RUNCIMAN RUNNYMEDE. 



35 



Abulgasi's History of the Mongols and Tartars 

 ( Kasan, 1825). The count died at St Petersburg, 

 in January, 1826, in the seventy-third year of his 

 age, without children. Among other things, he 

 left a valuable collection of Oriental coins. 



RUNCIMAN, ALEXANDER, a painter of con- 

 siderable note, was the son of a builder in Edin- 

 burgh, where he was born in the year 1736. Hav- 

 ing shown in his earliest years a decided inclination 

 for drawing, he was placed at fourteen under the 

 care of Messrs John and Robert Norrie, house- 

 painters; the former of whom used to adorn the 

 mantle-pieces of the houses which he was employed 

 to paint, with landscapes of his own, which were 

 then deemed respectable productions, and of which 

 many a specimen is still preserved in the houses of 

 the old town of Edinburgh. The youth devoted 

 himself entirely to his art ; and when the academy 

 for rearing young artists was commenced at Glas- 

 gow by the brothers Foulis, he became one of its 

 pupils. He soon acquired considerable local fame 

 for his landscapes, but failed entirely to make a liv- 

 ing by them. Despairing of success in this branch 

 of art, he commenced history-painting; and in 1766, 

 visited Italy, where he met Fuseli, whose wild and 

 distempered character matched aptly with his own. 

 He spent five years in Rome, assiduously studying 

 and copying the Italian masters; and in 1771, re- 

 turned to his native country, with powers consider- 

 ably increased, while his taste, formerly over-luxu- 

 riant and wild, had experienced a corresponding 

 improvement. Just at that time a vacancy had oc- 

 curred in the mastership of a public institution, 

 called the Trustees' academy ; and the place, to 

 which was attached a salary of 120, was offered 

 to and accepted by Runciman. Being thus secured 

 in the means of subsistence, he applied his vacant 

 time to historical painting, and produced a consider- 

 able number of specimens, which were regarded 

 with much favour, not only in his native country, 

 but also in England, where several of them were 

 exhibited. Among his productions may be men- 

 tioned, Macbeth and Banquo, in a landscape; a 

 Friar, in a landscape; Job in Distress; Samson 

 strangling the Lion ; Figure of Hope ; St Margaret 

 landing in Scotland, and her Marriage to Malcolm 

 Canmore, in Dunfermline abbey; Christ talking to 

 the Woman of Samaria; Agrippina landing with 

 the Ashes of Germanicus; the Princess Nausica 

 surprised by Ulysses; Andromeda; Sigismunda weep- 

 ing over the Heart of Tancred; the Ascension (in 

 the Cowgate episcopal chapel, Edinburgh): the 

 Prodigal Son (for which Ferguson the poet was the 

 study) ; and the paintings in Ossian's Hall at Penny- 

 cuik. The work last mentioned was the chef d' 

 ceuvre of Runciman. The principal paintings are 

 twelve in number, referring to the most striking 

 passages in Ossian's Poems. The task was one 

 of no small magnitude, but the painter dreamt of 

 rivalling the famed Sistine Chapel, and laboured at 

 his work with only too much enthusiasm. In con- 

 sequence of having to paint so much in a recum- 

 bent posture, and perhaps denying himself that exer- 

 cise which the physical powers demand, he con- 

 tracted a malady which carried him slowly to the 

 grave. He died, October 21, 1785, dropping down 

 suddenly on the street, when about to enter his 

 lodgings. Runciman was remarkable for candour 

 and simplicity of manners, and possessed a happy 

 talent for conversation. 



RUNIC ALPHABET AND WANDS. This al- 

 phabet, peculiar to the ancient northern tribes of 



Europe (Germans and Scandinavians), is considered, 

 by some scholars, to have existed before the Chris- 

 tian era ; by others, to have originated later. The 

 similarity of a few Runic characters to correspond- 

 ing Roman ones, proves nothing, as it prevails with 

 but a few of them ; moreover, the Runic alphabet 

 has but sixteen characters : this limited number is 

 hardly reconcileable with the idea of the Scandina- 

 vians having borrowed it from the Romans. Rude 

 nations want many, rather than few, characters for 

 their undefined sounds. Yet could the northern 

 tribes, immersed as they were in ignorance, have 

 invented their own alphabet ? Frederic von Schle- 

 gel advances the hypothesis, that the Phoenicians, 

 navigating in early antiquity to the coasts of the 

 Baltic, might have carried the art of writing to 

 those northern regions, and that the Runic grew 

 out of the Phoenician characters, and was preserved 

 by the priests, together with several magic arts. 

 The similarity of a few of the Runic signs to those 

 of the Romans, might be explained by the fact, 

 that the Romans themselves received their charac- 

 ters from an Eastern source. The fact, that in 

 Spain and other countries in the south-west of 

 Europe, remains of the Runic and Runic stones 

 (tomb-stones, land-marks, &c.,) are met with, is to 

 be explained from the influx of the tribes of an- 

 cient Germany and Scandinavia into those coun- 

 tries at the time of the general migration of nations. 

 W. C. Grimm, in his Ueber Deutsche Runen (Got- 

 tingen, 1821), endeavours to show that the Ger- 

 mans had, probably, in ante-historic times, charac- 

 ters of more than accidental similarity to those of 

 the Greek and other alphabets, and that the Ger- 

 man Runic, properly so called (that of the Saxons 

 of the northern Elbe), is between the ancient 

 northern (Scandinavian) Runic and the Anglo- 

 Saxon ; so that the German Runic originated from 

 the former, and produced the latter. The word 

 rime he derives, as Mone does, from riinen (i. e. to 

 make a slight incision or scratch) : others derive it 

 from the German raunen (i. e. whisper) ; hence 

 runic, as designating a secret, mysterious writing, 

 belonging to the priests. According to Dahlmann 

 and Kopp, the northern Runes are of later origin 

 than is generally supposed. The Runic codices are 

 proved to be of less antiquity than some written in 

 common characters. Langebeck found, in 1753, 

 that none of the numerous Runic writings in Goth- 

 land reached back farther than the year 1200 of 

 our era; the latest were of the year 1449. (See 

 Brynjulf's work on the Runes, and Rasmus Nye- 

 rup's works. 



Runic wands were willow wands, inscribed with 

 mysterious characters, and used by the heathen 

 tribes of the north of Europe, in the performance 

 of magic ceremonies. Such Avands were also em- 

 ployed by the ancient inhabitants of SweJen Snd 

 Norway, to note the succession of time. To this 

 day, the peasants of those countries use similar 

 wands instead of an almanac; and in Germany 

 sticks are used in keeping the ordinary accounts 

 between families and the persons from whom they 

 receive their daily supplies; for instance, the fa- 

 mily and the baker each have a stick, and the two 

 are put together, and a notch made in them with a 

 file, when bread is delivered ; thus each has a check 

 on the other. 



RUNNYMEDE, in England ; the celebrated mea- 

 dow where the conference was held, June 15, 1215, 

 between John and the English barons, in which the 

 former was compelled to sign Mayna Charta and 

 c2 



