to the committee on secondary education, which subsidizes science and art classes in various schools and higher grade science schools at Dingwall, Tain and Stornoway.
History.—It may be doubted whether the Romans ever effected even a temporary settlement in the area of the modern county. At that period, and for long afterwards, the land was occupied by Gaelic Picts, who, in the 6th and 7th centuries, were converted to Christianity by followers of St Columba. Throughout the next three centuries the natives were continually harassed by Norse pirates, of whose presence tokens have survived in several place-names (Dingwall, Tain, &c.). At this time the country formed part of the great province of Moray, which then extended as far north as Dornoch Firth and the Oykell, and practically comprised the whole of Ross and Cromarty, excepting a comparatively narrow strip on the Atlantic seaboard. When the rule of the Celtic maormors or earls ceased in the 12th century, consequent on the plantation of the district with settlers from other parts (including a body of Flemings), by order of David I., who was anxious to break the power of the Celts, the bounds of Moravia were contracted and the earldom of Ross arose. At first Ross proper only included the territory adjoining Moray and Dornoch Firths. The first earl was Malcolm MacHeth, who received the title from Malcolm IV. After his rebellion in 1179 chronic insurrection ensued, which was quelled by Alexander II., who bestowed the earldom on Farquhar Macintaggart (Farquhar, son of the priest), then abbot of Applecross, and in that capacity lord of the western district. William, 4th earl, was present with his clan at the battle of Bannockburn (1314), and almost a century later (1412) the castle of Dingwall, the chief seat on the mainland of Donald, lord of the Isles, was captured after the disastrous fight at Harlaw in Aberdeenshire, which Donald had provoked when his claim to the earldom was rejected. The earldom reverted to the crown in 1424, but James I. soon afterwards restored it to the heiress of the line, the mother of Alexander MacDonald, 3rd lord of the Isles, who thus became 11th earl. In consequence, however, of the treason of John Macdonald, 4th and last lord of the Isles and 12th earl of Ross, the earldom was again vested in the crown (1476). Five years later James III. bestowed it on his second son, James Stewart, whom he also created duke of Ross in 1488. By the 16th century the whole area of the county was occupied by different clans. The Rosses held what is now Easter Ross; the Munroes the small tract around Ben Wyvis, including Dingwall; the Macleods Lewis, and, in the mainland, the district between Loch Maree and Loch Torridon; the MacDonalds of Glengarry, Coygach, and the district between Strome Ferry and Kyle of Lochalsh, and the Mackenzies the remainder. The county of Ross was constituted in 1661, and Cromarty in 1685 and 1698, both being consolidated into the present county in 1889 (see Cromarty, county). Apart from occasional conflicts between rival clans, the only battles in the shire were those of Invercarron, at the head of Dornoch Firth, when Montrose was crushed by Colonel Strachan on the 27th of April 1650, and Glenshiel, when the Jacobites, under the earl of Seaforth, aided by Spaniards, were defeated, at the pass of Strachel, near Bridge of Shiel, by General Wightman on the 11th of June 1719.
Antiquities.—The principal relics of antiquity—mainly stone circles, cairns and forts—are found in the eastern district. A vitrified fort crowns the hill of Knockfarrel in the parish of Fodderty, and there is a circular dun near the village of Lochcarron. Some fine examples of sculptured stones occur, especially those which, according to tradition, mark the burial-place of the three sons of a Danish king who were shipwrecked off the coast of Nigg. The largest and handsomest of these three crosses-the clash-a-charridh, or Stone of Lamentation-stands at Shandwick. It is about 9 ft. high and contains representations of the martyrdom of St Andrew and figures of an elephant and dog. It fell during a storm in 1847 and was broken in three pieces. On the top of the cross in Nigg churchyard are two figures with outstretched arms in the act of supplication; the dove descends between them, and below are two dogs. The cross was knocked down by the fall of the belfry in 1725, but has been riveted together. The third stone formerly stood at Cadboll of Hilltown, but was removed for security to the grounds of Invergordon Castle. Among old castles are those of Lochslin, in the parish of Fearn, said to date from the 13th century, which, though ruinous, possesses two square towers in good preservation; Balone, in the parish of Tarbat, once a stronghold of the earls of Ross; the remains of Dingwell Castle, their original seat; and Eilean Donain in Loch Alsh, which was blown up by English warships during the abortive Jacobite rising in 1719.
See R. Bain, History of the Ancient Province of Ross (Dingwall, 1899); J. H. Dixon, Gairloch (Edinburgh, 1888); F. N. Reid, The Earls of Ross (Edinburgh, 1894); W. C. Mackenzie, History of the Outer Hebrides (Paisley, 1904).
ROSSANO, a city of Calabria, Italy, in the province of Cosenza, 24 m. N.N.E. from that town direct, with a station 4 m.
distant on the line from Metaponto to Reggio. Pop. (1901)
13,354. It is picturesquely situated on a precipitous spur of
the mountain mass of Sila overlooking the Gulf of Taranto,
the highest part of the town being 975 ft. above sea-level.
Rossano is the seat of an archbishop, and in the cathedral is
preserved the Codex Rossartensis, an uncial MS. of the Gospels
of Matthew and Mark in silver characters on purple vellum,
with twelve miniatures, of great interest in the history of
Byzantine art, belonging to the 6th century A.D. It was
brought to Grottaferrata (q.v.) for the exhibition of Byzantine art held there in 1905. Marble and alabaster quarries are worked in the neighbourhood.
Mentioned in the Itineraries, Rossano (Rosciarmm) appears under the Latin empire as one of the important fortresses of Calabria. Totila took it in 548. The people showed great attachment to the Byzantine empire. In the 14th century Rossano was made a principality for the great family of De Baux. Passing to the Sforza, and thus to Sigismund of Poland, it was united in 1558 to the crown of Naples by Philip II. of Spain in virtue of a doubtful will by Bona of Poland in favour of Giovanni Lorenzo Pappacoda. Under Isabella of Aragon and Bona of Poland the town had been a centre of literary culture; but under the Spaniards it declined. The crown sold the lordship in 1612 to the Aldobrandini, and from them it passed to the Borghesi and the Caraffa. Rossano is best known as the birthplace of St Nilus the younger, whose life is the most valuable source of information extant in regard to the state of matters in southern Italy in the 10th century. Pope John VII. (705–7) was also a native of the town.
See F. Lenormant, La Grande-Grèce (1881), vol. i. 339 sqq.
ROSSBACH, a village of Prussian Saxony in the district of Merseburg, 8 m. S.W. of that place and N.W. of Weissenfels, famous as the scene of Frederick the Great's victory over the allied French and the army of the Empire on the 5th of November 1757. For the events preceding the battle see Seven Years’ War. The Prussian camp on the morning of the 5th lay between Rossbach (left) and Bedra (right), facing the Allies, who, commanded by the French general, Charles de Rohan, prince de Soubise (1715–1787), and Joseph Frederick William, duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1702–1787), General Feldzeugmeister of the Empire, had manœuvred in the preceding days without giving Frederick an opportunity to bring them to action, and now lay to the westward, with their right near Branderoda and their left at Mücheln (see sketch). The advanced posts of the Prussians were in the villages immediately west of their camp, those of the Allies on the Schortau hill and
the Galgenberg.
The Allies possessed a numerical superiority of two to one in the battle itself, irrespective of detachment’s[1] and their advanced post overlooked all parts of Frederick’s camp. They had had the best of it in the manœuvres of the previous days, and the duke of Hildburghausen determined to take the offensive. He had some difficulty, however, in inducing Soubise to risk a battle, and the Allies did not begin to move off their camping-ground until after eleven on the 5th, Soubise’s intention being probably to engage as late in the day as possible, with the
- ↑ V. der Goltz (Rossbach bis Jena, 1906 edition) gives 41,000 Allies and 21,600 Prussians as the combatant strengths. Berndt’s statistical work, Zahl im Kriege, gives the respective forces engaged as Allies 43,000, Prussians 21,000. Other accounts give the Allies total strength as 64,000 and the Prussians’ as 24,000.
