Fig. 593. Rouen Plate. Decorated à la Corne.
Rouennais Faience. This style, of strongly Oriental character, and mostly applied to the decoration of what are called “lambrequins” (or mantlings) and “dentelles” (lace), has been the object of universal imitation in France and other countries. Figs. 593 and 594 are representative specimens remarkable for great originality.
Fig. 594. Slipper in Rouen Faience.
Rouge Croix, Rouge Dragon. Two of the four Pursuivants (heralds of the lowest type) of Herald’s College.
Rouge Royal, Arch. A kind of red marble.
Round Towers. There are upwards of a hundred in Ireland, of which about twenty are perfect. Generally the tower is a hollow circular column from 50 to 150 feet high, capped by a short pointed roof of stone. The base, frequently of cyclopean masonry, measures from 40 to 60 feet in circumference, and the form of the whole tower is tapering towards the summit. The single entrance door is always from 8 to 15 feet above the ground; the windows, scattered, light the internal stories or rooms. Innumerable and wild conjectures of the origin and purpose of these towers have been made. The most sober appears to be that they were the earliest form of buildings of a monastic order, adapted to the exigencies of a Christian settlement in the midst of pagans and pirates. (See Petrie, The Round Towers of Ireland.)
Fig. 595. Bezant.