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R O U 
R O U 
advantages of Rouen are the want of cheap fuel, and, from 
the vicinity of Paris, a dearness of provisions equal to that 
of Lancashire, or the provincial part of England generally; 
whereas, at the distance of a hundred miles to the westward, 
the family of a workman can be supported at a reduction of 
30 per cent. 
In navigation and commercial intercourse, Rouen holds 
only a secondary rank, being at a distance (including the 
windings of the river) of 70 miles from the sea, and the 
maritime trade of Paris being carried on at Havre. The 
Seine at Rouen is from 500 to 800 feet in width, and with 
the aid of the tide, which flows above the town, brings up 
vessels of 150 or 200 tons ; when of greater burden, they 
are lightened in the lower part of the river. The chief dif¬ 
ficulty in navigating the Seine, arises from its shifting sand¬ 
banks. Its upward navigation (from Rouen to Paris), is 
likely to be much facilitated by the use of steamboats, 
which perform in three days, what with common vessels 
requires ten or twelve. 
Rouen, though a place of trade, and without a university, 
is not destitute of literary institutions. Its academy of belles 
lettres dates from 1744; its society of agriculture and the 
arts, from 1791. Here is a central school, classes for medi¬ 
cine and surgery; also a navigation and a drawing school, 
together with a public library, a collection of paintings and 
natural history, and a botanical garden. 
Rouen is a place of antiquity, though its Latin name, 
Rothomagus, is of uncertain derivation. Like Caen, it was 
a town of consequence in the reign of William the Con¬ 
queror, and like that city, participated severely in the disas¬ 
ters attendant on the subsequent contests for Normandy be¬ 
tween England and France. It stood in 1418 a siege of 
five months against Henry V. of Britain; but was at last 
obliged to capitulate. It fell definitively into the power of the 
French, in 1449. Previous to the French revolution, Rouen 
was the seat of one of the twelve provincial parliaments of 
that kingdom; at present it is the capital of the department 
of the Lower Seine, and the see of an archbishop. Its po¬ 
pulation, which in 1806 did not exceed 81,000, amounts at 
present to 87,000. It has given birth to some of the most 
eminent men of France. Among others, Basnage, Bochart, 
the two Corneilles, and Fontenelle; 45 miles east of Havre, 
and 80 west-north-west of Paris. Lat. 49. 26. 27. N. long. 
1.5. 59. E. 
ROUEN, s. A provincial term made use of to signify 
after-grass, or the hay made from this sort of grass. It is 
sometimes written rowet. 
RO'VER, s. A wanderer; a ranger. 
Thought, busy thought, too busy for my peace, 
Strays, wretched rover, o’er the pleasing past. Young. 
A fickle inconstant man. 
Soon, too soon, the happy lover 
Does our tenderest hopes deceive; 
Man was form’d to be a rover. 
Foolish woman to believe. Mendez. 
A robber; a pirate, [peapene. Sax.; roover, Teut.]— 
This is the case of rovers by land, as some cantons in Arabia. 
Bacon. —A kind of arrow.—Here be of all sorts; flights, 
rovers, and butt-shafts. B. Jonson. 
At Rovers. Without any particular aim. Dr. Johnson. 
—Barret explains “ running at rovers ” by overmuch liberty. 
—You pretend to shoote at the butte, you shoote quite at the 
rovers, and cleane from the marke. Abp. Cramner. 
ROVERBELLO, a small town of Austrian Italy ; 12 miles 
north-north-west of Mantua. 
ROVEREDO, or Rovf.reith, a town of the county of 
Tyrol, with a strong citadel, built by the lords of Castelbarco; 
but in the year 1414, it was taken from them by the Vene¬ 
tians, from whom Maximilian I. wrested it again by the 
sword, and incorporated it with the county of Tyrol. This 
town has a manufacture of fine silk, and carries on a great 
trade. The wine produced in this tract is called “ Goccia 
d’oro,” or golden drops. On Sept. 4th, 1796, Roveredo 
was taken by the French, after a battle in which the Austrians 
lost 7000 prisoners, 25 pieces of cannon, 50 waggons, and 
7 standards; 8 miles south-east of Trent. Lat. 45. 53. N. 
long. 11. 3. E. 
ROUERGUE, the name, before the Revolution, of a 
small province in the south of France, adjacent to the great 
provinces of Auvergne and Languedoc. It is about 25 miles 
in length and 18 in breadth; its surface is mountainous, and 
its climate cold. The corn produced is not equal to the 
consumption of the inhabitants; but it has extensive pastur¬ 
ages in the warmer situations; and in the mountains there 
are mines of copper, iron, alum, sulphur, vitriol, and pit 
coal. The principal objects of trade are cattle, wool, and 
coarse woollen stuffs. This track of country now forms the 
department of the Aveyron. The chief town is Rhodez. 
ROVERSANO, a small town in the east of Italy, in the 
States of the Church; 20 miles west of Rimini. 
ROVERSCIO, Al, or Per Roverscio, [Ital.] in Music, 
reversed, inverted. 
ROVES, in Ship Building, small square pieces of iron 
with a hole punched in the middle, through which the nail 
goes, where it is clenched, and binds together the boards of 
pinnaces, yawls, &c. 
ROUFFACH, or Ruffach, a small town in the north¬ 
east of France, department of the Upper Rhine, on the Om- 
bach. It has some leather manufactures, and is noted in 
history for a conflict which took place here between the 
imperialists and the inhabitants of Lorraine. Population 
3300; 9 miles south-west of Colmar, and 25 north of Alt- 
kirch. 
ROUGE, 5. [Fr.] Red paint. 
ROUGE, adj. [Fr.] Red. 
Of olive and of rugc floures 
Weren ystrewed halle and bouris. Davies's Visions. 
To ROUGE, v. n. To lay rouge upon the face: as, she 
rouges. 
To ROUGE, v. a To havetheface coloured with rouge: 
as, she was rouged. 
ROUGE, a small town in the west of France, department 
of the Loire Inferieure. Population 2200 ; 4 miles north¬ 
west of Nantes. 
ROUGE, a small river of Lower Canada, which falls into 
North river, just before the confluence of the latter with 
Ottawa or Grand river. 
ROUGE, Cap, Riviere du, a small river of Lower 
Canada, which falls into the St. Lawrence from the north, 
about 7 miles above Quebec. 
ROUGEMONT, a small town in the east of France, de¬ 
partment of the Doubs. Population 1200. It has some 
iron works, and is 22 miles north-by-east of BesanQon. 
ROUGEMONT, a large village of the west of Switzerland, 
in the canton of Vaud ; 18 miles east of Vevay. 
ROUGET, a name given by the French to the fish called 
the lyra, and capo by authors. It is a species of the trigla, 
and is distinguished by Artedi by the name of the trigla with 
a long bifid snout and tubulous nostrils. See Trigla. 
ROUGH, adj. [hpeoj:, peoh, Sax.; rauk. Germ. The 
Sax. has also the substantive hpeop, scabies.] Not smooth ; 
rugged; having inequalities on the surface. 
The- fiend 
O’er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 
Pursues his way. Milton. 
Austere to the taste: as rough wine.—Harsh to the ear. 
Mo-t by the numbers judge a poet’s song, 
And smooth or rough with them is right or wrong. Pope. 
Rugged of temper; inelegant of manners; not soft; coarse; 
not civil; severe; not mild; rude. 
A fiend, a fury, pitiless and rough, 
A wolf; nay worse, a fellow all in buff. Shakspeare. 
Not gentle; not proceeding by easy operation.—Hippo¬ 
crates seldom mentions the doses of his medicines, which is 
somewhat 
