B82 



KOADS ROBERTSON. 



the object of tlieir revenge by fifty-six stabs, in the 

 presence of his mistress, in 1566. Popular tradition 

 assigns to Riuio the amelioration of the Scottish 

 style til'muMf. His skill in the performance of the 

 national melodies on his favourite instrument, the 

 lute, tended not a little to their general improve- 

 ment and popularity with the higher classes ; but it 

 i^ evident that the style of Scottish music was deter- 

 mined luni: hei'ore tlie time of Mary ; and many of 

 the airs which have been ascribed to Rizzio are 

 easily traced to more distant periods. 



ROADS. Roads intended for the passage of 

 wheel carriages are made more level, and of harder 

 materials, than the rest of the ground. In roads 

 the travel on which does not authorize great ex- 

 jicii'se, natural materials alone are employed, of 

 which the best are hard gravel and very small 

 stones. The surface of roads should be nearly flat, 

 with gutters at the sides, to facilitate the running 

 off of water. If the surface is made too convex, it 

 throws the weight of the load unequally upon one 

 wheel, and also that of the horses on one side, when- 

 ever the carriage takes the side of the road. Hence 

 drivers prefer to take the middle or top of the road, 

 and, by pursuing the same track, occasion deep ruts. 

 The prevention of ruts is best effected by flat and 

 solid roads, and by the use of broad wheels. It 

 would also be further effected if a greater variety 

 could be introduced in the width of carriages. Em- 

 bankments at the sides, to keep the earth from 

 sliding down, may be made by piling sods upon 

 each other, like bricks, with the grassy surface at 

 right angles with the surface of the bank. But 

 stone walls are preferable for this purpose, when 

 the material can be readily obtained. 



Pavements. Pavements are stone coverings of 

 the ground, chiefly employed in populous cities and 

 the most frequented roads. In Milan, and some 

 other places, tracks for wheels are made of smooth 

 stones, while the rest of the way is paved with small 

 or rough stones. (See Pavements) The advantage 

 of a good pavement consists not only in its durabi- 

 lity, but in the facility with which transportation on 

 it is effected. Horses draw more easily on a pave- 

 ment than on a common road, because no part of 

 their power is lost in changing the form of the sur- 

 face. The disadvantages of pavements consist in 

 their noise, and in the wear which they occasion of 

 the shoes of horses and tires of wheels. They should 

 never be made of pebbles so large as to produce 

 much jolting by the breadth of the interstices.* 



M'Adam Roads. The system of road-making 

 which takes its name from Mr M'Adam combines 

 the advantages of the pavement and gravel road. 

 The M'Adam roads are made entirely of hard 

 stones, such as granite, flint, &c., broken up with 

 hammers into small pieces, not exceeding an inch 

 in diameter. These fragments are spread upon the 

 ground to the depth of from six to ten inches. At 

 first the roads thus made are heavy and laborious 

 to pass, but in time the stones become consolidated, 

 and form a mass of great hardness, smoothness and 

 permanency. The stones become partly pulverized 

 Iry the action of carriage wheels, and partly imbed- 

 ded in the earth beneath them. The consolidation 

 seems to be owing to the angular shape of the frag- 

 ments, which prevents them from rolling in their 

 beds, after the interstices between them are filled. 

 Mr M'Adam advises that no other material should j 



* Mr Telford constructed, in England, a kind of paved ! 

 road, in which the foundation consists of a pavement of rough ! 

 stone* and fragment*, having their points upwards. Those ' 

 are covered with very email stone fragments and gravel, for 

 the depth of f.nir inches, the whole of which, when rammed 

 iowi and consolidated, forms a hard, smooth and durable i 

 road. 



be added to the broken stones, apparently with a 

 view to prevent the use of clay and chalk, which 

 abound in England. It appears, however, that a 

 little clean gravel spread upon the stones, causes 

 them to consolidate more quickly, and lias the good 

 effect of excluding the light street-dirt, which other- 

 wise never fails to become incorporated, in large 

 quantities, among the stones. 



ROANOKE, a river of North Carolina, is formed 

 by the union of the Staunton and Dan, the former 

 of which rises in Virginia, and the latter in North 

 Carolina. It flows into Albemarle sound, lat. 35 

 58' N., and is navigable for vessels of considerable 

 burden forty or fifty miles, for large boats, seventy 

 miles, and for boats of five tons, 270 miles. Im- 

 provements have been made, by constructing canals 

 around the falls, and opening a water communica- 

 tion between Norfolk and the interior of North 

 Carolina. The soil on the borders of the Roanoke 

 is very productive. 



ROASTING JACK. See Jack. 



ROBBERY ; a felonious and forcible taking 

 away another man's goods or money from his per- 

 son, presence or estate, by such acts as put him in 

 fear, &c. The previous putting in fear is the crite- 

 rion which distinguishes robbery from other lar- 

 cenies ; yet this does not imply any great degree of 

 affright in the person robbed : it is sufficient that 

 so much force or threatening, by word or gesture, 

 is used, as might create an apprehension of danger, 

 so as to lead a man to part with his property against 

 his consent. If a man be knocked down without 

 previous warning, and stripped of his property while 

 senseless, though strictly speaking, he cannot be 

 said to be put in fear, yet this is undoubtedly a rob- 

 bery ; or if a person with a sword drawn beg alms, 

 and money is given him through apprehension of 

 violence, this is a robbery. If a thief, having once 

 taken a purse, returns it, still it is a robbery. High- 

 way robbery, or the forcible taking of property from 

 travellers, in many countries, is a capital offence, 

 and, in all civilized countries, is severely punished. 



ROBERT I. See Bruce, Robert. 



ROBERTSON, WILLIAM, the .celebrated his- 

 torian, was born at Borthwick, in East Lothian, 

 where his father was minister, in 1721." In 1733, 

 his father removed to Edinburgh, as minister of the 

 Greyfriars in that city. After the completion of 

 his course in the theological class of Edinburgh, 

 Robertson obtained a license to preach, in 1741, 

 and, in 1743, was presented to the living of Glads- 

 muir, in East Lothian. He soon began to be dis- 

 tinguished by his eloquence and good taste as a 

 preacher, and became known as a powerful speaker 

 in the general assembly of the church of Scotland, 

 in which he obtained an ascendency by his elo- 

 quence and great talents for public business, which, 

 exerted on the side of authority, gave him, for a 

 long time, the lead in the ecclesiastical politics of 

 Scotland. His History of Scotland, during the 

 Reigns of Queen Mary and King James VI., ap- 

 peared in 1759 (2 vols., 4to.), and was received 

 with general applause. In this praise no one more 

 heartily concurred than Hume, between whom and 

 doctor Robertson, notwithstanding religious and 

 political differences, an intimate friendship was 

 maintained through life. The distinction acquired 

 by this work, which reached a fourteenth edition 

 before his death, led to the author's nomination to be 

 chaplain of Stirling castle in 1759, one of the king's 

 chaplains in 1761, and principal of the university of 

 Edinburgh in 1762. Two years after, he was made 

 historiographer royal of Scotland, with a salary of 

 2QO per annum. As head of a flourishing seat of 

 education, he was attentive to all his duties, anj 



