e;
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.

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; si