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Rh appear to have been the work of a pre-Christian Celtic race. Many objects in bronze and iron and fragments of hand-made pottery have been found in and near these towers, all bearing witness of a very early date. (See Anderson, Scotland in Pagan Times, 1883, and Scotland in Early Christian Times, 1881.) The nuraghi of Sardinia are described in the article on that island. During the 6th century church towers at and near Ravenna were usually built round in plan, and not unlike those of Ireland in their proportions. The finest existing example is that which stands by the church of S. Apollinare in Classe, the old port of the city of Ravenna (see, fig. 8). It is of brick, divided into nine storeys, with single-light windows below, three-light windows in the upper storeys, and two-lights in the intermediate ones. The most magnificent example of a round tower is the well-known leaning tower of Pisa, begun in the year 1174. It is richly decorated with tiers of open marble arcades, supported on free columns. The circular plan was much used by Moslem races for their minarets. The finest of these is the 13th-century minar of Kutb at Old Delhi, built of limestone with bands of marble. It is richly fluted on plan, and when complete was at least 250 ft. high.

The best account of the Irish round towers is that given by Petrie in his Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland (Dublin, 1845). See also Keane, Towers and Temples of Ancient Ireland (Dublin, 1850); Brash, Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland (Dublin, 1875); and Stokes, Early Architecture in Ireland (Dublin, 1878).

ROUS, FRANCIS (1579–1659), English Puritan, was born at Dittisham in Devon in 1579, and educated at Oxford (Broadgates Hall, afterwards Pembroke College) and at Leiden, graduating at the former in January 1596-97, and at the latter thirteen months afterwards. For some years he lived in seclusion in Cornwall and occupied himself with theological studies, producing among other books The Arte of Happines (1619) and Testis Veritatis, a reply to Richard Montagu's A ppello Caesarem. He entered parliament in 1625 as member for Truro, and continued to 'represent that or some neighbouring west country constituency in such parliaments as were summoned till his death. He obtained many offices under the Commonwealth, among them that of provost of Eton College. At first a Presbyterian, he afterwards joined' the Independents. In 1657 he was made a lord of parliament. He died at Acton in January 1658–59. The subjective cast of his piety is reflected in his ''Mystical Marriage. . . betweene'' a Soule and her Saviour (1635), but he is best knownby his metrical version of the Psalms (1643), which was approved by the Westminster Assembly and (in a revised form) is still used in the Scottish Presbyterian churches.

ROUS, HENRY JOHN (1795–1877), British admiral and sportsman, was born on the 23rd of January 1795, the second son of the 1st earl of Stradbroke. He was educated at Westminster School, and entered the British navy in 1808, serving as a midshipman in the expedition to Flushing. He was afterwards appointed to the “Bacchante,” and received a medal for bravery in various actions and expeditions. In 1823 he was made captain, and served in the Indian and New Holland stations from 1823 to 1829. In 1834 he was appointed to the command of the “Pique,” a 36-gun frigate, which ran ashore on the coast of Labrador and was much damaged. Rous, however, brought her across the Atlantic with a sprung foremast and without keel, forefoot or rudder, and though the ship was making 23 ins. of water an hour. Rous, always fond of sport, retired from the navy, and became in 1838 a steward of the ]ockey Club, a position which he held almost uninterruptedly to his death. In 1855 he was appointed public handicapper. He managed the duke of Bedford's stables at Newmarket for many years, and wrote a work on The Laws and Practice of Horse Racing that procured for him the title of “the Blackstone of the Turf.” In 1841 he was returned M.P. for Westminster, and in 1846 Sir Robert Peel made him a lord of the admiralty. He died on the 19th of June 1877.

For the naval career of Admiral Rous see O'Byrne, Naval Biographical Dictionary (London, 1849). A vivid sketch of him as a turf authority will be found in Day's Turf Celebrities (London, 1891).

ROUSSEAU, JACQUES (1635–1693), French painter, a member of a Huguenot family, was born at Paris in 1630. He was remarkable as a painter of decorative landscapes and classic ruins, somewhat in the style of Canaletto, but without his delicacy of touch; he appears also to have been influenced by Nicolas Poussin. While young Rousseau went to Rome, where he spent some years in painting the ancient ruins, together with the surrounding landscapes. He thus formed his style, which was artificial and conventionally decorative. His colouring for the most part is unpleasing, partly owing to his violent treatment of skies with crude blues and orange, and his chiaroscuro usually is much exaggerated. On his return to Paris he soon became distinguished as a painter, and was employed by Louis XIV. to decorate the walls of his palaces at St Germain and Marly. He was soon admitted a member of the French Academy of the Fine Arts, but on the revocation of the edict of Nantes he was obliged to take refuge in Holland, and his name was struck off the Academy roll. From Holland he was invited to England by the duke of Montague, who employed him, together with other French painters, to paint the walls of his palace, Montague House (on the site of which is now the British Museum). Rousseau was also employed to paint architectural subjects and landscapes in the palace of Hampton Court, where many of his decorative panels still exist. He spent the latter part of his life in London, where he died in 1693.

Besides being a painter in oil and fresco Rousseau was an etcher of some ability; many etchings by his hand from the works of the Caracci and from his own designs still exist; they are vigorous, though coarse in execution.

ROUSSEAU, JEAN BAPTISTE (1671–1741), French poet, was born at Paris on the 6th of April 1671; he died at Brussels on the 17th of March 1741. The son of a shoemaker, he was well educated and early gained favour with Boileau, who encouraged him to write. He began with the theatre, for which he had no aptitude. A one-act comedy, Le Café, failed in 1694, and he was not much happier with a more ambitious play, Le Flatteur (1696), or with the opera of Vénus et Adonis (1697). He tried in 1700 another comedy, Le Capricieux, which had the same fate. He then went with Tallard as an attaché to London, and, in days when literature still led to high position, seemed likely to achieve success. His misfortunes began with a club squabble at the Café Laurent, which was much frequented by literary men, and where Rousseau indulged in lampoons on his companions. A shower of libellous and sometimes obscene verses was written by or attributed to him, and at lasthe was turned out of the café. At the same time his poems, as yet only singly printed or in manuscript, acquired him a great reputation, due to the dearth of genuine lyrical poetry between Racine and Chénier. He had in 1701 been made a member of the Académie des inscriptions; he had been offered, though he had not accepted, profitable places in the revenue department; he had become a favourite of the libertine but influential coterie of the Temple; and in 1710 he presented himself as a candidate for the Académie française. Then began the second chapter of an extraordinary history of the animosities of authors. A copy of verses, more offensive than ever, was handed round, and gossip maintained that Rousseau was its author. Legal proceedings of various kinds followed, and Rousseau ascribed the lampoon to Joseph Saurin. In 1712 Rousseau was prosecuted for defamation of character, and, on his non-appearance in court, was condemned par cont urn ace to perpetual exile. He spent the rest of his life in foreign countries except for a clandestine visit to Paris in 1738, refusing to accept the permission to return which was offered him in 1716 because it was not accompanied by complete rehabilitation.

Prince Eugene and then other persons of distinction took him under their protection during his exile, and he printed at Soleure the first edition of his poetical works. Voltaire and he met at Brussels