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attention the nice disposition of the groins and spandrels; let us study the tracery and knots, not as ornaments, but as useful members; let us observe how they have made their walls like honey-combs, and admire their ingenuity as we pretend to admire the instinct infused by the Great Architect into the bee. All this cannot be understood without mechanical knowledge; a thing which few of our professional architects have any share of. Thus would architectonic taste be a mark of skill; and the person who presents the design of a building would know how to execute it without committing it entirely to the mason and carpenter. The same principles of mutual pressure and equilibrium have a place in roofs and many wooden edifices; and if they had been as much studied as the Normans and Saracens seem to have studied such of them as were applicable to their purposes, we might have produced wooden buildings as far superior to what we are familiarly acquainted with, as the bold and wonderful churches still remaining in Europe are still superior to the timid productions of our stone architecture. The centres used in building the bridge of Orleans and the cornmarket of Paris are instances of what may be done in this way. The last-mentioned is a dome of 200 feet diameter, built of fir planks; and there is not a piece of timber in it more than nine feet long, a foot broad, and three inches thick. The Norman architects frequently roofed with Their wooden roofs were in general very simple, and their professed aim was to dispense with them altogether. Fond of their own science, they copied nothing from a wooden building, and ran into a similar fault with the ancient Greeks. The parts of their buildings which were necessarily of timber, were made to imitate stone-buildings; and Gothic ornament consists in cramming every thing full of arches and spandrels. Nothing else is to be seen in their timber works, nay even in their sculpture. Look at any of the maces or sceptres still to be found about the old cathedrals; they are all silver steeples. But there appears to have been a rivalship in old times between the masons and the carpenters. Many of the baronial halls are of prodigious width, and are roofed with timber: and the carpenters appeared to have borrowed much knowledge from the masons of those times, and their wide roofs are frequently constructed with great ingenuity. Their aim, like the masons, was to throw a roof over a very wide building without employing great logs of timber. We have seen roofs sixty feet wide without having a piece of timber in them above ten feet long and four inches square. They are very numerous on the continent. Indeed Britain retains few monuments of private magnificence. Aristocratic state never was so great with us; and the rancor of our civil wars gave most of the performances of the carpenter to the flames. Westminster Hall exhibits a specimen of the false taste of the Norman roofs. It contains the essential parts indeed, very properly disposed; but they are hidden, or intentionally covered, with what is conceived to be ornamental; and this is an imitation of stone arches, crammed in bet veen siender pillars, which hang, down from the principal frames, trusses, or

rafters. In a pure Norman roof, such as Tarnaway Hall, the essential parts are exhibited as things understood, and therefore relished. They are refined and ornamented; and it is here that the inferior kind of taste, or the want of it, may appear. We do not mean to defend all the whims of our ancestors, but we assert that it is no more necessary to consider the members of a roof as things to be concealed like a garret or privy, than the members of a ceiling, which form the most beautiful part of the Greek architecture. Should it be said that a roof is only a thing to keep off the rain, it may be answered, that a ceiling is only to keep off the dust, or the floor to be trodden under foot, and that we should have neither compartments in the one, nor inlaid work or carpets on the other. The structure of a roof may therefore be exhibited with propriety, and made an ornamental feature. This has been done even in Italy. The church of St. Maria Maggiore in Rome, and several others, are specimens; but the forms of the principal frames of these roofs, which resemble those of our modern buildings, are very unfit for agreeable ornament. Our imaginations have not been made sufficiently familiar with the principles, and we are rather alarmed than pleased with the appearance of the immense logs of timbei which form the couples of these roofs, and hang over our heads with every appearance of weight and danger. It is quite otherwise with the ingenious roofs of the German and Norman architects. Slender timbers, interlaced with great symmetry, and thrown by necessity into figures which are naturally pretty, form altogether an object which no carpenter can view without pleasure. And why should the gentleman refuse himself the same pleasure of beholding scientific ingenuity? The roof is in fact the part of the building which requires the greatest degree of skill, and where science will be of more service than in any other part. The architect seldom knows much of the matter, and leaves the task to the carpenter. The carpenter considers th framing of a great roof as the touchstone of s art; and nothing indeed tends so much to s his judgment and his fertility of resource. must therefore be very acceptable to the artist to have a clear view of the principles by which this difficult problem may be solved in the best manner, so that the roof may have all the strength and security that can be wished for, without an extravagant expense of timber and iron. Mechanical science can give great assistance in this matter. The framing of carpentry, whether for roofs, floors, or any other purpose, affords one of the most elegant and most satisfactory applications which can be made of mechanical science to the arts of common life. But the practical artist is seldom possessed even of the small portion of science which would almost insure his practice from all risk of failure; and even our most experienced carpenters have seldom any more knowledge than what arises from their experienc, and natural sagacity. The most approved author in our language is Price, in his British Carpenter. Mathurin Jousse is in like manner the author most in repute in France : and the publications of both these authors are

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void of every appearance of principle. It is not uncommon to see the works of carpenters of the greatest reputation tumble down, in consequence of mistakes from which elementary knowledge would have saved them. See ARCHITECTURE. In the Middlesex Report on Architecture, it is observed, in speaking of the roofs of houses, that pantiles are so easily heated through by the sun, during the summer months, that the rooms underneath are as hot as an oven; while, in the winter season, in every common frost, these tiles are so completely frozen through as to become as cold as a covering of ice. These extremes must consequently have a very bad effect on the health of the inhabitants. The blue slates are so very thin as to be equally liable to the same objection, particularly as they are now laid on most of our fashionable houses, under Wyatt's patent. They are rather better when laid on in the common manner, that is, on double laths, but much better on boards. Plain tiles make a considerably more temperate covering for houses than either pantiles or slates, by reason of their being laid double and in mortar, and thereby forming a much thicker and closer roof. In this they are nearly equalled by the thick or stone slating of the midland counties; they might also be glazed of a slate color; in which case they would make a roof more handsome, temperate, and durable, than any other covering material

now known.

Other substances have been had recourse to with this intention. In different parts of the country, cements of various kinds, and coarse paper laid over with resin, tar, &c., and other similar matters, have been tried, but with no very promising, success as to their application. In some parts of Devonshire, though slate is by no means difficult to be procured, a substitute for that sort of covering is, Mr. Vancouver asserts, getting very much into use, which is prepared in the following manner :-Three parts of whiting, five of sand, one of pounded charcoal, and one of bone-ashes, to a barrel of common tar, to which are added four pounds of black resin; the two last materials are to be melted together, and, when boiling, the other ingredients are to be added in small quantities, keeping them constantly stirred and in motion over the fire, until the whole mass becomes of a consistence fit for use. Then the roof, being previously covered over with sheathing-paper securely nailed down, is to be carefully and evenly spread with the liquid hot from the copper, to the thickness of about three-quarters of an inch; which will cost, at the cauldron, about thirty-five shillings for each square of ten feet. The same measure of the common slate roof will cost about thirty-two shillings. The roofs for this sort of composition are pitched very flat, and, from the lightness of the scantling which is necessary in their construction, come considerably cl.eaper than those required for carrying slate or tiles. Materials of the reed and heath kinds have also been tried as coverings for the roofs of farm-houses and cottages, in places where they are capable of being procured in sufficient quantities for such purposes; and, though they are considerably more durable than common straw thatch, they

are subject to all the inconveniencies and objections of that sort of covering.

Thatch was formerly in general use for covering the roofs of all farm-buildings; but it is objectionable on many accounts, particularly as a hiding-place for insects, birds, and vermin; and as extremely perishable in its nature, subject to be much damaged by high winds, and of course liable to frequent repairs; and, above all, highly dangerous from its combustible nature. But Mr. Middleton thinks that it keeps out the summer's heat and winter's cold more effectually than any other material now in use; while, as it is not quite so compact and sightly as slates or tiles, and the straw being of such value for other purposes, it will probably be superseded by them. Tiles, though little exposed to danger from fire, do not, by any means, constitute a good roof, being ill calculated for preserving grain or other farm produce. In summer, they admit a heat very unfriendly to hay, corn, or straw; while, in winter, they are equally objectionable, on the ground of transmitting moisture in a high degree, while slates, though more expensive at first, are liable to none of these objections, especially when of the more thick kind. A roof covered with them, therefore, answers every useful purpose, and is very durable. For the construction of inodern roofs, generally, see our article ARCHITECTURE, and more on the subject of farm-buildings under RURAL ARCHI

TECTURE.

ROOK, n. s. & v. n.
ROOKERY,
ROOK'Y, adj.

Sax. proc; Goth, rack. A bird resembling a crow, Sand feeding on grain; hence a robber or cheat: also a common man of chess: rookery is a nursery of rooks: rooky, inhabited by rooks.

Augurs, that understood relations, have, By magpies, and by choughs, and rooks, brought forth The secretest man of blood. Shakspeare. Macbeth. Light thickens, and the crow Makes wing to the rooky wood. Shakspeare.

They rooked upon us with design,

To out-reform and undermine.

Hudibras.

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places where the grains lie; and in three or four days they will root up such vast quantities that a good crop is often thus destroyed in embryo. After a few days, the wheat continuing to grow, its blades appear green above ground; and then the time of danger from these birds is over; for then the seeds are so far robbed of their mealy matter that they are of no value to that bird. The farmers, to drive away these mischievous birds, dig holes in the ground, and stick up the feathers of rooks in them, and hang up dead rooks on sticks in several parts of the fields; but all this is of little use, for the living rooks will tear up the ground about the feathers, and under the dead ones to steal the seeds. The best remedy is, to watch well the time of the corn being in the condition in which they feed upon it; and as this lasts only a few days, a boy should constantly watch the field from day-break till the dusk of the evening. Every time they settle upon the ground the boy should holloa, and throw up a dead rook into the air: this will always make them rise, and they will soon be so tired of this constant disturbance that they will seek out other places of preying, and will leave the ground even before the corn becomes unfit for them. The reason of their rising at the tossing up of the dead bird is, that they are extremely apprehensive of danger, and are always alarmed when one of them rises, and all fly off at the signal.

ROOKE (Lawrence), an eminent English astronomer, born at Deptford in Kent, in 1623; and educated at King's College, Cambridge, and at Oxford. In 1652 he was appointed Gresham professor of astronomy; and was also one of the founders of the Royal Society. He wrote astronomical tracts. He died in 1662.

ROOKE (Sir George), a naval commander, descended of an ancient and honorable family in Kent, was born in 1650. His merit raised him to be vice-admiral of the blue; in which station he served in the battle of La Hogue May 1692, and the next day he obtained still more glory by going into La Hogue, and burning the enemy's fleet, which he completely destroyed, together with most of the transports and ammunition vessels; and this under the fire of all the French batteries, and in sight of all the French and Irish troops; yet this bold action cost the lives of only ten men. The vice-admiral's behaviour on this occasion so pleased king William that, having no opportunity at that time of promoting him, he settled a pension of £1000 per annum on him for life; and afterwards, going to Portsmouth to view the fleet, went on board Rooke's ship, dined with him, and then conferred on him the honor of knighthood, he having a little before made him vice-admiral of the red. In consequence of other services he was in 1694 raised to the rank of admiral of the blue; towards the close of the next year he was made admiral of the white; and was also appointed admiral and commander-in-chief in the MediterDuring king William's reign, Sir George was twice elected M. P. for Portsmouth; and upon the accession of queen Anne, in 1702, he was constituted vice-admiral and lieutenant of the admiralty of England, as also lieutenant

ranean.

of the fleets and seas of this kingdom. Upon the declaration of war against France, he was ordered to command a fleet sent against Cadiz, the duke of Ormond having the command of the land forces. On his passage home, receiving an account that the galleons, under the escort of a strong French squadron, were in the harbour of Vigo, he resolved to attack them: and on the 11th October came before the harbour of Rondondello, which the French commander had put into the best posture of defence. But, notwithstanding this, a detachment of fifteen English and ten Dutch ships of the line, with all the fire-ships were ordered in, and the army landed near Rondondello. The whole service was performed under Sir George's directions; all the ships were destroyed or taken, prodigious damage was done to the enemy, and great wealth acquired by the allies. For this action Sir George received the thanks of the house of commons, a day of thanksgiving was appointed both by the queen and the states general, and Sir George was promoted to a seat in the privycouncil; yet, notwithstanding this, the house of lords resolved to enquire into his conduct at Cadiz. But he so fully justified himself that a vote was passed, approving his behaviour. In spring 1704 Sir George commanded the ships of war which conveyed king Charles III. of Spain to Lisbon. In July he attacked Gibraltar; when, by the bravery of the English seamen, the place was taken on the 24th, though the town was extremely strong, and well furnished with ammunition. The capture of this place was conceived and executed in less than a week, yet was then very little thought of; though it has since endured sieges of many months' continuance, and more than once baffled the united forces of France and Spain. Sir George soon after retired to his seat in Kent. He was thrice married; and by his second lady left one son. He died in 1709 in his fifty-eighth year, and was buried in Canterbury cathedral, where a monument is erected to his memory.

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t puts us upon so eager a pursuit of the advantages of life, as leaves no room to reflect on the great Atterbury.

author of them.

By contributing to the contentment of other men, and rendering them as happy as lies in our power, we do God's work, are in his place and room. Calamy's Sermons. The dry land is much too big for its inhabitants; and that before they shall want room by encreasing and multiplying, there may be new heavens and a Bentley. new earth

It will afford me a few pleasant rooms, for such a friend as yourself. Pope.

Will you not look with pity on me?
Is there no hope? is there no room for pardon?

A. Philips.

ROOME (Edward), an English writer, the son of an undertaker in Fleet Street. He was bred to the law, and became a violent party writer. He wrote some papers entitled Pasquin, wherein he offended Mr. Pope, who placed him in the Dunciad. He succeeded Mr. Hornecks, as solicitor to the treasury, October 18th 1728, and died December 10th 1729. His Jovial Crew was first acted in 1731.

ROOS (John Hendrick), a Dutch painter, born at Orteburgh in 1631. His landscapes have uncommon beauty. He also painted port

raits. He died in 1685.

Roos (Philip), his son, was born in 1665, and excelled his father greatly. His brother, John Melchior, was also eminent in painting, and died in 1731, aged seventy-two.

ROOST, n. s. & v. n. Sax. pport. That on which a bird sits to sleep; the act of sleeping; to sleep as a bird; lodge.

Sooner than the mattin-bell was rung,
He clapped his wings upon his roost and sung.

Dryden.

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plies it with nourishment; the original; first ancestor: to fix the root; strike deep; fix deep: the adjective and adverb corresponding.

The cock roosted at night upon the boughs. Id. Large and strong muscles move the wings, and

The multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not take deep rooting from bastard slips, nor lay any fast foundation. Wisdom.

Having this way eased the church, as they thought, of superfluity, they went on till they had plucked up even those things also which had taken a great deal Hooker. stronger and deeper root.

support the body at roost. Derham's Phys. Theology. ROOT', n. s., v. a., & v. n. Goth. and ROOT'ED, Swed. rot; Belg. Roor'EDLY, adv. Sroed. That part of the plant which rests in the ground, and sup

It was said, That myself should be the root, and father Of many kings. Shakspeare. Macbeth. Underneath the grove of sycamour, That westward rooteth, did I see your son.

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That the love of money is the root of all evil is a truth universally agreed in. Temple.

A flower in meadow ground, amellus called;
A wood of leaves.
And from one root the rising stem bestows

Dryden's Virgil's Georgicks.
That love took deepest root which first did grow.
Dryden.
When ocean, air, and earth, at once engage,
And rooted forests fly before their rage,
At once the clashing clouds to battle move. Id.
Root up wild olives from thy laboured lands. Id.
They were the roots, out of which sprang two
distinct people, under two distinct governments.

Locke.

In October, the hops will settle and strike root against spring. Mortimer's Husbandry. The coulter must be proportioned to the soil, because, in deep grounds, the weeds root the deeper. Mortimer.

The layers will in a month strike root, being planted in a light loamy earth. Evelyn's Kalendar. These subterraneous vaults would be found especially about the roots of the mountains. Burnet.

The great important end that God designs it før, the government of mankind, sufficiently shows the necessity of its being rooted deeply in the heart, and

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is the square-root of 4, the cube-root of 8, the biquadrate-root of 16, &c. ROOT, SNAKE. See ARISTOLOCHIA. ROPE, n. s. & v. a.) ROPE'DANCER,

ROPE MAKER,

Sax. nap; Goth. rep; Swed. reep; Belg. reip, roop. A thick cord or RO'PERY, n. s. >string; halter; cluster: ROPE TRICK, to range; draw out : RO'PINESS, n. s. ropery is used by ShaksRO'PY, adj. for roguery: ropepeare trick for a rogue's trick; or, as Johnson thinks, for tricks that deserve a halter: ropiness is viscosity; stringiness: ropy, glutinous; viscous : the other compounds the extracts will explain. Thou drunken slave, I sent thee for a rope, And told thee to what purpose. The ropemaker bears me witness, That I was sent for nothing but a rope.

Shakspeare.

Id.

What saucy merchant was this, that was so full of his ropery? Id. Merchant of Venice. She may perhaps call him half a score knaves or so: an' he begin once, he'll rail in his ropetricks.

Shakspeare. An anchor let down by a rope, maketh a sound; and yet the rope is no solid body, whereby the sound

can ascend.

Bacon.

Such bodies partly follow the touch of another body, and partly stick to themselves and therefore rope and draw themselves into threads; as pitch, glue, and birdlime.

Id.

Salvian, amongst public shews, mentions the Peta-
menarii; probably derived from the Greek raça,
to fly, and may refer to such kind of ropedancers.
Wilkins.
Who would, not guess there might be hopes,
The fear of gallowses and ropes
Before their eyes, might reconcile
Their animosities a while.

Hudibras.

In this close vessel place the earth accursed, But filled brimful with wholesome water first, Then run it through, the drops will rope around.

Dryden.

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I cannot but confess myself mightily surprized, that, in a book which was to provide chains for all mankind, I should find nothing but a rope of sand. Locke.

Take care
Thy muddy bev'rage to serene, and drive
Precipitant the baser ropy lees.

Philips.

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Statius, posted on the highest of the two summits. the people regarded with terror, as they look upon a daring ropedancer, whom they expect to fall every Addison. that there may Arbuthnot.

moment.

Hang yourself up in a true appear no trick in it.

rope,

The contents separated from it are sometimes ropy, and sometimes only a grey and mealy, light subBlackmore.

stance.

ROPE-MAKING is an art of great importance, Hardly any and there are few that better deserve the attention of the intelligent observer. trade can be carried on without the assistance of the rope-maker. Cordage makes the very sinews and muscles of a ship; and every improvement which can be made in its preparation, either in respect to strength or pliableness, must be of immense service to the mariner, and to the commerce and defence of nations.

Rope-making has been defined the art of uniting animal or vegetable fibres into an aggregate line, so that the whole may concur in one joint action, and be employed under the forms of Animal fibres, on acstring, cord, cable, &c. count of their expense, are but seldom used, but those that are introduced into the employment are obtained either from the intestines or the hair. The intestines of sheep and lambs are manufactured into what is called cat-gut, of different sizes, for the use of musical-instrumentmakers, for watch-makers, opticians, cutlers, turners, and a variety of other artificers. The tendrils of the ovary of the squalus canicula, or dog-fish, are chiefly employed in angling, more frequently single than in the combined state, known in the trade by the name of Indian-grass. Animal hair, as that from horses, is had recourse to where there is no great friction, and it forms a rope or cord much more durable than any that can be obtained from vegetables; it is impervious to moisture is capable of resisting all weathers, and is extremely elastic. Hence it is obvious that the rope-maker must derive his chief material from the vegetable kingdom; which he does from the inner bark of the hemp, or cannabis sativa; or from that of some of the species of flax, or linum; that of the L. usitassimum is the most important.

The root is an

The treatment of both these plants being nearly the same, we shall describe, as nearly as we can, that relating to flax. The plant is rather common in most of the temperate parts of Europe, flowering in July. nual, fibrous, and small; the stem is erect, round, smooth, and leafy; the flowers on stalks erect, and of a sky-blue color. About the end of August, when the flowers have attained their fuli growth, and begin to turn yellow at bottom, and brown at the top, and their seeds to ripen, it is a proper time to pull the plants up. They are dried and threshed; they are then to be put in water till the bark readily separates from the stalk, when they are taken out and dried, after which they are in a proper state for the purpose of being converted into flax by the hackler. We may observe, though not strictly connected with the subject in hand, that, as from the bark of the stalks is manufactured flax or lint, for making of all sorts of linen cloth;-from cloth, when worn out, we make our paper; from the seeds of the

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