of a small lake, a fort which received the name of Pereyaslav-Ryazanskiy. In 1294 (or in 1335) the bishop of Murom, compelled to leave his own town, settled in Pereyaslav-Ryazanskiy. The princes of Ryazan followed his example, and by and by completely abandoned the old republican town of Ryazan. In 1300 a congress of Russian princes was held there, and in the following year the town was taken by the Moscow prince. It continued, however, to be the residence of the Ryazan princes until 1517. In 1365 and 1377 it was plundered and burned by the Tatars, but in 1460, 1513, 1521 and 1564 it was strong enough to repel them. Earthen walls with towers were erected after 1301; and in the 17th century a kreml or citadel still stood on the high crag above the Trubezh.
RYAZHSK, a town of Russia, in the government of Ryazan, 72 m. by rail S. of the city of Ryazan. Pop. (1897) 12,993. It is one of the chief railway junctions of Russia, where meet the lines from Moscow to S. Russia and Caucasia and from Poland to Samara and Siberia. It has become a centre for all the corn growing regions of Russia, and is a wealthy place.
RYBINSK, or Ruibinsk, a town of Russia, in the government of Yaroslavl, 60 m. by river N.W. of Yaroslavl. It is connected by rail (186 m.) with Bologoye, on the line between St Petersburg and Moscow. It derives its importance from its situation on the Volga, opposite the mouth of the Sheksna, which connects the Volga with the regions around Lake Ladoga. Rybinsk has also an active trade in agricultural products from the neighbouring districts. The permanent population, which was 25,223 in 1897, is increased in the summer by nearly 100,000 workers from different parts of Russia.
RYDBERG, ABRAHAM VIKTOR (1828-1895), Swedish author and publicist, was born in Jönköping on 18th December 1828. He was educated at the high school of Vaxiö, and passed on to the university of Lund in 1851. While at school he was publishing verse and prose in the periodicals; some of these early miscellanies he collected in 1894 in the volumes called Varia. As a student he turned to more precise labours, and devoted himself to science. He had almost determined to adopt the profession of an engineer, when he was offered in 1855 a post on the staff of one of the largest Swedish newspapers. This caused his thoughts to return to imaginative literature, and it was in the feuilleton of this journal (the Göteborgs Handels-och sjöfartstidning) that Viktor Rydberg's romances successively appeared; he was editorially connected with it until 1876. The Freebooter on the Baltic (1857) and The Last of the Athenians (1859) gave Rydberg a place in the front rank of contemporary novelists. It was a surprise to his admirers to see him presently turn to theology, but with The Bible's Teaching about Christ (1862), in which the aspects of modern Biblical criticism were first placed before Swedish readers, he enjoyed a vast success. He followed this up by a number of contributions to the popular philosophy of religion, all inspired by the same reverent and yet searching spirit of inquiry. The modernity of his views led to his being opposed by the orthodox clergy, but by the wider public he was greatly esteemed. Nevertheless, it is said that it was his religious criticism which so long excluded him from the Swedish Academy, since he was not elected until 1877, when he had long been the first living author of Sweden. Roman Days is a series of archaeological essays on Italy (1876). He collected his poems in 1882; his version of Faust dates from 1876. In 1884 he was appointed professor of ecclesiastical history at Stockholm. He died, after a short illness, on the 22nd of September 1895. In Viktor Rydberg Sweden possessed a writer of the first order, who carried on the tradition of Boström and Geijer in philosophy and history, and possessed in addition a glow of imagination and a marvellous charm of style. He was an idealist of the old romantic type which Sweden had known for three-quarters of a century; he was the last of that race, and perhaps, as a mere writer, the greatest. In personal character Rydberg was extremely like his writings—stately, ardent and ceremonious, with a fund of amiability which made him universally beloved. His premature death was the subject of national mourning, and had even a historical significance, for with him the old romantic influence in Swedish literature ceased to be paramount. (E. G.)
RYDE, a municipal borough and watering-place in the Isle of Wight, England, 5 m. S.S.W. of Portsmouth. Pop. (1901) 11,043. It is beautifully situated on rising ground on the N.E. coast, overlooking Spithead. It occupies the site of a village called La Rye or La Riche, which was destroyed by the French in the reign of Edward II. About the close of the 18th century it was a small fishing hamlet, but it rapidly grew into favour as a watering-place. Ryde is connected by rail with the other towns in the island, and there is also steamboat communication with Portsmouth, Southampton, Southsea, Portsea and Stoke's Bay. The pier, built originally in 1812, but since then greatly extended, forms a delightful promenade half a mile in length. The railway trains run out to its head, and an electric tramway also runs along it. The principal buildings are All Saints church, erected in 1870 from the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott, and other churches, the market house and town hall, the Royal Victoria Yacht club-house, the theatre and the Royal Isle of Wight Infirmary. There are golf-links near the town. The town was incorporated in 1868, and is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 819 acres.
RYDER, ALBERT PINKHAM (1847-), American artist, was born at New Bedford, Mass., on the 19th of March 1847. He was a pupil of William E. Marshall and of the schools of the National Academy of Design. Among his better known paintings are: “Temple of the Mind,” “Jonah and the Whale,” “Christ appearing unto Mary,” “The Flying Dutchman,” “Charity,” and “The Little Maid of Arcadie.” He became a member of the Society of American Artists in 1878, and a National Academician in 1906.
RYE, a market town and municipal borough in the Rye parliamentary division of Sussex, England, 11 m. N.E. by E. from Hastings, on the South-Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop. (1901) 3900. It rises on a sharp eminence above the S. of Romney Marsh, which within historic times was an inlet of the English Channel. The sea began to recede in the 16th century, and now the river Rother forms a small estuary with its mouth 2 m. from the town; this serves as a small harbour with a depth of 15 ft. at high tide, and there is some trade in coal, grain and timber. Fishing and shipbuilding are carried on, and there is a market for sheep (which are pastured in great numbers on the marshes), wool, grain and hops. The church of St Mary is of mixed architecture, chiefly Transitional, Norman and Early English; it is cruciform, with a low central tower. Of the old fortifications there remain portions of the town wall, a strong quadrangular tower built by William of Ypres, earl of Kent, and lord warden in the time of Stephen, and now forming part of the police station, and a handsome gate with a round tower on each side, known as the Land Gate, at the entrance into Rye from the London road. Picturesque old houses are numerous. In the low land S. of the town stands Camber Castle, one of the coastal defensive works of Henry VIII. In the vicinity are golf-links, to which a steam tram runs from the town. The municipal borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 985 acres.
In the time of Edward the Confessor, Rye (Ria, Ryerot, La Rie) was a fishing village and, as part of the manor of “Rameslie,” was granted by the king to the abbot and convent of Fécamp, by whom it was retained until Henry III. resumed it. By 1086 Rye was probably a port of consequence, and a charter of Richard I. shows that in the reign of Henry II., if not before, it had been added to the Cinque Ports. The fluctuations of the sea and attacks of the French caused its decline in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the Walls were therefore built in the reign of Edward III. The decay of Winchelsea contributed to the partial revival of Rye in the 15th and 16th centuries, when it was a chief port of passage. Towards the end of the 16th century the decay of the port began, and notwithstanding frequent attempts to improve the harbour it never recovered its ancient prosperity. Rye was incorporated under a mayor and jurats
