Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/236

Rh 218 R A D R A E by Piotrkdw. The area is 4765 square miles. Its southern part stretches over the hilly plateau of Poland, which consists of short ridges of hills from 800 to 2000 feet in height, intersected by deep valleys, and is known as the Sandomir Heights. These heights are thickly wooded ; the valleys, running west and east and watered by several tributaries of the Vistula, are excellently adapted for agri- culture. Farther north in its central portion the contour of the government is level, the soil fertile, and the surface, which is diversified here and there with wood, is further broken up by occasional spurs, 800 feet in height, of the Lysa G6ra Mountains. The northern districts, where the Pilica joins the Vistula, consist of low flat tracts with undefined valleys, exposed to frequent floods and covered over large areas with marshes; the basin of the Pilica, notorious for its unhealthiness, is throughout a low marshy plain. Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic deposits appear in the southern plateau, Chalk and Jurassic in the middle, and Tertiary in the north. Wide tracts are covered with Glacial deposits, the Scandinavian erratics reaching as far south as Ilza ; these last in their turn are covered with widely spreading post-Glacial lacus- trine deposits. The Vistula skirts the government on the south and east and is an important means of com- munication, several hundreds of light boats (galary) descending the river every year, while steamers ply as far up as Sgdomierz. The Sdomierz district is occasionally exposed to disastrous inundations of the river. The tribu- taries of the Vistula (Radomka, Kamienna, and several others) are but short and small, while those of the Pilica are mere streams sluggishly flowing amidst marshes. The population (644,830 in 1882) is Polish for the most part, one- seventh being Jews. According to creed the proportions are Roman Catholic 84'0 per cent., Jewish 14'6, Protestant 1'3, and Greek O'l per cent. The chief occupation of the inhabitants is agriculture, the principal crops being wheat, oats, rye, potatoes, and beetroot (for sugar). Corn is exported and potatoes largely used for distillation. In 1879 there were 148 manufacturing estab- lishments (197 in 1883), employing 1708 hands, with an aggregate production of 2,121,000 roubles (212,000), the more important being tanneries, flour-mills, sugar-works, and several machinery and iron-works. These last are suffering, however, from want of wood-fuel, and many of them have recently been closed. Trade is not very extensive, the only channel of commerce being the Vistula. There is no lack of philanthropic institutions within the govern- ment (most of them founded early in this century), but never- theless the sanitary condition of the people is deplorable. Plica polonica, which is endemic in the government of Radom as well as in that of Kielce, is widely diffused, no fewer than 15,000 per- sons suffering from it, and cognate maladies, such as goitre, scabies, and tinea capitis, are also widely prevalent. The educational institutions include two lycees or gymnasia and two progymnasia (all at Radom), with 813 male and 287 female pupils, a normal school, a theological seminary at Sandomir, and 170 primary schools (112 in villages), with 8465 scholars. The government is divided into eight districts, the chief towns of which are Radom, Ilza (2750), Konsk (6275), Kozienice (5690), Opatow (5200), Opoczno (5585), and Sedomierz or Sandomir (6265, or 14,710 including suburbs). Zavihvost (3700) is an important custom-house. Ostrowiec (5290), Staszow (6910), Przedborz (6345), and Szidlowiec (5290) have municipal institutions. RADOM, capital of the above government, situated on the Mleczna, a tributary of the Radomka, 65 miles south from Warsaw, is one of the best-built provincial towns of Poland. Lublin Street has a number of fine shops, and there are two well-kept public gardens. The permanent population in 1882 was 12,970, half of whom were Jews, and the town is rapidly growing towards the south-east. Though an old town, Radom has no interesting antiquities. The church of St Wlaclaw, contemporary with the founda- tion of the town, was transformed by the Austrians into a storehouse, and subsequently by the Russian Government into a military prison. The old castle is in ruins, and the old Bernardine monastery is now used as barracks. The manufactures are unimportant, but trade has been lately increasing. Radom, which is mentioned in historical documents of the year 1216, at that time occupied the site of what is now Old Radom. New Radom was founded in 1340 by Casimir the Great. Here Jadwiga was elected queen of Poland in 1382, and here too in 1401 the first act relating to the union of Poland with Lithuania was signed ; the "seim " of 1505, where the organic law of Poland was sworn by the king, was also held at Radom. Several great fires, and still more the Swedish War, were the ruin of the old city. After the third partition of Poland it fell under Austrian rule ; later on, in 1809, it became capital of the Radom department of the grand-duchy of Warsaw. In 1815 it was annexed to Russia and became chief town of the province of Sandomir. RAEBURN, SIR HENRY (1756-1823), portrait-painter, was born at Stockbridge, a suburb of Edinburgh, on the 4th of March 1756, the son of a manufacturer of the city. He was -early left an orphan. Being placed in Heriot's Hospital, he received there the elements of a sound education, and at the age of fifteen was apprenticed to a goldsmith in Edinburgh. Here he had some little oppor- tunity for the practice of the humbler kinds of art, and various pieces of jewellery, mourning rings and the like, adorned with minute drawings on ivory by his hand, are still extant. Soon he took to the production of care- fully finished miniatures ; and, meeting with success and patronage, he extended his practice to oil-painting, being all the while quite self-taught. The worthy goldsmith his master watched the progress of his pupil with interest, gave him every encouragement, and introduced him to David Martin, who had been the favourite assistant of Allan Ramsay junior, and was now the leading portrait- painter in Edinburgh. Raeburn received considerable assistance from Martin, and was especially aided by the loan of portraits to copy. Soon the young painter had gained sufficient skill to render it advisable that he should devote himself exclusively to art. When in his twenty-second year he was asked to paint the portrait of a young lady whom he had previously observed and admired when he was sketching from nature in the fields. She was the daughter of Peter Edgar of Bridgelands and widow of Count Leslie. The lady was speedily fascinated by the handsome and intellectual young artist, and in a month she became his wife, bringing him an ample fortune. After the approved fashion of artists of the time, it was resolved that Raeburn should visit Italy, and he accord- ingly started with his wife. In London he was kindly received by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who gave him excellent advice as to his study in Rome, especially recommending to his attention the works of Michelangelo. He also offered him more substantial pecuniary aid, which was declined as unneeded; but Raeburn carried with him to Italy many valuable introductions from the president of the Academy. In Rome he made the acquaintance of Gavin Hamilton, of Batoni, and of Byers. For the advice of the last-named he used to acknowledge himself greatly indebted, and particularly for the recommendation that " he should never copy an object from memory, but, from the principal figure to the minutest accessory, have it placed before him." After two years of study in Italy he returned to Edinburgh in 1787, where he began a most successful career as a portrait-painter. In that year he executed an admirable seated portrait of the second Lord President Dundas. Of his earlier portraiture we have interesting examples in the bust-likeness of Mrs Johnstone of Baldovie and in the three-quarter-length of Dr James Hutton, works which, if they are somewhat timid and tentative in handling and wanting in the trenchant brush-work and assured mastery of subsequent productions, are full of delicacy and char- acter. The portraits of John Clerk, Lord Eldin, and of Principal Hill of St Andrews belong to a somewhat later period. Raeburn was fortunate in the time in which he practised portraiture. Sir Walter Scott, Blair, Mackenzie,