week two coches d'eau set out for Lubeck. 

 Population of the town about 2000. East long. 

 10 4-6', north lat. 53 43'. 



RAVENGLASS, a seaport and market town of Eng- 

 land, in the county of Cumberland, is situated on the 

 Solway -Frith, near the conflux of the rivers Esk, Mite, 

 and Irt. The town is tolerably well built, and the 

 harbour commodious, but it is chiefly supported by 

 the oyster fishery. 



Near the town are the ruins of the city of Barnscar, 

 said to have been founded by the Danes. The figure 

 of it is an oblong square, and its circuit about three 

 miles. There seems to have been a long street with 

 several cross ones. The remains of the house-steads 

 within the walls are not very numerous, but those on 

 the outside are said to be innumerable, particularly at 

 the south side and west end. See Hutchinson's His- 

 tory of Cumberland and the Beauties of England and 

 Wales, vol. iii. p. 230. 



RAVENNA, an ancient city of Italy, in the states of 

 the Church, is situated on the river Mentone, near the 

 Adriatic. Although the streets are tolerably straight 

 and spacious, yet the town has a gloomy and ruinous 



aspect. The principal public building is the Cathedral, Sensible of the numerous imperfections of his work, 

 which is modern, and has its nave sustained by four the Abbe himself resolved to improve it by foreign tra- 

 rows of columns, of Greek marble. The church of St. vel ; and he accordingly visited the principal commer- 

 Vitale, which has the shape of an octagon, is likewise c ial towns in France, England, and Holland, and col- 

 supported by columns of Greek marble, and contains lected much useful information from the travellers and 

 various objects of antiquity. The church called the Rp- mercantile men with whom he happened to associate, 

 tonda, without the town, was built by Amalasanda, in Upon his return he corrected and enlarged his work, 

 honour of her father Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, and published it at Geneva, in 10 vols. Svo. Although 

 Besides these and some other churches, there are twen- 



of the Jesuits, and was ordained priest ; but he quitted 

 that body in the year 1748, and began the career of 

 a professional author. In 1748 he published his Hislo- 

 ire du Stadthouderal, which was followed by his His- 

 loire du Parlement D' Ang/elerre ; a work which pro- 

 cured him considerable celebrity. He likewise com- 

 posed a work entitled Anecdotes Literaires,in 3 vo\s. 

 12mo. ; the Memoires de, Ninon del'Enclos, and various 

 smaller pieces, in the Mercurc de France. 



In consequence of finding that his literary pursuits 

 were not very profitable, he entered into some com- 

 mercial speculations, which led him to those studies 

 which terminated in the composition of his great work 

 entitled " Histoire P/iiiosophique et Politique des Eta- 

 blissemens ct du Commerce des Europeens dans les deux 

 Indes ; which appeared in the year 1 770- This work 

 at first excited considerable interest. One party was 

 pleased with the spirit of philosophy and liberty which 

 it breathed, and regarded its author as a bold reformer 

 of the abuses of the age in which he lived ; while the 

 critics of another party condemned both the style and 

 .the principles of the work, and cast a doubt even on 

 the facts and documents on which the reasonings of 

 the author were founded. 



Raynal, 

 Readinff. 



ty-four convents in Ravenna. 



Among the antiquities of Ravenna, we may enume- 

 rate the Porta Aurea, a fine marble gate, built by the 

 Romans ; and the palace of Theodoric. The mausoleum 

 of this sovereign is still to be seen, covered with a stone 

 twenty-eight feet in diameter, and fifteen feet thick. 

 Mosaics, basso-relievos, and different pieces of sculp- 

 ture occur in various parts of the city. Ravenna con- 

 tains also the tomb of the celebrated Dante. 



In the time of the Romans, this city stood in a sort 

 of bay, formed by the Adriatic, and had the advantage 

 of a good harbour. The port, however, is now filled up 

 with the mud and sand thrown up by the tide, which 

 has formed a tract .of land of three miles in extent, 

 which separates the town from the sea. Owing to the 

 marshy nature of the ground, the climate of Ravenna is 

 insalubrious, but this evil has been considerably remov- 

 ed, by conveying the rivers Mentone and Ronco along 

 the skirts of the city, for the purpose of carrying off the 

 stagnant waters from, the marshy, grounds. Ravenna 

 has no fortification, but is encircled with a mound. 



A Roman colony is said to have been established in 

 this city by Augustus. Tiberius repaired its walls, 

 Trajan erected a fine aqueduct. Honorius and Octa- 

 vius made it successively the place of their residence ; 

 and Theodoric having fixed the seat of his empire in 

 this city, endowed it with fine churches and palaces. 



Population, about 12,000. East Ion. 12 10' 51" and 

 North lat. 44 25' .5" 



RAY, JOHN. See our article BOTANY, Vol. IV. 

 p. 11 13. for a full account of the life and botanical 

 labours of that eminent naturalist. 



RAYNAL, WILLIAM FRANCIS, a celebrated French 

 historian, was born at St. Genies, in the Rovergue, in 

 the year 1713. At an early age he entered the society 



the work was greatly improved, yet its general tone 

 was, the same; and so bold were its aspersions upon 

 existing authorities, that the parliament of Paris order- 

 ed it to be burnt, and issued a decree for apprehend- 

 ing Raynal. Under these circumstances he retired to 

 Spa ; and, after having made a tour through Germany, 

 and visited most of its principal towns, he ventured to 

 return to France, and lived unmolested in the southern 

 provinces. 



The war between America and the mother country 

 having excited general attention in Europe, the Abbe 

 Raynal published, in 1781, his Tableau et Revolutions 

 des Colonies Angloises dans I'Amerique Septentrionale. 

 When the French revolution was about to burst forth, 

 the Abbe came to Paris in 1788 ; and one of the first 

 acts of the National Assembly was to abrogate the de- 

 cree which had been issued against him by the parlia- 

 ment. The violent and unjust proceedings which af- 

 terwards took place in Paris induced our author to 

 publish, in May 179', a long letter of advice and re- 

 monstrance, in which he points out the errors and 

 licentiousness of the people, reminds them of the eter- 

 nal obligations of religion, the laws, and the royal au- 

 thority, and endeavours to prove that it was not the bu- 

 siness or the right of the Assembly to abolish ancient 

 institutions, and that the genius of the Frencii people is 

 such, that they cannot be happy or prosperous but under 

 a rvell-regulaled monarchical government. These remon- 

 strances excited little notice, and the author retired to 

 Passy ; where he died in a state of great indigence, in 

 March 1794, in the 85th year of his age. The Abbe 

 Raynal wrote a History rif the Divorce of Catharine of 

 Arragon by Henry VIII. and a History of the Revoca- 

 tion of the Edict cf Nantz. See Marnaontel's Memoirs, 

 for some anecdotes of Raynal. 



READING, a borough and market town of Eng- 



