The Nuttall Encyclopaedia
by
Edited by Rev. James Wood
Part 23 out of 53
GESNER, KONRAD VON, Swiss scholar and naturalist, born at Zurich;
hampered by ill-health and poverty in his youth, he yet contrived by
unremitting diligence to obtain an excellent education at Strasburg,
Bourges, and Paris; in his twenty-first year he obtained an appointment
in Zurich University, and in 1537 became professor of Greek at Lausanne;
abandoning the idea he entertained of entering the Church, he determined
to adopt the medical profession instead, graduated at Basel in 1540, and
a year later went to Zurich to occupy the chair of Natural History and to
practise as a doctor; his chief works are the "Bibliotheca Universalis"
(a catalogue and summary of all Hebrew, Greek, and Latin works then known
to exist), and the "Historia Animalium"; these monuments of learning have
won him the cognomen of the German Pliny (1516-1565).
GESSLER, ALBRECHT, a governor of the forest cantons of Switzerland,
who figures in Swiss legend as an oppressor who was shot as related in
the tradition of Tell.
GESSNER, SALOMON, Swiss poet and artist, born at Zurich; served an
apprenticeship to a bookseller in Berlin, and after a sojourn in Hamburg
returned to Zurich, where the rest of his life was spent; he published
several volumes of poetry, chiefly pastoral and of no great value; his
"Death of Abel" is his most notable performance; his paintings are mainly
landscapes of a conventional type, several of which he engraved,
revealing better abilities as an engraver than as an artist (1730-1788).
GESTA ROMANORUM (the exploits of the Romans), a collection of short
didactic stories, not however solely Roman, written in the Latin tongue,
probably towards the close of the 13th century, the authorship of which
is uncertain, though it is generally recognised as of English origin; the
stories are characterised by naive simplicity, and have served as
materials for many notable literary productions; thus Shakespeare owes to
this work the plot of Pericles and the incidents of the caskets and the
pound of flesh in the "Merchant of Venice," Parnell his "Hermit," Byron
his "Three Black Crows," and Longfellow his "King Robert of Sicily."
GETHSEMANE, somewhere on the E. of Kedron, half a mile from
Jerusalem, at the foot of Mount Olivet, the scene of the Agony of Christ.
GETTYSBURG (3), a town in Pennsylvania, built on a group of hills 50
m. SW. of Harrisburg; during the Civil War it was the scene of General
Meade's famous victory over the Confederates under General Lee on July 3,
1863.
GEYSER, fountains which from time to time, under the expansion of
steam, eject columns of steam and hot water, and which are met with in
Iceland, North America, and New Zealand, of which the most remarkable is
the Great Geyser, 70 m. N. of Reikiavik, in Iceland, which ejects a
column of water to 60 ft. in height, accompanied with rumblings
underground; these eruptions will continue some 15 minutes, and they
recur every few hours.
GFROeRER, AUGUST FRIEDRICH, a learned German historian, born in the
Black Forest; educated for the Protestant ministry; in 1828, after
residence at Geneva and Rome, started as a tutor of theology, and two
years later became librarian at Stuttgart; published a number of
historical works, including a "Life of Gustavus Adolphus," "Pope Gregory
VII.," a "History of Primitive Christianity," "Church History to the
Fourteenth Century"; in this last work he showed a strong leaning to
Catholicism; was appointed to the chair of History in the university of
Freiburg; was elected to the Frankfort parliament, and finally openly
professed the Catholic faith (1803-1861).
GHATS, or GHAUTS, EASTERN AND WESTERN, two mountain ranges
running parallel with the E. and W. coasts of S. India, the latter
skirting the Malabar coast between 30 and 40 m. from the sea, rising to
nearly 5000 ft., and exhibiting fine mountain and forest scenery, and the
former skirting the E. of the Deccan, of which tableland it here forms
the buttress, and has a much lower mean level; the two ranges converge
into one a short distance from Cape Comorin.
GHAZALI, ABU MOHAMMED AL-, Arabian philosopher, born at Tus, Persia;
in 1091 he was appointed professor of Philosophy in Bagdad; four years
later he went to Mecca, and subsequently taught at Damascus, Jerusalem,
and Alexandria; finally, he returned to his native town and there founded
a Sufic college; of his numerous philosophic and religious works the most
famous is the "Destruction of the Philosophers," in which he combats the
theories and conclusions of the current Arabian scholasticism
(1058-1111).
GHAZIPUR (45), a city of India, on the Ganges, 44 m. NE. of Benares,
capital of the district of that name (1,077), in the North-West
Provinces; is the head-quarters of the Government Opium Department, and
trades in rose-water, sugar, tobacco, &c.; contains the ruins of the
Palace of Forty Pillars.
GHAZNI (10), a fortified city of Afghanistan, 7726 ft. above the
sea, 85 m. SW. of Cabul; it is the chief strategical point on the
military route between Kandahar and Cabul; in the 11th and 12th centuries
it was the capital of the KINGDOM OF GHAZNEVIDS, which stretched
from the plains of Delhi to the Black Sea, and which came to an end in
1186.
GHEEL (12), a town in Belgium, situated on a fertile spot in the
midst of the sandy plain called the Campine, 26 m. SE. of Antwerp; it has
been for centuries celebrated as an asylum for the insane, who (about
1300) are now boarded out among the peasants; these cottage asylums are
under government control, and the board of the patients in most cases is
guaranteed.
GHENT (150), a city of Belgium, capital of East Flanders, situated
at the junction of the Scheldt and the Lys, 34 m. NW. of Brussels; rivers
and canals divide it into 26 quarters, connected by 270 bridges; in the
older part are many quaint and interesting buildings, notably the
cathedral of St. Bavon (13th century); it is the first industrial city of
Belgium, and is a great emporium of the cotton, woollen, and linen
trades; the floriculture is famed, and the flower-shows have won it the
name of the "City of Flowers."
GHETTO, an Italian word applied to the quarters set apart in Italian
cities for the Jews, and to which in former times they were restricted;
the term is now applied to the Jews' quarters in any city.
GHIBELLINES, a political party in Italy who, from the 11th to the
14th centuries, maintained the supremacy of the German emperors over the
Italian States in opposition to the GUELPHS (q. v.).
GHIBERTI, LORENZO, an Italian sculptor and designer, born at
Florence; his first notable work was a grand fresco in the palace of
Malatesta at Rimini in 1400, but his most famous achievement, which
immortalised his name, was the execution of two doorways, with bas-relief
designs, in the baptistery at Florence; he spent 50 years at this work,
and so noble were the designs and so perfect the execution that Michael
Angelo declared them fit to be the gates of Paradise (about 1378-1455).
GHIKA, HELENA. See DORA D'ISTRIA.
GHILAN (200), a province of NW. Persia, between the SW. border of
the Caspian Sea and the Elburz Mountains; is low-lying, swampy, and
unhealthy towards the Caspian, but the rising ground to the S. is more
salubrious; wild animals are numerous in the vast forests; the soil,
where cleared, is fertile and well cultivated; the Caspian fisheries are
valuable; the people are of Iranian descent, and speak a Persian dialect.
GHIRLANDAJO (i. e. Garland-maker), nickname of Domenico Curradi,
an Italian painter, born at Florence; acquired celebrity first as a
designer in gold; he at 24 turned to painting, and devoted himself to
fresco and mosaic work, in which he won wide-spread fame; amongst his
many great frescoes it is enough to mention here "The Massacre of the
Innocents," at Florence, and "Christ calling Peter and Andrew," at Rome;
Michael Angelo was for a time his pupil (1449-1494).
GHUZNI. See GHAZNI.
GIANTS, in the Greek mythology often confounded with, but distinct
from, the TITANS (q. v.), being a mere earthly brood of great
stature and strength, who thought by their violence to dethrone Zeus, and
were with the assistance of Hercules overpowered and buried under Etna
and other volcanoes, doomed to continue their impotent grumbling there.
GIANT'S CAUSEWAY, a remarkable headland of columnar basaltic rock in
North Ireland, projecting into the North Channel from the Antrim coast at
Bengore Head, 7 m. NE. of Portrush; is an unequal surface 300 yds. long
and 30 ft. wide, formed by the tops of the 40,000 closely packed,
vertical columns which rise to a height of 400 ft. The legend goes that
it was the beginning of a roadway laid down by a giant.
GIAOUR, the Turkish name for an unbeliever in the Mohammedan faith,
and especially for a Christian in that regard.
GIBBON, EDWARD, eminent historian, born at Putney, near London, of
good parentage; his early education was greatly hindered by a nervous
complaint, which, however, disappeared by the time he was 14; a wide
course of desultory reading had, in a measure, repaired the lack of
regular schooling, and when at the age of 15 he was entered at Magdalen
College, Oxford, he possessed, as he himself quaintly puts it, "a stock
of erudition which might have puzzled a doctor, and a degree of ignorance
of which a schoolboy might have been ashamed"; 14 months later he became
a convert to Roman Catholicism, and in consequence was obliged to quit
Oxford; in the hope of reclaiming him to the Protestant faith he was
placed in the charge of the deistical poet Mallet, and subsequently under
a Calvinist minister at Lausanne; under the latter's kindly suasion he
speedily discarded Catholicism, and during five years' residence
established his learning on a solid foundation; time was also found for
the one love episode of his life--an amour with Suzanne Curchod, an
accomplished young lady, who subsequently became the wife of the French
minister M. Neckar, and mother of Madame de Stael; shortly after his
return to England in 1758 he published in French an Essay on the Study of
Literature, and for some time served in the militia; in 1774, having four
years previously inherited his father's estate, he entered Parliament,
and from 1779 to 1782 was one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade and
Plantations; in 1776 appeared the first volume of his great history "The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," the conception of which had come
to him in 1764 in Rome whilst "musing amongst the ruins of the Capitol";
in 1787 his great work was finished at Lausanne, where he had resided
since 1783; modern criticism, working with fresh sources of information,
has failed to find any serious flaw in the fabric of this masterpiece in
history, but the cynical attitude adopted towards the Christian religion
has always been regarded as a defect; "a man of endless reading and
research," was Carlyle's verdict after a final perusal of the "Decline,"
"but of a most disagreeable style, and a great want of the highest
faculties of what we would call a classical historian, compared with
Herodotus, for instance, and his perfect clearness and simplicity in
every part"; he, nevertheless, characterised his work to Emerson once as
"a splendid bridge from the old world to the new" (1737-1794).
GIBBONS, GRINLING, a celebrated wood-carver, born at Rotterdam, but
brought up in England; through the influence of Evelyn he obtained a post
in the Board of Works, and his marvellous skill as a wood-carver won him
the patronage of Charles II., who employed him to furnish ornamental
carving for the Chapel of Windsor; much of his best work was done for the
nobility, and in many of their mansions his carving is yet extant in all
its grace and finish, the ceiling of a room at Petworth being considered
his masterpiece; he also did some notable work in bronze and marble
(1648-1721).
GIBBONS, ORLANDO, an eminent English musician, composer of many
exquisite anthems, madrigals, &c., born at Cambridge; in 1604 he obtained
the post of organist in the Chapel Royal, London, and two years later
received the degree of Mus. Bac. of Cambridge, while Oxford recognised
his rare merits in 1622 by creating him a Mus. Doc.; in the following
year he became organist of Westminster Abbey, and in 1625 was in official
attendance at Canterbury on the occasion of Charles I.'s marriage, but he
did not live to celebrate the ceremony, for which he wrote the music; he
is considered the last and greatest of the old Church musicians of
England (1583-1625).
GIBEON, a place on the northern slopes of a hill 6 or 7 m. S. of
Bethel, and the spot over which Joshua bade the sun stand still; its
inhabitants, for a trick they played on the invading Israelites, wore
condemned to serve them as "hewers of wood and drawers of water."
GIBRALTAR, a promontory of rock, in the S. of Spain, about 2 m.
square and over 1400 ft. in height, connected with the mainland by a spit
of sand, forming a strong fortress, with a town (25) of the name at the
foot of it on the W. side, and with the Strait of Gibraltar on the S.,
which at its narrowest is 15 m. broad; the rock above the town is a
network of batteries, mounted with heavy cannon, and the town itself is a
trade entrepot for N. Africa; the rock has been held as a stronghold by
the British since 1704.
GIBSON, JOHN, sculptor, born at Gyffin, near Conway, Wales, of
humble parentage; after serving an apprenticeship to a cabinet-maker in
Liverpool, he took to carving in wood and stone, and supported by Roscoe
became a pupil of Canova and afterwards of Thorwaldsen in Rome; here he
made his home and did his best work; mention may be made of "Theseus and
the Robber," "Amazon thrown from her horse," statues of George
Stephenson, Peel, and Queen Victoria; in 1836 he was elected a member of
the Royal Academy (1790-1866).
GIBSON, THOMAS MILNER, politician, born at Trinidad; graduated at
Cambridge; entered Parliament in the Conservative interest, but becoming
a convert to Free-Trade principles, he went over to the Liberal ranks,
and became an active and eloquent supporter of the Manchester policy;
returned for Manchester in 1841 and 1846, was made a Privy Councillor and
Vice-President of the Board of Trade; his earnest advocacy of peace at
the Crimean crisis lost him his seat in Manchester, but Ashton-under-Lyne
returned him the same year; under Palmerston he was for seven years
(1859-66) President of the Board of Trade; his name is honourably
associated with the repeal of the Advertisement, Newspaper Stamp, and
Paper Duties; in 1868 he retired from public life (1806-1884).
GIDEON, one of the most eminent of the Judges of Israel, famous for
his defeat of the Midianites at Gilboa, and the peace of 40 years'
duration which it ensured to the people under his rule.
GIESEBRECHT, WILHELM VON, historian, born at Berlin; was professor
of History at Koenigsberg and at Muenich; his chief work is "Geschichte der
Deutschen Kaiserzeit" (1814-1889).
GIESELER, JOHANN KARL LUDWIG, a learned Church historian, born near
Minden; after quitting Halle University adopted teaching as a profession,
but in 1813 served in the war against France; on the conclusion of the
war he held educational appointments at Minden; was nominated in 1819 to
the chair of Theology at Bonn, and in 1831 was appointed to a like
professorship in Goettingen; his great work is a "History of the Church"
in 6 vols. (1793-1854).
GIESSEN (21), the chief town of Hesse-Darmstadt, situated at
the confluence of the Wieseck and the Lahn, 40 m. N. of
Frankfort-on-the-Main; has a flourishing university, and various
manufactories.
GIFFORD, ADAM, LORD, a Scottish judge, born in Edinburgh; had a
large practice as a barrister, and realised a considerable fortune, which
he bequeathed towards the endowment of four lectureships on Natural
Theology in connection with each of the four universities in Scotland;
was a man of a philosophical turn of mind, and a student of Spinoza; held
office as a judge from 1870 to 1881 (1820-1887).
GIFFORD, WILLIAM, an English man of letters, born in Ashburton,
Devonshire; left friendless and penniless at an early age by the death of
his parents, he first served as a cabin-boy, and subsequently for four
years worked as a cobbler's apprentice; through the generosity of a local
doctor, and afterwards of Earl Grosvenor, he obtained a university
training at Oxford, where in 1792 he graduated; a period of travel on the
Continent was followed in 1794 by his celebrated satire the "Baviad," and
in two years later by the "Maeviad"; his editorship of the _Anti-Jacobin_
(1797-1798) procured him favour and office at the hands of the Tories;
the work of translation, and the editing of Elizabethan poets, occupied
him till 1809, when he became the first editor of the _Quarterly Review_;
his writing is vigorous, and marked by strong partisanship, but his
bitter attacks on the new literature inaugurated by Wordsworth, Shelley,
Keats, and others reveal a prejudiced and narrow view of literature
(1757-1826).
GIGMAN, Carlyle's name for a man who prides himself on, and pays all
respect to, respectability; derived from a definition once given in a
court of justice by a witness who, having described a person as
respectable, was asked by the judge in the case what he meant by the
word; "one that keeps a gig," was the answer.
GIL BLAS, a romance by Le Sage, from the name of the hero, a
character described by Scott as honestly disposed, but being
constitutionally timid, unable to resist temptation, though capable of
brave actions, and intelligent, but apt to be deceived through vanity,
with sufficient virtue to make us love him, but indifferent to our
respect.
GILBERT, SIR HUMPHREY, navigator, born in Devonshire, half-brother
of Sir Walter Raleigh; in 1583 established a settlement in Newfoundland.
GILBERT, SIR JOHN, English artist, President of the Royal Society of
Water-Colour Painters; was for long an illustrator of books, among the
number an edition of Shakespeare; he was a Chevalier of the Legion of
Honour (1817-1897).
GILBERT, WILLIAM SCHWENCK, barrister, notable as a play-writer and
as the author of the librettos of a series of well-known popular comic
operas set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan; _b_. 1836.
GILBERT ISLANDS, or KINGSMILL GROUP (37), a group of islands in
the Pacific, of coral formation, lying on the equator between 172 deg. and
177 deg. E. long; they are 16 in number, were discovered in 1788, and annexed
by Britain in 1892.
GILBOA, MOUNT, a range of hills on the SE. of the Plain of
Esdraelon, in Palestine, attaining a height of 1698 ft.
GILCHRIST, ALEXANDER, biographer of WILLIAM BLAKE (q. v.),
born at Newington Green, son of a Unitarian minister; although called to
the bar, literary and art criticism became his main pursuit; settled at
Guildford in 1853, where he wrote his Life of the artist Etty; became in
1856 a next-door neighbour of Carlyle at Chelsea, and had all but
finished his Life of Blake when he died (1828-1861).--His wife, Anne
Gilchrist, nee Burrows, was during her life an active contributor to
magazines; she completed her husband's Life of Blake, and in 1883
published a Life of Mary Lamb (1828-1885).
GILDAS, a monkish historian of Britain, who wrote in the 6th century
a Latin work entitled "De Excidio Britanniae," which afterwards appeared
in two parts, a History and an Epistle.
GILEAD, a tableland extending along the E. of the Jordan, at a
general level of 2000 ft. above the sea, the highest point near
Ramoth-Gilead being 3597 ft.
GILES, ST., the patron saint of cripples, beggars, and lepers; was
himself a cripple, due to his refusal to be cured of a wound that he
might learn to mortify the flesh; was fed by the milk of a hind that
visited him daily; had once at his monastery a long interview with St.
Louis, without either of them speaking a word to the other.
GILFILLAN, GEORGE, a critic and essayist, born at Comrie, minister
of a Dissenting congregation in Dundee from 1836 to his death; a writer
with a perfervid style; author of "Gallery of Literary Portraits," "Bards
of the Bible," etc., and editor of Nichol's "British Poets," which
extended to 48 vols. (1817-1878).
GILLESPIE, GEORGE, a celebrated Scotch divine, born at Kirkcaldy;
trained at St. Andrews, and ordained to a charge at Wemyss; in 1642 he
was called to Edinburgh, and in the following year appointed one of a
deputation of four to represent Scotland at the Westminster Assembly; his
chief work is "Aaron's Rod Blossoming," a vigorous statement and
vindication of his Presbyterianism; in 1648 he was Moderator of the
General Assembly (1613-1648).
GILPIN, JOHN, a London citizen, on an adventure of whose life Cowper
has written a humorous poem.
GILPIN, WILLIAM, OF BOLDRE, an English author, who by his series of
"Picturesque Tours" exercised an influence on English literature similar
to that of White's "Selborne," at the same time (1724-1804).
GILRAY, JAMES, English caricaturist, born in Chelsea; distinguished
for his broad humour and keen satire; his works were numerous and highly
popular; died insane (1757-1815).
GIOBERTI, VINCENZO, an Italian philosophical and political writer,
born at Turin; in 1825 he was appointed to the chair of Theology in his
native city, and in 1831 chaplain to the Court of Charles Albert of
Sardinia; two years later was exiled on a charge of complicity in the
plots of the Young Italy party, and till 1847 remained abroad, chiefly in
Brussels, busy with his pen on literary, philosophical, and political
subjects; in 1848 he was welcomed back to Italy, and shortly afterwards
rose to be Prime Minister of a short-lived government; his later years
were spent in diplomatic work at Paris; in philosophy he reveals Platonic
tendencies, while his political ideal was a confederated Italy, with the
Pope at the head and the king of Sardinia as military guardian
(1801-1852).
GIORDANO, LUCA, Italian painter, born at Naples; studied under
various celebrated masters at Naples, Rome, Lombardy, and other places,
finally returning to Naples; in 1692 he received a commission from
Charles II. of Spain to adorn the Escurial, and in the execution of this
work remained at Madrid till 1700, when he again settled in his native
city; he was famous in his day for marvellous rapidity of workmanship,
but this fluency combined with a too slavish adherence to the methods of
the great masters has somewhat robbed his work of individuality; his
frescoes in the Escurial at Madrid and others in Florence and Rome are
esteemed his finest work (1632-1705).
GIORGIONE (i. e. Great George), the sobriquet given to Giorgio
Barbarella, one of the early masters of the Venetian school, born near
Castelfranco, in the NE. of Italy; at Venice he studied under Giovanni
Bellini, and had Titian as a fellow-pupil; his portraits are among the
finest of the Italian school, and exhibit a freshness of colour and
conception and a firmness of touch unsurpassed in his day; his works deal
chiefly with scriptural and pastoral scenes, and include a "Holy Family"
in the Louvre, "Virgin and Child" in Venice, and "Moses Rescued"
(1447-1511).
GIOTTO, a great Italian painter, born at a village near Florence;
was a shepherd's boy, and at 10 years of age, while tending his flock and
drawing pictures of them, was discovered by Cimabue, who took him home
and made a pupil of him; "never," says Ruskin, "checked the boy from the
first day he found him, showed him all he knew, talked with him of many
things he himself felt unable to paint; made him a workman and a
gentleman, above all, a Christian, yet left him a shepherd.... His
special character among the great painters of Italy was that he was a
practical person; what others dreamt of he did; he could work in mosaic,
could work in marble, and paint; could build ... built the Campanile of
the Duomo, because he was then the best master of sculpture, painting,
and architecture in Florence, and supposed in such business to be without
a superior in the world.... Dante was his friend and Titian copied
him.... His rules in art were: You shall see things as they are; and the
least with the greatest, because God made them; and the greatest with the
least, because God made you, and gave you eyes and a heart; he threw
aside all glitter and conventionality, and the most significant thing in
all his work is his choice of moments." Cimabue still painted the Holy
Family in the old conventional style, "but Giotto came into the field,
and saw with his simple eyes a lowlier worth; and he painted the Madonna,
St. Joseph, and the Christ,--yes, by all means if you choose to call them
so, but essentially--Mamma, Papa, and the Baby; and all Italy threw up
its cap" (1276-1336). See Ruskin's "Mornings in Florence."
GIOTTO'S O, a perfectly round O, such as Giotto is said to have sent
the Pope in evidence of his ability to do some decorative work for his
Holiness.
GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS (i. e. Giraldus of Cambria), ecclesiastic and
author, born in Pembrokeshire, of Norman descent; studied with
distinction in Paris; was a zealous churchman; obtained ecclesiastical
preferment in England; was twice elected bishop of St. David's, but both
times set aside; travelled in Ireland as well as Wales, and left record
of his impressions, which give an entertaining picture and a valuable
account of the times, though disfigured by credulity and personal vanity
(1147-1223).
GIRARD, STEPHEN, a philanthropist, born at Bordeaux; in early life
followed the career of a seaman and rose to be captain of an American
coast-trader; in 1769 set up as a trader in Philadelphia, and in course
of time establishing a bank, accumulated an immense fortune; during his
lifetime he exhibited a strange mixture of niggardliness, scepticism,
public charitableness, and a philanthropy which moved him during a
yellow-fever epidemic to labour as a nurse in the hospital; at his death
he bequeathed $2,000,000 to found an orphanage for boys, attaching to the
bequest the remarkable condition, that no clergyman should ever be on the
board or ever be permitted to enter the building (1750-1831).
GIRARDIN, EMILE DE, journalist and politician, born in Switzerland,
the natural son of General Alexandre de Girardin; took to stockbroking,
but quitting it for journalism he soon established a reputation as a
ready, vivacious writer, and in 1836 started _La Presse_, the first
French penny paper; his rapid change of front in politics earned for him
the nickname of "The Weathercock"; latterly he adhered to the Republican
cause, and founded _La France_ in its interest; he published many
political brochures and a few plays, and was for some years editor of _La
Liberte_ (1806-1881).--His wife, DELPHINE GAY, enjoyed a wide
celebrity both as a beauty and authoress; her poems, plays, and novels
fill six vols. (1806-1881).
GIRARDIN, FRANCOIS SAINT-MARC, a French professor and litterateur,
born at Paris; in 1827 was professor in the College Louis-le-Grand, and
in 1834 was nominated to the chair of Literature in the Sorbonne; as
leader-writer in the _Journal des Debats_ he vigorously opposed the
Democrats, and sat in the Senate from 1834 to 1848; in 1869, as
Saint-Beuve's successor, he took up the editorship of the _Journal des
Savants_, and in 1871 became a member of the National Assembly; he
published his collected essays and also his popular literary lectures
(1801-1873).
GIRONDE (794), a maritime department in SW. France, facing the Bay
of Biscay on the W. and lying N. and S. between Charente-Inferieure and
Landes; the Garonne and the Dordogne flowing through it form the Gironde
estuary, and with their tributaries sufficiently water the undulating
land; agriculture and some manufactories flourish, but wine is the chief
product.
GIRONDINS or GIRONDISTS, a party of moderate republican
opinions in the French Revolution; "men," says Carlyle, "of fervid
constitutional principles, of quick talent, irrefragable logic, clear
respectability, who would have the reign of liberty establish itself, but
only by respectable methods." The leaders of it were from the Gironde
district, whence their name, were in succession members of the
Legislative Body and of the Convention, on the right in the former, on
the left in the latter, and numbered among them such names as Condorcet,
Brissot, Roland, Carnot, and others; they opposed the court and the
clerical party, and voted for the death of the king, but sought to rescue
him by a proposal of appeal to the people; overpowered by the Jacobins in
June 1793, with whom they came to open rupture, they sought in vain to
provoke a rising in their favour; on October 24 they were arraigned
before the Revolutionary tribunal, and on the 31st twenty-one of them
were brought to the guillotine, singing the "Marseillaise" as they went
and on the scaffold, while the rest, all to a few, perished later on
either the same way or by their own hands.
GIRTIN, THOMAS, a landscape-painter, born in London; painted in
water-colour views of scenes near Paris and London; was a friend of
Turner (1773-1802).
GIRTON COLLEGE, a celebrated college for women, founded in 1869 at
Hitchin, but since 1873 located at Girton, near Cambridge; the ordinary
course extends to three years, and degree certificates of the standard of
the Cambridge B.A. are granted; the staff consists of a "head" and five
resident lecturers, all women, but there is a large accession of
lecturers from Cambridge; the students number upwards of 100, the fee for
board and education L35 per term.
GIZEH or GHIZEH (11), a town in Egypt, on the Nile, opposite
Old Cairo, to which it is joined by a suspension bridge spanning the
river; in the neighbourhood are the Great Pyramids.
GLACIER, a more or less snow-white mass of ice occupying an Alpine
valley and moving slowly down its bed like a viscous substance, being fed
by semi-melted snow at the top called _neve_ and forming streams at the
bottom; it has been defined by Prof. J. D. FORBES (q. v.) as "a
viscous body which is urged down slopes of a certain inclination by the
mutual pressure of its parts"; in the Alps alone they number over 1000,
have an utmost depth of 1500 ft., and an utmost length of 12 m.
GLADIATOR, one who fought in the arena at Rome with men or beasts
for the amusement of the people, originally in connection with funeral
games, under the belief, it is said, that the spirits of the dead were
appeased at the sight of blood; exhibitions of the kind were common under
the emperors, and held on high occasions; if the gladiator was wounded in
the contest, the spectators decided whether he was to live or die by, in
the former case, turning their thumbs downwards, and in the latter
turning them upwards.
GLADSTONE, WILLIAM EWART, statesman, orator, and scholar, born at
Liverpool, son of a Liverpool merchant, sometime of Leith, and of Ann,
daughter of Andrew Robertson, Stornoway; educated at Eton and Oxford;
entered Parliament in 1832 as member for Newark in the Tory interest;
delivered his maiden speech on slavery emancipation on May 17, 1833;
accepted office under Sir Robert Peel in 1834, and again in 1841 and
1846; and as member for Oxford, separating from the Tory party, took
office under Lord Aberdeen, and in 1859, under Lord Palmerston, became
Chancellor of the Exchequer; elected member for South Lancashire, 1865,
he became leader of the Commons under Lord John Russell; elected for
Greenwich, he became Premier for the first time in 1869, holding office
till 1875; after a brilliant campaign in Midlothian he was returned for
that county in 1880, and became Premier for the second time; became
Premier a third time in 1886, and a fourth time in 1892. During his
tenure of office he introduced and carried a great number of important
measures, but failed from desertion in the Liberal ranks to carry his pet
measure of Home Rule for Ireland, so he retired from office into private
life in 1895; his last days he spent chiefly in literary work, the fruit
of which, added to earlier works, gives evidence of the breadth of his
sympathies and the extent of his scholarly attainments; but being seized
by a fatal malady, his strong constitution gradually sank under it, and
he died at Hawarden, May 19, 1898; he was buried in Westminster Abbey at
the expense of the nation and amid expressions of sorrow on the part of
the whole community; he was a man of high moral character, transcendent
ability, and strong will, and from the day he took the lead the
acknowledged chief of the Liberal party in the country (1809-1898).
GLAISHER, JAMES, meteorologist and founder of the Royal
Meteorological Society, born in London; his first observations in
meteorology were done as an officer of the Irish Ordnance Survey; in
1836, after service in the Cambridge Observatory, he went to Greenwich,
and from 1840 to 1874 he superintended the meteorological department of
the Royal Observatory; in connection with atmospheric investigations he
made a series of 28 balloon ascents, rising on one occasion to a height
of 7 m., the greatest elevation yet attained: _b_. 1809.
GLAMORGANSHIRE (687), a maritime county in S. Wales, fronting the
Bristol Channel, between Monmouth and Carmarthen; amid the hilly country
of the N. lie the rich coal-fields and iron-stone quarries which have
made it by far the most populous and wealthiest county of Wales; the S.
country--the garden of Wales--is a succession of fertile valleys and
wooded slopes; dairy-farming is extensively engaged in, but agriculture
is somewhat backward; the large towns are actively engaged in the
coal-trade and in the smelting of iron, copper, lead, and tin; some
interesting Roman remains exist in the county.
GLANVILL, JOSEPH, born at Plymouth, graduated at Oxford; was at
first an Aristotelian and Puritan in his opinions, but after the
Restoration entered the Church, and obtained preferment in various sees;
his fame rests upon his eloquent appeal for freedom of thought in "The
Vanity of Dogmatising" (1661) and upon his two works in defence of a
belief in witches; he was one of the first Fellows of the Royal Society;
he seems to have made Sir Thomas Browne his model, though he is not equal
to him in the vigour of his thinking or the harmony of his style
(1636-1680).
GLANVILL, RANULF DE, Chief-Justiciary of England in the reign of
Henry II., born at Stratford, in Suffolk; is the author of the earliest
treatise on the laws of England, a work in 14 books; was deposed by
Richard I., and, joining the Crusaders, fell before Acre; _d_. 1190.
GLASGOW (815, including suburbs), the second city of the empire and
the chief centre of industry in Scotland, is situated on the Clyde, in
Lanarkshire, 45 m. W. from Edinburgh and 405 from London; it is
conjectured that the origin of the name is found in Cleschu ("beloved
green spot"), the name of a Celtic village which occupied the site
previously, near which St. Mungo, or Kentigern, erected his church about
A.D. 560; although a royal burgh in 1636, it was not till after the
stimulus to trade occasioned by the Union (1707) that it began to display
its now characteristic mercantile activity; since then it has gone
forward by leaps and bounds, owing not a little of its success to its
exceptionally favourable situation; besides the advantages of waterway
derived from the Clyde, it is in the heart of a rich coal and iron
district; spinning and weaving, shipbuilding, foundries, chemical and
iron works, and all manner of industries, flourish; the city is
spaciously and handsomely laid out; the cathedral (1197) is the chief
building of historical and architectural interest; there is a university
(1451) and a variety of other colleges, besides several public libraries
and art schools; Glasgow returns seven members of Parliament.
GLASSE, MRS., authoress, real or fictitious, of a cookery book, once
in wide-spread repute; credited with the sage prescription, "First catch
your hare."
GLASSITES, a Christian sect founded in Scotland about 1730 by John
Glas (1695-1773), a minister of the Church of Scotland, who in 1730 was
deposed for denouncing all national establishments of religion as
"inconsistent with the true nature of the Church of Christ," and
maintaining that a Church and its office-bearers owed allegiance to none
other than Christ; the sect, which developed peculiarities of doctrine
and worship in conformity with those of the primitive Church, spread to
England and America, where they became known as _Sandemanians_, after
Robert Sandeman (1718-1771), son-in-law to Glas, and his zealous
supporter.
GLASTONBURY (4), an ancient town in Somersetshire, 36 m. S. of
Bristol, on the Brue; it is associated with many interesting legends and
historical traditions that point to its existence in very early times;
thus it was the _Avalon_ of Arthurian legend, and the place where Joseph
of Arimathea, when he brought the Holy Grail, is said to have founded the
first Christian Church; ruins are still extant of the old abbey founded
by Henry II., which itself succeeded the ancient abbey of St. Dunstan
(946); there is trade in gloves, mats, rugs, &c.
GLEIN, LUDWIG, German lyric poet, known as Father Glein for the
encouragement he gave to young German authors; composed war songs for the
Prussian army (1719-1803).
GLENCOE, a wild and desolate glen in the N. of Argyllshire, running
eastward from Ballachulish 10 m.; shut in by two lofty and rugged
mountain ranges; the Coe flows through the valley and enhances its lonely
grandeur. See following.
GLENCOE, MASSACRE OF, a treacherous slaughter of the Macdonalds of
that glen on the morning of 13th February 1691, to the number of 38, in
consequence of the belated submission of MacIan, the chief, to William
and Mary after the Revolution; the perpetrators of the deed were a body
of soldiers led by Captain Campbell, who came among the people as
friends, and stayed as friends among them for 12 days.
GLENDOWER, OWEN, a Welsh chief and patriot, a descendant of the old
Welsh princes who stirred up a rebellion against the English under Henry
IV., which, with the help of the Percies of Northumberland and Charles
VI. of France, he conducted with varied success for years, but eventual
failure (1349-1415). See Shakespeare's "Henry IV."
GLENLIVET, a valley in Banffshire, through which the Livet Water
runs, about 20 m. SW. of Huntly; famed for its whisky.
GLENROY, a narrow glen 14 m. long, in Inverness-shire, in the
Lochaber district; Fort William lies 13 m. NE. of its SW. extremity; the
Roy flows through the valley; the steep sides are remarkable for three
regular and distinctly-formed shelves or terraces running parallel almost
the entire distance of the glen, the heights on either side exactly
corresponding; these are now regarded as the margins of a former loch
which gradually sank as the barrier of glacial ice which dammed the
waters up slowly melted.
GLOGAU (20), a town with a strong fortress in Silesia, on the Oder,
35 m. NW. of Liegnitz; is a place of manufacture; was brilliantly taken
by Frederick the Great in the Silesian War on the 9th March 1741 by
scalade, in one hour, at the very break of day.
GLOMMEN or STOR-ELV (i. e. Great River), the largest river in
Norway; has its source in Lake Aursund, and, after a southward course of
350 m., broken by many falls, and for the most part unnavigable,
discharges into the Skager Rack at Frederikstad.
GLORIANA, Queen Elizabeth, represented in her capacity as sovereign
in Spenser's "Faerie Queen."
GLOUCESTER: 1 (39), the capital of Gloucestershire, on the Severn,
38 m. NE. of Bristol; a handsomely laid out town, the main lines of its
ground-plan testifying to its Roman origin; conspicuous among several
fine buildings is the cathedral, begun in 1088 (restored in 1853) and
exhibiting features of Perpendicular and Norman architecture; the river,
here tidal, is spanned by two stone bridges, and a flourishing commerce
is favoured by fine docks and a canal; chemicals, soap, &c., are
manufactured. 2 (25), a seaport of Massachusetts, U.S., 30 m. NE. of
Boston; is a favourite summer resort, an important fishing-station, and
has an excellent harbour; granite is hewn in large quantities in the
neighbouring quarries.
GLOUCESTER, ROBERT OF, English chronicler; was a monk of Gloucester
Abbey, and lived in the 13th century; his chronicle, which is in verse,
traces the history of England from the siege of Troy to 1271, the year
before the accession of Edward I.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE (600), a west midland county of England, which
touches Warwick in the centre of the country, and extends SW. to the
estuary of the Severn; it presents three natural and well-defined
districts known as the Hill, formed by the Cotswold Hills in the E.; the
Vale, through which the Severn runs, in the centre; the Forest of Dean
(the largest in England) in the W.; coal is wrought in two large fields,
but agricultural and dairy-farming are the main industries; antiquities
abound; the principal rivers are the Wye, Severn, Lower and Upper Avon,
and Thames; BRISTOL (q. v.) is the largest town.
GLUeCK, CHRISTOPH VON, a German musical composer and reformer of the
opera; made his first appearance in Vienna; studied afterwards for some
years under San-Martini of Milan, and brought out his first opera
"Artaxerxes," followed by seven others in the Italian style; invited to
London, he studied Haendel, attained a loftier ideal, and returned to the
Continent, where, especially at Vienna and Paris, he achieved his
triumphs, becoming founder of a new era in operatic music; in Paris he
had a rival in Piccini, and the public opinion was for a time divided,
but the production by him of "Iphigenie en Aulide" established his
superiority, and he carried off the palm (1714-1787).
GNOMES, a set of imaginary beings misshapen in form and of
diminutive size, viewed as inhabiting the interior of the earth and
presiding over its secret treasures.
GNOSTICS, heretics, consisting of various sects that arose in the
Apostolic age of Christianity, and that sought, agreeably to the
philosophic opinions which they had severally embraced, to extract an
esoteric meaning out of the letter of Scripture and the facts especially
of the Gospel history, such as only those of superior speculative insight
could appreciate; they set a higher value on Knowledge (_gnosis_, whence
their name) than Faith; thus their understanding of Christianity was
speculative, not spiritual, and their knowledge of it the result of
thinking, not of life; like the Jews they denied the possibility of the
Word becoming flesh and of a realisation of the infinite in the finite;
indeed, Gnosticism was at once a speculative and a practical denial that
Christ was God manifest in the flesh, and that participation in
Christianity was, as He presented it (John vi. 53), participation in His
flesh. See CHRISTIANITY.
GOA (495), a Portuguese possession in W. India, lying between the
Western Ghats and the sea-coast, 250 m. SE. of Bombay; large quantities
of rice are raised in it; is hilly on the E. and covered with forests; it
was captured in 1510 by Albuquerque. Old Goa, the former capital, has
fallen from a populous and wealthy city into utter decay, its place being
taken by Nova Goa or Panjim (8), on the Mandavi, 3 m. from the coast.
GOBELINS, GILLES AND JEAN, brothers, celebrated dyers, who in the
15th century introduced into France the art of dyeing in scarlet,
subsequently adding on tapestry-weaving to their establishment; their
works in Paris were taken over by government in Louis XIV.'s reign, and
the tapestry, of gorgeous design, then put forth became known as
Gobelins; Le Brun, the famous artist, was for a time chief designer, and
the tapestries turned out in his time have a world-wide celebrity; the
works are still in operation, and a second establishment, supported by
government, for the manufacture of Gobelins exists at Beauvais.
GODAV`ARI, an important river of India, rises on the E. side of W.
Ghats, traverses in a SE. direction the entire Deccan, and forming a
large delta, falls into the Bay of Bengal by seven mouths after a course
of 900 m.; its mighty volume of water supplies irrigating and navigable
canals for the whole Deccan; it is one of the 12 sacred rivers of India,
and once in 12 years a bathing festival is celebrated on its banks.
GODET, FREDERICK, Swiss theologian, born at Neuchatel; became
professor of Theology there; author of commentaries on St. John's and
Luke's Gospels and on the Epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians,
along with other works; _b_. 1812.
GODFREY OF BOUILLON, a renowned Crusader, eldest son of Eustace II.,
Count of Boulogne; he served with distinction under the Emperor Henry
II., being present at the storming of Rome in 1084; his main title to
fame rests on the gallantry and devotion he displayed in the first
Crusade, of which he was a principal leader; a series of victories led up
to the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, and he was proclaimed "Defender and
Baron of the Holy Sepulchre," but declined to wear a king's crown in the
city where his Saviour had borne a crown of thorns; his defeat of the
sultan of Egypt at Ascalon in the same year confirmed him in the
possession of Palestine (1061-1100).
GODIVA, LADY, wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia and Lord of Coventry,
who pled in vain with her husband on behalf of the inhabitants of the
place for relief from heavy exactions he had laid upon them, till one day
he relented and consented he would grant her prayer if she would ride
through Coventry on horseback naked, which, with his leave, she at once
undertook to do, and did, not one soul of the place peering through to
look at her save Peeping Tom, who paid for his curiosity by being smitten
thereafter with blindness.
GODOLPHIN, SYDNEY GODOLPHIN, EARL OF, a celebrated English statesman
and financier, born at Godolphin Hall, near Helston, Cornwall; at 19 was
a royal page in the Court of Charles II., and in 1678 engaged on a
political mission in Holland; in the following year entered Parliament
and was appointed to a post in the Treasury, of which, five years later,
he became First Commissioner, being at the same time raised to the
peerage; under James II, was again at the head of the Treasury, and at
the Revolution supported James, till the abdication, when he voted in
favour of a regency; on the elevation of William to the throne was
immediately reinstated at the Treasury, where he continued eight years,
till the Whig ascendency brought about his dismissal; for six months in
1700 he once more assumed his former post, and under Anne fulfilled the
duties of Lord High-Treasurer from 1702 to 1710, administering the
finances with sagacity and integrity during the great campaigns of his
friend Marlborough, and in 1706 he was created an Earl (1645-1712).
GODOY, MANUEL DE, minister of Charles IV. of Spain, born at Badajoz;
played a conspicuous part in the affairs of Spain during the French
Revolution and the Empire; received the title of Prince of Peace for an
offensive and defensive treaty he concluded with France in 1796, in
opposition to the general wish of the nation; lost all and died in Paris
(1767-1851).
GODWIN, Earl of the West Saxons, a powerful English noble of the
11th century and father of Harold II.; first comes into prominence in the
reign of Cnut; was created an earl previous to 1018, and shortly
afterwards became related to the king by marriage; he was a zealous
supporter of Harthacnut in the struggle which followed the demise of
Cnut; subsequently was instrumental in raising Edward the Confessor to
the throne, to whom he gave his daughter Edith in marriage; continued for
some years virtual ruler of the kingdom, but in 1051 his opposition to
the growing Norman influence brought about his banishment and the
confiscation of his estates; in 1052 he returned to England and was
received with so great popular acclaim that the king was forced to
restore to him his estates and offices; _d_. 1054.
GODWIN, MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, an English authoress, and first to
publicly assert the Rights of Women, born at Hoxton, of humble Irish
parentage; at 19 she began to support herself by teaching, and continued
to do so till 1788, when she established herself in London to push her
way as a writer, having already published "Thoughts on the Education of
Daughters"; in 1791 she replied to Burke's "Reflections," and in the
following year appeared her famous "Vindication of the Rights of Women";
while in Paris in 1793 she formed a _liaison_ with an American, Captain
Imlay, whose cruel desertion of her two years later induced her to
attempt suicide by drowning; in 1796 she became attached to William
Godwin, a friend of five years' standing, and with him lived for some
months, although, in accord with their own pronounced opinions, no
marriage ceremony had been performed; in deference to the opinions of
others, however, they departed from this position, and a marriage was
duly celebrated five months before the birth of their daughter Mary
(Shelley's second wife); contemporary opinion shows her to have been
generous and gentle of nature, and animated throughout by a noble zeal
for the welfare of humanity (1759-1797).
GODWIN, WILLIAM, a political writer and novelist, the son of a
Presbyterian minister, born at Wisbeach, Somersetshire; was educated for
the Church, and was for five years in the ministry; during this period
his opinions on politics and religion underwent a radical change, and
when in 1787 he threw up his holy office to engage in literature, he had
become a republican in the one and a free-thinker in the other; various
works had come from his pen, including three novels, before his
celebrated "Political Justice" appeared in 1793, "Caleb Williams," a
novel, and his best-known work, being published in the following year; in
1797 he married Mary Wollstonecraft (_See_ preceding), who died the same
year, and four years later he married a widow, Mrs. Clement; to the close
of his long life he was a prolific writer on literary, historical, and
political subjects, but his carelessness and lack of business habits left
him little profit from all his literary activity; his writings are clear
and vigorous in the expression, if visionary and impracticable in theory
(1756-1836).
GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON, a great poet and wise man, the
greatest, it is alleged, the world has seen since Shakespeare left it,
and who, being born in Frankfort-on-the-Main 10 years before Robert
Burns, died in the small duchy of Weimar the same year as Sir Walter
Scott; was the son of an imperial chancellor, a formal man and his
pedagogue in boyhood, and of Elizabeth Textor, daughter of the chief
magistrate of the city, a woman of bright intelligence, who was only
eighteen at the time of his birth. Spiritually and bodily he was the most
perfectly formed, symetrically proportioned, justly balanced, and
completely cultivated man perhaps that ever lived, whose priceless value
to the world lies in this, that in his philosophy and life there is found
the union in one of what to smaller people appears entirely and
absolutely antagonistic, of utmost scientific scepticism and highest
spiritual faith and worth. "He was filled full with the scepticism,
bitterness, hollowness, and thousandfold contradictions of his time, till
his heart was like to break; yet he subdued all this, rose victorious
over this, and manifoldly, by word and act, showed others that came after
how to do the like." Carlyle, who is never done recalling his worth,
confesses an indebtedness to him--which he found it beyond his power to
express: "It was he," he writes to Emerson, "that first proclaimed to me
(convincingly, for I saw it _done_): 'behold, even in this scandalous
Sceptico-Epicurean generation, when all is gone but hunger and cant, it
is still possible that Man be Man.'" "He was," says he, "king of himself
and his world;... his faculties and feelings were not fettered or
prostrated under the iron sway of Passion, but led and guided in kindly
union under the mild sway of Reason; as the fierce primeval elements of
chaos were stilled at the coming of Light, and bound together, under its
soft vesture, into a glorious and beneficent Creation." His life lies
latent in his successive works, above all in "Goetz," in "Werter," in
"Faust," and in "Meister"; but as these have not been duly read it has
not yet been duly written, though an attempt is being made to do so in
the said connection. Of the last of the four works named, Carlyle, who
has done more than any one else yet to bring Goethe near us, once said,
"There are some ten pages of that book that, if ambition had been my
object, I would rather have written than all the literature of my time."
"One counsel," says Carlyle, "he has to give, the secret of his whole
poetic alchemy, 'Think of living! Thy life is no idle dream, but a solemn
reality. It is thy own, it is all thou hast to front eternity with.'"
"Never thought on thinking," he has said, _Nie ans Denken gedacht_. "What
a thrift," exclaims Carlyle, "of faculty here!" Some think he had one
weakness: he lived for culture, believed in culture, irrespective of the
fact and the need of individual regeneration. And Emerson, who afterwards
in his "Representative Men" did Goethe full justice, in introducing him
as, if not a world-wise man, at all events as a world-related, once
complained that "he showed us the _actual_ rather than the _ideal_." To
which Carlyle answered, "That is true; but it is not the whole truth. The
actual well seen _is_ the ideal. The actual, what really is and exists;
the past, the present, and the future do all lie _there_" (1749-1832).
GOETZ VON BERLICHINGEN (of the Iron Hand), a German knight of the
16th century; was involved in turbulent movements, and lost his right
hand at the siege of Landshut, which he replaced by one of his own
invention made of steel; spent his life in feuds, and left an
autobiography which interested Goethe, who dramatised his story, "to
save," as he said, "the memory of a brave man from darkness," a drama
that had the honour of being translated by Sir Walter Scott.
GOG AND MAGOG, names that occur in the Bible of foes of Israel, and
designative in the Apocalypse of enemies of the kingdom of God, as also
of a Scythian tribe N. of the Caucasus. The names are applied likewise to
two giants, survivors of a race found in Britain by Brute of Troy,
effigies of whom stood at the Guildhall Gate, symbolic defenders of the
city.
GOGOL, NICOLAI VASILIEVITCH, a popular Russian novelist, born in
Poltava; in 1829 he started as a writer in St. Petersburg, but met with
little success till the appearance of his "Evenings in a Farm near
Dikanka"; the success of the included sketches of provincial life induced
him to produce a second series in 1834, which are characterised by the
same freshness and fidelity to nature; in 1837 appeared his masterpiece
"Dead Souls," in which all his powers of pathos, humour, and satire are
seen at their best; for some time he tried public teaching, being
professor of History at St. Petersburg, and from 1836 to 1846 lived
chiefly at Rome; many of his works, which rank beside those of Puschkin
and Turgenieff, are translated into English (1809-1852).
GOLCONDA, a fortified town in the Nizam's dominions, 7 m. W. of
Hyderabad; famous for its diamonds, found in the neighbourhood; beside it
are the ruins of the ancient city, the former capital of the old kingdom;
the fort is garrisoned, and is the treasury of the Nizam; it is also a
State prison.
GOLD COAST (1,475, of whom 150 are Europeans), a British crown
colony on the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa, with a coast-line of 350 m.;
from the low and marshy foreshore the country slopes upward and inward to
Ashanti; the climate is very unhealthy; palm-oil, india-rubber, gold
dust, &c., are exported; Cape Coast Castle is the capital.
GOLDEN AGE, the age of happy innocence under the reign of Cronos or
Saturn, in which, as fabled, the earth yielded all fulness without toil,
and every creature lived at peace with every other; the term is applied
to the most flourishing period in the history of a nation. See
AGES.
GOLDEN ASS, a romance of APULEIUS (q. v.).
GOLDEN BULL, an Imperial edict, issued by the Emperor Charles IV.,
which determined the law in the matter of the Imperial elections, and
that only one member of each electoral house should have a vote; so
called from the gold case enclosing the Imperial seal attached.
GOLDEN FLEECE, the fleece of a ram which PHRYXOS (q. v.),
after he had sacrificed him to Zeus, gave to AEetes, king of Colchis, who
hung it on a sacred oak, and had it guarded by a monstrous dragon, and
which it was the object of the Argonautic expedition under Jason to
recover and bring back to Greece, an object which they achieved. See
ARGONAUTS.
GOLDEN FLEECE, ORDER OF THE, an order of knighthood founded by
Philip III., Duke of Burgundy and the Netherlands in 1429, and instituted
for the protection of the Church.
GOLDEN HORN, the inlet on which Constantinople is situated.
GOLDEN LEGEND, a collection of lives of saints and other tales, such
as that of the "Seven Sleepers" and "St. George and the Dragon," made in
the 13th century by Jacques de Voragine, a Dominican monk, to the glory
especially of his brotherhood.
GOLDEN ROSE, a cluster of roses on a thorny stem, all of gold;
perfumed, and blessed by the Pope on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and sent
to a prince who has during the year shown most zeal for the Church.
GOLDONI, CARLO, the founder of Italian comedy, born at Venice; in
his youth he studied medicine and subsequently law, but in 1732 appeared
as a dramatist with his tragedy "Belisario"; moving from place to place
as a strolling-player, he in 1736 returned to Venice, and finding his
true vocation in comedy-writing, turned out a rapid succession of
sparkling character plays after the manner of Moliere; in 1761 he went to
Paris as a playwright to the Italian theatre; became Italian master to
Louis XV.'s daughters, and subsequently was pensioned; his comedies
displaced the burlesques and farces till then in vogue on the stage in
Italy (1707-1793).
GOLDSCHMIDT, MADAME. See LIND, JENNY.
GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, English man of letters, born at Pallas or
Pallasmore, co. Longford, Ireland, and celebrated in English literature
as the author of the "Vicar of Wakefield"; a born genius, but of careless
ways, and could not be trained to any profession, either in the Church,
in law, or in medicine, though more or less booked for all three in
succession; set out on travel on the Continent without a penny, and
supported himself by his flute and other unknown means; came to London,
tried teaching, then literature, doing hack-work, his first work in that
department being "An Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in
Europe," which was succeeded by his "Citizen of the World"; became a
member of the "Literary Club," and associated with Johnson, Reynolds,
Burke, and others; produced poems, "The Traveller" and the "Deserted
Village," besides comedies, such as "She Stoops to Conquer"; lived
extravagantly, and died in debt; wrote histories of Greece and Rome, and
"Animated Nature"; was a charming writer (1728-1774).
GOLF, a game played with a bent club and a small ball on commons
with short grass, in which the player who drives the ball into a
succession of small holes in the ground, usually 18, with the fewest
strokes, or who reckons up the most holes in the round by taking them
with the fewest strokes, is the winner; an old popular Scotch game, and
first introduced into English on Blackheath by James I., which has of
late years been revived, and in connection with which clubs have
established themselves far and wide over the globe, even at Bagdad.
GOLIATH, a Philistine giant of Gath slain by David with pebbles from
a brook by a sling (1 Sam. xvii.).
GOMARISTS, a sect of Calvinists in Holland, so called from their
leader Gomarus (1563-1641), a bitter enemy of ARMINIUS (q. v.).
GONCOURT, EDMOND AND JULES DE, French novelists, born, the former at
Nancy, the latter at Paris; a habit of elaborate note-taking whilst on
sketching tours first drew the brothers towards literature, and
inoculated them with the habit of minute and accurate observation which
gave value to their subsequent writings; their first real venture was a
series of historical studies, designed to reproduce with every
elaboration of detail French society in the later half of the 18th
century, including a "History of French Society during the Revolution";
later they found their true province in the novel, and a series of
striking works of fiction became the product of their joint labours,
works which have influenced subsequent novelists not a little; "Les
Hommes de Lettres" (1860) was the first of these, and "Madame Gervaisais"
(1869) is perhaps their best; their collaboration was broken in 1870 by
the death of Jules; but Edmond still continued to write, and produced
amongst other novels "La Fille Elisa"; the "Journal" of the brothers
appeared in 1888 in six vols. (Edmond, 1822-1888; Jules, 1830-1870).
GONDAR (4), a once populous city and the capital of AMHARA
(q. v.), situated on a basaltic ridge in the Wogra Mountains, 23 m. N.
of Lake Tzana; there are ruins of an old castle, churches and mosques,
and establishments for the training of Abyssinian priests.
GONERAL, an unnatural daughter of King Lear.
GONSALEZ, a Spanish hero of the 10th century, celebrated for his
adventures, and whose life was twice saved by his wife.
GONZAGA, the name of a princely family from Germany, settled in
Mantua, from which the dukes were descended who ruled the territory from
1328 to 1708.
GONZALVO DI CORDOVA (the popular name of Gonzalo Hernandez y
Aguilar), a renowned Spanish soldier, born at Montilla, near Cordova; he
first became prominent in the wars with the Moors of Granada and with
Portugal, and was rewarded with an estate and pensioned; in 1498 he so
distinguished himself in assisting the king of Naples (Ferdinand II.) to
drive out the French that he became known henceforth as _El Gran
Capitan_, and was created Duke of San Angelo; subsequent heroic
achievements in Naples, which won the kingdom for Spain (1503), roused a
feeling of jealousy in the Spanish king, so that Gonzalvo was recalled
and ill-requited for his great services (1453-1515).
GOOD FRIDAY, the Friday before Easter, held sacred from early times
by the Church in commemoration of the crucifixion of Christ, observed
originally with fasting and prayer.
GOOD REGENT, the REGENT MURRAY (q. v.).
GOOD TEMPLARS, a total abstinence fraternity organised in New York
in 1851, which has lodges, subordinate, district, and grand, now all over
the world; they exact a pledge of lifelong abstinence, and advocate the
suppression of the vice by statute; there is a juvenile section pledged
to abstinence from tobacco, gambling, and bad language, as well as drink.
GOODFELLOW, ROBIN, a merry domestic spirit, full of tricks and
practical jokes, and a constant attendant upon the English fairy court.
GOODMAN OF BALLENGEICH, a name assumed by James V. of Scotland in
his disguised perambulations about Edinburgh o' nights.
GOODSIR, JOHN, eminent Scotch anatomist, born at Anstruther; was
trained at St. Andrews and Edinburgh, in which latter city he served an
apprenticeship in dentistry; he settled in Anstruther and there wrote his
noted essay on "Teeth"; in 1840 he became keeper of the museum of the
Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, and lecturer on Diseases of the
Bone in 1842; four years later he succeeded Dr. Monro in the chair of
Anatomy in Edinburgh University, which he adorned, having for some time
previously acted as assistant (1814-1867).
GOODWIN SANDS, a famous sandbank stretching 10 m. along the E. coast
of Kent, about 51/2 m. from the shore; with the flowing of the tidal
current the hidden sands are apt to shift and change their outline, and
when storms of great violence sweep over them, despite their being well
marked by four lightships and nine buoys, they have often been the
occasion of a long series of melancholy shipwrecks; the shoal forms a
splendid breakwater for the Downs, an excellent anchorage, stretching
between the Goodwins and the shore; they are supposed popularly to be the
remnants of an estate which belonged to the great EARL OF GODWIN
(q. v.), but this supposition is a mere fable.
GOODY TWO SHOES, a character in a nursery story published in 1765,
and supposed to have been written by Goldsmith when in straits.
GOODYEAR, CHARLES, the inventor of vulcanised rubber, born at New
Haven, Connecticut; his career was a troubled one; he failed as an
iron-founder, and when, after 10 years labour, amidst every disadvantage
of poverty and privation, he in 1844 produced his new method of hardening
rubber by means of sulphur, he became involved in a fresh series of
troubles, as well as poverty, consequent on the infringement of his
inventions; his patents latterly amounted to 60, and medals and honours,
were awarded him both in London and Paris (1800-1860).
GOORKHAS or GURKHAS, a brave and powerful native race in Nepal
claiming Hindu descent; in 1814 they were subdued by the British, and
have since rendered valuable service to Britain in the Mutiny, in the
Afghan and in the Sikh Wars; there are now ten regiments of Goorkhas.
GORDIAN KNOT, a knot by which the yoke was fastened to the beam of
the chariot of Gordius (q. v.), and which no one could untie except the
man who was destined to be the conqueror of Asia; Alexander the Great
being ambitious to achieve this feat, tried hard to undo it, but failing,
cut it with his sword and marched on to conquest.
GORDIANUS, the name of three Roman Emperors, father, son, and
grandson. MARCUS ANTONIUS GORDIANUS, surnamed Africanus, rose to be
an aedile, consul twice, and subsequently became proconsul of Africa; on
the deposition of the Emperor Maximinus in 238, he, then in his eightieth
year, was proclaimed emperor, his son (_b_. A.D. 192) being associated
with him in the imperial office; grief at the death of his son, killed in
battle, caused him to commit suicide a month after he had assumed the
purple; he was a man of refined and generous nature. MARCUS ANTONIUS
GORDIANUS, grandson of preceding, was early raised to the dignity of
Caesar, and in 238 rose to the rank of Augustus; his most important
achievement was his driving back of the Persians beyond the Euphrates and
his relief of Antioch; he was assassinated in 244 by his own soldiers
while preparing to cross the Euphrates.
GORDIUS, a boor, the father of Midas (q. v.), who was proclaimed
king of Phrygia because he happened, in response to the decree of an
oracle, to be the first to ride into Gordium during a particular assembly
of the people; he rode into the city on a waggon, to which the yoke was
attached by the Gordian knot, and which he dedicated to Zeus.
GORDON, GENERAL CHARLES GEORGE, born at Woolwich, son of an
artillery officer; entered the Royal Engineers; served in the Crimea as
an officer in that department, and was, after the war, employed in
defining the boundaries of Asiatic Turkey and Russia; being employed in
1860 on a mission to square up matters with the Chinese, on the
settlement of the quarrel lent himself to the Emperor in the interest of
good order, and it was through him that the Taiping Rebellion in 1863-64
was extinguished, whereby he earned the title of "Chinese" Gordon; he
returned to England in 1865, and was for the next six years engaged in
completing the defences of the Thames at Gravesend; he was Vice-Consul of
the delta of the Danube during 1871-73, at the end of which term he
conducted an expedition into Africa under the Khedive of Egypt, and was
in 1877 appointed governor of the Soudan, in which capacity, by the
confidence his character inspired, he succeeded in settling no end of
troubles and allaying lifelong feuds; he relinquished this post in 1880,
and in 1884, the English Government having resolved to evacuate the
Soudan, he was commissioned to superintend the operation; he started off
at once, and arrived at Khartoum in February of that year, where, by the
end of April, all communication between him and Cairo was cut off; an
expedition was fitted out for his relief, but was too late in arriving,
the place was stormed by the Arabs, and he with his comrades fell dead
under a volley of Arab musketry, January 28; from the commencement to the
close of his career he distinguished himself as a genuine Christian and a
brave man (1833-1885).
GORDON, LORD GEORGE, Anti-Papal agitator, born in London, son of the
Duke of Gordon; he adopted the navy as a profession, and rose to be
lieutenant; entered Parliament, and soon made himself conspicuous by his
indiscriminate attacks on both Whigs and Tories; gave a passionate
support to the London Protestant Association formed for the purpose of
bringing about the repeal of the Catholic Emancipation Bill of 1778; in
1780, as President of the Association, took the leading part in the
famous No Popery riots in London; was tried but acquitted, mainly through
the eloquent defence of Erskine; subsequently he was excommunicated for
contempt of court, and eventually, after endeavouring to escape
prosecution for two treasonable pamphlets, was apprehended, and died in
Newgate (1751-1793).
GORDON, SIR JOHN WATSON, a portrait-painter, born in Edinburgh; was
a pupil of Raeburn's, and his successor as a painter of portraits;
executed portraits of most of the eminent Scotchmen of his time, and
among the number Sir Walter Scott, the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord Cockburn,
Dr. Chalmers, and Professor Wilson (1788-1864).
GORE, CHARLES, canon of Westminster, a Fellow of Trinity College,
Oxford, is an exponent of High Church tenets; the editor of _Lux Mundi_,
and the author of the Bampton Lecture for 1891, on "The Incarnation of
the Son of God"; _b_. 1853.
GOeRGEI, ARTHUR, a Hungarian patriot; at the age of 27 entered the
army, and designed to devote himself to the study of chemistry and the
administration of his estate; but on the outbreak of the Revolution in
1848 he joined the revolutionists; crushed the Croatians at Ozora; at the
head of a patriot army faced the Austrians under Windischgraetz on the
western frontier, and despite a temporary repulse, succeeded in asserting
the supremacy of the Hungarian cause in a series of victories; Russian
assistance accorded to Austria, however, changed the fortune of war;
Kossuth resigned, and Goergei became dictator; but hopeless of success, he
immediately negotiated a peace with the Russians; in 1851 he published a
vindication of his policy and surrender, and in 1885 was exonerated by
his compatriots from the charges of treachery brought against him by
Kossuth; _b_. 1818.
GORGIAS, a celebrated Greek sophist, born at Syracuse, in Sicily;
settled in Athens, a swashbuckler of a man, who attached himself to the
ELEATICS (q. v.), and especially Zeno, in order that by their
dialectic "he might demonstrate that nothing exists, or if something
exists, that it cannot be known, or if it can be known, that it cannot be
communicated"; his work bore characteristically enough the title "Of the
Non-Existent, or of Nature"!
GORGONS, three sisters, Medusa, Euryale, and Stheino, with hissing
serpents on their heads instead of hair, of whom Medusa, the only one
that was mortal, had the power of turning into stone any one who looked
on her. See PERSEUS.
GORHAM, GEORGE CORNELIUS, an English ecclesiastic; being presented
to the vicarage of Bramford Speke, N. Devon, was refused institution by
Dr. Philpotts, the bishop of Exeter, because he was unsound in the matter
of baptismal regeneration, upon which he appealed to the Court of Arches,
which confirmed the bishop's decision, but the sentence of the court was
reversed by the Privy Council, and institution granted (1787-1857).
GOeRLITZ (62), a fortified town in Prussian Silesia, 52 m. W. of
Liegnitz, on the Meuse, where JACOB BOEHME (q. v.) lived and
died.
GORTSCHAKOFF, MICHAEL, Russian general, brother of the succeeding;
served in the war between Russia and Turkey in 1828-1829; commanded in
the Danubian Principalities in 1853; distinguished himself in the defence
of Sebastopol (1795-1861).
GORTSCHAKOFF, PRINCE, an eminent Russian general; was engaged in
Finland in 1809, in the Turkish War in 1810, in the French War 1812-14,
and the Crimean War (1789-1866).
GOSCHEN, GEORGE JOACHIM, English statesman, born in London; entered
Parliament in the Liberal interest in 1863; served in office under Lord
John Russell and Mr. Gladstone; was opposed to Home Rule, joined the
Liberal-Unionist party and holds office under Lord Salisbury as First
Lord of the Admiralty; _b_. 1831.
GOSHEN, a fertile district along a branch of the Nile, in the
eastern part of the delta of Lower Egypt; assigned by Pharaoh to the
children of Israel when they came to sojourn in the land.
GOSPELS, the name by which the four accounts in the New Testament of
the character, life, and teaching of Christ are designated; have been
known since as early as the 3rd century, of which the first three are
called "Synoptic," because they are summaries of the chief events, and go
over the same ground in the history, while the author of the fourth
gospel follows lines of his own; the former aim mainly at mere narrative,
while the object of the latter is dogmatic, as well as probably to supply
deficiencies in the former; moreover, the interest of John's account
centres in the person of Christ and that of the others in His gospel; the
writers were severally represented as attended, Matthew by a man, Mark by
a lion, Luke by an ox, and John by an eagle.
GOSPORT (25), a fortified port and market-town in Hants, on the W.
side of Portsmouth harbour, opposite Portsmouth, with which it is
connected by a floating bridge; its industries embrace flourishing
iron-works, barracks, the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard, and Haslar
shipyard for the repair of gunboats.
GOSSE, EDMUND, poet, essayist, and critic, born in London, the son
of the succeeding; author of "History of Eighteenth Century Literature,"
a collection of lyrics, and a series of monographs, in particular "Life
of Gray"; _b_. 1849.
GOSSE, PHILIP HENRY, naturalist, horn at Worcester, in business in
Newfoundland, Canada, and the United States; spent his leisure hours in
the study of natural history, chiefly insects; after a visit of two years
to Jamaica wrote an account of its birds; compiled several works
introductory to the study of animal life, and latterly devoted himself to
the study of marine animals (1810-1888).
GOTHA (30), northern capital of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and
seat of the reigning prince, the present Duke of Edinburgh, situated on
the Leine Canal, 6 m. from the northern border of the Thuringian Forest;
is picturesquely laid out, and has considerable manufactures, the famous
Perthes' geographical publishing-house; Friedenstein Castle, the ducal
residence, built in 1643, has a library of 200,000 vols. and 6000 MSS.
GOTHAM, a village of N. Nottinghamshire, the natives of which were
made a laughing-stock of for their foolish sayings and doings, an
instance of the latter being their alleged joining hand in hand round a
bush to hedge in a cuckoo.
GOTHAMITES, American cockneys, New York being called Gotham.
GOTHARD, ST., the central mountain mass (9850 ft. high) of the
Middle Alps and core of the whole Alpine system; it forms a watershed for
rivers flowing in four different directions, including the Rhone and the
Rhine; the famous pass (6936 ft.) from Lake Lucerne to Lake Maggiore
forms an excellent carriage-way, has two hotels and a hospice at its
summit; on the lower slopes is the St. Gothard railway (opened 1882),
with its celebrated tunnel (91/4 m.), the longest in the world.
GOTHENBURG (109), the second town of Sweden, at the mouth of the
Gotha, 284 m. SW. of Stockholm, is a clean and modernly built town,
intersected by several canals; it has a splendid harbour, and one of the
finest botanical gardens in Europe; its industries include shipbuilding,
iron-works, sugar-refining, and fisheries; its licensing system has
become famous; all shops for the sale of liquor are in the hands of a
company licensed by government; profits beyond a five per cent. dividend
to the shareholders are handed over to the municipality.
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, a varied style of architecture distinguished by
its high and sharply-pointed arches, clustered columns, which had its
origin in the Middle Ages, and prevailed from the 12th to the 15th
centuries, though the term Gothic was originally applied to it as
indicating a _barbarous_ degeneracy from the _classic_, which it
superseded.
GOTHLAND: 1 (2,595), the southernmost of the three old provinces of
Sweden; chiefly mountainous, but with many fertile spaces; forest and
lake scenery give a charm to the landscape; Gothenburg is the chief town.
2 (51), a Swedish island in the Baltic, 44 m. E. of the mainland, area
1217 sq. m.; forms, with other islands, the province of Gothland or
Wisby; agriculture, fishing, and shipping are the main industries; Wisby
is the chief town (also called Gottland).
GOTHS, a tribe of Teutons who in formidable numbers invaded the
Roman empire from the east and north-east from as early as the third
century, and though they were beaten back at the battle of Chalons,
eventually broke it up.
GOTTFRIED VON STRASBURG, a medieval German poet and one of the
famous _minnesingers_; flourished in Strasburg at the close of the 12th
century and beginning of the 13th; his great poem "Tristan und Isolde,"
completed in 1210, extends to 19,552 lines, and has a grace and freshness
suggestive of Chaucer.
GOeTTINGEN (24), an ancient Hanoverian town, prettily situated in the
valley of the Leine, 50 m. S. of Hanover; is chiefly noteworthy on
account of its university (1734), with its library of 500,000 vols. and
5000 MSS.; the students exceed 800, and are instructed by 120 professors;
there is a flourishing book-trade.
GOTTSCHED, JOHANN CHRISTOPH, a German literary notability, born near
Koenigsberg, professor of philosophy and belles-lettres at Leipzig; was
throughout his life the literary dictator of Germany; did much to
vindicate the rights and protect the purity of the German tongue, as well
as to improve the drama, but he wrote and patronised a style of writing
that was cold, stiff, and soulless (1700-1766).
GOUGH, HUGH, VISCOUNT, a distinguished English general, born at
Woodstown, in Limerick; he first saw service at the Cape and in the West
Indies; afterwards fought with distinction in the Peninsular war;
subsequently, as major-general, he took part in the Indian campaign of
1827, and in 1840 commanded the forces in China; during seven years
(1843-50) he was commander-in-chief of the Indian army, and carried
through successfully the Sikh Wars, which added the Punjab to the British
dominions; in 1849 he was created a viscount, and a field-marshal in 1862
(1779-1869).
GOUGH, J. B., temperance orator, born in Kent; bred a bookbinder;
early a victim to intemperance; took the pledge in 1842, and became an
eloquent and powerful advocate of the temperance cause both in England
and America (1817-1886).
GOUJON, JEAN, a celebrated French sculptor and architect, born at
Paris; he did the reliefs on the Fountain of the Innocents and the facade
of the old Louvre; was a Huguenot, but died before the massacre of St.
Bartholomew in 1572.
GOULD, JOHN, eminent ornithologist, born at Lyme Regis, Devonshire;
his works are entitled "A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains,"
"The Birds of Europe," "The Birds of Australia," "The Birds of Asia,"
"The Birds of Great Britain," and "Humming-Birds," of which last he had
an almost complete collection, only one wanting; the volumes in which
these works were published were large folios and very expensive, with
coloured illustrations of the birds described, the whole done under Mr.
Gould's own eye, and in many cases by his own hand (1804-1881).
GOUNOD, CHARLES FRANCOIS, an eminent French composer, born at Paris;
a prize gained at the Paris Conservatoire followed by a government
pension enabled him to continue his studies at Rome, where he gave
himself chiefly to the study of religious music; the "Messe Solenelle"
was published on his return to Paris; turning his attention to opera he
produced "Sappho" in 1851, a popular comic opera "Le Medecin malgre lui"
in 1858, and a year later his famous setting of "Faust," which placed him
in the front rank of composers; other operas followed, with various
masses, anthems, hymns, &c.; his oratorio "Redemption," perhaps his
masterpiece, appeared in 1882 (1818-1893).
GOVAN (63), a town in Lanarkshire, Scotland, on S. bank of the
Clyde, virtually a western suburb of Glasgow; the staple industry is
shipbuilding.
GOW, NATHANIEL, youngest son of Neil, won celebrity as a composer of
songs and other pieces; his 200 compositions include the popular "Caller
Herrin'" (1766-1831).
GOW, NEIL, a famous Scotch fiddler, born at Inver, near Dunkeld, of
lowly origin; during his long life he enjoyed a wide popularity amongst
the Scotch nobility, his especial patron being the Duke of Atholl;
Raeburn painted his portrait on several occasions; he composed over a
hundred strathspeys, laments, &c., giving a fresh impulse and character
to Scotch music, but his fame rests mainly on his violin playing
(1727-1807).
GOWER, JOHN, an English poet, contemporary and friend of Chaucer,
but of an older school; was the author of three works: "Speculum
Meditantis," the "Thinker's Mirror," written in French, lost for long,
but recovered lately; "Vox Clamantis," the "Voice of One Crying," written
in Latin, an allegorising, moralising poem, "cataloguing the vice of the
time," and suggested by the Wat Tyler insurrection, 1381; and "Confessio
Amantis," "Confession of a Lover," written in English, treating of the
course of love, the morals and metaphysics of it, illustrated by a
profusion of apposite tales; was appropriately called by Chaucer the
"moral Grower"; his tomb is in St. Mary's, Southwark (1325-1408).
GOWKTHRAPPLE, a "pulpit-drumming" Covenanter preacher in "Waverley,"
described by Scott as in his own regard a "chosen vessel."
GOWRIE CONSPIRACY, a remarkable and much disputed episode in the
reign of James VI. of Scotland; the story goes that Alexander Ruthven and
his brother, the Earl of Gowrie, enticed the king to come to Gowrie House
in Perth on the 5th August 1600 for the purpose of murdering or
kidnapping him, and that in the scuffle Ruthven and Gowrie perished.
Historians have failed to trace any motive incriminating the brothers,
while several good reasons have been brought to light why the king might
have wished to get rid of them.
GOZO (17), an island in the Mediterranean which, together with Malta
and Comino, forms a British crown colony; lies 4 m. NW. of Malta. Babato
is the chief town.
GOZZI, COUNT CARLO, Italian dramatist, born at Venice; was 39 when
his first dramatic piece, "Three Oranges," brought him prominently before
the public; he followed up this success with a series of dramas designed
to uphold the old methods of Italian dramatic art, and to resist the
efforts of Goldoni and Chiari to introduce French models; these plays
dealing with wonderful adventures and enchantments in the manner of
Eastern tales ("dramatic fairy tales," he called them), enjoyed a wide
popularity, and spread to Germany and France. Schiller translated
"Turandot" (1722-1806).--His elder brother, COUNT GASPARO GOZZI, was
an active litterateur; the author of various translations, essays on
literature, besides editor of a couple of journals; was press censor in
Venice for a time, and was in his later days engaged in school and
university work (1713-1786).
GRACCHUS, CAIUS SEMPRONIUS, Roman tribune and reformer, brother of
the succeeding, nine years his junior; devoted himself and his oratory on
his brother's death to carry out his measures; was chosen tribune in 123
B.C., and re-elected in 122; his measures of reform were opposed and
undone by the Senate, and being declared a public enemy he was driven to
bay, his friends rallying round him in arms, when a combat took place in
which 3000 fell, upon which Gracchus made his slave put him to death;
"overthrown by the Patricians," he is said, "when struck with the fatal
stab, to have flung dust toward heaven, and called on the avenging
deities; and from this dust," says one, "there was born Marius--not so
illustrious for exterminating the Cimbri as for overturning in Rome the
tyranny of the nobles."
GRACCHUS, TIBERIUS SEMPRONIUS, Roman tribune and reformer, eldest
son of Cornelia, and brought up by her; proposed, among others, a measure
for the more equal distribution of the public land, which he had to
battle for against heavy odds three successive times, but carried it the
third time; was killed with others of his followers afterwards in a riot,
and his body thrown into the Tiber and refused burial, 138 B.C., aged
40.
GRACE, the term in Scripture for that which is the free gift of God,
unmerited by man and of eternal benefit to him.
GRACE, DR. W. G., the celebrated cricketer, born near Bristol;
distinguished as a batsman, fielder, and bowler; earned the title of
champion, which was spontaneously and by universal consent conferred on
him; has written on cricket; _b_. 1848.
GRACE CUP, a silver bowl with two handles passed round the table
after grace at all banquets in London City.
GRACES, THE, reckoned at one time two in number, but originally they
appear to have been regarded as being, what at bottom they are, _one_. At
last they are spoken of as _three_, and called Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and
Thalia: Thalia, the blooming one, or life in full bloom; Euphrosyne, the
cheerful one, or life in the exuberance of joy and sympathy; and Aglaia,
the shining one, or life in its effulgence of sunny splendour and glory.
But these three are one, involved each in the other, and made perfect in
one. There is not Thalia by herself, or Aglaia, but where one truly is,
there, in the same being also, the other two are. They are three sisters,
as such always inseparable, and in their inseparability alone are Graces.
Their secret is not learned from one, but from all three; and they give
grace only with fulness, buoyancy, and radiancy of soul, or life, united
all in one. They are in essence the soul in its fulness of life and
sympathy, pouring itself rhythmically through every obstruction, before
which the most solid becomes fluid, transparent, and radiant of _itself_.
GRACIOSA, a princess in a fairy tale, persecuted by her stepmother,
and protected by Prince Percinet, her lover.
GRACIOSO, a fool in a Spanish comedy, who ever and anon appears on
the stage during the performance with his jokes and gibes.
GRADGRIND, a character in "Hard Times," who weighs and measures
everything by a hard and fast rule and makes no allowances.
GRAFTON, AUGUSTUS HENRY FITZROY, DUKE OF, English statesman in the
reign of George III.; held various offices of State under Rockingham,
Chatham, and North; was bitterly assailed in the famous "Junius Letters"
(1735-1811).
GRAHAM, SIR JOHN, companion of Sir William Wallace, who fell at the
battle of Falkirk.
GRAHAM, JOHN, VISCOUNT DUNDEE. See CLAVERHOUSE.
GRAHAM, THOMAS, celebrated Scottish chemist, born in Glasgow, where
in 1830 he became professor of Chemistry in the Andersonian University;
seven years later he was appointed to a similar chair in University
College, London; in 1855 he resigned his professorship on succeeding
Herschel as Master of the Mint; his name is honourably associated with
important researches relating to the diffusion of gases and liquids, and
with contributions to the atomic theory of matter (1805-1869).
GRAHAME, JAMES, a Scottish poet, born in GLASGOW; bred a
lawyer; took to the Church; author of a poem on the "Sabbath," instinct
with devout feeling, and containing good descriptive passages
(1765-1811).
GRAHAM'S DYKE, a Roman wall extending between the Firths of Forth
and Clyde.
GRAHAMSTOWN (16), capital of the eastern province of Cape Colony, 25
m. from the sea and 106 m. NE. of Port Elizabeth; is beautifully situated
1728 ft. above sea-level at the base of the Zuurberg Mountains; has an
exceedingly salubrious climate; some fine buildings, and is the seat both
of a Catholic and a Protestant bishop.
GRAIAE, three old women in the Greek mythology, born with grey hair,
had only one tooth and one eye among them, which they borrowed from each
other as they wanted them; were personifications of old age.
GRAIL, THE HOLY, the cup or vessel, said to have been made of an
emerald stone, that was used by Christ at the Last Supper, and in which
Joseph of Arimathea caught up the blood that flowed from His wounds on
the Cross; it was brought to England by Joseph, it is alleged, but after
a term disappeared; to recover it formed an object of quest to the
Knights of the Round Table, in which Sir Galahad succeeded, when it was
seen by certain other knights, but it has not been seen since, for none
is permitted to see it or can set eye on it but such as are of a pure
heart.
GRAMONT or GRAMMONT, PHILIBERT, COMTE DE, a celebrated French
courtier in the age of Louis XIV.; he greatly distinguished himself in
the army, as also at the court by his lively wit and gallant bearing, and
soon established himself in the king's favour, but an intrigue with one
of the royal mistresses brought about his exile from France; at the
profligate court of Charles II of England he found a warm welcome and
congenial surroundings; left memoirs which were mainly the work of his
brother-in-law, Anthony Hamilton, and which give a marvellously witty and
brilliant picture of the licentiousness and intrigue of the 17th-century
court life (1621-1707).
GRAMPIANS, 1, a name somewhat loosely applied to the central and
chief mountain system of Scotland, which stretches E. and W. right across
the country, with many important offshoots running N. and S.; the
principal heights are Ben Nevis (4406 ft), Ben Macdhui (4296 ft.),
Cairntoul (4200 ft.). 2, A range of mountains in the W. of Victoria,
Australia, highest elevation 5600 ft.
GRANADA, the last of the ancient Moorish kingdoms to be conquered
(1492) in Spain, in the SE. of Andalusia, fronting the Mediterranean, now
divided into Granada, Almeria, and Malaga; the modern province (484) has
an area of 4928 sq. m.; Granada (72), the capital, is beautifully
situated at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, on an eminence 2245 ft. above
sea-level, 140 m. SE. of Seville; the Jenil flows past it; has a large
university, a cathedral, and monastery; was founded by the Moors in the
8th century, but has been largely rebuilt on modern principles.
GRANADA, NEW (9), a commercial town in Nicaragua, Central America,
on the NW. shore of Lake Nicaragua.
GRANBY, JOHN MANNERS, MARQUIS OF, an English general, eldest son of
the third Duke of Rutland; rose to be commander-in-chief of the British
army in Germany during the Seven Years' War; distinguished himself at
Warburg; in 1763 he was master-general of the ordnance, and in 1766
commander-in-chief of the army; was the victim of some of Junius's most
scathing invectives (1721-1770).
GRAND ALLIANCE, an alliance signed at Vienna 1689 by England,
Germany, and the States-General to prevent the union of France and Spain.
GRAND JURY, a jury appointed to decide whether there are grounds for
an accusation to warrant a trial.
GRAND LAMAISM, a belief of the people of Thibet that Providence
sends down always an incarnation of Himself into every generation.
GRAND MONARQUE, THE, LOUIS XIV. (q. v.) of France, so
called.
GRAND PENSIONARY, a state official in the Dutch Republic; in earlier
times the Grand Pensionary was Secretary and also Advocate-General of the
province of Holland; later his duties embraced the care of foreign
affairs; held office for five years, but was generally re-elected; the
office was abolished in 1795.
GRANDISON, SIR CHARLES, the hero of one of Richardson's novels, a
character representative of an ideal Christian and gentleman.
GRANDVILLE, the pseudonym of JEAN IGNACE ISIDORE GERARD, a
French caricaturist, born at Nancy; his fame was first established by the
"Metamorphoses du Jour," a series of satirical sketches representing men
with animal faces characteristic of them; his subsequent work embraced
political cartoons and illustrations for "Gulliver's Travels," "Don
Quixote," "Robinson Crusoe," La Fontaine's "Fables," &c. (1803-1847).
GRANGEMOUTH (6), a busy port in Stirlingshire, on the Forth, 3 m.
NE. of Falkirk; exports iron-ware and coal; has excellent docks, and does
some shipbuilding.
GRANI`CUS, a river in Asia Minor, flowing from the slopes of Mount
Ida and falling into the Sea of Marmora, where Alexander gained, 334 B.C.,
the first of the three victories which ended in the overthrow of the
Persian empire.
GRANT, SIR ALEXANDER, of Dalvey, born at New York; graduated at
Oxford, and became a Fellow of Oriel College; in 1856 he succeeded to the
baronetcy; was appointed Inspector of Schools at Madras; two years later
was appointed professor of History and Principal in Elphinstone College
there; at Bombay he became Vice-Chancellor of Elgin College, and in 1868
succeeded Sir David Brewster as Principal of Edinburgh University; wrote
"The Story of Edinburgh University," various essays, and edited
Aristotle's Ethics; was married to a daughter of Professor Ferrier of St.
Andrews (1826-1884).
GRANT, MRS. ANNE, _nee_ M'VICAR, authoress, born in Glasgow;
took to literature as a means of livelihood after the death of her
husband, and produced several volumes descriptive of the Highlands of
Scotland and the character of the people; "Letters from the Mountains"
enjoyed a wide popularity, and first gave to the public some adequate
conception of the charm and character of the Highlands (1755-1838).
GRANT, SIR FRANCIS, artist, born in Edinburgh; was educated for the
Scottish bar, but took to painting, and became celebrated for his hunting
pictures, into which portraits of well-known sportsmen were introduced;
also executed portraits of the Queen and Prince Consort on horseback, of
Palmerston, Macaulay, and others, and became President of the Royal
Academy (1803-1878).
GRANT, JAMES, novelist, born in Edinburgh; joined the army as an
ensign at 17, but after a few years resigned and adopted literature as
his profession; "The Romance of War" (1846), his first book, was followed
by a series of stirring novels which are yet in repute, and have most of
them been translated into Danish, German, and French; he turned Catholic
in 1875 (1822-1887).
GRANT, SIR JAMES HOPE, General, brother of Sir Francis Grant, born
at Kilgraston, Perthshire; first distinguished himself in the Sikh Wars,
and took a leading part in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny; in 1859
he commanded the British forces in China, and captured Pekin; was created
a G.C.B. in 1860 and a general in 1872; he published several works
bearing upon the wars in which he had been engaged (1808-1875).
GRANT, ULYSSES SIMPSON, General, born at Mount Pleasant, Ohio; bred
to the military profession, served in Mexico, and held several
appointments in the army; retired to civic life in 1854, but on the
outbreak of the Civil War he entered the army and fought on the side of
the North with such success that in 1864 he was appointed
general-in-chief; he was eventually raised to the Presidency in 1868, and
re-elected in 1872; on the expiry of this second term he made a tour
round the world, and was everywhere received with the distinction he
deserved (1822-1885).
GRANTHAM (17), a market-town in Lincolnshire, on the Witham, 25 m.
SW. of Lincoln, and has a fine 13th-century church; in the grammar-school
Newton was educated, and in 1643 Cromwell won his first victory here; its
industries embrace agricultural-implement making, malting, &c.; a 30 m.
canal connects it with the Trent.
GRANVILLE, GEORGE LEVESON-GOWER, second Earl, statesman; entered
Parliament as a Liberal in 1836, and became a supporter of free trade; in
1846 succeeded to the peerage, and in 1851 became Foreign Minister under
Lord John Russell; four years later became leader of the Lords; figured
in every Liberal cabinet till 1886, usually as Colonial or Foreign
Secretary; in 1859 he failed to form a ministry of his own; was a staunch
supporter of Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule policy (1815-1891).
GRATIAN, a celebrated canonist of the 12th century, born at Chiusi,
Tuscany; was a Benedictine monk at Bologna, and compiled the "Decretum
Gratiani" between 1139 and 1142.
GRATIANUS, AUGUSTUS, Roman emperor from 375 to 383, eldest son of
Valentinian I., born in Pannonia; at 16, in conjunction with his
four-year-old brother, Valentinian II., became ruler over the Western
Empire, and three years later found himself, by the death of his uncle
Valens, head also of the Eastern Empire, a year after which he summoned
Theodosius to be his colleague; his reign is noted for the stern
repression of the remains of the heathen worship; in 383, while
endeavouring to combat the usurper Maximus, he was captured at Lyons and
there put to death (359-383).
GRATTAN, HENRY, great Irish patriot and orator, born in Dublin, and
by birth a Protestant; studied at Trinity College, where he stood high in
classics; was called to the Irish bar in 1772, and entered the Irish
Parliament three years after, where he distinguished himself as the
champion of legislative freedom, by maintaining that the crown had no
right to legislate on matters affecting Irish interests, and particularly
Irish commercial interests, without consulting the Irish Parliament, and
by securing thereby in a measure the legislative independence of Ireland;
on the question of Irish Parliamentary reform he quarrelled with his
compatriots, and he confined his own efforts to Catholic emancipation; in
1798 he retired from public life, but came forth as an opponent of the
Union in 1800, though, on its accomplishment, he represented first Malton
in Yorkshire, and then Dublin in the United Parliament, devoting the rest
of his life to the political emancipation of his Catholic
fellow-subjects; before the rupture referred to fell out, he received a
grant of L50,000 from the Irish Parliament; in private as in public life,
he was a man of irreproachable character, while as an orator he ranks
among the foremost of his time (1746-1820).
GRATZ or GRAeTZ (112), capital of Styria, in Austria,
picturesquely situated on the Mur, 141 m. SW. of Vienna; its many old and
interesting buildings include a cathedral (1462), four monasteries, and
the Landhaus, an ancient ducal residence; there is a flourishing
university, with upwards of 1100 students; its industries embrace iron
and steel works, sugar-refining, soap and candle factories, &c.
GRAVELOTTE, a village in Lorraine, 7 m. W. of Metz; was the scene of
a German victory over the French in 1870.
GRAVESEND (35), a thriving river-port and watering-place in Kent, on
the Thames, opposite Tilbury Fort, 24 m. SE. of London; the new town
rises amid picturesque surroundings above the old town; it is the chief
pilot station for the river; there is a busy trade in shipbuilding,
iron-founding, brewing, &c.
GRAY, ASA, a distinguished American botanist, born at Paris, Oneida
County, New York; graduated in medicine in 1842; became Fisher professor
of Natural History at Harvard, and in 1874 succeeded Agassiz as Regent of
the Smithsonian Institution; his writings did much to promote the study
of botany in America on a sound scientific basis, and also to forward the
theories of Darwin; in conjunction with Dr. Torrey he wrote "The Flora of
North America," and by himself various manuals of botany and "Natural
Science and Religion" (1810-1888).
GRAY, AULD ROBIN, the title of a ballad by Lady Anne Lindsay, from
the name of its hero, a good old man who married a young girl whose lover
is thought to be dead, but who turns up to claim her a month after.
GRAY, JOHN EDWARD, English naturalist, born at Walsall; studied
medicine, and at 24 entered the British Museum as an assistant in the
Natural History department; in 1840 he became keeper of the Zoological
Collections, of which he made a complete catalogue, enriched with most
valuable notes; is the author of books and papers to the number of 500,
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