the Palatine, Capitoline, Aventine, &c., but suburbs have spread beyond; St. Peter’s is yet the finest church in the world; the Popes have their residence in the Vatican; its manufactures are inconsiderable, and consist chiefly of small mosaics, bronze and plaster casts, prints, trinkets, &c.; depends for its prosperity chiefly on the large influx of visitors, and the court expenditure of the Quirinal and Vatican, and of the civil and military officials.

ROMFORD (8), an old market-town of Essex, on the Bourne or Rom, 12 m.  NE. of London; noted for its cattle and corn markets; industries include brewing, market-gardening, foundries, &c.

ROMILLY, SIR SAMUEL, English lawyer, born in London, of a Huguenot family; was a Whig in politics, and was Solicitor-General for a time; devoted himself to the amendment of the criminal law of the country, and was a zealous advocate against slavery and the spy system (1751-1818).

ROMNEY, GEORGE, English portrait-painter, born in Lancashire; married at Kendal, left his wife and two children there, and painted portraits in London for 35 years in rivalry with Reynolds and Gainsborough, and retired at the end of that time to Kendal to die, his wife nursing him tenderly, though in the whole course of the term referred to, he had visited her only twice (1734-1862).

ROMNEY, NEW (1), one of the old CINQUE PORTS (q. v.), in S. Kent, 8 m.  SW. of Hythe; the sea has receded from its shores, leaving it no longer a port; as centre of a fine pastoral district it has an important sheep fair; the little village of Old Romney lies 11/2 m. inland.

ROMOLA, a novel by George Eliot, deemed her greatest by many, being “a deep study of life in the city of Florence from an intellectual, artistic, religious, and social point of view.”

ROMSAY (4), a town in Hampshire, on the Test, 8 m.  NW. of Southampton; has a remarkably fine old Norman church and a corn exchange; birthplace of Lord Palmerston.

ROMULUS, legendary founder of Rome, reputed son of Mars and RHEA SILVIA (q. v.), daughter of Numitor, king of Alba Longa; exposed at his birth, along with Remus, his twin-brother (q. v.); was suckled by a she-wolf and brought up by Faustulus, a shepherd; opened an asylum for fugitives on one of the hills of Rome, and founded the city in 753 B.C., peopling it by a rape of Sabine women, and afterwards forming a league with the SABINES (q. v.); he was translated to heaven during a thunderstorm, and afterwards worshipped as Quirinus, leaving Rome behind him as his mark.

RONALDSHAY, NORTH AND SOUTH, two of the Orkney Islands; North Ronaldshay is the most northerly of the Orkney group; South Ronaldshay (2) lies 61/4 m.  NE. of Duncansby Head; both have a fertile soil, and the coast fisheries are valuable.

RONCESVALLES, a valley of the Pyrenees, 23 m.  NE. of Pampeluna, where in 775 the rear of the army of Charlemagne was cut in pieces by the Basques, and ROLAND (q. v.) with the other Paladins was slain.