Rhenish Wine Yard opens south out of King Street, nearly opposite Charles Street. There was an entrance to it from the Privy Gardens, only open during the sittings of Parliament and the Law Courts. Pepys was "at the Rhenish Wine-house drinking," July 30, 1660, with the sword-bearer of London; and again a few days later "with JudgeAdvocate Fowler, Mr. Creed, Mr. Shepley, and Captain Howard . . . and very merry." On November 24 of the same year he is again there with Creed and Shepley, and "did give them two quarts of Wormwood wine." On June 19, 1663, he is there with Mr. Moore, who showed him "the French manner, when a health is drunk . . . which is now the fashion." The last visit he records is on June 1, 1668, but he adds, "Where I have not been in a morning, I think, these seven years, or more." There were other Rhenish wine-houses in London, one was in Crooked Lane and another in the Steelyard. Richard's Coffee-house. [See Dick's.] Richmond House, WHITEHALL, was so called after Charles, second Duke of Richmond of the present family (d. 1750), for whom it was built by the celebrated Earl of Burlington, but afterwards altered and enlarged by Wyatt. It stood at the southern extremity of Privy Gardens, and looked towards Charing Cross. The ground was previously occupied by the apartments of the Duchess of Portsmouth, mother (by Charles II.) of the duke's father, the first Duke of Richmond. Here the third Duke of Richmond (who died in 1806, having borne the title for fifty-six years) formed a noble collection of the very finest casts from the antique, and, with a spirit and liberality much in advance of his age, afforded every accommodation, and invited artists by advertisements to study in his gallery. This, the first public school established in this country wherein the beauties of the antique could be studied, was opened on Monday, March 6, 1758, ten years before the establishment of the Royal Academy. Cipriani and Wilton (artists of eminence) attended to instruct, and silver medals were occasionally awarded. Richmond House was famous also for its entertainments and private theatricals. May 17, 1749.-The night before last the Duke of Richmond gave a firework : a codicil to the Peace. . . The garden lies with a slope down to the Thames, on which were lighters, from whence were thrown up, after a concert of music, a great number of rockets. Then from boats on every side were discharged water-rockets and fires of that kind; and then the wheels which were ranged along the rails of the terrace were played off; and the whole concluded with the illumination of a pavilion on the top of a slope, of two pyramids on each side, and of the whole length of the balustrade to the water. You can't conceive a prettier sight; the garden filled with everybody of fashion, the Duke [of Cumberland], the Duke of Modena and the two black Princes [of Anamaboe]. The King and Princess Emily were in their barge under the terrace; the river was covered with boats, and the shores and adjacent houses with crowds.—Walpole to Sir Horace Mann (Letters, vol. ii. pp. 155, 160). Walpole, in one of his marginal notes on Pennant, says, “His Grace [of Richmond] having bought the adjacent house fitted up a small 1 Sir James Thornhill opened his Art Academy in 1724, and the St. Martin's Lane School was established in 1734, but these were specially for artists to study the living model. theatre in it, where for two winters plays were performed by people of quality." Of the performances, Peter Pindar, addressing (as usual) George III., says :— So much with Saving-wisdom are you taken, Content you go to Richmond House with orders. Peter Pindar, Peter's Pension. He adds in a note: "Here is a pretty little nutshell of a Theatre, fitted up for the convenience of Ladies and Gentlemen of Quality who wish to expose themselves." Richmond House was destroyed by fire, December 21, 1791, but rebuilt. There is an engraved view of the house by Boydell; and Edwards, in his Anecdotes (p. 164), mentions a drawing of the gallery by an artist of the name of Parry, which he considered curious, "being," as he says, "the only representation of the place." The lease of the house did not expire until April 1841, but the Duke, in 1819, parted with his interest in it for £4300; the house was then taken down and Richmond Terrace built on its site. Richmond Street, LEICESTER SQUARE, runs from Wardour Street to Rupert Street. The first Earl of Macclesfield (d. 1693) was living here in 1681.1 Richmond Terrace, WHITEHALL, was erected on the site of Richmond House in 1824. Miss Foote, Countess of Harrington, died at No. 2, aged sixty-nine. [See Richmond House.] Ring (The), a circle in Hyde Park, surrounded with trees, and forming, in the height of the season, a fashionable ride and promenade. It was made in the reign of Charles I., was situated between the Humane Society's Receiving House and Grosvenor Gate, and was partly destroyed at the time the Serpentine was formed by Caroline, Queen of George II. Oldys had seen a poem in sixteen pages, entitled "The Circus, or British Olympicks, a Satyr on the Ring in Hyde Park." "This is a poem," says Oldys, "satirising many fops under fictitious names. Near a thousand coaches," he adds, "have been seen there in an evening." Several of the trees still remain. Wycherley was a very handsome man. His acquaintance with the famous Duchess of Cleveland commenced oddly enough. One day as he passed that Duchess's coach in the Ring, she leaned out of the window, and cried out, loud enough to be heard distinctly by him, "Sir, you're a rascal: you're a villain !" [alluding to a song in his first play]. Wycherley from that instant entertained hopes. --Pope, in Spence (ed. Singer, p. 16). Wilt thou still sparkle in the box, Still ogle in the Ring? Canst thou forget thy age and pox? Lord Dorset's Verses on Dorinda. 1 Rate-books of St. Martin's. Young Bellair. I know some who will give you an account of every glance that passes at a play and i' th' Circle.-Etherege, The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter, 4to, 1676. Sir Fopling. All the world will be in the Park to-night: Ladies, 'twere pity to keep so much beauty longer within doors, and rob the Ring of all those charms that should adorn it.—Ibid. The next place of resort wherein the servile world are let loose, is at the entrance of Hyde Park, while the gentry are at the Ring.-Spectator, No. 88. Leonora. Trifle, let's see this morning's letters. Trifle. There are only these half dozen, madam. Leonora. No more! Barbarity! This it is to go to Hyde Park upon a windy day, when a well-dress'd gentleman can't stir abroad. The beaus were forced to take shelter in the playhouse, I suppose. I was a fool I did not go thither; I might have made ten times the havoc in the side-boxes. Trifle. Your ladyship's being out of humour with the Exchange woman, for shaping your ruffles so odiously, I am afraid made you a little too reserv'd, madam. Leonora. Prithee! was there a fop in the whole Ring, that had not a side-glance from me?-Colley Cibber, Woman's Wit, or The Lady in Fashion, 4to, 1697. Sir Francis Gripe (to Miranda). Pretty rogue, pretty rogue; and so thou shalt find me, if thou dost prefer thy Gardy before these caperers of the age; thou shalt outshine the Queen's box on an opera night; thou shalt be the envy of the Ring (for I will carry thee to Hyde Park), and thy equipage shall surpass the-what d'ye call 'em-Ambassadors.-Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy Body, 4to, 1708. Here (1697) the people of fashion take the diversion of The Ring. In a pretty high place, which lies very open, they have surrounded a circumference of two or three hundred paces diameter with a sorry kind of balustrade, or rather with postes placed upon stakes but three feet from the ground; and the coaches drive round this. When they have turned for some time round one way they face about and turn t'other so rowls the world!-Wilson's Memoirs, 8vo, 1719, p. 126. How lately did this celebrated Thing, In Queen Anne's time Garth, The Dispensary, 1699. The other public diversion was merely for the eyes, for it was going round and round the Ring in Hyde Park, and bowing to one another, slightly, respectfully, or tenderly, as occasion required. No woman of fashion could receive any man at her morning toilet without alarming the husband and his friends.-Lord Chesterfield, MS. (Stanhope's Anne, p. 566). He would no more disagree with a Lord in his sentiments, than a Beau would put his hat on in Hyde-Park Ring.-Orrery's As You Find It, 4to, 1703. To all his most frequented haunts resort Oft dog him in the Ring, and oft to Court. Addison's Prologue to Steele's Tender Husband, 1705. To scandal next-what awkward thing Was that, last Sunday in the Ring. Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa, 1713. What pains to get the gaudy thing you hate, Garth, Epilogue to Addison's Cato, 1713. All the fine equipages that shine in the Ring never gave me another thought than either pity or contempt for the owners, that could place happiness in attracting the eyes of strangers.-Lady Mary W. Montagu (Works, by Lord Wharncliffe, vol. i. p. 177). Know, then, unnumbered spirits round thee fly, These, though unseen, are ever on the wing, Pope, Rape of the Lock. She glares in balls, front-boxes, and the Ring, Pope, To Martha Blount, with the Works of Voiture. The Ring, or its immediate vicinity, was the noted Hyde Park duelling-ground of the 18th century. Here in 1712 was fought the famous duel between the Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun. My Lord [Mohun] then asked the Hackney Coachman if he knew where they could get any thing that was good, it being a cold morning; he [the Hackney Coachman] said at the House near the Ring. When they came near the house, they [Lord Mohun and his second, General Macartney] both got out of the coach, and bid the coachman get some burnt wine at the house, while they took a little walk. He went into the house and told the Drawer he brought two gentlemen, who bid him get some burnt wine against they came back; the Drawer said he would not, for very few came thither so soon in the morning but to fight.-Duel between Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun (Hackney Coachman's Evidence before the Coroner). "If we were not in the Park," answered Booth warmly, "I would thank you very properly for that compliment. "O, Sir!" cries the Colonel, "we can be soon in a convenient place." Upon which Booth answered, he would attend him wherever he pleased. The Colonel then bid him come along, and strutted forward directly up Constitution Hill to Hyde Park, Booth following him at first, and afterwards walking before him, till they came to that place, which may be properly called the field of blood, being that part a little to the left of The Ring, which heroes have chosen for the scene of their exit out of this world.-Fielding's Amelia. The last circumstance of any interest connected with the Ring is the duel fought here in 1763 between John Wilkes and Samuel Martin, on account of a passage in the North Briton, in which Martin was stigmatised as a "low fellow and dirty tool of power." Wilkes was wounded. Robert Street, ADELPHI. Thomas Hood and his wife, in 1824, resided in chambers at No. 2 Robert Street, Adelphi. [See Adelphi.] Robin Hood Club, a discussion Club, or "Oratorical Society," which met in the last century at a house in Essex Street, Strand. [See Essex Street.] About the same time there was another "religious Robin Hood Society, which met every Sunday evening at Coachmakers' Hall, for free debate."1 [See Coachmakers' Hall.] Rochester House, SOUTHWARK. Bishops of Rochester. occupies part of the site. The inn or town house of the No traces remain, and the Borough Market Adjoining Winchester House is the Bishop of Rochester's inn or lodging, by whom first erected I do not now remember me to have read; but well I wot the same of long time hath not been frequented by any bishop, and lieth ruinous for lack of any reparations. The Abbot of Waverley had a house there.-Stow, p. 151. Rochester House was, about 40 years since, one great house and a great garden, and now consisteth of 62 tenements.-MS. temp. James I. (Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Saviour's, Southwark). 1 Boswell, by Croker, p. 684. Rochester Row, WESTMINSTER, so called after the Bishops of Rochester, several of whom (Sprat and Atterbury, for instance) held the deanery of Westminster at the same time with the see of Rochester. On the south side is the fine church of St. Stephen, erected and endowed, with the adjoining school-buildings for 400 children, by Miss (now the Baroness) Burdett-Coutts, 1847-1848; architect, Mr. B. Ferrey, F.S.A. Near it is the Westminster Police Court. On the north side are Hill's Almshouses, the Western Dispensary, and the Grenadier Guards' Hospital. Rolls House and Chapel, CHANCERY LANE, a place where the rolls and records of the Court of Chancery were kept from the reign of Edward III. until the erection of the Record Office in Fetter Lane. [See Record Office.] Rolls House was the official residence of the Master of the Rolls, who also kept his court here. The Rolls Court was removed on the opening of the Royal Courts of Justice, and this building is now occupied by the officials of the Record Office. The master's house was designed by Colin Campbell in 1717-1725 at a cost of £5000, during the mastership of Sir Joseph Jekyll. The first stone was laid September 18, 1717. On the site of the present chapel Henry III. erected, in the year 1233, a House of Maintenance for converted Jews (Domus Conversorum), but the number of converts decreasing from the enactment of Edward I., in 1290, by which the Jews were banished out of the realm, Edward III., in 1377, annexed the house and chapel to the newly-created office of Custos Rotulorum, or Keeper of the Rolls. The chapel has been greatly altered and disfigured. Prior to their removal to the Record Office the Rolls of the Chancery were kept in presses ranged along the walls of this chapel, under the seats of the pews, and even behind the altar. Observe.-Monument to Dr. John Young, Master of the Rolls in the reign of Henry VIII. Vertue and Walpole attribute it, and with great reason, to Torrigiano, the sculptor of the tomb of Henry VII. at Westminster. The Master is represented lying on an altar-tomb, with his hands crossed, and his face expressive of deep devotion. Within a recess at the back is a head of Christ, with an angel's head on each side, in high relief. Monument to Lord Bruce of Kinloss (d. 1610), Master of the Rolls in the reign of James I., and father of Edward, Lord Bruce of Kinloss, killed in a duel with Sir Edward Sackville. Monument to Sir Richard Allington of Horseheath, in Cambridgeshire (d. 1561). Conspicuous in the windows are the arms of Sir Robert Cecil and of Sir Harbottle Grimston, "under whose protection," writes Burnet (Hist. of Own Times, p. 104), “I lived nine years, when I was preacher at the Rolls, he being the Master of the Rolls." Among the eminent preachers at the Rolls besides Bishop Burnet were Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, and Bishop Butler, author of the Analogy of Religion. Burnet's sermon at this chapel (November 5, 1684) on the text, "Save me from the lion's mouth, for |