has not, upon the whole, succeeded, and the original design of continuing it to Portsmouth has been for some time abandoned. In the great mining districts on the west of the Severn, including South Wales, the rail-roads are very numerous; and here, owing to the steepness and impracticable nature of the ground, they have been of essential utility in supplying the place of canals. In 1791 there was scarcely a single railway in all South Wales, and in 1811 the completed rail-roads connected with canals, colleries, iron, and copper-works in the counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan, and Caermarthen, amounted to nearly 150 miles in length, exclusive of a great extent within the mines, of which one company in Merthyr-Tydvil has thirty miles under ground. In Monmouthshire the Sirhoway railway forms one of the first in Britain in point of magnitude. It first extends thirteen miles from Pilgwelly, near Newport, to the Sirhoway and Tredagar iron-works, whence it is continued five miles farther to the Trevil lime-works, in Brecknockshire, along with a branch to the west, to the Rumney and Union iron-works. This railway was made by the Monmouthshire Canal Company. A branch proceeds from Sirhoway eastwards to the Ebbwy works, and thence down the course of the Ebbwy to Crumlin Bridge, whence it joins the canal from Newport; and, from Sirhoway again, the Brinare railway is continued over the Black Mountain to the vale of the Uske at Brecon, and thence to Hay on the river Wye. In Glamorganshire the principal railways are the Cardiff and the Merthyr Tydvil, the Aberdare and the Swansea. In Caermarthenshire the principal railway is that which runs from Caermarthen to the lime-works near Llandebie, a distance of fifteen miles. Such are the chief rail-ways in England and Wales.

In Scotland the duke of Portland's rail-road from Kilmarnock to Troin, a distance of ten miles, is the principal work of this kind yet executed; but round Glasgow, and in the coal fields of Mid Lothian and Fife, are several minor lines.

It is supposed that on a rail-way well constructed, and laid with a declivity of fifty-five feet in a mile, one horse will readily take down waggons containing from twelve to fifteen tons, and bring back the same waggons with four tons in them. This delivity, therefore, suits well, when the imports are only one-fourth part of what is to be exported. If the empty waggons only are to be brought back, the declivity may be made greater; or an additional horse applied on the returning journey will balance the increase of declivity. If the length of the railway were to be considered, it may, it is supposed, without much inconvenience, be varied from being level to a declivity of one inch in a yard, and by dividing the whole distance into separate stages, and providing the number of horses suitable for each portion of rail-way according to the distance and degree of declivity, the whole operation may be carried on with regularity and despatch. It is upon the whole believed that this useful contrivance may be varied so as to suit the surface of many difficult

countries, at a comparatively moderate expense. It may be constructed in a much more expeditious manner than navigable canals; it may be introduced into many districts where canals are wholly inapplicable; and in case of any change in the working of mines, pits, or manufactories, the rails may be taken up and laid down again in new situations at no very great expense or trouble.

In laying out a line of rail-way no further general rule can be laid down than that regard should in the first place be had to such a direction and such a declivity as may best suit the nature of the ground through which it passes, and the trade to be carried on upon it. If the trade be all or chiefly in one direction, the road should of course decline that way, so that the waggons, with their contents, may descend on this inclined plane as much as possible by their own weight. If the exports and imports be equal, the road should be on a level; and, where the ground will not permit that declivity or level best suited to the trade, the line should be varied, and the inequalities made up, so as to bring it as near as possible to the proper standard. If the inequalities are such as to render this impracticable, the only resource lies in inclined planes; for instance where the difference of level between the two extremities of the road is such as would render an equal declivity too steep, the road must then be carried either on a level or with the due degree of slope, as far as practicable, and then lowered by an inclined plane; on which the waggons are let gently down by means of a brake, are dragged up by means of an additional power to that which draws them along the road, or at once let down and drawn up by means of a roller or pulley.

The distance between the opposite rails of a road varies generally from three feet to four and a half feet, according as a long and narrow, or a broad short waggon is preferred. A breadth of from nine to twelve feet therefore will be sufficient for a single road, and from fifteen to twenty for a double one. The sleepers consist of solid blocks of stone, of the weight of one or two hundred-weight; the base must be broad, and the upper surface present an even basis for the rail. They are to be placed along each side of the road, about three feet distant from each other from centre to centre; the opposite ones being separated by the width between the opposite rails; the ground under them being rammed or beaten down to form a firm foundation; sometimes it is first laid with a coat of gravel or refuse metal. The space between them is also rammed or filled up with firm materials.

Two kinds of iron rails are in use, each of which has its warm advocates; the flat rail or tram plate, which being laid on its side, the waggon-wheels travel over the broad and flat surface, the other is termed an edge rail, the rails being laid edgeways, and the wheels travelling on their upper surfaces The flat rail, or tram plate, consists of a plate of cast iron, about three feet long, from three to five inches broad, and from half an inch to an inch thick; extending from sleeper to sleeper, and having a flaunche turn-up or crest on the inside, from two and a

half to four inches high. It bears on the sleepers at each end, where the rails are cast about half an inch thicker than in the middle, at least three inches, and as there is no intermediate bearing, except the surface of the road, the use of the flaunche is to resist the transverse strain arising from the weight of the waggon; on this account it is often raised higher in the middle than at the sides, forming an arch, and, to strengthen the rail still farther, a similar flaunche, arched inversely, is added below. The weight of each rail is from forty to fifty pounds. These rails are merely laid to each other, end to end, all along each side of the road; being kept in their places, and at the same time made fast to the sleepers, by an iron spike six inches long, driven through the extremity of each into a plug of oak fitted in the centre of each sleeper. This spike has no head, but the upper end of it forms an oblong square, about one inch broad, half an inch thick; and the hole in the rails, through which it passes, is formed by a notch, half an inch square, in the middle of the extremity of each rail; the opposite notches of each rail forming, when laid together, an oblong square of one inch by half an inch, and slightly dovetailed from top to bottom, so as to fit exactly the tapering head of the spike, which is driven clear below the upper surface of the rail. When the rails cross a road, the space between them and on each side must be paved up to the level of the top of the flaunches, that the carriages on the road may be enabled to pass clear over the rails. In single railways it is also necessary to have a place at intervals where the empty waggons in returning may be conducted off the road and allow the loaded ones to pass. This place is termed a turn-out; and the waggons are directed into it by a moveable pointer or rail, fixed at the intersection between the principal rail and the turn-out, moving on its extremity, so as to open a way into the turn-out, and shut that along the road. This is also used whenever one line of rail-way crosses another. These flat or tram roads are universal in Wales, and the principal ones used in Scotland.

In the collieries of the north of England the flat has been almost entirely superseded by the edge rail, and the latter are admitted to be decidedly superior in ease of draught, the edge of the bar presenting less friction, and being less liable to clog. The edge rail consists of a single rectangular bar of cast iron, three feet long, three or four inches broad, and from half an inch to an inch thick, set in its edge between the sleepers, and bearing on them at its ends. The upper side of the rail is flaunched out to present a broad bearing surface for the wheels; the under side is also cast thicker than the middle. But the greatest strength is attained by casting the rail not rectangular, but deeper in the middle than at the ends, which may be safely reduced to nearly one-third of the depth in the middle. The rails are set in a cast iron socket or chair, attached firmly to the sleeper. This socket embraces the extremities of the adjacent rails, which are here made to overlap, and a pin is driven at once through the rails and through the socket, so as to bind the whole together. Malleable

iron has of late been used in the construction of these rails. Mr. Birkinshaw of the Bedlington Iron-works has obtained a patent for broad topped malleable rails of a wedge form. The peculiar shape is given them in the rolling of the metal, by means of grooves cut in the rollers, corresponding with the requisite breadth and depth, and the curvature of the proposed rail. This seems a very great improvement.

The Westminster Review, No. VIII., assigns the merit of the invention of iron rail-ways to Mr. Curr an engineer of Sheffield. • We yet expect,' continues the reviewer, to see them applied to some of the ordinary purposes of travelling. The first five miles of the Dover road are maintained at an annual expense of more than £1000 a mile, and this is chiefly caused by the sharp wheels of heavy stagecoaches. There would be no difficulty in giving rails to this class of carriages, at least, as their rapidity is equable and their times fixed. A separate rail might be applied to waggons which are equally regular in motion if not in speed; while an ordinary road might still be preserved for vehicles of irregular rates and times.'

RAIMENT, n. s. Abridged from ARRAIMENT. Vesture; clothes; dress; garment. His raiments, though mean, received handsomeness by the grace of the wearer. Sidney.

O Protheus, let this habit make thee blush! Be thou ashamed that I have took upon me Such an immodest raiment.

Shakspeare.

Living both food and raiment she supplies.
Dryden

You are to consider them as the servants and instruments of action, and so give them food, and rest, and raiment, that they may be strong and healthful to do the duties of a charitable, useful, pious life.

RAIN, n. s., v. a., & v. n.'
RAINBOW, n. s.
RAIN-WATER,
RAINY.

Law. Sax. rægn,

rign. The water which falls in drops from the clouds; to fall in such drops; 'it rains,' signifying that the water falls in this way from the clouds formed on the clouds by the sun in showery to pour down as rain: rainbow, the iris; the bow weather: rain-water, the water of the clouds; rainy, showery; wet; damp; likely to rain.

A continual dropping in a very rainy day, and a contentious woman, are alike.

Proverbs xxvii. 15.

Casting of the water in a most cunning manner, makes a perfect rainbow, not more pleasant to the eye than to the mind, so sensibly to see the proof of the heavenly iris. Sidney.

When shall we three meet again,
In thunder, lightning, or in rain. Shakspeare.
That which serves for gain

And follows but for form,

Will pack when it begins to rain
And leave thee in the storm.

Id. King Lear.
Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear,
Make sacred even his stirrup.

Id. Timon of Athens. To add another hue unto the rainbow. Shakspeare. Court holy water in a dry house, is better than the rainwater out o' doors. Id. King Lear.

The lost clouds pour
Into the sea an useless shower,
And the vext sailors curse the rain,
For which poor farmers prayed in vain.
Waller.
Boyle.

We took distilled rain-water.

Like a low hung cloud it rains so fast, That all at once it falls. Dryden's Knight's Tale. The wind is south-west, and the weather lowring,

and like to rain.

Locke. Rain is water by the heat of the sun divided into very small parts ascending in the air, till, encountering the cold, it be condensed into clouds, and descends in drops. Ray.

Rain-water is to be preferred before spring-water. Mortimer.

This rainbow never appears but where it rains in the sun-shine, and may be made artificially, by spouting up water, which may break aloft, and scatter into drops, and fall down like rain; for the sun shining upon these drops, certainly causes the bow to appear to a spectator standing in a truc position to the rain and sun this bow is made by refraction of the sun's light in drops of falling rain. Newton.

The dome's high arch reflects the mingled blaze, And forms a rainbow of alternate rays.

Gay rainbow silks her mellow charms infold, And nought of Lyce but herself is old.

RAIN. See METEOROLOGY.

Pope.

Young.

RAINBOW, iris, is a meteor in form of a partycolored arch, or semicircle, exhibited in a rainy sky, opposite to the sun, by the refraction and reflection of his rays in the drops of falling rain. There is also a secondary, or fainter bow, usually seen investing the former at some distance. Among naturalists we also read of lunar rainbows, marine rainbows, &c.

This beautiful phenomenon has engaged the attention of all ages, and by some nations it has even been deified. The observations of the ancients and philosophers of the middle ages, concerning the rainbow, were such as could not have escaped the notice of the most illiterate husbandmen who gazed at the sky; and their various hypotheses deserve no notice. Maurolycus was the first who pretended to have measured the diameters of the two rainbows with much exactness; and he reports that he found that of the inner "bow to be 45°, and that of the outer bow 56°; from which Descartes takes occasion to observe how little we can depend upon the observations of those who were not acquainted with the cause of the appearances. See OPTICS, Index. The moon sometimes exhibits the phenomenon of an iris or rainbow by the refraction of her rays in drops of rain. This phenomenon in the night-time is however very rare.

The marine or sea rainbow is a phenomenon which may be frequently observed in a much

agitated sea, and is occasioned by the wind sweeping part of the waves and carrying them aloft, which when they fall down are refracted by the sun's rays, painting the colors of the bow just as in a common shower. These bows are often seen when a vessel is sailing with considerable force, and dashing the waves around her, which are raised partly by the action of the ship and partly by the force of the wind, and, falling down, they form a rainbow; and they are also often occasioned by the dashing of the waves against the rocks on shore. The colors of the marine rainbow are less lively, less distinct, and of shorter continuance, than those of the common rainbow; there are scarcely more than two colors distinguishable, a dark yellow on the side next the sun, and a pale green on the opposite side. But they are more numerous, there being sometimes twenty or thirty seen together.

RAINOLDS (John), D. D., an eminent English divine, born at Pinto in Devonshire in 1549, and sent to Merton College, Oxford, in 1562. He became fellow of Corpus Christi, where he took his degrees. In 1598 he was made dean of Lincoln, and in 1599 president of Corpus College. Queen Elizabeth offered him a bishopric, but he modestly refused it, saying in earnest, Nolo episcopali. He wrote and published a great number of works, and was one of the learned divines employed by James I. to translate the Bible. He was moderately inclined to puritanism. He died in 1607.

RAINY RIVER, a river of Illinois, which rises near the west border of Indiana, flows W.N.W. and joins the Illinois, long. 88° 5′ W., lat. 41° 20' N.

RAINY LAKE, a lake of North America, divided by an isthmus near the middle into two parts. The west part is called the Great Rainy Lake, the east the Little Rainy Lake, being the least division. It is in general very shallow in its depth. The broadest part of it is not more than twenty miles; its length, including both, about 300 miles. In the west part the water is very clear and good, and some excellent fish are taken in it. A great many fowl resort here at the fall of the year. Moose deer are to be found in great plenty, and likewise the Carraboo, whose skin, for breeches or gloves, exceeds by far any other to be met with in North America.

RAIRY, a celebrated fortress of Hindostan, in Bejapore. It is situated on the top of a steep hill, and was the favorite residence of the Maliratta chief Sevajee.

RAISE, v. a. 1 Swed. resa; Dan. reisa ; RAISER, n. s. Teut. reitzen; Gr. epεiw? To lift; heave; erect; exalt; set up; advance; excite; irritate; rouse: he who raises.

Raise not a false report. Exodus xxiii. 1. Take his carcase down from the tree, cast it at the entering of the gate, and raise thereon a heap of

stones.

Joshua viii.

sweeter and pleasanter than those dried in ovens ; they are called jar raisins, from their being imported in earthen jars. Hill.

raised after him.

Browne.

The plate pieces of eight were raised three-pence in the piece. Temple's Miscellanies.

Æneas then employs his pains
In parts remote to raise the Tuscan swains.

Dryden. All gaze, and all admire, and raise a shouting sound. Id.

These are spectres the understanding raises to itself, to flatter its own laziness. Locke.

Miss Liddy can dance a jig, and raise paste. Spectator. The Persians gazing on the sun, Admired how high 'twas placed, how bright it shone; But, as his power was known, their thoughts were

raised,

And soon they worshipped what at first they praised.

Prior.

Raiser of human kind! by nature cast, Naked and helpless. Thomson's Autumn. Content if thus sequestered I may raise A monitor's, though not a poet's praise, And while I teach an art too little known, To close life wisely, may not waste my own. Cowper. RAI'SIN, n. s. Fr. raisin; Arab. rasa; Lat. racemus. A dried grape.

Raisins are the fruit of the vine suffered to remain on the tree till perfectly ripened, and then dried: grapes of every kind, preserved in this manner, are called raisins, but those dried in the sun are much

Dried grapes or raisins, boiled in a convenient proportion of water, make a sweet liquor, which, being betimes distilled, affords an oil and spirit much like the raisins themselves. Boyle.

RAISINS. To obtain fine raisins tie two or three bunches of grapes together while yet on the vine, and dip them into a hot lixivium wood ashes, with a little of the oil of olives in it. This disposes them to shrink and wrinkle; after this they are left on the vine three or four days separated on sticks in an horizontal situation, and then dried in the sun at leisure, after being cut from the tree. The finest and best raisins are those called in some places Damascus and Jube raisins; which are distinguished from the others by their size and figure; they are flat and wrinkled on the surface, soft and juicy within, and nearly an inch long; and, when fresh and growing on the bunch, are of the size and shape of the large olive. The raisins of the sun are all dried by the heat of the sun; and these with the jar raisins are the sorts used in medicine. However all the kinds have much the same virtues; they are all nutritive and balsamic; they are allowed to be attenuant, are said to be good in nephritic complaints, and are an ingredient in pectoral decoctions: in which cases, as also in all others where astringency is not required of them, the stones should be carefully taken out.

RAKE, n. s., v. a., & v. n."
RAKE'HELL, n. s.
RAKE HELLY, adj.
RA'KISH.

Sax. ɲace; Belg. racche; Swedish raka (to scrape); Teut. rechen. An

instrument with teeth designed to collect or scrape things together; hence (Fr. racaille, the rabble) both a rake, a low worthless fellow, and rakehell, according to Skinner, of the same signification to rake is to gather or clear with a rake; collect; and hence heap; scour: and, in nautical affairs, to fire so as to search a vessel: tives both mean wild; dissolute. as a verb neuter, to search; grope; the adjec

At Midsummer down with the brembles and brakes,

And after abroad with thy forkes and thy rakes.

Tusser.

Mow barlie, and rake it, and set it on cocks. Id. When Pas hand reached him to take

The fox on knees and elbows tumbled down: Pas could not stay, but over him did rake, And crowned the earth with his first touching crown. Sidney. Out of the frie of these rukehell horse-boys, growing up in knavery and villany, are their kern supplied. Spenser. I scorn the rakehelly rout of our ragged ritimers, which without learning boast, without judgment jangle, and without reason rage and foam.

Id.

An eager desire to rake together whatsoever might prejudice or any way hinder the credit of apocryphal books, hath caused the collector's pen so to run as it were on wheels, that the mind, which should guide it, had no leisure to think. Hooker.

What piles of wealth hath he accumulated!
How, i' th' name of thrift,
Does he rake this together?

Shakspeare. Henry VIII.

If you hide the crown Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it.

Shakspeare, The king, when he heard of Perkins' siege of Exeter, said in sport, that the king of rakehells was landed in the West, and that he hoped now to see him. Bacon.

No breaking of windows or glasses for spight, And spoiling the goods for a rakehelly prank.

Ben Jonson. The blazing wood may to the eye seem great, But 'tis the fire raked up that has the heat, And keeps it long. Suckling. Harrows' iron teeth shall every where Rake helmets up. May's Virgil's Georgicks. A sport more formidable

Had raked together village rabble. Hudibras. O that thy bounteous deity would please To guide my rake upon the chinking sound Of some vast treasure hidden under ground.

Dryden. Another finds the way to dye in grain; Or for the golden ore in rivers rakes, Then melts the mass.

Id. Persius.

One is for raking in Chaucer for antiquated words, which are never to be revived, but when sound or significancy is wanting. Dryden.

The Belgians tack upon our rear, And raking chase-guns through our sterns they send.

Id.

The next came with her son, who was the greatest rake in the place, but so much the mother's darling, that she left her husband for the sake of this graceless youth.

Addison.

After having made essays into it, fas they do for coal in England, they rake into the most promising parts.

Id. Rakes hate sober grave gentlewomen. Arbuthnot. Men, some to business, some to pleasure take, But every woman is at heart a rake.

Pope. The statesman rakes the town to find a plot. Swift. A rakehell of the town, whose character is set off with excessive prodigality, prophaneness, intemperance, and lust, is rewarded with a lady of great fortune to repair his own, which his vices had almost Swift.

ruined.

Thomson.

As they rake the green appearing ground, The russet hay-cock rises. There seldom can be peculiarity in the love of a

rakish heart.

Clarissa.

The RAKE OF A SHIP is all that part of her hull which hangs over both ends of her keel. That which is before is called the fore-rake, or rake forward, and that part which is at the setting on of the stern-post is called the rake-aft, or after-ward.

TO RAKE A SHIP is to cannonade her on the stern, or head, so as that the balls shall scour the whole length of her decks; which is one of the most dangerous incidents that can happen in a naval action. This is frequently called raking fore and aft, and is similar to what is called by engineers enfilading.

RALEIGH (Sir Walter), fourth son of Wal

ter Raleigh, esq., of Fardel, in the parish of Cornwood, in Devonshire, was born in 1552. About 1568 he was sent to Ariel College Oxford, but next year he embarked for France, being one of the 100 volunteers, commanded by Henry Champernon, who, with other English troops, were sent by queen Elizabeth to assist the queen of Navarre in defending the Protestants. In this service he continued five or six years; after which he returned to London. In 1577 or 1578 he embarked for the Low Countries with the troops sent by the queen to assist the Dutch against the Spaniards. On his return to England, his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, having obtained a patent to colonise some parts of North America, he embarked in this adventure; but meeting with a Spanish fleet, after a smart engagement, they returned without success in 1579. In 1580 Philip II. of Spain, having projected a conquest of England, sent troops to Ireland to assist the Desmonds in the Munster rebellion. Raleigh obtained a captaincy under lord Grey of Wilton, then deputy of Ireland, and embarked for that kingdom; where he was greatly instrumental in putting an end to the war. He returned to England, and attracted the notice of queen Elizabeth, owing, as Naunton says, in his Fragmenta Regalia, to an accidental piece of gallantry. The queen taking a walk, being stopped by a muddy place in the road, our young gallant took off his new plush mantle and spread it on the ground. Her majesty trod gently over the foot-cloth, surprised and pleased with the adventure. He was a handsome man, and remarkable for his address. The queen admitted him to her court, and employed him first as an attendant on the French ambassador Simier, on his return home, and afterwards to escort the duke of Anjou to Antwerp. During this excursion he became personally known to the prince of Orange from whom on his return he brought special acknowledgments to the queen. In 1583 he embarked with his brother, Sir Humphrey, on a second expedition to Newfoundland, in a ship called the Raleigh, built at his own expense; but was obliged to return on account of an infectious distemper on board. He then laid before the queen and council a proposal for exploring the continent of North America; and in 1584 obtained a patent to possess such countries as he should discover. Accordingly he fitted out two ships at his own expense, which sailed in April, and returned to England in September, reporting that they had discovered a fine country called Windangocoa, to which the queen gave the name of Virginia. About this time he was elected member for Devon, and soon after was knighted; and, to enable him to execute his plans, the queen granted him a patent for a licence on wine throughout the kingdom. In 1585 he sent a fleet of seven ships to Virginia, under his relation Sir Richard Grenville, who left a colony at Roanah of 107 persons, under Mr. Lane; and from this colony he first imported tobacco into England. He also obtained a grant of 12,000 acres of the forfeited lands in Cork, was made seneschal of Cornwall, and warden of the stanneries. In 1587 he sent another colony of 150 men to Vir