RIBBON 



master of fox- 

 hounds. H e 

 married a 

 daughter of 

 Sir Charles 

 Tennant. She 

 died in 1911, 

 and he married 

 Mrs. J. J. Astor 

 in 1919. His 

 4th Baron Ribblesdale, only son, the 

 British peer Hon . Charles 

 *"" Lister, was 



killed in 1915 in the Great War. 

 The family seat is Gisburne Park. 

 Clitheroe, Lancashire. 



Ribbon. Word used in a mili- 

 tary sense for the specially coloured 

 ribbons from which medals are 

 suspended. To avoid the incon- 

 venience of wearing the medals 

 constantly, a piece of its proper 

 ribbon, f in. deep, is worn on the 

 left breast, and where more than 

 one ribbon is used, they are placed 

 side by side, descending in order of 

 precedence from the right of the 

 wearer. See Medals, colour plate. 



Ribbon and Ribbon Making. 



(Fr. ruban, from Old French riban, 

 ruband, a word of doubtful origin). 

 A narrow woven strip in a textile 

 fabric, usually silk. Also part of 

 the insignia of a knightly order. 

 In industrial machinery, a narrow 

 strip or band of any material. 

 Ribbons play an important part in 

 the haberdashery and millinery 

 trades, and the manufacture of 

 ribbons made enormous headway 

 in the principal centres of the silk 

 trade during the latter half of the 

 19th century. Power looms arc 

 now used in making nearly all 

 ribbons, though a certain amount 

 of fine artistic work is still executed 

 on hand looms. 



The chief centre of the industry 

 in Great Britain is Coventry, which 

 owed its prosperity in the mid- 

 nineteenth century largely to the 

 ribbon industry. The industry was 

 introduced at the end of the 17th 

 century or the beginning of the 

 18th by a Mr. Bird when ribbons 

 were a fashionable craze. Pro- 

 testant French workmen expelled 

 from France were at first employed. 

 The prohibition of French imports 

 of ribbon in 1765 is said to have led 

 to a lowering of the standard of 

 quality. In 1818 about 10,000 per- 

 sons in Coventry were engaged in 

 the ribbon trade, which was also 

 carried on in neighbouring towns 

 and villages, and in 1860 the num- 

 ber had risen to 25,000, much of 

 the work being done in " cottage " 

 factories. The Anglo-French com- 

 mercial treaty of 1860 seriously 

 affected the trade, which then had 

 to compete with the artistic pro- 

 ducts of Lyons and St. Etienne and 

 the products of Moscow and Basel. 



66O1 



but it revived in the 'seventies 

 owing to improved standard of 

 quality. Another important centre 

 of the ribbon industry is Paterson, 

 New Jersey. 



The census of production taken 

 in 1907 showed the value of the 

 ribbons manufactured at 121,000 

 a year, but probably the value was 

 really greater, as a certain amount 

 woufd be returned as trimmings. 

 The number of ribbon and " small 

 ware " looms was 703. See Silk. 



Ribbon Fish. Popular name 

 given to various deep-sea fishes 

 which have the body elongated 

 and laterally compressed so as 

 to resemble a ribbon. The back 

 fin runs the whole length of the 

 body, and in some species it is 

 developed above the head into a 

 series of long rays. In the case of 

 one form, the ventral fins consist 

 of single rays tipped with a red 

 tag, which is said to be used as a 

 bait to attract the small fishes on 

 which the animal feeds. Some of 

 these ribbon fish attain a length of 

 20 ft., with a depth of a foot, and a 

 thickness of little more than an 

 inch. See Oar Fish. 



Ribbon Grass (Phalaris arun- 

 dinacea). Stout, tall grass of the 

 natural order Gramineae. A native 

 ^mm~m*m.~-- T of the N. tem- 

 perate regions, 

 the cultivated 

 variety tarie- 

 gata has broad, 

 11 at leaves 

 striped with 

 yellow. It has 

 a creeping 

 rootstock, and 

 stout, erect 

 stems 6 ft. 

 high, ending in 

 a loose plume 

 of flowers 

 tinged with 

 purple. The 

 wild form 

 grows on Brit- 

 ish river-banks 

 and the mar- 

 gins of lakes, 

 and is known as Reed-grass. 



Ribbonmen. Term used for the 

 members of the Ribbon Society. 

 This was an Irish secret society 

 founded about 1820, and so called 

 from the green ribbon worn 1 by 

 members in their buttonholes. It 

 was composed of small farmers, 

 agricultural labourers, small shop- 

 keepers and artisans of the Roman 

 Catholic faith, and its purpose and 

 policy varied according to district. 

 In Ulster it was primarily a league 

 against the Orangemen ; in other 

 provinces it was an organization 

 against rack renting and other 

 agrarian grievances, while in the 

 town it approximated to trade- 



Ribbon Grass. 

 Plume of flowers 



RIBOT 



unionism. After being proscribed 

 as an illegal body by an Act of 1871, 

 the Ribbon Society died out. 



Ribchester. Village of Lanca- 

 shire, England. It stands on the 

 Ribble, 5 m. from Blackburn. It 

 is notable as the site of a Roman 

 station, Bremetennacum, which 

 was garrisoned for 300 years by 

 auxiliary troops. They included 

 Polish Sarmatians, attested by an 

 altar inscription and a gold-studded 

 leather-covered ox-skull, now lost. 

 A bronze helmet and sepulchral 

 slab portray cavalry. Pop. 1,300. 

 Ribecourt. Village of France. 

 In the dept. of Nord, it is on the 

 Oise, 7 m. S.W. of Cambrai. Cap- 

 tured by the British 6th div., Nov. 

 20, 1917, it was recaptured by 

 the Germans in March, 1918, but 

 recovered Sept. 27, 1918. See 

 Cambrai, Battles of. 



Ribera, JUSEPE OR Josfi DE 

 (1588-1656). Spanish painter, 

 called Lo Spagnoletto. Born at 

 San Felipe, 

 Jan. 12, 1588, 

 he studied 

 under Fran- 

 cisco Ribalta 

 at Valencia, 

 and Caravag- 

 gio at Rome. 

 Becoming pro- 

 minent among 

 the Natural- 

 istic painters, 

 he worked successfully at Rome, 

 Parma, and Naples. See Jerome, S. 

 Ribesiaceae OR CURRANT FAM- 

 ILY. Natural order of shrubs. Na- 

 tives of Europe, temperate Asia, 

 and N. America, they have alter- 

 nate, lobed leaves. The flowers 

 consist of a more or less bell- 

 shaped calyx, to which the minute 

 petals are attached. The fruit is a 

 pulpy berry containing numerous 

 seeds. A few, like the American 

 species Ribes sanguineum and E. 

 speciosum, have showy flowers and 

 are grown in gardens for effect, 

 but others, with greenish flowers, 

 are cultivated for their juicy, acid 

 fruits. See Currant ; Gooseberry. 

 Ribot, ALEXANDRE FELIX 

 JOSEPH(1842-1923). French states- 

 man. He was born at St. Omer, 

 Feb. 7, 1842, 

 and was edu- 

 cated in Paris, 

 graduating in 

 law at the 

 Sorbonne. By 

 profession an 

 advocate, he 

 turned his at- 

 tention to poli- 

 tics, and was 

 elected a mem- 

 ber of the Chamber of Deputies in 

 1878. He was minister for foreign 

 affairs, 1890-92, and president of 



Jusepe de Ribera, 

 Spanish painter 



Alexandra Ribot, 

 French statesman 



