Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/638

Rh 614 ROCHESTER was plundered by Ethelred, king of Mercia, and subsequently it suffered severely from the ravages of the Danes. About 930, when three mints were established there by Athelstan, it had grown to be one of the principal ports of the kingdom. William the Con- queror granted the town to his half-brother Odo, bishop of Bayeux, who, on account of his connexion in the conspiracy in favour of Robert, duke of Normandy, was besieged in the castle and deprived of his possessions. In 1130 and again in 1137 the city was nearly destroyed by fire. A grand tournament was held at the castle by Henry III. in 1251. The city was visited in 1522 by Henry VIII. accompanied by the emperor Charles V., and in 1573 Elizabeth remained there five days. Charles II. passed through it on his way to London at the Restoration, and at the Revolution James II. embarked at the port on his way to France. The bishop's see was founded in 600, and the city received its first charter of incorpora- tion from Henry II. in 1165. It has returned members to parlia- ment since the 23d of Edward I. ROCHESTER, a city of the United States, capital of Monroe county, New York, lies 229 miles to the west of Albany (43 9' 22"-44 N. lat. and 77 36' 50"'97 W. long.), in a rich agricultural region, upon a plateau on both banks of the Genesee river, 7 miles from its mouth at Lake Ontario and 263 feet above the lake level. There are three falls in the river of 96, 26, and 83 feet respectively within the city limits, the banks below the first fall vary- ing in height from 100 to 210 feet. To this abundant water-power of the Genesee, supplemented by the trans- portation facilities afforded by the Erie Canal and the various railway connexions, Rochester mainly owes its progress and prosperity. The streets of the city are gen- erally wide, and well paved and lighted (partly by elec- tricity), and trees and flowering plants are abundant. Rochester is an important railway centre. The New York Central Railroad, with elevated tracks through the city, has two lines east to Syracuse, two west to Buffalo and Niagara Falls respectively, and one north to Charlotte, where connexion is made with the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg line ; a branch of the New York, Lake Erie, and Western Railway connects with the main line at Corning and with the Buffalo branch at Avon ; the Roch- Plan of Rochester. ester and Pittsburgh Railway runs south to Salamanca, and the Genesee Valley Railway to Olean, crossing the West Shore Railway a short distance south of the city line ; and there are also railway lines to Irondequoit Bay and Windsor beach, and about 30 miles of street railway, radiating from the centre in all directions. The manu- factures of Rochester are numerous and varied. Though no longer at the head of the flour industry, it still possesses twenty mills, capable of producing 2900 barrels daily. The principal manufacture is that of ready-made clothing, the sales reaching $9,000,000 annually. In its boot and shoe trade the city ranks fourth in the country (5000 hands ; annual sales, $6,500,000). There are also sixteen breweries and ten malt-houses ; some eighty or ninety cigar-makers and tobacconists have a total output of about 2,000,000 Ib of tobacco, 18,000,000 cigars, and 140,000,000 cigarettes; while furniture-making employs 1000 hands. The lumber business is extensive; and of late years the city has been one of the principal centre* for the distribution of the anthracite and bituminous coal of Pennsylvania. Its numerous nurseries are a peculiar feature of the place ; and there is a great variety of other industries. The main supply of water is brought in iron conduits (147 miles of pipe) from Hemlock Lake, 29 miles to the south ; an additional supply for subsidiary purposes is drawn from the Genesee river (11J miles of pipe). The total cost of the works has been $3,744,749. The princi pal cemetery, Mount Hope, with an area of 200 acres, is exceedingly picturesque and well cared for. Rochester has two State institutions, the Western House of Refuge and the Western New York Institution for Deaf Mutes. The former, opened in 1849, is a substantial structure of brick, with accommodation for 600 inmates, built at a. cost of $373,000; it receives juvenile delinquents com- mitted by magistrates ; they are instructed in trades and labour upon the farm belonging to the refuge. The insti- tution for deaf mutes (1875) instructs about 160 pupils annually. Among the eleemosynary institutions of the city are the Rochester city hospital, St Mary's hospital, the Rochester, St Patrick's, St Mary's, St Joseph's, and the Jewish orphan asylums, the home for the friendless, the industrial school, the church home, the home of in- dustry, and the home for truant children. There are 75 churches, including the Roman Catholic cathedral, 6 Baptist, 10 Methodist Episcopal, 10 Protestant Episcopal, 11 Presbyterian, 5 Lutheran, and 11 Roman Catholic churches, and 5 Jewish synagogues. The public school system of Rochester includes a free academy (cost $125,000) and thirty grammar-schools (with classes in the orphan asylums), in which 200 teachers are engaged and 10,000 pupils taught. There are also thirty private institutions, academies, seminaries, and parochial schools. The univer- sity of Rochester was established in 1850, under Baptist auspices ; its faculty consists of a president and ten pro- fessors, and the annual attendance of students is about 1 60. It has two buildings, Anderson Hall and Sible Hall. The Rochester theological seminary (Baptist), founded in 1850 and housed in two commodious buildings Trevor and Rockefeller Halls has eight professors and about seventy students, besides a German department. Other public libraries in addition to those of the university and the theological seminary are the central and Reynolds. There are four English and two German daily newspapers,, and twelve weekly and nine monthly publications. Among edifices not already mentioned are the city-hall, the United States Government building, the court-house, the Warner astronomical observatory, the Rochester and East Side savings banks, the Powers buildings, with their famous art gallery, and the Warner and Kimball factories. The population (89,366 in 1880) was estimated at 115,000 in 1885; the area of the city, which is divided into sixteen wards, is 4 square miles. The assessed valuation of real and personal property in 1885 was $40,952,070, and the debt was $5,249,000. Rochester derives its name from Nathaniel Rochester, who pro- jected a settlement here in 1810 ; the first house was built in 1812 ; and the incorporation of the city dates from 1834. ROCHESTER, JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF (1647-1680), born in Oxfordshire in 1647, was one of the tin worthies of the reign of the "merry monarch, scandalous and poor," " Who never said a foolish thing Nor ever did a wise one. "