The lordship of Rochefort, held by powerful nobles as early as the 11th century, was united to the French crown by Philip the Fair in 1303; but it was alternately seized in the course of the Hundred Years’ War by the English and the French, and in the wars of religion by the Catholics and Protestants. Colbert having in 1665 chosen Rochefort as the seat of a repairing port between Brest and the Gironde, the town rapidly increased in importance: by 1674 it had 20,000 inhabitants; and, when the Dutch admiral Tromp appeared at the mouth of the river with seventy-two vessels for the purpose of destroying the new arsenal, he found the approaches so well defended that he gave up his enterprise. It λvas at Rochefort that the naval school now transferred to Brest was originally founded. The town continued to flourish in the later part of the 17th century. In 1690 and in 1703 it escaped from the attempts made by the English to destroy it. Its fleet under the command of La Galissonnière, a native of the place, did distinguished service in the wars of American independence, the republic, and the empire. But the destruction of the French fleet by the English in 1809 in the roadstead of lie d’Aix, the preference accorded to the harbours of Brest and Toulon, and the unhealthiness of its climate have seriously interfered with the prosperity of the place. The convict establishment founded at Rochefort in 1777 was suppressed in 1852.

the corner turrets of which have been surmounted with trophies since 1746. The cathedral of La Rochelle (St Louis or St Bartholomew) is a heavy Grecian building (1742-1862) with a dome above the transept, erected on the site of the old church of St Bartholomew, destroyed in the 16th century and now represented by a solitary tower dating from the 14th century. Externally the town-house (1486-1607) has the appearance of a fortress in the Gothic style and internally that of a Renaissance palace. The belfries are beautifully decorated with carved work, and the council-chamber, where the mayor Guiton presided during the siege, is now adorned by his statue. In the old episcopal palace (which was in turn the residence of Sully, the prince of Condé, Louis XIII., and Anne of Austria, and the scene of the marriage of Alphonso VI. of Portugal with a princess of Savoy) accommodation has been provided for a library of 25,000 volumes, a collection of records going back to the 13th century, and a museum founded in 1842 by the society of the Friends of the Arts. Other buildings of note are an arsenal, an artillery museum, a large hospital, a special Protestant hospital, a military hospital, and a lunatic asylum for the department. In the public gardens there is a museum of natural history. Mediaeval and Renaissance houses still give a peculiar character to certain districts of the town: several have French, Latin, or Greek inscriptions of a moral or religious turn and in general of Protestant origin. Of these old houses the most interesting is that of Henry II. or Diana of Poitiers. The parade-ground, which forms the principal public square, occupies the site of the castle, demolished in 1590. Some of the streets have side-arcades; the public wells are fed from a large reservoir in the Champ de Mars; and among the promenades are the Cours des Dames with the statue of Admiral Duperré (1869), and, outside, the tree-planted ramparts and the Mail, a beautiful piece of greensward. In this direction are the sea-bathing establishments. La Rochelle, besides a celebrated manufactory of barrels, contains saw-mills, copper and iron foundries, and factories for patent fuel made out of coal dross. In 1882 465 vessels (225,449 tons) entered and 431 (215,820) cleared. Coals from England and iron-ore from Spain are among the staple imports. In the neighbourhood the principal industries are getting salt from the marshes and rearing oysters and mussels.

La Rochelle existed at the close of the 10th century under the name of Rupella. In 1199 it received a communal charter from Eleanor, duchess of Guienne, and it was in its harbour that John Lackland disembarked when he came to try to recover the domains seized by Philip Augustus. Captured by Louis VIII. in 1224, it was restored to the English in 1360 by the treaty of Brétigny, but it shook off the yoke of the foreigner when Duguesclin recovered Saintonge. During the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries La Rochelle, then an almost independent commune, was one of the great maritime cities of France. From its harbour iu 1402 Jean de Béthencourt set out for the conquest of the Canaries, and its seamen were the first to turn to account the discovery of the New World. The salt-tax provoked a rebellion at Rochelle which Francis I. had to come to repress in person; in 1568 the town secured exemption by the payment of a large sum. At the Reformation La Rochelle early became one of the chief centres of Calvinism, and during the religious wars it armed privateers which preyed on Catholic vessels in the Channel and the high seas. In 1571 a synod of the Protestant churches of France was held within its walls under the presidency of Beza for the purpose of drawing up a confession of faith. After the massacre of St Bartholomew, La Rochelle held out for six and a half months against the Catholic army, which was ultimately obliged to raise the siege after losing more than 20,000 men. The peace of 24th June 1573, signed by the people of La Rochelle in the name of all the Protestant party, granted the Calvinists full liberty of worship in several places of safety. Under Henry IV. the town remained quiet, but under Louis XIII. it put itself again at the head of the Huguenot party. Its vessels blockaded the mouth of the Gironde and stopped the commerce of Bordeaux, and also seized the islands of Ré and Oléron and several vessels of the royal fleet. It was then that Richelieu resolved to subdue the town once for all. In spite of the assistance rendered by the English troops under Buckingham and in spite of the fierce energy of their mayor Guiton, the people of La Rochelle were obliged to capitulate after eight months’ siege (October 1628). During this investment Richelieu raised the celebrated mole which cut off the town from the open sea. La Rochelle then became the principal port for the trade between the mother-country of France and the colony of Canada. But the revocation of the Edict of Nantes deprived it of 3000 of its most industrious inhabitants, and the loss of Canada by France completed the ruin of its commerce. Its privateers, however, still maintained a vigorous struggle with the English during the republic and the empire.

Among the men of mark born at La Rochelle may he mentioned Jean Guiton, Tallemant des Réaux, Reaumur the physicist, Admiral Duperré, Bonpland the botanist, and the painters Fromentin and Bouguereau.

Rochester was the Durobrivae of the Romans, and was intersected by the Roman Watling Street from Canterbury. It was formerly surrounded with walls, of which there are still a few remains. It was the foundation of the cathedral by Ethelbert that first raised it to importance. By the Saxons it was named Hrofe-ceastre, which was gradually corrupted into the present name. In 676 it was plundered by Ethelred, king of Mercia, and subsequently it suffered severely from the ravages of the Danes. About 930, when three mints were established there by Athelstan, it had grown to be one of the principal ports of the kingdom. λ∖ illiam the Conqueror granted the town to his half-brother Odo, bishop ot Bayeux, who, on account of his connexion in the conspiracy in favour of Robert, duke of Normandy, was besieged in the castle and deprived of his possessions. In 1130 and again in 1137 the city was nearly destroyed by fire. A grand tournament was held at the castle by Henry III. in 1251. The city was visited in 1522 by Henry VIII. accompanied by the emperor Charles V., and in 1573 Elizabeth remained there five days. Charles II. passed through it on his way to London at the Restoration, and at the Revolution James II. embarked at the port on his way to France. The bishop’s see was founded in 600, and the city received its first charter of incorporation from Henry II. in 1165. It has returned members to parliament since the 23d of Edward I.

ROCHESTER a city of the United States, capital of Monroe county, New York, lies 229 miles to the west of Albany (43° 9' 22" - 44 N. lat. and 77° 36' 50" ’ 97 W. long.), in a rich agricultural region, upon a plateau on both banks of the Genesee river, 7 miles from its mouth at Lake Ontario and 263 feet above the lake level. There are three falls in the river of 96, 26, and 83 feet respectively within the city limits, the banks below the first fall varying in height from 100 to 210 feet. To this abundant water-power of the Genesee, supplemented by the transportation facilities afforded by the Erie Canal and the various railway connexions, Rochester mainly owes its progress and prosperity. The streets of the city are generally wide, and well paved and lighted (partly by electricity), and trees and flowering plants are abundant. Rochester is an important railway centre. The New York Central Railroad, with elevated tracks through the city, has two lines east to Syracuse, two west to Buffalo and Niagara Falls respectively, and one north to Charlotte, where connexion is made with the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg line; a branch of the New York, Lake Erie, and Western Railway connects with the main line at Corning and with the Buffalo branch at Avon; the Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway runs south to Salamanca, and the Genesee Valley Railway to Olean, crossing the West Shore Railway a short distance south of the city line; and there are also railway lines to Irondequoit Bay and Windsor beach, and about 30 miles of street railway, radiating from the centre in all directions. The manufactures of Rochester are numerous and varied. Though no longer at the head of the flour industry, it still possesses twenty mills, capable of producing 2900 barrels daily. The principal manufacture is that of ready-made clothing, the sales reaching $9,000,000 annually. In its boot and shoe trade the city ranks fourth in the country (5000 hands; annual sales, $6,500,000). There are also sixteen breweries and ten malt-houses; some eighty or ninety cigar-makers and tobacconists have a total output of about 2,000,000 lb of tobacco, 18,000,000 cigars, and 140,000,000 cigarettes; while furniture-making employs 1000 hands. The lumber business is extensive; and of late years the city has been one of the principal centres for the distribution of the anthracite and bituminous coal of Pennsylvania. Its numerous nurseries are a peculiar feature of the place; and there is a great variety of other industries. The main supply of water is brought in iron conduits (147 miles of pipe) from Hemlock Lake, 29 miles to the south; an additional supply for subsidiary purposes is drawn from the Genesee river (ll∣ miles of pipe). The total cost of the works has been $3,744,749. The princi pal cemetery, Mount Hope, with an area of 200 acres, is exceedingly picturesque and well cared for. Rochester has two State institutions, the Western House of Refuge and the Western New York Institution for Deaf Mutes. The former, opened in 1849, is a substantial structure of brick, with accommodation for 600 inmates, built at a cost of $373,000; it receives juvenile delinquents committed by magistrates; they are instructed in trades and labour upon the farm belonging to the refuge. The institution for deaf mutes (1875) instructs about 160 pupils annually. Among the eleemosynary institutions of the city are the Rochester city hospital, St Mary’s hospital, the Rochester, St Patrick’s, St Mary’s, St Joseph’s, and the Jewish orphan asylums, the home for the friendless, the industrial school, the church home, the home of industry, and the home for truant children. There are 75 churches, including the Roman Catholic cathedral, 6 Baptist, 10 Methodist Episcopal, 10 Protestant Episcopal, 11 Presbyterian, 5 Lutheran, and 11 Roman Catholic churches, and 5 Jewish synagogues. The public school system of Rochester includes a free academy (cost $125,000) and thirty grammar-schools (with classes in the orphan asylums), in which 200 teachers are engaged and 10,000 pupils taught. There are also thirty private institutions, academies, seminaries, and parochial schools. The university of Rochester was established in 1850, under Baptist auspices; its faculty consists of a president and ten professors, and the annual attendance of students is about 160. It has two buildings,—Anderson Hall and Sible Hall. The Rochester theological seminary (Baptist), founded in 1850 and housed in two commodious buildings—Trevor and Rockefeller Halls—has eight professors and about seventy students, besides a German department. Other public libraries in addition to those of the university and the theological seminary are the central and Reynolds. There are four English and two German daily newspapers,, and twelve weekly and nine monthly publications. Among, edifices not already mentioned are the city-hall, the United States Government building, the court-house, the Warner astronomical observatory, the Rochester and East Side savings banks, the Powers buildings, with their famous art gallery, and the Warner and Kimball factories. The population (89,366 in 1880) was estimated at 115,000 in 1885; the area of the city, which is divided into sixteen wards, is 4 square miles. The assessed valuation of real and personal property in 1885 was $40,952,070, and the debt was $5,249,000.

Rochester derives its name from Nathaniel Rochester, who projected a settlement here in 1810; the first house was built in 1812; and the incorporation of the city dates from 1834.

ROCHESTER John Wilmot, Earl of (1647-1680), born in Oxfordshire in 1647, was one of the un worthies of the reign of the “merry monarch, scandalous and poor,”

“Who never said a foolish thing Nor ever did a wise one.”

Rochester is the author of both these imperishable descriptions of Charles IL, and by them and his poem “Upon Nothing,” and his death-bed conversation with Bishop Burnet he is now chiefly known. His poetry has hardly had a fair chance against that of his contemporaries, for owing to his scandalous character, which was probably worse than the time only in respect of his ostentatious defiance of proprieties, all kinds of indecencies were fathered upon him and inserted in unauthorized editions of his works. This has ensured his exclusion from decent libraries, an edition issued in 1691 by friends careful of his memory having been pushed out of sight by these more piquant publications. His letters to his wife and his son show that the real man was much better than the public estimate of him, which he invited by his occasional daring breaches of decorum and morality. Some of his lyrics are very pretty, full of ingenious fancy and musical rhythm, but wit and intellect are more marked in his writing than the free flow of lyrical sentiment. For wit, versatility, and intense vitality of intellect this strangely wasted life stood high above the level of its age. In his youth Rochester distinguished himself in the Dutch wars by acts of signal personal bravery; his alleged cowardice afterwards in street brawls and personal quarrels looks rather like daringly contemptuous cynicism. Rochester had a taste for the humours of low life, and is said to have haunted the low quarters of the town in various disguises, on one occasion personating a mountebank on Tower Hill. He died on 26th July 1680, at the early age of thirty-three, and the common account is that his constitution was undermined and exhausted by profligate excesses.