ROTUNDA ROUND TABLE. 



of the Meuse. The town is surrounded by n moat, 

 mill entered by six gates towards the land, and four 

 towards the water. It is traversed by tlie Kolte, 

 a broad eanal. \vhieh here joins the Meu-e. Rot- 

 terdam is intersected, even more than other towns 

 in Holland, by eanals, whieli divide the half of the 

 town, near the river, into several insulated spots, 

 eimneeted by drawbridges. These canals are 

 almost all bordered with trees. The row called 

 the Boomtjes is the finest in the city, as well in 

 regard to buildings as for its pleasant prospect 

 ili,' Meuse. Next to the Boom tjes comes 

 the llaring-vliet. The other streets are, in general, 

 long, but narrow. The houses of Rotterdam are 

 rather convenient than elegant: their height is of 

 four, five, or six stories. Of the public buildings 

 of Rotterdam, the principal are the exchange, fin- 

 ished in 1730, the great church of St Laurence, 

 from the top of which there is a most extensive 

 prospect. After these come several other churches, 

 the whole number of which is fifteen, the town- 

 house (an old edifice), the admiralty, the academy, 

 the theatre, the extensive buildings of the East 

 India company, a number of large warehouses, and 

 a few manufactories. Rotterdam has an active 

 transit trade; the manufactures are not extensive; 

 sugar refineries and distilleries furnish the chief 

 articles of industry. There are several learned 

 societies. It is the birth-place of the celebrated 

 Erasmus. Rotterdam received the title and privi- 

 leges of a city in 1270. Its commerce suffered 

 severely from the French revolution; and, in 1825, 

 an inundation of the Meuse did great damage to 

 the city. See Netherlands. 



ROTUNDA (rotonda); every building round 

 within and without, as the Pantheon, in Rome. 



ROUBILLIAC, Louis FRANCIS, a sculptor, 

 was a native of Lyons, in France, who settled in 

 England, in the reign of George I. ; and, in the 

 absolute dearth of native talent which prevailed at 

 that period, he long stood at the head of his pro- 

 fession. He executed a statue of Handel for Vaux- 

 hall gardens, and another of Sir Isaac Newton, 

 erected at Trinity college, Cambridge; but was 

 chiefly employed on sepulchral monuments. He 

 wrote satires in his native language. He died, in 

 London, in 1762. 



ROUBLE; a Russian coin. (For the silver 

 rouble, see Coin, division Russian; for the paper 

 -oiible, see Assignation.') By the official valuation 

 of the paper rouble, in the payment of taxes, a few 

 years since, one silver rouble was equal to three 

 roubles sixty copecks paper. 



ROUCOU. See Annotto. 



ROUE. This term is applied to a person, in the 

 fashionable world, who is devoted to a life of plea- 

 sure and sensuality, and regardless of the restraints 

 of moral principle. Philip, duke of Orleans, who, 

 during the minority of Louis XV. was regent of 

 France, and had a low opinion of men in general, 

 and his friends in particular, applied the name of 

 roues to his favourites and boon companions, to 

 signify that they were fit to be broken on the 

 wheel. 



ROUEN (Rothomagus) ; a city of France, for- 

 merly capital of the province of Normandy, at 

 present of the department of the Lower Seine, on 

 the right bank of the river Seine, eighty-six miles 

 north-west of Paris, forty-five south-east of Havre. 

 The population, by the official enumeration of 

 1827, was 90,000; it is now estimated to exceed 

 100,000. Rouen is an archiepiscopal see, and the 



seat of various judicial and administrative authori- 

 ties, and is one of the richest commercial cities of 

 France. The Seine is crossed by a bridge of boats, 

 which is paved, and rises and falls with the tide, 

 and a new stone bridge, recently erected. The 

 city is not prettily built, the streets being mostly 

 narrow and dark, and the houses chiefly of wood. 

 The quays along the river are handsome. The 

 principal public buildings are the great cathedral, 

 the church of the ancient abbey of St Ouen, re- 

 markable for its lofty tower, tlic palais de justice, 

 and the theatre. In the market-place aux veati.r is 

 a statue of the maid of Orleans, who was burnt 

 here by the English, in 1430. Rouen has several 

 literary and scientific institutions and societies, 

 and seminaries of education, a public library, a 

 mint, fourteen churches, several hospitals, &c. 

 The transit trade of Rouen is considerable. The 

 city is seventy miles from the sea, including the 

 windings of the river, and, with the aid of the tide, 

 vessels of 150 or 200 tons come up to the quays. 

 It is more important as a manufacturing place, 

 having manufactures of cotton, linen, woollen, iron 

 ware, paper, hats, pottery, sugar refineries, &c. 

 Dyeing is also extensively carried on. 



RO UGET DE L'ISLE. See Marseillaise Hymn. 



ROUM (i. e. the kingdom of the Romans'); a 

 name given to Natolia by Solyman, sultan of the 

 Turks, when he invaded and became master of it, 

 in the eleventh century. It is now chiefly applied 

 to a part of Asiatic Turkey, extending from the 

 Mediterranean to the Black sea, east of Caramania 

 and Natolia, and west of Armenia and the govern- 

 ment of Diarbekir, including the governments of 

 Sivas, Adana and Marasch. See Turkey in Asia. 



ROUMELIA. See Romania. 



ROUND ROBIN (corruption of ruban rond, a 

 round ribbon) was used, originally, by the French 

 officers when signing a remonstrance. They wrote 

 their names in a circular form, so that no one 

 should be obliged to head the list. 



ROUND TABLE. If we may believe tradition, 

 towards the end of the fifth century, there reigned in 

 Britain a Christian king, the British Uther-Pendra- 

 gon, who had a most powerful and not less wise 

 and benevolent enchanter, Merlin, for a counsellor. 

 Merlin advised him to assemble all his knights, who 

 were distinguished for piety, courage, and'fidelity to- 

 wards him, at feasts about a round table. It was cal- 

 culated to receive fifty knights, and was to be occu- 

 pied, for the present, only by forty-nine, one place 

 remaining empty for an occupant yet unborn. This 

 was Arthur, or Artus, son of the king by Igerna, 

 whom the king, by the magic power of Merlin, was 

 permitted to enjoy under the form of her husband. 

 Merlin had exacted a promise that the education of 

 the prince should be intrusted to him ; and he ac- 

 cordingly instructed him in every thing becoming a 

 brave, virtuous and accomplished knight. Arthur, 

 therefore, at a later period, occupied the empty 

 seat at the round table, which, under him, became 

 the resort of all valiant, pious and noble knights. 

 (See Merlin, and Arthur.) This table, admission 

 to which became the reward of the greatest vir- 

 tues and feats of arms, afforded materials for the 

 romantic poets of the Anglo-Normans, forming a 

 distinct cycle of characters and adventures. (See 

 Romance, and Chivalry.') According to another 

 account, Arthur himself established the round table 

 at York. Von Hammer thinks the fiction is of 

 Eastern origin. The adventures of the knights of 

 the round table are founded on the legend of the 



