RONDA (19), one of the old Moorish towns of Spain, built amid grand scenery on both sides of a great ravine (bridged in two places), down which rushes the Guadiaro, 43 m.  W. of Malaga; is a favourite summer resort.

RONDEAU, a form of short poem (originally French) which, as in the 15th century, usually consists of 13 lines, eight of which have one rhyme and five another; is divided into three stanzas, the first line of the rondeau forming the concluding line of the last two stanzas; Swinburne has popularised it in modern times.

RONDO, a form of musical composition which corresponds to the RONDEAU (q. v.) in poetry; consists of two or more (usually three) strains, the first being repeated at the end of each of the other two, but it admits of considerable variation.

RONSARD, PIERRE, celebrated French poet, born near Vendome; was for a time attached to the Court; was for three years of the household of James V. of Scotland in connection with it, and afterwards in the service of the Duke of Orleans, but having lost his hearing gave himself up to literature, writing odes and sonnets; he was of the PLEIADE SCHOOL OF POETS (q. v.), and contributed to introduce important changes in the idiom of the French language, as well as in the rhythm of French poetry (1521-1585).

ROeNTGEN, WILHELM KONRAD VON, discoverer of the Roentgen rays, born at Lennep, in Rhenish Prussia; since 1885 has been professor of Physics at Wuerzburg; his discovery of the X-rays was made in 1898, and has won him a wide celebrity; b. 1845.

ROeNTGEN RAYS, described by Dr. Knott as “rays of light that pass with ease through many substances that are optically opaque, but are absorbed by others.”  “For example,” he says, “the bony structures of the body are much less transparent than the fleshy parts; hence by placing the hand between a fluorescent screen and the source of these rays we see the shadow of the skeleton of the hand with a much fainter shadow of the flesh and skin bordering it.”  See Dr. Knott’s “Physics.”

ROOKE, SIR GEORGE, British admiral, born at Canterbury; distinguished himself at the battle of Cape La Hogue in 1692; in an expedition against Cadiz destroyed the Plate-fleet in the harbour of Vigo in 1702; assisted in the capture of Gibraltar from the Spaniards in 1704, and fought a battle which lasted a whole day with a superior French force off Malaga the same year (1650-1709).

ROON, COUNT VON, Prussian general, born in Pomerania; was Minister of War in 1859 and of Marine in 1861; was distinguished for the important reforms he effected in the organisation of the Prussian army, conspicuous in the campaigns of 1866 and 1871-72 (1803-1879).

ROOT, GEORGE FREDERICK, a popular American song-writer, born at Sheffield, Massachusetts; was for some time a music teacher in Boston and New York; took to song writing, and during the Civil War leaped into fame as the composer of “Tramp, tramp, tramp the Boys are Marching,” “Just before the Battle, Mother,” “The Battle Cry of Freedom,” and other songs; was made a Musical Doctor by Chicago University in 1872 (1820-1895).