86 - RIG 
ber composing the numerous rafts that ire continually de¬ 
scending, and upon which many hundred tons of pot and 
pearl ashes, and large cargoes of flour, are brought down 
every summer, exclusive of what is conveyed by the boats, 
unequivocally point out the value and importance of this 
communication. 
RICHLIEU ISLANDS, a cluster of islands in the river St. 
Lawrence, situated at the south-west entrance of Lake St. 
Peter, nearly 100 in number. Several of them are partly 
cleared of their woods, and afford good pasturage for cattle. 
They lie very low, and are always overflowed in the spring, 
when the lake is swelled by the melting of the ice and snow. 
They abound with a variety of wild fowl, principally duck 
and teal. Lat. 42. 22. N long. 71.7. W. 
RI'CHLY, adj. [picelice Sax.] With riches; wealthily; 
splendidly; magnificently. 
In Belmont is a lady richly left, 
And she is fair, of wondrous virtues. Shakspeare. 
Plenteously; abundantly.—In animals, some smells are 
found more richly than in plants. Brown. —After a man 
has studied the laws of England, the reading the reports of 
adjudged cases will richly improve him. Watts. —Truly; 
abundantly. (An ironical use.)—There is such licentious¬ 
ness among the basest of the people, that one would not be 
sorry to see them bestowing upon one another a chastisement, 
which they so richly deserve. Addison. 
RICHMAN (George William), a member of the Im¬ 
perial Academy of Sciences at Petersburgh, was born at 
Pernau in 1711, after the decease of his father, who was 
treasurer to the King of Sweden. Having acquired the rudi¬ 
ments of education in the gymnasium at Revel, he prose¬ 
cuted his studies at the Universities of Halle and Jena, but 
applied chiefly to mathematics and philosophy, to which he 
shewed a particular attachment. In the year 1735 he was 
made a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at 
Petersburgh: in 1741 he became extraordinary professor; 
and in 1745 he was appointed ordinary professor of experi¬ 
mental philosophy. Among the subjects which Richman 
studied, the electricity of bodies, in general, and that of 
thunder clouds, in particular, had engaged a great deal of 
his attention. On the discoveries made in this branch of 
knowledge he had composed a treatise, which he intended 
to read on the 6th of September 1753, at a public meeting 
of the members of the academy ; and in order to demon¬ 
strate what he might advance in this discourse, he omitted 
no opportunity upon the appearance of a thunder cloud, 
of endeavouring to ascertain its strength. For this purpose 
he had iron bars always standing ready on the top of his 
house. These received the electrical matter from the clouds, 
and communicated it to chains, by which it was conducted 
into one of his rooms where he kept his apparatus. He was 
attending the usual meeting of the academy on the 26th of 
July, 1753, a little before noon, when it thundered at a 
considerable distance; the sky being then clear, and the sun 
shining bright. In the hope of confirming his former obser¬ 
vations, or of being able perhaps- to make some new ones, 
he now hurried home, accompanied by Sokolof, an engraver, 
that the latter might make himself better acquainted with 
the chief circumstances of the electrical experiment, and be 
thus enabled to represent it more correctly on a copper-plate 
which he intended to add to his dissertation. Richman 
immediately carried the engraver to his apparatus; but while 
examining it with his head inclined towards it, he received 
a violent shock, which instantly deprived him of existence. 
A wire, which brought the electricity to his metal rod, w'as 
broken in pieces, and its fragments thrown upon M. Solo- 
kof’s clothes. Upon examining the effects of the lightning 
in the room, it was found that the door-case was half split 
through, and the door torn off and thrown into the room. 
An attempt was made to bleed the breathless body, but no 
blood followed. The shoe belonging to the left foot was 
burst open, and uncovering the foot at that place, they found 
a blue mark, from which it was inferred that the electric fluid, 
having entered at the head, made its way out again at the foot. 
R I C 
Upon the body were several red and blue spots, but-the 
hair of the head was not singed. The stocking was entire 
though the shoe was ripped up; the coat was uninjured 
though the waistcoat was much singed ; and there appeared 
on the back of M. Solokof’s coat long narrow streaks, as if 
red-hot wires had burnt off the nap. On opening the body 
the cranium was entire, and the brain psrfect, but the trans¬ 
parent pellicles of the windpipe were excessively tender, gave 
way, and were easily rent. There was some extravasated 
blood in it, as likewise in the cavities below the lungs; 
those of the breast being quite sound, but those toward the 
back were of a brownish colour, and filled with more of the 
above-mentioned blood : otherwise none of the entrails were 
touched, but the throat, the glands, and the thin intestines, 
were all inflamed. After two days the body was in such a 
state of putrefaction that it was with difficulty got into a 
coffin. 
He was a man of extensive learning; assiduous in his 
pursuits; and so much distinguished by his piety, integrity, 
and other good qualities, that he was much lamented by his 
friends and regretted by the academy. Philosophical 
Transactions. 
RICHMAN’S ISLAND, a small island on the coast of 
Maine; 3 miles north of Portland. 
RICHMOND, a village of England, in the county of Sur¬ 
rey, situated on an eminence on the south bank of the 
Thames. It is a spot of great celebrity, both for the beauty 
of its scenery, and from its being the seat of a royal palace 
during several centuries. The manor here was anciently 
denominated Shene. In the reign of Edward I. it reverted 
to the crown, and has since been generally possessed either 
by the king, or some branch of the royal family; it was 
named Richmond by Henry VII. from the district in York¬ 
shire of which he was earl. The palace seems to have been 
erected at an early period, but fell into neglect, until Henry 
V. rebuilt it in a style of greater magnificence than before. 
In 1492, Henry VII. held a grand tournament here; and 
the same king died here in 1509. Queen Elizabeth was 
imprisoned here by her sister Mary; but after she was seated 
on the throne, this became her favourite residence. During 
the commonwealth, the palace was sold by the commissioners 
of the House of Commons, who ordered an accurate survey of 
it to be taken. After this the palace fell to decay: it is now 
totally demolished, and its site occupied by several houses, 
which hold of the crown. Richmond Park is first mentioned 
in the reign of Edward I.; in that of Henry VIII. it was 
called the Old or Great Park, to distinguish it from a new 
park which had been formed by Henry VII. Charles I. 
formed a third park, of greater extent than the other two to¬ 
gether. The lodge of the new park formed, for some months 
after his disgrace, the residence of Cardinal Wolsey. It was 
purchased of the earl of Arran, by king George II. who 
frequently retired hither. His queen Caroline was very par¬ 
tial to the spot, and had a dairy and menagerie here. Se¬ 
veral ornamental buildings were also erected by this princess, 
through the gardens, in one of which, called the Hermitage, 
she placed the busts of Newton, Locke, and other eminent 
characters. George III. frequently resided here in the early 
part of his reign : he pulled down the old lodge, with the 
view of building a magnificent palace in its stead, which, 
however, has never risen above the foundation. At a short 
distance from it, however, an observatory has been erected, 
from designs by Sir William Chambers, and amply provided 
with the finest astronomical instruments. Here is a mural arc 
of 140°, and 8 feet radius; a zenith sector of 12 feet, a tran¬ 
sit instrument of 8 feet, and a 10 feet reflector by Herschel. 
On the top of the building is a moveable dome, which con¬ 
tains an equatorial instrument. Part of the Old Park forms 
a grazing and dairy farm, formerly occupied by George III. 
The remainder is occupied by the beautiful royal gardens, 
which in summer are opened to the public. The New or 
Great Park, formed by Charles I. is kept in its proper state, 
well stocked with deer; it is enclosed by a brick wall, 8 rniles 
in compass. The rangership of this park is reckoned an 
office of high dignity and trust. The rich scenery of Rich¬ 
mond 
