305 



RIGtfAC. 



RIPON. 



so 



cathedral, attached to which is a quadrangle surrounded with clois- 

 ters, and which contains the museum and the public library of 18,000 

 volumes ; and St. Peter's church, which baa a fine tower commanding 

 an extensive prospect. There are also several Greek, Calvinist, 

 Livonian, and Roman Catholic churches. The other public buildings 

 are an imperial palace, with an observatory ; the residence of the 

 civil governor; an ancient palace, partly used as the residence of the 

 military governor, and partly serving for barracks ; the exchange, 

 erected in 1S12; the assembly-house of the estates of Livonia; the 

 arsenal ; the hospital of St. George ; the Catherinenhof, a bomb-proof 

 warehouse 445 feet in length ; and a theatre. There are numerous 

 literary and useful institutions, as the gymnasium, the Economical 

 Society, the Society for the Study of the History and Literature of 

 the Baltic Provinces, the cathedral school, and the commercial bank. 

 The population is about 60,000, of whom about one-half are Protes- 

 tants, chiefly Germans and their descendants, and the remainder are 

 mostly Livonian*. 



The town of Riga was founded about the year 1200, by Albert, the 

 third bishop of Livonia, Christianity having been introduced in the 

 middle of the 12th century, by Heinhard, a monk of Bremen, who 

 was ordained by the Pope as first bishop of Livonia. The founder 

 granted it several privileges and a considerable extent of territory. 

 The city, which was at that time a colony of Germans, soon became 

 rich and powerful, and in the 13th century joined the Hanseatic 

 League, and its commerce was the source of such great wealth that 

 the power of the city and the pride and luxury of the inhabitants 

 became proverbial. At the beginning of the 16th century it belonged 

 to the Teutonic knights, who were obliged to submit to Poland in 

 1561. In 1621 it was besieged and taken by Gustavus Adolphus. 

 In 1710, after a vigorous defence, it was taken by Peter the Great, 

 when half the town was in ruins, many hundreds of the inhabitants 

 had perished by the enemy's fire, and 20,000 had been carried off by 

 the plague during the siege. In the siege of 1812, the suburbs were 

 burnt, and also 200 houses in the town itself, and 1500 inhabitants 

 perished. The suburbs have been rebuilt, and are much handsomer 

 than before. The town has suffered several times by fires and inun- 

 dations. Riga is next to St Petersburg the greatest emporium of 

 foreign commerce in the empire. The export* consist of fish and of 

 the great staple article* of Russian produce, corn, timber, flax, hemp, 

 hemp-seed, flax-seed, tallow, Russia leather, and sail-cloth. During 

 1849 the quantity of flax exported from Riga amounted to 44,700 

 tons. The number of ships which arrived at the port in 1849 was 

 1749; the number which left was 1677. Riga has several sugar- 

 refining houses, and considerable manufactures of woollen and cotton 

 fabric*, tobacco, starch, looking-glasse*, and iron-ware*. The con- 

 struction of a railway from Rura to Dunaburg has been recently 

 authorised by the government. [LivoxiA.] 



RIONAC. [Avirmoic.] 



RIMINI. fFoBTL] 



RINGWOOD, Hampshire, a market-town, and the seat of a Poor- 

 Law Union, in the parish of Ringwood, is situated on the left bank of 

 the river Avon, in 50 50' N. lat, 1* 47' W. long., distant 27 mile* 

 S.W. from Winchester, 92 miles S.W. by W. from London by road, 

 and 104 mile* by the London and South- Western railway. The popu- 

 lation of Ringwood parish in 1851 wa* 8928. The living is a vicarage 

 in the archdeaconry and diocese of Winchester. Ringwood Poor-Law 

 Union contains five parishes and townships, with an area of 1 6,425 acres, 

 and a population in 1851 of 5465. The town is lighted with gas. The 

 manufacture of thread and woollen glove* employs some of the 

 inhabitant*. The chancel and transept* of the parish church appear 

 to have ben erected about 1230 ; the nave and the tower are more 

 recent There are chapels for Wesleyan Methodists, Independent*, 

 and Unitarians, and National schools. There is an excellent corn- 

 market, held every Wednesday. Fain for hone* and cattle are held 

 on July 10th and December llth. 



RINTKLX. [HnE-CaM 



RIO GRA.VDE DEL NORTE. [BRAZIL.] 



RIO JANEIRO. fJaxilBO.] 



RIO NEGRO. [Nw GBAJIADA.] 



RIOBAMBA. [ECUADOR.] 



RIOJA, LA, one of the province* of the Argentine Confederation, 

 comprehends the country between the Gran Salina and the Andes, and 

 extends from north to south from 28* to 31' 8. lat It is bounded S. 

 by the province* of San Juan and San Louis, E. by Cordova, N.E. 

 and N. by Catamarca, and W. by the republic of Chili. The area is 

 about 5850 square mile*. The population is variously estimated at 

 from 18,000 to 25,000. 



The country is described generally under ARGESTIS COHFEDERATION. 

 It consist* of a narrow strip of cultivable land along the eastern base 

 of the Sierra de Velasco, the two valleys of Famatina and Ouandacol, 

 and a pastoral tract extending round the southern extremity of the 

 Sierra de Vclanco. Only the northern district* of the country east of 

 the Sierra Famatina are fit for agriculture. The province is by its 

 position almost cut off from intercourse with the more civilised part* 

 of tit* Confederation. The road* leading to La Rioja are mere cir- 

 cuitous paths, hardly passable by mules, and the country is altogether 

 in the most backward condition. The province is divided into four 

 department* Arauco, Famatina, Guandacol, and the Llanos. Arauco 



otoo. DIT. vot, rr. 



lies east of the Sierra de Velasco, and produces wheat, maize, and 

 cotton; but its principal wealth is its vineyards. From 7000 to 

 10,000 barrels, of 16 gallons each, of a strong sweet wine, and 100 

 barrels of brandy, are annually made, nearly the whole of which is 

 exported to Cordova and the neighbouring provinces. The capital, 

 La Rioja, is also that of the whole province. Famatina lies to the 

 west of Arauco, between the Sierra de Velasco and the Sierra Fama- 

 tina. It contains rich orchards in its northern districts, and makes 

 and exports about 6000 barrels of wine annually. This department 

 takes its name from the Sierra Famatina, celebrated for its mineral 

 wealth. The silver-mines of Famatina are very rich, but the remote- 

 ness and inclemency of their situation they being above the line of 

 vegetation, and only accessible by difficult mountain-paths have 

 hitherto prevented them from being worked except on a small scale. 

 The capital, Chilecito, is a place of no importance. Goitre prevails to 

 a fearful extent in the valley of Famatiua. Guandacol lies between 

 the Sierra Famatina and the Andes, and produces very rich crops of 

 wheat It is thinly inhabited, and chiefly by aborigines, who hunt 

 the vicuna in the adjacent mountains. The wool of the vicuna is the 

 only article of export Guandacol, the capital, and Vinchina are the 

 only towns. The Llanoi consist chiefly of a desert plain, containing 

 a great number of grassy oases, on which there are numerous cattle- 

 farms. About 20,000 head of cattle are annually reared. Like the 

 other provinces of the Argentine Confederation, La Rioja is a federal 

 state, owning a qualified dependence upon the central government 

 The state government is nominally vested in a governor and a muni- 

 cipal junta of five members. 



La, Rioja, the capital of the state, is situated at the foot of the 

 Sierra de Velasco, in 29" 12' N. lat, 59 50' W. long. It contains 

 some substantial houses, a few public buildings, the only school in the 

 province, and about 3000 inhabitants. 



RIOM. [PuY-DB-DdMI.] 



RIONERO. [BAMLICATA.] 



RIONI, RIVER. [PHA8I8.1 



RIPABRANSONE. [FKBMO.] 



RIPLEY. [DERBYSHIRE; YORKSHIRE. 1 



RIPOLI. [CATALCKA.] 



RIPON, West Riding of Yorkshire, a market town, municipal and 

 parliamentary borough, and the seat of a bishopric, in the parish of 

 Ripon, is situated on the right bank of the river Ure, in 54 8' N. lat, 

 1* 82* W. long., distant 23 mile* N.W. from York, 212 miles N.N.W. 

 from London by road, and 215 miles by the Great Northern and 

 Leeds Northern railways. The population of the borough in 1851 

 was 6080. The borough is governed by 4 aldermen and 12 councillors, 

 of whom one is mayor ; and returns two members to the Imperial 

 Parliament The livings are perpetual curacies in the archdeaconry of 

 Richmond and diocese of Ripon. 



When Eata, abbot of Melrose, founded a monastery here in 661, 

 there were only 30 houses in the town. A few years after, Aldfrid, 

 king of Northumbria, gave the monastery to Wilfred, archbishop of 

 York. The town wa* made a borough in 886 by Alfred the Great. 

 The town suffered reverses in the wars against the Northumbrian 

 Danes, in the devastations of the Normans, and in the invasion of 

 Robert Bruce. Henry IV. fixed his residence here when he was 

 driven from London by the plague. 



The collegiate church of Ripon, commonly called the minster, now 

 the cathedral, is dedicated to St Peter and St. Wilfred ; it is parochial 

 a* well as collegiate. Many part* of it are very fine, especially the 

 west front, which is a bold and good example of the early English 

 style. The first stone of the present building was laid in 1331, but 

 the choir was probably not finished till 1494. It is considered to be 

 one of the belt-proportioned churches in the kingdom. Its length 

 from east to west is 266 feet 5 inches, the transept is 132 feet long, 

 the nave and aisles are 87 feet broad, and the choir and aisles 66 feet 

 8 inches broad. It has two uniform towers at the west end, each 

 110 feet high, besides the great tower, called St. Wilfred's tower. The 

 breadth of the west front is 43 feet, or, including the two towers, 

 102 feet Under the chapter-house is a crypt, believed to be of Saxon 

 date ; it contains an immense collection of human remains in good 

 prenrvation, piled in regular order round the walls. Trinity church 

 was built and endowed in 1826, at a cost of 13,0002., by it* first 

 incumbent, the Rev. Edward Kilvington. It is a cruciform structure, 

 in the early English style. The Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists 

 and Independent* have places of worship. The Free Grammar 

 school, founded in 1553 by Philip and Mary, has an income from 

 endowment of nearly 6002. a year; the number of scholars in 1854 

 wa* 55. There are National and Infant schools, a Blue-Coat school, 

 and a Wesleyan Training school, St. Mary Magdalene's hospital, 

 founded by Archbishop Thurstan in 1144, is divided into six dwellings 

 for poor widows, who receive a small annual stipend. In the hospital 

 of St. Anne eight poor women are similarly maintained. The public 

 rooms, erected in 1834, comprise a dispensary, a mechanics institute, 

 a subscription library, and a news-room. 



Ripon was once celebrated for its manufacture of spurs, which were 

 in such high repute, that ' as true steel as Ripon rowels ' became a 

 proverbial expression to denote honesty and courage ; it was also once 

 noted for its woollen manufactures. Saddle-trees are now largely 

 manufactured in Ripon. Tanning, malting, and iron and bras 



