James Meadows, a distinguished civil engineer, was born at a village on the borders of Dartmoor, in December 1799. His professional talents were early developed by various commissions which he received in his native district. Telford, the famous engineer, employed him to lay down considerable lengths of turnpike roads in Devonshire. The Earl of Morley entrusted him with the construction of a cast-iron bridge across the Lary, an arm of the sea within Plymouth harbour. An order was given to him to build a floating steam-bridge for crossing the estuary of the Dart near Dartmouth. He was also engaged in surveying nearly all the harbours on the S.W. coast of England. It was in 1838 that Rendel settled in London, and began to take a high place in his calling. He was soon recognised as a man of accurate observation, sagacious judgment, great professional knowledge, and unwearyed energy. The success with which he continued to execute his numerous commissions brought him more and more into repute. At length, in 1843, his engagement to construct the projected docks at Birkenhead was the occasion of bringing him prominently before the public. The enterprise met with opposition; the case was laid before the legislature; and he was summoned as a witness before the parliamentary committees. His learned and lucid evidence, and the able and successful manner in which he maintained his own views, established his reputation as one of the first engineers in the land. From that time he was constantly engaged throughout the country in projecting and conducting large public works. Among his most important enterprises were the dock at Great Grimsby, and the harbours of refuge at Holyhead and Portland. Nor did his talents fail to be appreciated beyond the limits of Great Britain. The Brazilian, the Prussian, and the Sardinian governments in turn employed him to make certain surveys and reports. The viceroy of Egypt appointed him a member of the international commission for examining into the practicability of a canal across the isthmus of Suez. The city of Hamburg too, the year before he died, engaged him to find out some plan of preventing the bed of the River Elbe from being choked up with mud. Rendel, at his death in 1856, was a fellow of the Royal Society, and one of the council of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

RENSBURG, a town of Denmark, in the duchy of Holstein, on the confines of Schleswig, stands in a flat, sandy region on both sides of the Eider, and on an island in its centre, 26 miles W. of Kiel, and 54 N.N.W. of Hamburg. It was formerly fortified, but the defences were destroyed in 1852. It is for the most part well built, and consists of three parts,—the old town on the island, the new town on the south or left bank, and the Crown-work (Kronwerk) on the opposite side of the river. There are two market-places, two churches, a gymnasium, an arsenal (which contained until recently a great quantity of arms of all kinds), an hospital, house of correction, and custom-house. The manufactures include bells, pottery, tobacco, vinegar, and other articles. The situation of the place is very favourable for trade and navigation. It communicates with the German Ocean by the Eider, and with the Baltic by the Schleswig-Holstein Canal, which joins the river Liere. There is also a railway from this to Hamburg. In the middle ages the site of the old town was occupied by a castle called Reinoldsburg, which was for a long time alternately possessed by Denmark and Holstein. The date of the first rise of the town is unknown; it was encircled by walls and ditches in 1539. The old town was fortified anew by Frederick III. of Denmark (1669-71), who placed over the Holstein gate the inscription, "Eidora Romani terrarum imperii," declaring the Eider to be the limit of the German empire, of which Rendsburg is consequently the most northern town. Additional fortifications were added in 1685, 1690, and 1695, so that the place became a fortress of the second class. In 1848 Rendsburg fell into the hands of the Prussian and Holstein troops; and on being regained by the Danes was dismantled. Pop. 10,000.

**Rene of Anjou**, commonly known as the "good King Rene," was born at the castle of Angers in 1409. The first part of his life was remarkable for a course of tantalizing events. He had not long obtained possession of the duchy of Lorraine, in right of his wife, when Anthony, Count of Vaudemont drove him from it. Not long afterwards the intelligence, that his brother Louis of Anjou, and Jean, Queen of Naples, had died, leaving him heir to their dominions, reached him when he was the prisoner of the Duke of Burgundy, and unable to lay hold of his newly-acquired rights. It is true that he was soon released; but fortune still continued to make him her sport. Before he had been four years on the Neapolitan throne, Alfonso of Aragon forced him to leave his crown and flees. He returned to France in 1442, only to find that his territories there were occupied by the English. It was not until after the marriage of his daughter Margaret with Henry VI. of England in 1443 that he was allowed, for the first time in his life, to settle down in undisputed possession of a part of his dominions. This severe course of experience did not prevent Rene from spending the remainder of his days in sustaining the mock state of a sovereign. Establishing a court in the old castle of Aix in Provence, and keeping up the empty title of King of Naples, the Two Sicilies, and Jerusalem, he conducted himself more like a monarch in a romance than a prince in that troublous and warlike age. Dancing, music, painting, and poetry were his serious business. Troubadours and knights-errant were his only courtiers. If he ever came out among ordinary men and things, it was to superintend some public mime or pageant, or to introduce some luxury among his subjects. So genial and pleasant, indeed, was his rule that, after his death in 1480, the natives of Provence long cherished the memory of the "good King Rene." As recently as 1823 his statue, wrought in marble by David, was placed in one of the squares of Aix. A graphic account of Rene is given in Scott's *Anne of Geierstein*.

**Renfrew**, a parliamentary and royal burgh of Scotland, the capital, but not the largest town, of the county of the same name, near the left bank of the Clyde, 6 miles W.N.W. of Glasgow. The Cart, an affluent of the Clyde, passes close to the town; and there is also a short canal between Renfrew and the Clyde. A single street, with lanes diverging from it, forms the whole town; and the only buildings of importance are the Established church, the Free church, town-house, jail, grammar school (endowed by King Robert III.), and a superior school established in 1842. There is also a library and atheneum. Many of the people are employed in weaving muslin and silk; others in a bleachfield near the town, in ship-building yards, iron foundry, and a distillery in the neighbourhood. There is very little trade, though Renfrew has a quay where the Clyde steamers touch. Weekly markets are held here. The burgh is governed by a provost, two bailies, and nine councillors; and, along with Dumbarton, Port-Glasgow, Kilmarnock, and Rutherglen, sends a member to Parliament. The royal family of Stuart had their earliest possessions in this parish, and the Prince of Wales still bears the title of Baron of Renfrew. Pop. (1851) of the royal burgh, 2722; of the parliamentary burgh, 2977.

**Renfrewshire**, a county in Scotland, lying between 55° 40' and 55° 58' N. Lat., and 4° 14' and 4° 54' W. Long., is bounded on the E. by Lanarkshire, on the S. by Ayrshire, and on the N. and W. by the river and firth of Clyde, which separate it from the shires of Dumbarton and Argyle, excepting a section of about 1300 imperial acres, which is situated on the north bank of the Clyde, opposite the town of Renfrew. Its greatest length is 31½ miles, and its greatest breadth 13½ miles. Its area is 234 square miles, or 150,000 acres. Notwithstanding the small extent of this shire, its manufactures and commerce render it one of the most important in Scotland.

At the epoch of the Roman invasion, in the first century of the Christian era, this part of Scotland was inhabited by a Celtic tribe, called by the invaders the Damii. After the withdrawal of the Romans, it was comprehended in the British kingdom of Strathclyde.

The district which now forms the county of Renfrew, at least the greater part of it, was denominated, from one of its rivers, Strathgryfe (the valley of the Gryfe), and at one time formed part of the shire of Lanark or Clydesdale. It was the chief patrimony of the great stewards of Scotland, to whom it was granted by the sovereign in the twelfth century. Afterwards it was called the barony of Renfrew, from the burgh of that name, where the stewards long had their principal residence. In 1404, thirty-three years after the accession of the House of Stuart to the Scottish throne, King Robert III. granted this barony, and the other portions of the estates of the steward, to his son and heir James; since which time the eldest son of the sovereign has, besides his other titles, borne that of "Baron of Renfrew." Soon afterwards this barony was erected into a distinct sheriffdom, the courts of which were held at Renfrew till the year 1705, when they were, for convenience sake, removed to Paisley. In 1815 the county was formed into two wards, termed the Upper and the Lower, with a sheriff-substitute for each, Paisley and Greenock being the seats of their respective courts.