Along its romantic vale the glittering Irwell meandered, here, through nooks, "o'erhung wi' wildwoods, thickening green;" and there, among lush unshaded pastures; gathering on its way many a mild whispering brook, whose sunlit waters laced the green land with freakish lines of trembling gold.

Derbyshire, flows westward 70 m. between Lancashire and Cheshire to the Irish Sea; is of great commercial importance, having Liverpool on its estuary; its chief tributary is the Irwell, on which stands Manchester.

RADCLIFFE (20), a prosperous town of Lancashire, on the Irwell, 7 m. NW. of Manchester; manufactures cotton, calico, and paper; has bleaching and dye works, and good coal-mines.

RAMSBOTTOM (17), a busy manufacturing town in Lancashire, on the Irwell, 4 m. N. of Bury, engaged in cotton-weaving, calico-printing, rope-making, &c. RAMSDEN, JESSE, mathematical instrument-maker and inventor, born in Yorkshire; invented the theodolite for the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain (1735-1800).