Chapter Rattlin the Reefer to Real Life in London of R by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Ravens of Owain (The). Owain had in his army 300 ravens, who were irresistible. It is thought that these ravens were warriors who bore this device on their shields.

A man who caused the birds to fly upon the host,
Like the ravens of Owain eager for prey.
   —Bleddynt Vardd: Myuyrian Archaiology, i. 365.

Ravens once White. One day, a raven told Apollo that Coronis, a Thessalian nymph whom he passionately loved, was faithless. Apollo, in his rage, shot the nymph, but hated the raven, and “bade him prate in white plumes never more.”—Ovid: Metamorphoses, ii.

Ravenspurn, at the mouth of the Humber, where Henry IV. landed, in 1399, to depose Richard II. It no longer exists, having been wholly engulfed by the sea, but no record exists of the date of this catastrophe.

Ravenstone or Rabenstein, the stone gibbet of Germany. So called from the ravens which perch on it.

Do you think
I’ll honour you so much as save your throat
From the ravenstone, by choking you myself?
   —Byron: Werner, ii. 2 (1822).

Ravenswood (Allan lord of), a decayed Scotch nobleman of the royalist party.

Master Edgar Ravenswood, the son of Allan. In love with Lucy Ashton, daughter of sir William Ashton lord-keeper of Scotland. The lovers plight their troth at the “Mermaid’s Fountain,” but Lucy is compelled to marry Frank Hayston laird of Bucklaw. The bride, in a fit of insanity, attempts to murder the bridegroom, and dies in convulsions. Bucklaw recovers, and goes abroad. Colonel Ashton appoints a hostile meeting with Edgar; but young Ravenswood, on his way to the place appointed, is lost in the quicksands of Kelpies Flow, in accordance with an ancient prophecy.—Sir W. Scott: Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).

(In Donizetti’s opera of Lucia di Lammermoor, Bucklaw dies of the wound inflicted by the bride, and Edgar, heartbroken, comes on the stage and kills himself.)

The catastrophe in the Bride of Lammermoor, where [Edgar] Ravenswood is swallowed up by a quicksand, is singularly grand in romance, but would be inadmissible in a drama.—Encyc. Brit. (article “Romance”).

Rawhead and Bloody-Bones, two bogies or bugbears, generally coupled together. In some cases the phrase is employed to designate one and the same “shadowy sprite.”

Servants awe children … by telling them of Rawhead and Bloody-bones.—Locke.

Rayland (Mrs.), the domineering lady of the Old Manor-House, by Charlotte Smith (1749–1806).

Mrs. Rayland is a sort of queen Elizabeth in private life.—Sir W. Scott.

Raymond, count of Toulouse, the Nestor of the crusaders. He slays Aladine king of Jerusalem, and plants the Christian standard on the tower of David.—Tasso: Jerusalem Delivered, xx. (1516).

(Introduced by sir W. Scott in Count Robert of Paris, a novel of the period of Rufus.)

Raymond (Sir Charles), a country gentleman, the friend and neighbour of sir Robert Belmont.

Colonel Raymond, son of sir Charles, in love with Rosetta Belmont. Being diffident and modest, Rosetta delights in tormenting him, and he is jealous even of William Faddle “a fellow made up of knavery, noise, and impudence.”

Harriet Raymond, daughter of sir Charles, whose mother died in giving her birth. She was committed to the care of a governante, who changed her name to Fidelia, wrote to sir Charles to say that she was dead, and sold her at the age of 12 to a villain named Villard. Charles Belmont, hearing her cries of