RICHMOND RICHTER. 



875 



scenery, and for having been, during several centu- 

 ries, the seat of a royal palace, now demolished. 

 George III. frequently resided here, in the early 

 part of his reign; and an observatory was erected 

 here from designs by Sir William Chambers. Part 

 of the park is occupied by the royal gardens. The 

 new, or great park, formed by Charles I., is well 

 stocked with deer; it is enclosed by a brick wall 

 eight miles in compass. The rich scenery of Rich- 

 mond and its vicinity have been the theme of 

 general admiration, and have attracted a number 

 of families of distinction, whose seats render the 

 village and neighbourhood remarkably gay and 

 splendid. The village extends about a mile up the 

 hill from the Thames, skirted and intermingled 

 with agreeable gardens. The view from Rich- 

 mond hill is particularly celebrated. Among the 

 monuments in the church is one to Thomson, who 

 resided here. Population in 1841, TTfiO. 



RICHMOND; a borough and market town in 

 the North Riding of Yorkshire, situated (233 miles 

 N. N. W. from London) on the eastern declivity of 

 a steep hill, at the foot of whicti runs the river 

 Swale, encircling one half of the town. The town 

 appears to have been founded subsequently to the 

 conquest of England, by William the Norman, who 

 granted the territory of Richmondshire to his 

 nephew A Ian of Bretagne, and that nobleman, who 

 was styled Earl of Richmond, built on the emin- 

 ence a strong castle, around which houses were 

 erected, which, increasing by degrees, at length 

 formed a considerable town. The town consists of 

 several streets, lighted with gas ; the houses are 

 neatly built, chiefly of stone; in the market-place 

 are many handsome shops, and in the centre a col- 

 umn, beneath which is a reservoir filled with water 

 for the supply of the town, brought by pipes from 

 a spring at Aislebeck, where there is another re- 

 servoir. The river Swale is here crossed by a 

 stone bridge of three arches, built in 1789. The 

 principal trade carried on here is in corn and lead 

 from the mines of Lancashire. There is a paper- 

 mill, and ropes, twine, hair-cloth, and oil-cloth are 

 manufactured here. A Literary and Scientific So- 

 ceity has been established in this town ; and like- 

 wise a Mechanic's Institute, to whicli is attached a 

 library. The remains of the castle, over-hanging 

 the river, consists of part of the walls and the don- 

 jon tower, or keep, which is in tolerable preserva- 

 tion, having been repaired in 1761, by the duke of 

 Richmond. Population in 1841, 4300. 



RICHMOND; a city, port of entry, and metro- 

 polis of Virginia, in Henrico county, 123 miles 

 south by west of Washington; lat. 37 32' N.; Ion. 

 77 21' W.; population, in 1820, 12,046; in 1830, 

 16,060, including 6345 slaves, and 1900 free blacks. 

 The situation of Richmond is highly picturesque 

 and healthful, and it is a flourishing commercial 

 city. It is connected with a very extensive 

 back country that is highly productive of wheat, 

 corn, hemp, tobacco, and coal. The inland, coast- 

 ing, and foreign trade of Richmond is extensive, 

 and increasing. In 1811, December 26, the thea- 

 tre at Richmond took fire during an exhibition, 

 and seventy-two persons lost their lives in the con- 

 flagration. 



RICHTER, JEAN PAUL FREDERIC, a German 

 writer of the first rank in belles-lettres, was born, 

 March 21, 1763, at Wunsiedel, in the Fichtelge- 

 birge, and died November 14, 1825, at Baireuth. 

 His father was, at the time of his birth, rector at 

 Wunsiedel, at a later period pastor at Schwarzbach 

 on the Saale. In 1780, Riditer entered the uni- 

 versity of Leipsic, in order to study theology, but 

 scon changed his plan, and devoted himself to 



belles-lettres. As early as 1798, he was known as 

 a distinguished writer at Leipsic. He went to 

 Weimar, Berlin, Meiningen, &c., and settled at 

 Baireuth, having been made counsellor of legation 

 by the duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, and having 

 received from the prince primate (Dalberg) a pen- 

 sion, which the king of Bavaria continued after 

 Baireuth had fallen to him. He seldom left his 

 home, and only to make short journeys to the 

 Rhine, Berlin, Dresden, &c. He had married dur- 

 ing his early stay at Berlin, and had two daughters. 

 Secured by his pension from want; happy in his 

 domestic relations ; blessed with numerous friends, 

 and an almost childlike amiableness, which en- 

 joyed to the last the pleasures of nature, as if they 

 had been always new ; having millions of admirers; 

 unambitious of vain distinctions, or objects beyond 

 his reach; with a heart susceptible of the noblest 

 emotions ; believing in man's goodness, and firmly 

 relying on the immortality of the soul he may be 

 said to have been one of the happiest men that 

 ever trod this earth. His death corresponded with 

 his life; lie calmly fell asleep. It would be diffi- 

 cult to give a distinct idea of Jean Paul's works 

 (this was the name under which he wrote) in a 

 brief sketch like ours. Jean Paul is a humorous 

 writer, but his humour is of a peculiar sort. The 

 want of a public life obliges the Germans to live 

 much in reflection, the effect of which is visible in 

 almost all their writings, and has left its traces in 

 those of Jean Paul. His humour is deeply reflect- 

 ing and philosophic, at the same time often truly 

 comic. He frequently rises to the highest regions, 

 where he can speak only in bold metaphors ; and, 

 before we are aware, we hear his inspiring tones 

 die away like those of a lark, when the bird has 

 come again to the ground. If it can be said of any 

 man's writings that they are poetry in a prose 

 form, it is true of many passages in Jean Paul's 

 works. His writings are generally in the form of 

 novels, but they have little of the character of 

 what we generally understand by novels. He 

 seems to have liked particularly to analyze emo- 

 tions, to dissect individual character in every sta- 

 tion, even the humblest. He does not exhibit 

 man under those general influences which operate 

 on large masses of men, but deals almost exclu- 

 sively with the individual considered as such. He 

 very frequently recurs to the immortality of the 

 soul. In his writings, as in his life, he appears 

 amiable in the highest degree. His works are the 

 following: Greenland Processes (Berlin, 1783) ; 

 Selection from the Papers of the Devil (1788); the 

 Invisible Lodge (1793); Hesperus (1795); Quintus 

 Fixlein (1796; and 1800); Biographical Enter- 

 tainments under the Skull of a Giantess (1796), 

 Flower, Fruit and Thorn Pieces (1796); the 

 Jubelsenior (1797) ; the Valley of Campan, with 

 a Satirical Appendix (1797); Palingenesies (1798); 

 Letters, and Future Course of Life (1799) ; 

 Titan (18001805) ; Die Flegeljahre* (1803 

 1805) ; Katzenberger's Journey to the Watering 

 Place (1809); the Field Preacher Schmelzle's Jour- 

 ney to Flotz (1809), &c. In 1804, he produced his 

 first philosophical work of importance, his Intro- 

 duction (Forsckule) to ^Esthetics (2d ed. 1809), to 

 which he added, in his last years, a Nachschule, 

 with an Appendix, containing Reviews (Breslau, 

 1825). It is full of original and discriminating 

 views, yet hardly a philosophically systematic work. 

 In 1807, he published his Levatia, a work on edu- 



* Fleget is the German for clown, rude fellnw; and 

 Jahre (clown-years) signifies, in German, the period iif tran- 

 sition from IIKS hood to manhood, when the character is 

 iinfornn-d. and the manners embarrassed, awkward, aud 



('ten riiiie. 



