the ceiling of which, as well as that of the hall, is curiously ornamented. Here the city business is transacted, and the assizes for the county are sometimes held. The clock-house was built in 1686, at the expense of Sir Cloudesley Shovel, who also gave the clock. At the bottom of Chaldegate Street stands a large and commodious poor-house. The main street is wide, and well paved. The town, within the walls, consists of one main street, but within its liberties many buildings have been erected, and improvements have been made, and are still making. A mathematical school was founded here, and an almshouse for lodging six poor travellers every night, and allowing them 4d. in the morning when they depart, except persons contagiously diseased, rogues, and proctors. The Roman Watling Street runs through this town from Shooter's Hill to Dover. The mayor and citizens hold an admiralty court once a year for regulating the oyster-fishery in the creeks and branches of the Medway within their jurisdiction, and for prosecuting offenders. The bridge was repaired in 1744, and pallisadoed with new iron rails. Market on Fridays.

ROCHESTER, a post-town of Strafford county, New Hampshire, on the west side of Salmon Fall River, twenty-two miles north-west of Portsmouth. Near the centre of the town there is a village called Norway Plains, containing a meeting-house, court-house, and several stores. There is also a cotton manufactory in the town. One term of the court of common pleas is held here annually. Also a post-town of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, on Buzzard's Bay, twenty miles south-west of Plymouth, and fortyeight south of Boston. Here are some iron works. And a post town of Ulster county, New York, twenty miles south-west of Kingston. ROCHESTER, EARL OF. See WILMOT. ROCH'ET, n. s. Fr. rochet; low Lat. rochetum, from roccus, a coat. A surplice; the white upper garment of a priest.

What zealous phrenzy did the senate seize, That tare the rotchet to such rags as these!

Cleaveland.

ROCHFORD, a market-town and parish of Essex, situated in a small rivulet called the Broomhill, over which it has two wooden bridges. It is fifteen miles east by south from Billericay, and thirty-nine east from London. The houses are for the greater part irregular and ill-built. The parish church stands half a mile from the town, and is a plain building. The markethouse is a mean timber structure, in which the petty sessions for the Rochford division of Essex are held. This place is rendered remarkable on record for its lawless court. See LAWLESS COURT. The market is on Thursdays for cattle, corn, and provisions. Raleigh, in this vicinity, though now an inconsiderable village, was formerly a market town, and the head of the barony of Suene, a powerful Anglo-Saxon Dane, who is reported to have built a castle here, of which some important earth-works still remain. These consist of a mount, of an oval shape at the base, which is environed by a double ditch and rampart.

ROCK, n. s. ROCK'DOE, ROCK'LESS, ROCK RUBY, ROCK'SALT, ROCK'WORK, ROCK'Y, adj.

Fr. roc, roche; Ital. rocca; Span. roca; Port. rocha; (à Gr. pw. Minsheu.) A mass of stone; a stony mass fixed in the earth; protection; defence a rock-doe is a doe that frequents the rocky heights of the Alps: rockless, devoid of rocks: rockruby, the garnet; a hard stone: rock-salt, mineral salt: rock-work, strong or rugged work in imitation of rocks; a natural wall of rock : rocky, abounding with rocks; strong; stony. Val de Compare presenteth her rocky mountains. Sandys.

The splitting rocks cow'r'd in the sinking sands, And would not dash me with their ragged sides. Shakspeare.

I, like a poor bark, of sails and tackling reft, Rush all to pieces on thy rocky bosom. Id. There be rock herbs; but those are where there is some mould. Bacon's Natural History. Though the reeds of Egypt break under the hand of him that leans on them, yet the rock of Israel will be an everlasting stay. King Charles.

Such destruction to withstand, he opposed the rocky orb Of ten-fold adamant, his ample shield. Milton. Distilling some of the tincted liquor, all that came over was as limpid and colourless as rock water, and the liquor remaining in the vessel deeply ceruleous. Boyle.

Make the bold prince

Waller.

Through the cold north and rocky regions run. Is weedless all above, and rockless all below. A crystal brook

The vallies he restrains

Dryden.

Pigeons or doves are of several sorts; as wood pigeons and rock pigeons. Mortimer's Husbandry.

The rock-doe breeds chiefly upon the Alps: a creature of admirable swiftness; and may probably be that mentioned in the book of Job: her horns grow sometimes so far backward as to reach over her buttocks. Grew's Museum. These lesser rocks, or great bulky stones, are they not manifest fragments? Burnet. The garden is fenced on the lower end, by a natuAddison. ral mound of rockwork. Of amber a nodule, invested with a coat, called rock amber. Woodward on Fossils. the kinds. Rock-ruby is of a deep red, and the hardest of all

Id. Two pieces of transparent rock-salt; one white, the other red.

Id.

Ye darksome pines, that o'er yon rocks reclined, Wave high. and murmur to the hollow wind. Pope. Till a' the seas gang dry my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun :

Burns.

I will luve thee still, my dear, While the sands o' life shall run. Rock, n. s. Goth. and Swed. rock; Ital. rocca; Span. rucca. A distaff from which wool is spun; a roll of flax or wool.

A learned and a manly soul

I purposed her; that should with even powers,
The rock, the spindle, and the sheers controul
Of destiny, and spin her own free hours.

Ben Jonson.

Come, take hand with me, And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be. Shakspeare.

Denham.

Sleep rock thy brain, And never come mischance between us twain. Id. Leaning her head upon my breast, My panting heart rocked her asleep. Suckling. My bloody resolutions, Like sick and froward children, Were rocked asleep by reason. If, by a quicker rocking of the engine, the smoke were more swiftly shaken, it would, like water, vibrate to and fro. Boyle. The wind was laid; the whispering sound Was dumb; a rising earthquake rocked the ground. Dryden. His fellow, who the narrow bed had kept, Was weary, and without a rocker slept. Id. While his secret soul on Flanders preys, He rocks the cradle of the babe of Spain. A living tortoise, being turned upon its back, could help itself only by its neck and head, by pushing against the ground to rock itself as in a cradle, to find out the side towards which the inequality of the ground might more easily permit to roll its shell. Ray on the Creation.

Id.

The rocking town
Supplants their footsteps; to and fro they reel
Astonished.
Philips.
Young.

like this rocking of the battlements.
Ae night the storm the steeples rocked,
Poor labour sweet in sleep was locked,
While burns, wi' snawy wreeths up-choked,
Wild eddying swirl,

Or through the mining outlet bocked,

Down headlong hurl. Burns.

ROCK BASINS are cavities or artificial basins of different sizes, from six feet to a few inches diameter, cut in the surface of the rocks for the purpose, as is supposed, of collecting the dew and rain pure as it descended from the heavens, for the use of ablutions and purifications, prescribed in the Druidical religion; these, especially the dew, being deemed the purest of all fluids. There are two sorts of these basins, one with lips or communications between the different basins, the other simple cavities. The lips are as low as the bottom of the basins, which are horizontal, and communicate with one somewhat lower, so contrived that the contents fell by a gradual descent through a succession of basins either to the ground, or into a vessel set to receive it. The basins without lips might be intended for reservoirs to preserve the rain or dew in its original purity without touching any other vessel, which was perhaps used for the Druid to drink, or wash his hands, previous to officiating at any high ceremony. Some of those basins are so formed as to receive the head and part of the human body; one of this kind is found on a rock called king Arthur's bed, in the parish of North Hall in Cornwall, where are also others,

An arti

The

They are of various dimensions, as well in length as in calibre, and are differently armed according as they are intended for the field, or for bombardment; carrying, in the first instance, either shells or case shot, which may be exploded at any part of their flight, spreading death and destruction amongst the columns of the enemy; and in the second, where they are intended for the destruction of building, shipping, stores, &c.,they are armed with a peculiar species of composition, which never fails of destroying every combustible material with which it comes in contact. latter, called carcass-rockets, were first used at Boulogne, their powers having been previously demonstrated in some experiments made at Woolwich by Sir William Congreve in the presence of Mr. Pitt and several of the cabinet minsters. Sir Sidney Smith was ordered to command the expedition intended for this purpose; but from the lateness of the season, it being near the end of November before the preparations were completed, nothing was done that year. In 1806 Sir William renewed his proposition for the attack of Boulogne by rockets, which was ordered to be put in execution after lord Moira, at that time master-general of the ordnance, and lord Howick, first lord of the admiralty, had satisfied themselves of the efficacious nature of the weapon. The attack was accordingly made under the command of commodore Owen, late in October 1806; having been put off during the summer months in consequence of the negociations for peace. The town was set on fire by the first discharge, and continued burning for nearly two days: it was supposed, also, that some shipping were destroyed, but the greater part of the rockets certainly went over the basin into the town. Carcass-rockets have since been used in various expeditions under the immediate inspection of their inventor.

After the siege of Copenhagen they were ordered by lord Chatham, the master-general of the ordnance, to be reported upon by a commit

tee of field-officers of artillery who had witnessed their effect in that bombardment, and who pronounced them to be a powerful auxiliary to the present system of artillery.' Indeed the powers of this weapon are now established upon the best of all testimonies, that of the enemy; a striking instance of which occurred at the siege of Flushing, where general Monnet, the French commandant, made a formal remonstrance to lord Chatham respecting the use of them in that bombardment.

It is not, however, in bombardment only that this species of artillery may be advantageously employed; their powers in the field having been demonstrated to be equally irresistible. The crown prince of Sweden was the first general who bore testimony to their effects in this service; a small corps of rocketeers, under the command of captain Bogue of the British artillery, having been attached to a division of the allied armies, which, in the ever memorable battle of Leipsic, gloriously maintained the honor of the British arms. They were afterwards employed with great effect when the British army, under the command of the duke of Wellington, crossed the Adour. In consequence his royal highness the prince regent commanded the formation of a rocket corps, which took place on the 1st of January 1814, by augmentation to the regiment of royal artillery.

The form of all the different kinds of these rockets is cylindrical, and they are composed of strong metallic cases, armed, as we have before stated, either with carcass composition for bombardment and conflagration, or with shells and case-shot for field service. They are, however, of various weights and dimensions, from the eight-inch carcass, or explosion rocket, weighing nearly 3 cwt., to the six pound shell-rocket, which is the smallest size used in the field. The sticks which are employed for regulating their flight are also of different lengths, according to the size and service of the rocket; and which, for the convenience of carriage, are stowed apart from the rocket, and so contrived as to consist of two or more parts, which are connected to it, and to each other, when requisite, with the utmost expedition.

The ammunition is divided into three classes, heavy, medium, and light; the former including all those of above forty-two pounds, which are denominated according to their calibre, as eightinch, seven-inch, six-inch, &c., rockets; the medium include all those from forty-two pound to twenty-four pound rocket; and the light from the eighteen-pounder to the six-pounder inclusive. The carcass-rockets are armed with strong iron conical heads, containing a composition as hard and solid as iron itself, and which, when once inflamed, bids defiance to any human effort to extinguish it; and consequently involves, in an inextinguishable flame, every combustible material with which it comes in contact. The forty-two-pounder and thirty-two-pounder carcass-rockets are those which have hitherto been chiefly employed in bombardments: the penetration of the thirty-two pound carcass-rocket in common ground is nine feet; and in some instances where they have been employed, they

have been known to pierce through several floors, and through the sides of houses: this is the smallest rocket used in bombardment, and the largest employed in the field; the more usual size for the latter service being the twenty-four, eighteen, twelve, and six-pounders. The ranges of the eight-inch, seven-inch, and six-inch rockets are from 2000 to 2500 yards; and the quantity of combustible matter, or bursting powder, from twenty-five pounds to fifty pounds; and from their weight, combined with less diameter, they possess a greater power of penetration than the heaviest shells, and are therefore equally efficient for the destruction of bomb-proofs, or the demolition of strong buildings; so that the facility of application, on which the inventor has hitherto rested the merit of the rocket system, is not its only excellence; for it thus appears that it actually will propel heavier masses than can be done by any other meaus, that is to say, masses, to project which it would scarcely be possible to cast, much less to transport mortars of sufficient magnitude. The largest rocket that has yet been constructed has not, we believe, exceeded 3 cwt.; but Sir William Congreve had in contemplation others of much superior magnitude, weighing from half a ton to a ton weight, which, being driven in very strong cast-iron cases, may possess such force that, when fired along trenches cut to the foot of the glacis, from the nearest point of the third parallel, against the revetement of any fortress, even unimpaired by a cannonade, it shall, by its mass and form, pierce the same; and, having pierced it, shall with one explosion of several barrels of gunpowder, with which it is loaded, blow such portion of the masonry into the ditch, as may, with very few rounds, complete a practicable breach.

The forty-two and thirty-two pounders are those, as we have before stated, which have hitherto been principally used in bombardment, and which, for the general purposes of that service, are found quite sufficient, as they will convey from seven pounds to ten pounds of combustible matter each, and have a range of upwards of 3000 yards. The thirty-two pounder rocket may be considered as the medium rocket, being the smallest used in bombardment as a carcass or explosion rocket, and the largest used with shot or shell in the field; but as the twenty-four pounder is very nearly equal to it in all its applications in the latter service, being quite equal to the propelling of the Cohorn shell, or twelve pounder shot, it is, from the saving in weight, generally preferred to the thirty-two-pounder. The eighteen-pounder, which is the first of the light nature of rockets, is armed with a ninepound shot or shell; the twelve-pounder with a six-pound ditto; the nine-pounder with a grenade; and the six-pounder with a three-pound shot or shell. From the twenty-four-pounder to the nine-pounder rocket, inclusive, a description of case-shot rocket is formed of each nature, armed with a quantity of musket or carbine balls, put into the top of the cylinder of the rocket.

The rocket light ball, invented by Sir William Congreve, is a species of light ball thrown into the air by means of one of his rockets; where, having reached the summit of the rocket's ascent,