The plain of Mei is one of the most delightful spots in Italy. It is covered with plantations of mulberry-trees, vines twining round elms and maple trues, fields of wheat, Indian corn, beans, flax, hemp, wood, and vegetables of every kind. It is traversed by two clear streams, which unite their waters about three miles below the town of whose churches, steeples, and other massive buildings make a One contrast with the brilliant verdure of the surrounding country. Farther down the river, between the right bank and the base of the Apennines, is a succession of marshes and lakes, the largest of which, plied Pia di Luco, about 10 miles in circumference; the banks are very bold and picturesque, but are considered unwholesome. The raters of the lake have an outlet into the Vane. Near this p}ace the two ridges that bouud the plain of Rieti approach near each other, leaving only a narrow gorge through which the Velino flows on a rocky bed with a rapid declivity until it reaches the edge of the terrace, where it falls into the valley of the Nora amidst clouds of mist. The whole perpendicular height from the edge of the rock to the level of the Nem below is about 469 feet. The fall however is broken into two parts, the first of which is perpendicular, after which the water forms a succession of cascades or rapids, until it meets the Nera. A pavilion called la Specula,' erected by Pius VI. on a projecting shelf of rock which overhangs the precipice, commands a fine view of the fall and of the valley of the Nera. The cascade, called Della Marmora, has been considered as the finest in Europe, the mass of water being superior to all the Alpine cascades, and the height far superior to the fall of the Rhine at Schaffhausen. A rainbow is often seen hovering on the mist produced by the spray.
The name of Maruaora has been given to the mountain from which the river falls, on account of the abundant iucrustatious, resembling marble, prodnced by the deposit of the waters of the Velino.
The valley of the Venue is said to have been in very remote times occupied by the Umbri, before that people descended from the high lands of the Apennines into the valley of the Upper Tiber, which has ever since retained the name of Umbria. [Emunu..] After the migration of the Umbri, another race of mountaineers from the central parts of the Apennines about Amiternum, near the sources of the Aternus or Pescara, became possessed of the valley of the Velinus; they were known by the name of Sabini, and they spread from thence into the country between the Nera, the Anio, and the Tiber, which they occupied almost as far as the gates of Rome. The Sabini were a remarkable people; their manners were simple, and their habits austere; they bad .a reputation for good faith and domestic virtue. They were religious, and even superstitious, and their country was famed for omens and prodigies.
The plain of Rieti was almost entirely covered with water, when the consul M. Curius Dentatus, ram 240, made a cut through the rock, deepening and widening the outlet for the waters of the Velino, and drained thereby the fields of Reate. In modern times the bed of the Velino above the fall has repeatedly become obstructed by calcareous deposits, and the river has again overflowed the plain ; to remedy which Pope Paul HI. made a new cut, and Clement VIII. afterwards restored the old one made by Curius.
Reate is said to have derived its name from Rhea, or Cybele, the ancient patroness of the place. Like the rest of the Sabini, Reato was an early and constant ally of Rome, and is mentioned by Livy as having, together with Amiternum, furnished soldiers for Scipio's expe dition to Africa. Cicero, in various places, extols the fidelity of the Sabini, and particularly of the people of Reate. In modern times the people of Rieti were among the first to pay voluntary allegiance to the see of Rome as their temporary sovereign. Rieti was often an asylum for the popes in the middle ages, when driven away from Rome by faction or foreign invasion. In 1831 the people of Rieti showed their devotedness to the papal see by repulsing the insurgents from Bologna and the Romagna who were advancing towards Rome.
Rieti is built partly on the slope and partly at the foot of a bill ; it is a bishop's see • it has a college and a clerical seminary ; it has also manufactures Of coarse woollens, silks, glees, and leather. The population amounts to about 10,000, among whom are many wealthy landed proprietors. The town-house, or governor's palace, is a massive building in the highest part of the town, and enjoys a splendid view of the surrounding country. The cathedral was built in the 12th century, but has been repeatedly repaired. There are several churches and convents, which, as well as the episcopal palace, are worthy of notice.
The province of Rieti was formerly united to that of Spoleto, the two forming a province called Spoleto-e-Rieti. It contains 513 square miles, with a population of 77,212 in 1850.
RIEZ. (Aura, Basses.) RIGA (in the language of Livonia, Biglia ; in that of Esthonia, Biotin), the capital of the government of Livonia, is situated in 56° 55' N. lat., 24° 6' E. long., on the right bank of the Drina, about 5 miles above its entrance into the Gulf of Riga. The width of the river and the distance of the town from the sea make the port very spacious and secure, and the merchantmen come up to the quays. In summer a bridge of pontoons, loosely attached to piles, and rising and falling with the tide, is laid across the river ; this bridge is a pleasant and fashionable promenade in the summer time. The central boats are moveable, to allow the passage of vessels. The town is surrounded with ramparts and bastions, and is otherwise strongly fortified, the fortifications having been materially strengthened and added to in 1854 and 1855, and defences were erected at the mouth of the river. Besides the town itself there are one suburb within the palisades, and two more distant suburbs on the left bank of the Duna. There are three gates towards tiro country and four towards the Duna. The streets are narrow and crooked, and the town dark and gloomy. Before the palace is a spacious parade, in which the merchants erected in 1817 a granite column 23 feet high, surmounted by a bronze statue representing the goddess of Victory, 9 feet high, in memory of the repulse of a French force by the citizens of Riga in 1812. Of the Lutheran churches, the most remarkable are the large and lofty cathedral, attached to which is a quadrangle surrounded with clois ters, and which contains the museum and the public library of 18,000 volumes; and St. Peter's church, which has a fine tower commanding an extensive prospect. There are also several Greek, Calvinist, Livonian, and Roman Catholic churches. The other public buildings are—an imperial palace, with an observatory ; the residence of the civil governor; an ancient palace, partly used as the residence of the military governor, and partly serving for barracks; the exchange, erected in 1812; the assembly-house of the estates of Livonia ; the arsenal; the hospital of St. George ; the Catherinenhof, a bomb-proof warehouse 445 feet in length ; and a theatre. There are numerous literary and useful institutions, as the gymnasium, the Economical Society, the Society for the Study of the History and Literature of the Baltic Provinces, the cathedral school, and the commercial bank. The population is about 60,000, of whom about one-half are Protes tants, chiefly Germans and their descendants, and the remainder are mostly Livoniana.
The town of Riga was founded about the year 1200, by Albert, the third bishop of Livonia, Christianity having been introduced in the middle of the 12th century, by Meinhard, a monk of Bremen, who was ordained by the Pope as first bishop of Livonia. The founder granted it several privileges and a considerable extent of territory. The city, which was at that time a colony of Germans, soon became rich and powerful, and in the 13th century joined the Hanseatic League, and its commerce was the source of such great wealth that the power of the city and the pride and luxury of the inhabitants became proverbial. At the beginning of the 16th century it belonged to the Teutonic knights, who were obliged to submit to Poland in 1591. In 1621 it was besieged and taken by Gustavus Adolphus. In 1710, after a vigorous defence, it was taken by Peter the Great, when half the town was in ruins, many hundreds of the inhabitants had perished by the enemy's fire, and 20,000 bad been carried off by the plague during the siege. In the siege of 1812, the suburbs were burnt, and also 200 houses in the town itself, and 1500 inhabitants perished. The suburbs have been rebuilt, and are much handsomer than before. The town has suffered several times by fires and inun dations. Riga is next to St. Petersburg the greatest emporium of foreign commerce in the empire. The exports consist of fish and of the great staple articles of Russian produce, corn, timber, flax, hemp, hemp-seed, flax-seed, tallow, Russia leather, and sail-cloth. During 1849 the quantity of flax exported from Riga amounted to 44,700 tons. The number of ships which arrived at the port in 1849 was 1749; the number which left wan 1677. Rigs has several sugar refining houses, and considerable manufactures of woollen and cotton fabrics, tobacco, starch, looking-glasses, and iron-wares. The con struction of a railway from Riga to Dunaburg has been recently authorised by the government (Lrvorits.]