Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/414

Rh 396 E N R E N better, particularly along the streams, where there are tracts of good haughland, but it is also in many places thin and poor. There is a considerable amount of pasture, and the principal crops are oats and barley. On the flat lands adjoining the Clyde the soil is a duces very heavy crops, a large extent being under wheat. Although mineral workings have injured agriculture in several localities, the large towns in the county and neighbourhood have stimulated im- provements, and the arable area has steadily increased. The fullow- rich alluvium which, except when soured by excessive rain, pro- | ing table gives a classification of holdings in 1875 and 1880 : uO Acres and under. 50 to 100 Acres. 100 to 300 Acres. 300 to 500 Acres. 500 to 1000 Acres. Above 1000 Acres. Total. No. Acres. No. Acres. No. Acres. No. Acres. No. Acres. No. Acres. No. Acres. 1875 1830 088 581 10,633 8,904 300 326 23,094 25,078 399 329 45,296 50,830 15 12 5488 4710 9 5 5580 3308 T 1031 1311 1254 90,091 93,801 According to the agricultural returns for 1884 the total area under crops was 95,353, a percentage of 60'8 (57 '3 in 1874). The area under com crops in 1884 was 17,502 acres ; under green crops, 6,683 acres ; under rotation of grasses, 22,997 acres ; under permanent pasture, 47,880 acres; orchards and market-gardens, 158 acres ; and woodland, 5424. Of the corn land more than four-fifths was under oats, which occupied 14,132 acres, while 2229 were under wheat, and only 178 under barley. Potatoes were grown on 4351 acres, and turnips and swedes on 2332 ; while under beans, rye, vetches, &c., there are about 1300 acres annually. The total number of horses in 1884 was 3331 ; the number of cattle to every 100 acres under cultivation was 28 "8, the average for Scotland being 23 '6. The large towns in the county and neighbourhood account for a great number of cattle being kept for dairy and feeding purposes. The number of sheep to every 100 acres under cultivation was 33 '1, the average for Scotland being 145 '1. The number of pigs was 1952. According to the Miscellaneous Statistics of the United Kingdom (1879) 5735 proprietors owned 155,321 acres with an estimated gross rental of 990,898. Sir M. R. Shaw Stewart possessed 24,951 acres, Allan Gilmour of Eaglesham 16,516, A. A. Spiers of Elderslie 11,259, H. Lee Harvey of Castlesemple 6500, Sir W. Stirling Maxwell 4773, Lord Blantyre 4449, Duncan Darroch of Gourock 4248, and W. Mure of Caldwell 3624. Besides the coal, iron, and oil industries already mentioned, the county has extensive, varied, and valuable manufactures, of which the chief are noticed in the separate articles on Greenock and Paisley. Elsewhere there are chemical works, engineering works, foundries, and bleaching, dyeing, and weaving works. There are throughout the shire a large number of excellent roads ; and numer- ous lines and branches of the Caledonian and the Glasgow and South- Western systems afford ample railway communication along the centre, north, and west for both general traffic and minerals. The population has risen from 7?,501 in 1801 to 216,947 in 1871 and to 263,374 in 1881 (126,743 males, 136,631 females), more than 100,000 of the increase having taken place between 1851 and 1881. Of the whole number 49,681 men and 21,734 women were engaged in industrial handicrafts or dealt in manufactured substances, and of these 7741 men and 15,547 women were connected with the making of textile fabrics, while 7986 men and 172 women were connected with the working of mineral substances. The Redistribution Act passed in 1885 extended the parliament- ary representation of the county from one to two members. The only royal burgh is Renfrew, which is separately noticed, as are also the parliamentary burghs of Greenock and Paisley. The county also contains part of the south side of Glasgow and its suburbs, the parliamentary burgh of Port Glasgow, the police burghs of Pollokshaws, Gourock, and Johnstone, and a number of small towns and villages. Historically Renfrewshire first appears as part of the territory of the Damnonii, and thereafter it was part of the British kingdom of Strathclyde. The western part, then known as Strathgryfe, was granted by David I. to Walter, the first high steward of Scotland, and the Stewarts had long a local connexion with it. Somerled, Lord of the Isles, was defeated and slain in the neighbourhood of the burgh of Renfrew in 1164 ; and Marjory Bruce is said to have been killed by a fall from her horse at Knock Hill between Paisley and Renfrew in 1316. In 1404 the county, which had previously ibrmed part of Lanark, was erected into a separate jurisdiction by Robert III., who created his son James baron of Renfrew, a title still held by the eldest son of the reigning sovereign. In the end of the 17th century the district was famous for its witches ; and in 1685, after the failure of the earl of Argyll's ill-conducted enter- prise, the earl himself was taken prisoner on the bank of the White Cart opposite Inchinnan church, at the spot marked by the " Argyll Stone," now within the policies of Blythswood House. See Crawfurd, Description of the Shire of Renfrew (1710) ; Hamilton of Wishaw, Description of the Sheriffdvm of Lanark and Renfrew (Maitland Club, 1831); Hector, Selection* from the Judicial Records of Renfrewshire (1876-78) ; and A Jliitory of the Witchet of Renfrewthire (Paisley, 1809 and 1877). RENFREW, a royal and parliamentary burgh and the county town of the above county, is situated in the north- east near the south bank of the Clyde, connected with which is a small harbour. The main part of the town is gathered round four streets branching out from an open space called the cross. The town-hall, erected iii 1871-73, and restored after partial destruction by fire in 1878, has a massive square tower rising to a height of 105 feet. The railway station is 6 miles west of Glasgow. The industries are connected with two shipbuilding yards, a chemical work, a forge, a dye work, and weaving. Popula- tion in 1881, 5115. The town, which is spoken of as a burgh in 11GO, seems to have been in the 16th and early in the 17th century the principal port on the Clyde, one branch of which ran in a channel, now silted up, close behind the houses on the north side of High Street. The original castle of the Stewards seems to have stood on the island called "The King's Inch," between the two channels of the river. Renfrew is one of the Kilmarnock group of parliamentary burghs. RENT, GUIDO (1575-1642), a prime master in the Bolognese school of painting, and one of the most admired artists of the period of incipient decadence in Italy, was born at Calvenzano near Bologna on 4th November 1575. He is most usually named Guido. His father was a musician of repute, a player on the flageolet ; he wished to bring the lad up to perform on the harpsichord. At a very childish age, however, Guido displayed a determined bent towards the art of form, scribbling some attempt at a drawing here, there, and everywhere. He was only nine years of age when Denis Calvart took notice of him, received him into his academy of design by the father's permission, and rapidly brought him forward, so that by the age of thirteen Guido had already attained marked proficiency. Albani and Domenichino became soon after- wards pupils in the same academy. With Albani Guido was very intimate up to the earlier period of manhood, but they afterwards became rivals, both as painters and as heads of ateliers, with a good deal of asperity on Albani's part; Domenichino was also pitted against Reni by the policy of Annibale Caracci. Guido was still in the academy of Calvart when he began frequenting the opposi- tion school kept by Lodovico Caracci, whose style, far in advance of that of the Flemish painter, he dallied with. This exasperated Calvart. Him Guido, not yet twenty years of age, cheerfully quitted, transferring himself openly to the Caracci academy, in which he soon became prominent, being equally skilful and ambitious. He had not been a year with the Caracci when a work of his excited the wonder of Agostino and the jealousy of Annibale. Lodovico cherished him, and frequently painted him as an angel, for the youthful Reni was extremely handsome. After a while, however, Lodovico also felt himself nettled, and he patronized the competing talents of Guercino. On one occasion Guido had made a copy of Annibale's Descent from the Cross ; Annibale was asked to retouch it, and, finding nothing to do, exclaimed pettishly, " He knows more than enough " (" Costui ne sa troppo "). On another occasion Lodovico, consulted as umpire, lowered a price which Reni asked for an early picture. This slight determined the young man to be a pupil no more. He left the Caracci, and started on his own account as a competitor in the race for patronage and fame. A renowned work, the story of Callisto and Diana, had been completed before he left. Guido was faithful to the eclectic principle of the Bolognese school of painting. He had appropriated some-