Page:EB1911 - Volume 23.djvu/995

 by the beginning of the 14th century, but possesses no charter distinct from the Cinque Ports. As a member of the Cinque Ports, which were summoned from 1322 onwards, Rye returned two representatives to parliament from 1366 until 1832; after that date one only until 1885. In 1290 the barons of the royal port of Rye were granted a three days' fair in September, altered in 1305 to March. The mayor and commonalty evidently held weekly markets on Wednesday and Friday before 1405, as in that year the Friday market was changed to Saturday. Shipbuilding has been carried on since the 13th century.

RYE. This cereal, known botanically as Secale cereale, is supposed to be the cultivated form of S. montanum, a wild perennial species occurring in the more elevated districts of parts of the Mediterranean region, and W. to Central Asia. Its cultivation does not appear to have been practised at a Rye (Secale cereale), about ¼ nat. size. 1, single spikelet; 2, single flower with awned plume and palea; 3, pistil; 4, grain. 1, 2, 4, about two-thirds nat. size.

very early date, relatively speaking. Alphonse de Candolle, who has collected the evidence on this point, draws attention to the fact that no traces of this cereal have hitherto been found in Egyptian monuments, or in the earlier Swiss dwellings, though seeds have been found in association with weapons of the Bronze period at Olmütz. The absence of any special name for it in the Semitic, Chinese and Sanskrit languages is also adduced as an indication of its comparatively recent culture. On the other hand, the general occurrence of the name in the more modern languages of N. Europe, under various modifications, points to the cultivation of the plant then, as now, in those regions. The origin of the Latin name secale, which exists in a modified form among the Basques and Bretons, is not explained. Rye is a tall-growing annual grass, with fibrous roots, flat, narrow, ribbon-like bluish-green leaves, and erect or decurved cylindrical slender spikes like those of barley. The spike lets contain two or three flowers, of which the uppermost is usually imperfect. The outer glumes are acute and glabrous, the flowering glumes lance-shaped, with a comb-like keel at the back, and the outer or lower one prolonged at the apex into a very long bristly awn. Within these are three stamens surrounding a compressed ovary, with two feathery stigmas. When ripe, the grain is of an elongated oval form, with a few hairs at the summit. When the ovaries of the plant become affected with a peculiar fungus (Claviceps purpurea) they become blackened and distorted, constituting (q.v.).

In the S. of Great Britain rye is chiefly or solely cultivated as a forage-plant for cattle and horses, being usually sown in autumn for spring use, after the crop of roots, turnips, &c., is exhausted, and before the clover and lucerne are ready. For forage purposes it is best to cut early, before the leaves and haulms have been exhausted of their supplies to benefit the grain. In the N. of Europe, and more especially in Scandinavia, Russia and parts of N. Germany, rye is the principal cereal; and in nutritive value, as measured by the amount of gluten it contains, it stands next to wheat, a fact which furnishes the explanation of its culture in N. latitudes ill-suited for the growth of wheat. Rye bread or black bread is in general use in N. Europe. The straw, which is prized on account of its length, is used for making hats and in the manufacture of paper. The bran is used for cattle-food and poultices, and the grain in the distillery.

 RYEZHITSA, a town of Russia, in the government of Vitebsk, 150 m. N.W. from the town of Vitebsk and on the railway between St Petersburg and Warsaw. Its population increased from 7306 in 1867 to 10,681 in 1897; but its importance is mainly historical. The cathedral is a modern building (1846). Ryezhitsa, or, as it is called in the Livonian chronicles, Roziten, was founded in 1285 by the Teutonic Knights to keep in subjection the Lithuanians and Letts. The castle was continually the object of hostile attacks. In 1561 the Teutonic Knights gave it in pawn to Poland, and, though it was captured by the Russians in 1567 and 1577, and had its fortifications dismantled by the Swedes during the war of 1656–60, it continued Polish till 1773, when White Russia was united with the Russian empire.

RYLAND, WILLIAM WYNNE (1738–1783), English engraver, was born in London in July 1738, the son of an engraver and copper-plate printer. He studied under Ravenet, and in Paris under Boucher and J. P. le Bas. After spending five years on the continent he returned to England, and having engraved portraits of George III. and Lord Bute after Ramsay, and a portrait of Queen Charlotte and the Princess Royal after Francis Cotes, R.A., he was appointed engraver to the king. In 1766 he became a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and he exhibited with them and in the Royal Academy. In his later life Ryland abandoned line-engraving, and introduced " chalk-engraving," in which the line is composed of stippled dots, and in which he transcribed Mortimer's " King John Signing Magna Charta," and copied the drawings of the old masters and the works of Angelica Kauffman. In consequence of his extravagant habits his affairs became involved; he was convicted of forging bills upon the East India Company, and, after attempting to commit suicide, was executed at Tyburn on the 29th of August 1783.

RYLANDS, JOHN (1801–1888), English manufacturer and merchant, was born at St Helens, Lancashire, on the 7th of February 1801, and was educated at the grammar school in that town. In 1819 he, his elder brothers and his father, a manufacturer of cotton goods, founded the firm of Rylands & Sons, cotton goods and linen manufacturers, at Wigan. The business rapidly increased, dye-works and bleach-works were added, and the discovery of coal under some of the firm's property added materially to its wealth. In 1825 the partners became merchants as well as manufacturers, and subsequently acquired spinning mills at Bolton and elsewhere. In 1847, his father being dead and his brothers having retired, John Rylands assumed entire control of the business, which in 1873 was turned into a limited liability company. It has mills at Manchester, Bolton, and Wigan, and is now probably the largest concern of the kind in Great Britain. John Rylands was a benefactor to various charities, and was one of the original financiers of the Manchester Ship Canal. He died at Stretford on the 11th of December 1888. A permanent memorial, the John Rylands Library, was erected by his widow in Manchester in 1899.

RYLE, JOHN CHARLES (1816–1900), English bishop, was born at Macclesfield on the 10th of May 1816, and was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he Was Craven Scholar in 1836. After holding a curacy at Exbury in Hampshire, he became rector of St Thomas's, Winchester (1843), rector of Helmingham, Suffolk (1844), vicar of Stradbroke (1861), honorary canon of Norwich (1872), and dean of Salisbury (1880); but before taking this office was advanced to the new see of Liverpool, where he remained until his resignation, which took place three months before his death at Lowestoft on the 10th of June 1900.