RAMBOUILLET, MARQUISE DE, a lady of wealth and a lover of literature and art, born in Rome, who settled in Paris, and conceiving the idea of forming a society of her own, gathered together into her salon a select circle of intellectual people, which, degenerating into pedantry, became an object of general ridicule, and was dissolved at her death (1588-1665).

RAMEAU, JEAN PHILIPPE, French composer, born at Dijon; wrote on harmony, and, settling in Paris, composed operas, his first “Hippolyte et Aricie,” and his best “Castor et Pollux” (1683-1764).

RAMESES, the name of several ancient kings of Egypt, of which the most famous are R. II., who erected a number of monuments in token of his greatness, and at whose court Moses was brought up; and R. III., the first king of the twentieth dynasty, under whose successors the power of Egypt fell into decay.

RAMILLIES, Belgian village in Brabant, 14 m.  N. of Namur; scene of Marlborough’s victory over the French under Villeroy in 1706.

RAMMOHUN ROY, a Brahman, founder of the Brahmo-Somaj, born at Burdwan, Lower Bengal; by study of the theology of the West was led to embrace deism, and tried to persuade his countrymen to accept the same faith, by proofs which he advanced to show that it was the doctrine of their own sacred books, in particular the Upanishads; with this view he translated and published a number of texts from them in vindication of his contention, as well as expounded his own conviction in original treatises; in doing so he naturally became an object of attack, and was put on his defence, which he conducted in a succession of writings that remain models of controversial literature; died in Bristol (1772-1833).

RAMSAY, ALLAN, Scottish poet, born in Crawford, Lanarkshire; bred a wig-maker; took to bookselling, and published his own poems, “The Gentle Shepherd,” a pastoral, among the number, a piece which describes and depicts manners very charmingly (1686-1758).

RAMSAY, ALLAN, portrait-painter, son of preceding; studied three years in Italy, settled in London, and was named first painter to George III. (1715-1764).

RAMSAY, EDWARD BANNERMAN, dean of Edinburgh, born at Aberdeen, graduated at Cambridge; held several curacies; became incumbent of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, in 1830, and dean of the diocese in 1840; declined a bishopric twice over; is widely known as the author of “Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character”; was a most genial, lovable man, a great lover of his country, and much esteemed in his day by all the citizens of Edinburgh (1793-1872).

RAMSBOTTOM (17), a busy manufacturing town in Lancashire, on the Irwell, 4 m.  N. of Bury, engaged in cotton-weaving, calico-printing, rope-making, &c.

RAMSDEN, JESSE, mathematical instrument-maker and inventor, born in Yorkshire; invented the theodolite for the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain (1735-1800).

RAMSEY, a beautifully situated, healthy watering-place, 14 m.  NE. of Douglas, in the Isle of Man.