[1] See A. G. Stewart, _The Academic Gregories_.
GREGORY, EDWARD JOHN (1850-1909), British painter, born at Southampton,
began work at the age of fifteen in the engineer's drawing office of the
Peninsular and Oriental Company. Afterwards he studied at South
Kensington, and about 1871 entered on a successful career as an
illustrator and as an admirable painter in oil and water colour. He was
elected associate of the Royal Academy in 1883, academician in 1898, and
president of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1898.
His work is distinguished by remarkable technical qualities, by
exceptional firmness and decision of draughtsmanship and by unusual
certainty of handling. His "Marooned," a water colour, is in the
National Gallery of British Art. Many of his pictures were shown at
Burlington House at the winter exhibition of 1909-1910 after his death
in June 1909.
GREGORY, OLINTHUS GILBERT (1774-1841), English mathematician, was born
on the 29th of January 1774 at Yaxley in Huntingdonshire. Having been
educated by Richard Weston, a Leicester botanist, he published in 1793 a
treatise, Lessons _Astronomical and Philosophical_. Having settled at
Cambridge in 1796, Gregory first acted as sub-editor on the _Cambridge
Intelligencer_, and then opened a bookseller's shop. In 1802 he obtained
an appointment as mathematical master at Woolwich through the influence
of Charles Hutton, to whose notice he had been brought by a manuscript
on the "Use of the Sliding Rule"; and when Hutton resigned in 1807
Gregory succeeded him in the professorship. Failing health obliged him
to retire in 1838, and he died at Woolwich on the 2nd of February 1841.
Gregory wrote _Hints for the Use of Teachers of Elementary
Mathematics_ (1840, new edition 1853), and _Mathematics for Practical
Men_ (1825), which was revised and enlarged by Henry Law in 1848, and
again by J. R. Young in 1862. His _Letters on the Evidences of
Christianity_ (1815) have been several times reprinted, and an
abridgment was published by the Religious Tract Society in 1853. He
will probably be longest remembered for his _Biography of Robert
Hall_, which first appeared in the collected edition of Hall's works,
was published separately in 1833, and has since passed through several
editions. The minor importance of his _Memoir of John Mason Good_
(1828) is due to the narrower fame of the subject. Gregory was one of
the founders of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1802 he was
appointed editor of the _Gentlemen's Diary_, and in 1818 editor of the
_Ladies' Diary_ and superintendent of the almanacs of the Stationers'
Company.
GREIFENBERG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Pomerania,
on the Rega, 45 m. N.E. of Stettin on the railway to Kolberg. Pop.
(1905) 7208. It has two Evangelical churches (among them that of St
Mary, dating from 13th century), two ancient gateways, a powder tower
and a gymnasium. The manufacture of machines, stoves and bricks are the
principal industries. Greifenberg possessed municipal rights as early as
1262, and in the 14th and 15th centuries had a considerable shipping
trade, but it lost much of its prosperity during the Thirty Years' War.
See Riemann, _Geschichte der Stadt Greifenberg_ (1862).
GREIFENHAGEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Pomerania,
on the Reglitz, 12 m. S.S.W. of Stettin by rail. Pop. (1905) 6473. Its
prosperity depends chiefly on agriculture and it has a considerable
trade in cattle. There are also felt manufactures and saw mills.
Greifenhagen was built in 1230, and was raised to the rank of a town and
fortified about 1250. In the Thirty Years' War it was taken both by the
imperialists and the Swedes, and in 1675 it was captured by the
Brandenburgers, into whose possession it came finally in 1679.
GREIFSWALD, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Pomerania, on
the navigable Ryk, 3 m. from its mouth on the Baltic at the little port
of Wyk, and 20 m. S.E. from Stralsund by rail. Pop. (1875) 18,022,
(1905) 23,750. It has wide and regular streets, flanked by numerous
gabled houses, and is surrounded by pleasant promenades on the site of
its old ramparts. The three Gothic Protestant churches, the
Marienkirche, the Nikolaikirche and the Jakobikirche, and the town-hall
(Rathaus) are the principal edifices, and these with their lofty spires
are very picturesque. There is a statue of the emperor Frederick III.
and a war memorial in the town. The industries mainly consist in
shipbuilding, fish-curing, and the manufacture of machinery
(particularly for agriculture), and the commerce in the export of corn,
wood and fish. There is a theatre, an orphanage and a municipal library.
Greifswald is, however, best known to fame by reason of its university.
This, founded in 1456, is well endowed and is largely frequented by
students of medicine. Connected with it are a library of 150,000 volumes
and 800 MSS., a chemical laboratory, a zoological museum, a
gynaecological institute, an ophthalmological school, a botanical garden
and at Eldena (a seaside resort on the Baltic) an agricultural school.
In front of the university, which had 775 students and about 100
teachers in 1904, stands a monument commemorating its four hundredth
anniversary.
Greifswald was founded about 1240 by traders from the Netherlands. In
1250 it received a town constitution and Lubeck rights from Duke
Wratislaw of Pomerania. In 1270 it joined the Hanse towns, Stralsund,
Rostock, Wismar and Lubeck, and took part in the wars which they carried
on against the kings of Denmark and Norway. During the Thirty Years' War
it was formed into a fortress by the imperialists, but they vacated it
in 1631 to the Swedes, in whose possession it remained after the peace
of Westphalia. In 1678 it was captured by the elector of Brandenburg,
but was restored to the Swedes in the following year; in 1713 it was
desolated by the Russians; in 1715 it came into the possession of
Denmark; and in 1721 it was again restored to Sweden, under whose
protection it remained till 1815, when, along with the whole of Swedish
Pomerania, it came into the possession of Prussia.
See J. G. L. Kosegarten, _Geschichte der Universitat Greifswald_
(1856); C. Gesterding, _Beitrag zur Geschichte der Stadt Greifswald_
(3 vols., 1827-1829); and I. Ziegler, _Geschichte der Stadt
Greifswald_ (Greifswald, 1897).
GREISEN (in French, _hyalomicte_), a modification of granite, consisting
essentially of quartz and white mica, and distinguished from granite by
the absence of felspar and biotite. In the hand specimen the rock has a
silvery glittering appearance from the abundance of lamellar crystals of
muscovite, but many greisens have much of the appearance of granite,
except that they are paler in colour. The commonest accessory minerals
are tourmaline, topaz, apatite, fluorspar and iron oxides; a little
felspar more or less altered may also be present and a brown mica which
is biotite or lithionite. The tourmaline in section is brown, green,
blue or colourless, and often the same crystal shows many different
tints. The white mica forms mostly large plates with imperfect
crystalline outlines. The quartz is rich in fluid enclosures. Apatite
and topaz are both colourless and of irregular form. Felspar if present
may be orthoclase and oligoclase.
Greisen occurs typically in belts or veins intersecting granite. At the
centre of each vein there is usually a fissure which may be open or
filled with quartz. The greisen bands are from 1 in. up to 2 ft. or more
in thickness. At their outer edges they pass gradually into the granite,
for they contain felspar crystals more or less completely altered into
aggregates of white mica and quartz. The transition between the two
rocks is perfectly gradual, a fact which shows that the greisen has been
produced by alteration of the granite. Vapours or fluids rising through
the fissure have been the agents which effected the transmutation. They
must have contained fluorine, boron and probably also lithium, for
topaz, mica and tourmaline, the new minerals of the granite, contain
these elements. The change is a post-volcanic or pneumatolytic one
induced by the vapours set free by the granite magma when it cools.
Probably the rock was at a relatively high temperature at the time. A
similar type of alteration, the development of white mica, quartz and
tourmaline, is found sometimes in sedimentary rocks around granite
masses. Greisen is closely connected with schorl rock both in its
mineralogical composition and in its mode of origin. The latter is a
pneumatolytic product consisting of quartz and tourmaline; it often
contains white mica and thus passes by all stages into greisen. Both of
these rocks carry frequently small percentages of tin oxide
(cassiterite) and may be worked as ores of tin. They are common in
Cornwall, Saxony, Tasmania and other districts which are centres of
tin-mining. Many other greisens occur in which no tin is found. The
analyses show the composition of Cornish granite and greisen. They make
it clear that there has been an introduction of fluorine and boron and a
diminution in the alkalies during the transformation of the granitic
rock into the greisen.
+---------+-------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-----+
| | SiO2. | Al2O3.|Fe2O3.| FeO. | CaO. | MgO. | K2O. | Na2O.| Fl. |B2O3.|
+---------+-------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-----+
| Granite | 70.17 | 15.07 | .88 | 1.79 | 1.13 | 1.11 | 5.73 | 2.69 | .15 | tr. |
| Greisen | 69.42 | 15.65 | 1.25 | 3.30 | .63 | 1.02 | 4.06 | .27 | 3.36 | .59 |
+---------+-------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-----+
(J. S. F.)
GREIZ, a town of Germany, capital of the principality of Reuss-Greiz
(Reuss the Elder), in a pleasant valley on the right bank of the White
Elster, near the borders of Saxony, and 66 m. by rail S. from Leipzig.
Pop. (1875) 12,657; (1905) 23,114. It consists of two parts, the old
town on the right bank and the new town on the left bank of the river;
it is rapidly growing and is regularly laid out. The principal buildings
are the palace of the prince of Reuss-Greiz, surrounded by a fine park,
the old chateau on a rocky hill overlooking the town, the summer palace
with a fine garden, the old town church dating from 1225 and possessing
a beautiful tower, the town hall, the governmental buildings and statues
of the emperor William I. and of Bismarck. There are classical and
modern schools and a school of textile industry. The industries are
considerable, and include dyeing, tanning and the manufacture of
woollen, cotton, shawls, coverlets and paper. Greiz (formerly _Grewcz_)
is apparently a town of Slav origin. From the 12th century it was
governed by _advocati_ (_Vogte_), but in 1236 it came into the
possession of Gera, and in 1550 of the younger line of the house of
Plauen. It was wholly destroyed by fire in 1494, and almost totally in
1802.
See Wilke, _Greiz und seine Umgebung_ (1875), and _Jahresberichte des
Vereins fur Greizer Geschichte_ (1894, seq.)
GRENADA, the southernmost of the Windward Islands, British West Indies.
It lies between 11 deg. 58' and 12 deg. 15' N. and between 61 deg. 35'
and 61 deg. 50' W., being 140 m. S.W. of Barbados and 85 m. N. by W. of
Trinidad. In shape oval, it is 21 m. long, 12 m. broad at its maximum
and has an area of 133 sq. m. It owes much of its beauty to a
well-wooded range of mountains traversing the island from N. to S. and
throwing off from the centre spurs which form picturesque and fertile
valleys. These mountains attain their highest elevation in Mount
Catharine (2750 ft.). In the S.E. and N.W. there are stretches of low or
undulating ground, devoted to fruit growing and cattle raising. The
island is of volcanic origin; the only signs of upheaval are raised
limestone beaches in the extreme N. Red and grey sandstones, hornblende
and argillaceous schist are found in the mountains, porphyry and
basaltic rocks also occur; sulphur and fuller's earth are worked. In the
centre, at the height of 1740 ft. above the sea, is the chief natural
curiosity of Grenada, the Grand Etang, a circular lake, 13 acres in
extent, occupying the site of an ancient crater. Near it is a large
sanatorium, much frequented as a health resort. In the north-east is a
larger lake, Lake Antoine, also occupying a crater, but it lies almost
at the sea level. The island is watered by several short rivers, mainly
on the east and south; there are numerous fresh water springs, as well
as hot chalybeate and sulphurous springs. The south-eastern coast is
much indented with bays. The climate is good, the temperature equable
and epidemic diseases are rare. In the low country the average yearly
temperature is 82 deg. F., but it is cooler in the heights. The rainfall
is very heavy, amounting in some parts to as much as 200 in., a year.
The rainy season lasts from May to December, but refreshing showers
frequently occur during other parts of the year. The average annual
rainfall at St Georges is 79.07 in., and at Grand Etang 164 in. The
excellent climate and good sea-bathing have made Grenada the health
resort of the neighbouring islands, especially of Trinidad. Good roads
and byeways intersect it in every direction. The soil is extraordinarily
fertile, the chief products being cocoa and spices, especially nutmegs.
The exports, sent chiefly to Great Britain, are cocoa, spices, wool,
cotton, coffee, live stock, hides, turtles, turtle shell, kola nuts,
vanilla and timber. Barbados is dependent on Grenada for the majority of
its firewood. Sugar is still grown, and rum and molasses are made, but
the consumption of these is confined to the island.
Elementary education is chiefly in the hands of the various
denominations, whose schools are assisted by government grants-in-aid.
There are, however, a few secular schools conducted by the government,
and government-aided secondary schools for girls and a grammar school
for boys. The schools are controlled by a board of education, the
members of which are nominated by the government, and small fees are
charged in all schools. The governor of the Windward Islands resides in
Grenada and is administrator of it. The Legislative Council consists of
14 members; 7 including the governor are _ex-officio_ members and the
rest are nominated by the Crown. English is universally spoken, but the
negroes use a French _patois_, which, however, is gradually dying out.
Only 2% of the inhabitants are white, the rest being negroes and
mulattoes with a few East Indians. The capital, St George, in the
south-west, is built upon a lava peninsula jutting into the sea and
forming one side of its land-locked harbour. It is surrounded by an
amphitheatre of hills, up the sides of which climb the red-brick houses
of the town. At the extremity of the peninsula is Fort St George, with a
saluting battery. The ridge connecting Fort St George with Hospital Hill
is tunnelled to give access to the two parts of the town lying on either
side. The population in 1901 was 5198. There are four other towns--on
the west coast Gouyave, or Charlotte Town, and 4 m. N. of it Victoria;
on the north coast Sauteurs; and Grenville at the head of a wide bay on
the east. They are all in frequent communication with the capital by
steamer. The population of the entire colony in 1901 was 63,438.
_History._--Grenada was discovered in 1498 by Columbus, who named it
Conception. Neither the Spanish nor the British, to whom it was granted
in 1627, settled on the island. The governor of Martinique, du Parquet,
purchased it in 1650, and the French were well received by the Caribs,
whom they afterwards extirpated with the greatest cruelty. In 1665
Grenada passed into the hands of the French West India Company, and was
administered by it until its dissolution in 1674, when the island passed
to the French Crown. Cocoa, coffee and cotton were introduced in 1714.
During the wars between Great Britain and France, Grenada capitulated to
the British forces in 1762, and was formally ceded next year by the
Treaty of Paris. The French, under Count d'Estaing, re-captured the
island in 1779, but it was restored to Great Britain by the Treaty of
Versailles in 1783. A rebellion against the British rule, instigated and
assisted by the French, occurred in 1795, but was quelled by Sir Ralph
Abercromby in the following year. The emancipation of the slaves took
place in 1837, and by 1877 it was found necessary to introduce East
Indian labour. Grenada, with cocoa as its staple, has not experienced
similar depression to that which overtook the sugar-growing islands of
the West Indies.
See _Grenada Handbook_ (London, 1905).
GRENADE (from the French word for a pomegranate, from a resemblance in
shape to that fruit), a small spherical explosive vessel thrown by hand.
Hand-grenades were used in war in the 16th century, but the word
"grenade" was also from the first used to imply an explosive shell
fired from a gun; this survives to the present day in the German
_Granate_. These weapons were employed after about 1660, by special
troops called "grenadiers" (q.v.), and in the wars of the 17th and 18th
centuries they are continually met with. They became obsolete in the
19th century, but were given a new lease of life in the 20th, owing to
their employment in the siege of Port Arthur in 1904, where
hand-grenades of a modern type, and containing powerful modern
explosives, proved very effective (see AMMUNITION, _shell_).
Hand-grenades filled with chemicals and made of glass are used as a
method of fire-extinction, and similar vessels containing a liquid with
a very strong smell are used to discover defects in a drain or sewer.
GRENADIER, originally a soldier whose special duty it was to throw
hand-grenades. The latter were in use for a considerable time before any
special organization was given to the troops who were to use them. In
1667 four men per company in the French _Regiment du Roi_ were trained
with grenades (siege of Lille), and in 1668-1670 grenadier companies
were formed in this regiment and in about thirty others of the French
line. Evelyn, in his _Diary_, tells us that on the 29th of June 1678 he
saw at Hounslow "a new sort of soldiers called granadiers, who were
dexterous in flinging hand-granades." As in the case of the fusiliers,
the French practice was therefore quickly copied in England. Eventually
each English battalion had a grenadier company (see for illustrations
_Archaeological Journal_, xxiii. 222, and xlvii. 321-324). Besides their
grenades and the firelock, grenadiers carried axes which, with the
grenades, were employed in the assault of fortresses, as we are told in
the celebrated song, "The British Grenadiers."
The grenadier companies were formed always of the most powerful men in
the regiment and, when the grenade ceased to be used, they maintained
their existence as the "crack" companies of their battalions, taking the
right of the line on parade and wearing the distinctive grenadier
headdress. This system was almost universal, and the typical infantry
regiment of the 18th and early 19th century had a grenadier and a light
company besides its "line" companies. In the British and other armies
these _elite_ companies were frequently taken from their regiments and
combined in grenadier and light infantry battalions for special service,
and Napoleon carried this practice still further in the French army by
organizing brigades and divisions of grenadiers (and correspondingly of
_voltigeurs_). Indeed the companies thus detached from the line
practically never returned to it, and this was attended with serious
evils, for the battalion at the outbreak of war lost perhaps a quarter
of its best men, the average men only remaining with the line. This
special organization of grenadiers and light companies lasted in the
British army until about 1858. In the Prussian service the grenadiers
became permanent and independent battalions about 1740, and the gradual
adoption of the four-company battalion by Prussia and other nations
tended still further to place the grenadiers by themselves and apart
from the line. Thus at the present day in Germany, Russia and other
countries, the title of "grenadiers" is borne by line regiments,
indistinguishable, except for details of uniform and often the _esprit
de corps_ inherited from the old _elite_ companies, from the rest. In
the British service the only grenadiers remaining are the Grenadier
Guards, originally the 1st regiment of Foot Guards, which was formed in
1660 on the nucleus of a regiment of English royalists which followed
the fortunes of Charles II. in exile. In Russia a whole army corps
(headquarters Moscow), inclusive of its artillery units, bears the
title.
The special headdress of the grenadier was a pointed cap, with peak and
flaps, of embroidered cloth, or a loose fur cap of similar shape; both
these were light field service caps. The fur cap has in the course of
time developed into the tall "bearskin" worn by British guards and
various corps of other armies; the embroidered field cap survives,
transformed, however, into a heavy brass headdress, in the uniform of
the 1st Prussian Foot Guards, the 1st Prussian Guard Grenadiers and the
Russian Paul (Pavlovsky) Grenadier Guards.
GRENADINES, a chain of islets in the Windward Islands, West Indies. They
stretch for 60 m. between St Vincent and Grenada, following a N.E. to
S.W. direction, and consist of some 600 islets and rocks. Some are a few
square miles in extent, others are merely rocky cones projecting from
the deep. For purposes of administration they are divided between St
Vincent and Grenada. Bequia, the chief island in the St Vincent group,
is long and narrow, with an area 6 sq. m. Owing to a lack of water it is
only slightly cultivated, but game is plentiful. Admiralty Bay, on the
W. side, is a safe and commodious harbour. Carriacou, belonging to
Grenada, is the largest of the group, being 7 m. long, 2 m. wide and 13
sq. m. in extent. A ridge of hills, rising to an altitude of 700 ft.,
traverses the centre from N.E. to S.W.; here admirable building stone is
found. There are two good harbours on the west coast, Hillsborough Bay
on which stands Hillsborough, the chief town, and Tyrell Bay, farther
south. The island is thickly populated, the negro peasantry occupying
small lots and working on the _metayer_ system. Excellent oysters are
found along the coast, and cotton and cattle are the chief exports. Pop.
of the group, mostly on Carriacou (1901) 6497.
GRENOBLE, the ancient capital of the Dauphine in S.E. France, and now
the chief town of the Isere department, 75 m. by rail from Lyons, 38-1/2
m. from Chambery and 85-1/2 m. from Gap. Pop. (1906), town, 58,641;
commune, 73,022. It is one of the most beautifully situated, and also
one of the most strongly fortified, cities in Europe. Built at a height
of 702 ft. on both banks of the river Isere just above its junction with
the Drac, the town occupies a considerable plain at the south-western
end of the fertile Graisivaudan valley. To the north rise the mountains
of the Grande Chartreuse, to the east the range of Belledonne, and to
the south those of Taillefer and the Moucherotte, the higher summits of
these ranges being partly covered with snow. From the Jardin de Ville
and the quays of the banks of the Isere the summit of Mont Blanc itself
is visible. The greater part of the town rises on the left bank of the
Isere, which is bordered by broad quays. The older portion has the
tortuous and narrow streets usual in towns that have been confined
within fortifications, but in modern times these hindrances have been
demolished. The newer portion of the town has wide thoroughfares and
buildings of the modern French type, solid but not picturesque. The
original town (of but small extent) was built on the right bank of the
Isere at the southern foot of the Mont Rachais, now covered by a
succession of fortresses that rise picturesquely on the slope of that
hill to a very considerable height (885 ft. above the town).
Grenoble is the seat of a bishopric which was founded in the 4th
century, and now comprises the department of the Isere--formerly a
suffragan of Vienne it now forms part of the ecclesiastical province of
Lyons. The most remarkable building in the town is the Palais de
Justice, erected (late 15th century to 16th century) on the site of the
old palace of the Parlement of the Dauphine. Opposite is the most
noteworthy church of the city, that of St Andre (13th century), formerly
the chapel of the dauphins of the Viennois: in it is the 17th century
monument of Bayard (1476-1524), the _chevalier sans peur et sans
reproche_, which was removed hither in 1822; but it is uncertain whose
bones are therein. The cathedral church of Notre Dame is a heavy
building, dating in part from the 11th century. The church of St
Laurent, on the right bank of the Isere, is the oldest in the city (11th
century) and has a remarkable crypt, dating from Merovingian times. The
town hall is a mainly modern building, constructed on the site of the
palace of the dauphins, while the prefecture is entirely modern. The
town library contains a considerable collection of paintings, mainly of
the modern French school, but is more remarkable for its very rich
collection of MSS. (7000) and printed books (250,000 vols.) which in
great part belonged till 1793 to the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse.
The natural history museum houses rich collections of various kinds,
which contain (_inter alia_) numerous geological specimens from the
neighbouring districts of the Dauphine and Savoy. The university,
revived in modern times after a long abeyance, occupies a modern
building, as does also the hospital, though founded as far back as the
15th century. There are numerous societies in the town, including the
Academie Delphinale (founded in 1772), and many charitable institutions.
The staple industry of Grenoble is the manufacture of kid gloves, most
of the so-called _gants Jouvin_ being made here--they are named after
the reviver of the art, X. Jouvin (1800-1844). There are about 80 glove
factories, which employ 18,500 persons (of whom 15,000 are women), the
annual output being about 800,000 dozen pairs of gloves. Among other
articles produced at Grenoble are artificial cements, liqueurs, straw
hats and carved furniture.
Grenoble occupies the site of Cularo, a village of the Allobroges, which
only became of importance when fortified by Diocletian and Maximian at
the end of the 3rd century. Its present name is a corruption of
Gratianopolis, a title assumed probably in honour of Gratian (4th
century), who raised it to the rank of a _civitas_. After passing under
the power of the Burgundians (c. 440) and the Franks (532) it became
part of the kingdom of Provence (879-1032). On the break-up of that
kingdom a long struggle for supremacy ensued between the bishops of the
city and the counts of Albon, the latter finally winning the day in the
12th century, and taking the title of Dauphins of the Viennois in the
13th century. In 1349 Grenoble was ceded with the rest of the Dauphine
to France, but retained various municipal privileges which had been
granted by the dauphins to the town, originally by a charter of 1242. In
1562 it was sacked by the Protestants under the baron des Adrets, but in
1572 the firmness of its governor, Bertrand de Gordes, saved it from a
repetition of the Massacre of St Bartholomew. In 1590 Lesdiguieres
(1543-1626) took the town in the name of Henry IV., then still a
Protestant, and during his long governorship (which lasted to his death)
did much for it by the construction of fortifications, quays, &c. In
1788 the attempt of the king to weaken the power of the parlement of
Grenoble (which, though strictly a judicial authority, had preserved
traditions of independence, since the suspension of the states-general
of the Dauphine in 1628) roused the people to arms, and the "day of the
tiles" (7th of June 1788) is memorable for the defeat of the royal
forces. In 1790, on the formation of the department of the Isere,
Grenoble became its capital. Grenoble was the first important town to
open its gates to Napoleon on his return from Elba (7th of March 1815),
but a few months later (July) it was obliged to surrender to the
Austrian army. Owing to its situation Grenoble was formerly much subject
to floods, particularly in the case of the wild Drac. One of the worst
took place in 1219, while that of 1778 was known as the _deluge de la
Saint Crepin_. Among the celebrities who have been born at Grenoble are
Vaucanson (1709-1782), Mably (1709-1785), Condillac (1715-1780), Beyle,
best known as Stendhal, his _nom de guerre_ (1783-1842), Barnave
(1761-1793) and Casimir Perier (1777-1832).
See A. Prudhomme, _Histoire de Grenoble_ (1888); X. Roux, _La
Corporation des gantiers de Grenoble_ (1887); H. Duhamel, _Grenoble
considere comme centre d'excursions_ (1902); J. Marion, _Cartulaires
de l'eglise cathedrale de Grenoble_ (Paris, 1869). (W. A. B. C.)
GRENVILLE, SIR BEVIL (1596-1643), Royalist soldier in the English Civil
War (see GREAT REBELLION), was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. As
member of Parliament, first for Cornwall, then for Launceston, Grenville
supported Sir John Eliot and the opposition, and his intimacy with Eliot
was life-long. In 1639, however, he appears as a royalist going to the
Scottish War in the train of Charles I. The reasons of this change of
front are unknown, but Grenville's honour was above suspicion, and he
must have entirely convinced himself that he was doing right. At any
rate he was a very valuable recruit to the royalist cause, being "the
most generally loved man in Cornwall." At the outbreak of the Civil War
he and others of the gentry not only proclaimed the king's Commission of
Array at Launceston assizes, but also persuaded the grand jury of the
county to declare their opponents guilty of riot and unlawful assembly,
whereupon the _Posse comitatus_ was called out to expel them. Under the
command of Sir Ralph Hopton, Sir Bevil took a distinguished part in the
action of Bradock Down, and at Stratton (16 May 1643), where the
parliamentary earl of Stamford was completely routed by the Cornishmen,
led one of the storming parties which captured Chudleigh's lines
(_Clarendon_, vii. 89). A month later, the endeavour of Hopton to unite
with Maurice and Hertford from Oxford brought on the battle of Lansdown,
near Bath. Here Grenville was killed at the head of the Cornish infantry
as it reached the top of the hill. His death was a blow from which the
king's cause in the West never recovered, for he alone knew how to
handle the Cornishmen. Hopton they revered and respected, but Grenville
they loved as peculiarly their own commander, and after his death there
is little more heard of the reckless valour which had won Stratton and
Lansdown. Grenville is the type of all that was best in English
royalism. He was neither rapacious, drunken nor dissolute, but his
loyalty was unselfish, his life pure and his skill no less than his
bravery unquestionable. A monument to him has been erected on the field
of Lansdown.
See Lloyd, _Memoirs of Excellent Personages_ (1668); S. R. Gardiner,
_History of the English Civil War_ (vol. i. _passim_).
GRENVILLE, GEORGE (1712-1770), English statesman, second son of Richard
Grenville and Hester Temple, afterwards Countess Temple, was born on the
14th of October 1712. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church,
Oxford, and was called to the bar in 1735. He entered parliament in 1741
as member for Buckingham, and continued to represent that borough till
his death. In parliament he was a member of the "Boy Patriot" party
which opposed Sir Robert Walpole. In December 1744 he became a lord of
the admiralty in the Pelham administration. He allied himself with his
brother Richard and with William Pitt in forcing their feeble chief to
give them promotion by rebelling against his authority and obstructing
business. In June 1747 he became a lord of the treasury, and in 1754
treasurer of the navy and privy councillor. As treasurer of the navy in
1758 he introduced and carried a bill which established a less unfair
system of paying the wages of the seamen than had existed before. He
remained in office in 1761, when his brother Lord Temple and his
brother-in-law Pitt resigned upon the question of the war with Spain,
and in the administration of Lord Bute he was entrusted with the
leadership of the House of Commons. In May 1762 he was appointed
secretary of state, and in October first lord of the admiralty; and in
April 1763 he became first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the
exchequer. The most prominent measures of his administration were the
prosecution of Wilkes and the passing of the American Stamp Act, which
led to the first symptoms of alienation between America and the mother
country. During the latter period of his term of office he was on a very
unsatisfactory footing with the young king George III., who gradually
came to feel a kind of horror of the interminable persistency of his
conversation, and whom he endeavoured to make use of as the mere puppet
of the ministry. The king made various attempts to induce Pitt to come
to his rescue by forming a ministry, but without success, and at last
had recourse to the marquis of Rockingham, on whose agreeing to accept
office Grenville was dismissed July 1765. He never again held office,
and died on the 13th of November 1770.
The nickname of "gentle shepherd" was given him because he bored the
House by asking over and over again, during the debate on the Cider Bill
of 1763, that somebody should tell him "where" to lay the new tax if it
was not to be put on cider. Pitt whistled the air of the popular tune
"Gentle Shepherd, tell me where," and the House laughed. Though few
excelled him in a knowledge of the forms of the House or in mastery of
administrative details, his tact in dealing with men and with affairs
was so defective that there is perhaps no one who has been at the head
of an English administration to whom a lower place can be assigned as a
statesman.
In 1749 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Wyndham, by whom
he had a large family. His son, the second Earl Temple, was created
marquess, and his grandson duke, of Buckingham. Another son was William,
afterwards Lord Grenville. Another, Thomas Grenville (1755-1846), who
was, with one interval, a member of parliament from 1780 to 1818, and
for a few months during 1806 and 1807 president of the board of control
and first lord of the admiralty, is perhaps more famous as a
book-collector than as a statesman; he bequeathed his large and valuable
library to the British Museum.
_The Grenville Papers, being the Correspondence of Richard Grenville,
Earl Temple, K.G., and the Right Hon. George Grenville, their Friends
and Contemporaries_, were published at London in 1852, and afford the
chief authority for his life. But see also H. Walpole's _Memoirs of
the Reign of George II._ (London, 1845); Lord Stanhope's _History of
England_ (London, 1858); Lecky's _History of England_ (1885); and E.
D. Adams, _The Influence of Grenville on Pitt's Foreign Policy_
(Washington, 1904).
GRENVILLE (or GREYNVILE), SIR RICHARD (c. 1541-1591), British naval
commander, was born of an old Cornish family about 1541. His
grandfather, Sir Richard, had been marshal of Calais in the time of
Henry VIII., and his father commanded and was lost in the "Mary Rose" in
1545. At an early age Grenville is supposed to have served in Hungary
under the emperor Maximilian against the Turks. In the years 1571 and
1584 he sat in parliament for Cornwall, and in 1583 and 1584 he was
commissioner of the works at Dover harbour. He appears to have been a
man of much pride and ambition. Of his bravery there can be no doubt. In
1585 he commanded the fleet of seven vessels by which the colonists sent
out by his cousin, Sir Walter Raleigh, were carried to Roanoke Island in
the present North Carolina. Grenville himself soon returned with the
fleet to England, capturing a Spanish vessel on his way, but in 1586 he
carried provisions to Roanoke, and finding the colony deserted, left a
few men to maintain possession. He then held an important post in charge
of the defences of the western counties of England. When a squadron was
despatched in 1591, under Lord Thomas Howard, to intercept the
homeward-bound treasure-fleet of Spain, Grenville was appointed as
second in command on board the "Revenge," a ship of 500 tons which had
been commanded by Drake against the Armada in 1588. At the end of August
Howard with 16 ships lay at anchor to the north of Flores in the Azores.
On the last day of the month he received news from a pinnace, sent by
the earl of Cumberland, who was then off the Portugal coast, that a
Spanish fleet of 53 vessels was then bearing up to the Azores to meet
the treasure-ships. Not being in a position to fight a fleet more than
three times the size of his own, Howard gave orders to weigh anchor and
stand out to sea. But, either from some misunderstanding of the order,
or from some idea of Grenville's that the Spanish vessels rapidly
approaching were the ships for which they had been waiting, the
"Revenge" was delayed and cut off from her consorts by the Spaniards.
Grenville resolved to try to break through the middle of the Spanish
line. His ship was becalmed under the lee of a huge galleon, and after a
hand-to-hand fight lasting through fifteen hours against fifteen Spanish
ships and a force of five thousand men, the "Revenge" with her hundred
and fifty men was captured. Grenville himself was carried on board the
Spanish flag-ship "San Pablo," and died a few days later. The incident
is commemorated in Tennyson's ballad of "The Revenge."
The spelling of Sir Richard's name has led to much controversy. Four
different families, each of which claim to be descended from him, spell
it Granville, Grenville, Grenfell and Greenfield. The spelling usually
accepted is Grenville, but his own signature, in a bold clear
handwriting, among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian library at Oxford, is
Greynvile.
GRENVILLE (or GRANVILLE), SIR RICHARD (1600-1658), English royalist, was
the third son of Sir Bernard Grenville (1559-1636), and a grandson of
the famous seaman, Sir Richard Grenville. Having served in France,
Germany and the Netherlands, Grenville gained the favour of the duke of
Buckingham, took part in the expeditions to Cadiz, to the island of Rhe
and to La Rochelle, was knighted, and in 1628 was chosen member of
parliament for Fowey. Having married Mary Fitz (1596-1671), widow of Sir
Charles Howard (d. 1622) and a lady of fortune, Grenville was made a
baronet in 1630; his violent temper, however, made the marriage an
unhappy one, and he was ruined and imprisoned as the result of two
lawsuits, one with his wife, and the other with her kinsman, the earl of
Suffolk. In 1633 he escaped from prison and went to Germany, returning
to England six years later to join the army which Charles I. was
collecting to march against the Scots. Early in 1641, just after the
outbreak of the Irish rebellion, Sir Richard led some troops to Ireland,
where he won some fame and became governor of Trim; then returning to
England in 1643 he was arrested at Liverpool by an officer of the
parliament, but was soon released and sent to join the parliamentary
army. Having, however, secured men and money, he hurried to Charles I.
at Oxford and was despatched to take part in the siege of Plymouth,
quickly becoming the leader of the forces engaged in this enterprise.
Compelled to raise the siege he retired into Cornwall, where he helped
to resist the advancing Parliamentarians; but he quickly showed signs of
insubordination, and, whilst sharing in the siege of Taunton, he was
wounded and obliged to resign his command. About this time loud
complaints were brought against Grenville. He had behaved, it was said,
in a very arbitrary fashion; he had hanged some men and imprisoned
others; he had extorted money and had used the contributions towards the
cost of the war for his own ends. Many of these charges were undoubtedly
true, but upon his recovery the councillors of the prince of Wales gave
him a position under Lord Goring, whom, however, he refused to obey.
Equally recalcitrant was his attitude towards Goring's successor, Sir
Ralph Hopton, and in January 1646 he was arrested. But he was soon
released; he went to France and Italy, and after visiting England in
disguise passed some time in Holland. He was excepted by parliament from
pardon in 1648, and after the king's execution he was with Charles II.
in France and elsewhere until some unfounded accusation which he brought
against Edward Hyde, afterwards earl of Clarendon, led to his removal
from court. He died in 1658, and was buried at Ghent. In 1644, when
Grenville deserted the parliamentary party, a proclamation was put out
against him; in this there were attached to his name several offensive
epithets, among them being _skellum_, a word probably derived from the
German _Schelm_, a scoundrel. Hence he is often called "skellum
Grenville."
Grenville wrote an account of affairs in the west of England, which
was printed in T. Carte's _Original Letters_ (1739). To this partisan
account Clarendon drew up an answer, the bulk of which he afterwards
incorporated in his _History_. In 1654 Grenville wrote his _Single
defence against all aspersions of all malignant persons_. This is
printed in the _Works_ of George Granville, Lord Lansdowne (London,
1736), where Lansdowne's _Vindication_ of his kinsman, Sir Richard,
against Clarendon's charges is also found. See also Clarendon,
_History of the Rebellion_, edited by W. D. Macray (Oxford, 1888); and
R. Granville, _The King's General in the West_ (1908).
GRENVILLE, WILLIAM WYNDHAM GRENVILLE, BARON (1759-1834), English
statesman, youngest son of George Grenville, was born on the 25th of
October 1759. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, gaining
the chancellor's prize for Latin verse in 1779. In February 1782
Grenville was returned to parliament as member for the borough of
Buckingham, and in the following September he became secretary to the
lord lieutenant of Ireland, who at this time was his brother, Earl
Temple, afterwards marquess of Buckingham. He left office in June 1783,
but in the following December he became paymaster-general of the forces
under his cousin, William Pitt, and in 1786 vice-president of the
committee of trade. In 1787 he was sent on an important mission to the
Hague and Versailles with reference to the affairs of Holland. In
January 1789 he was chosen speaker of the House of Commons, but he
vacated the chair in the same year on being appointed secretary of state
for the home department; about the same time he resigned his other
offices, but he became president of the board of control, and in
November 1790 was created a peer as Baron Grenville. In the House of
Lords he was very active in directing the business of the government,
and in 1791 he was transferred to the foreign office, retaining his post
at the board of control until 1793. He was doubtless regarded by Pitt as
the man best fitted to carry out his policy with reference to France,
but in the succeeding years he and his chief were frequently at variance
on important questions of foreign policy. In spite of his multifarious
duties at the foreign office Grenville continued to take a lively
interest in domestic matters, which he showed by introducing various
bills into the House of Lords. In February 1801 he resigned office with
Pitt because George III. would not consent to the introduction of any
measure of Roman Catholic relief, and in opposition he gradually
separated himself from his former leader. When Pitt returned to power in
1804 Grenville refused to join the ministry unless his political ally,
Fox, was also admitted thereto; this was impossible and he remained out
of office until February 1806, when just after Pitt's death he became
the nominal head of a coalition government. This ministry was very
unfortunate in its conduct of foreign affairs, but it deserves to be
remembered with honour on account of the act passed in 1807 for the
abolition of the slave trade. Its influence, however, was weakened by
the death of Fox, and in consequence of a minute drawn up by Grenville
and some of his colleagues the king demanded from his ministers an
assurance that in future they would not urge upon him any measures for
the relief of Roman Catholics. They refused to give this assurance and
in March 1807 they resigned. Grenville's attitude in this matter was
somewhat aggressive; his colleagues were not unanimous in supporting
him, and Sheridan, one of them, said "he had known many men knock their
heads against a wall, but he had never before heard of any man who
collected the bricks and built the very wall with an intention to knock
out his own brains against it."
Lord Grenville never held office again, although he was requested to do
so on several occasions. He continued, however, to take part in public
life, being one of the chief supporters of Roman Catholic emancipation,
and during the remaining years of his active political career, which
ended in 1823, he generally voted with the Whigs, although in 1815 he
separated himself from his colleague, Charles Grey, and supported the
warlike policy of Lord Liverpool. In 1819, when the marquess of
Lansdowne brought forward his motion for an inquiry into the causes of
the distress and discontent in the manufacturing districts, Grenville
delivered an alarmist speech advocating repressive measures. His
concluding years were spent at Dropmore, Buckinghamshire, where he died
on the 12th of January 1834. His wife, whom he married in 1792, was Anne
(1772-1864), daughter of Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford, but he had no
issue and his title became extinct. In 1809 he was elected chancellor of
Oxford university.
Though Grenville's talents were not of the highest order his
straightforwardness and industry, together with his knowledge of
politics and the moderation of his opinions, secured for him
considerable political influence. He may be enrolled among the band of
English statesmen who have distinguished themselves in literature. He
edited Lord Chatham's letters to his nephew, Thomas Pitt, afterwards
Lord Camelford (London, 1804, and other editions); he wrote a small
volume, _Nugae Metricae_ (1824), being translations into Latin from
English, Greek and Italian, and an _Essay on the Supposed Advantages of
a Sinking Fund_ (1828).
The Dropmore MSS. contain much of Grenville's correspondence, and on
this the Historical Manuscripts Commission has published a report.
GRESHAM, SIR THOMAS (1519-1579), London merchant, the founder of the
Royal Exchange and of Gresham College, London, was descended from an old
Norfolk family; he was the only son of Sir Richard Gresham, a leading
London merchant, who for some time held the office of lord mayor, and
for his services as agent of Henry VIII. in negotiating loans with
foreign merchants received the honour of knighthood. Though his father
intended him to follow his own profession, he nevertheless sent him for
some time to Caius College, Cambridge, but there is no information as to
the duration of his residence. It is uncertain also whether it was
before or after this that he was apprenticed to his uncle Sir John
Gresham, who was also a merchant, but we have his own testimony that he
served an apprenticeship of eight years. In 1543, at the age of
twenty-four, he was admitted a member of the Mercers' Company, and in
the same year he went to the Low Countries, where, either on his own
account or on that of his father or uncle, he both carried on business
as a merchant and acted in various matters as an agent for Henry VIII.
In 1544 he married the widow of William Read, a London merchant, but he
still continued to reside principally in the Low Countries, having his
headquarters at Antwerp. When in 1551 the mismanagement of Sir William
Dansell, "king's merchant" in the Low Countries, had brought the English
government into great financial embarrassment, Gresham was called in to
give his advice, and chosen to carry out his own proposals. Their
leading feature was the adoption of various methods--highly ingenious,
but quite arbitrary and unfair--for raising the value of the pound
sterling on the "bourse" of Antwerp, and it was so successful that in a
few years nearly all King Edward's debts were discharged. The advice of
Gresham was likewise sought by the government in all their money
difficulties, and he was also frequently employed in various diplomatic
missions. He had no stated salary, but in reward of his services
received from Edward various grants of lands, the annual value of which
at that time was ultimately about L400 a year. On the accession of Mary
he was for a short time in disfavour, and was displaced in his post by
Alderman William Dauntsey. But Dauntsey's financial operations were not
very successful and Gresham was soon reinstated; and as he professed his
zealous desire to serve the queen, and manifested great adroitness both
in negotiating loans and in smuggling money, arms and foreign goods, not
only were his services retained throughout her reign, but besides his
salary of twenty shillings _per diem_ he received grants of church lands
to the yearly value of L200. Under Queen Elizabeth, besides continuing
in his post as financial agent of the crown, he acted temporarily as
ambassador at the court of the duchess of Parma, being knighted in 1559
previous to his departure. By the outbreak of the war in the Low
Countries he was compelled to leave Antwerp on the 19th of March 1567;
but, though he spent the remainder of his life in London, he continued
his business as merchant and financial agent of the government in much
the same way as formerly. Elizabeth also found him useful in a great
variety of other ways, among which was that of acting as jailer, to Lady
Mary Grey, who, as a punishment for marrying Thomas Keys the sergeant
porter, remained a prisoner in his house from June 1569 to the end of
1572. In 1565 Gresham made a proposal to the court of aldermen of London
to build at his own expense a bourse or exchange, on condition that they
purchased for this purpose a piece of suitable ground. In this proposal
he seems to have had an eye to his own interest as well as to the
general good of the merchants, for by a yearly rental of L700 obtained
for the shops in the upper part of the building he received a sufficient
return for his trouble and expense. Gresham died suddenly, apparently of
apoplexy, on the 21st of November 1579. His only son predeceased him,
and his illegitimate daughter Anne he married to Sir Nathaniel Bacon,
brother of the great Lord Bacon. With the exception of a number of small
sums bequeathed to the support of various charities, the bulk of his
property, consisting of estates in various parts of England of the
annual value of more than L2300, was bequeathed to his widow and her
heirs with the stipulation that after her decease his residence in
Bishopsgate Street, as well as the rents arising from the Royal
Exchange, should be vested in the hands of the corporation of London and
the Mercers' Company, for the purpose of instituting a college in which
seven professors should read lectures--one each day of the week--on
astronomy, geometry, physic, law, divinity, rhetoric and music. The
lectures were begun in 1597, and were delivered in the original building
until 1768, when, on the ground that the trustees were losers by the
gift, it was made over to the crown for a yearly rent of L500, and
converted into an excise office. From that time a room in the Royal
Exchange was used for the lectures until in 1843 the present building
was erected at a cost of L7000.
A notice of Gresham is contained in Fuller's _Worthies_ and Ward's
_Gresham Professors_; but the fullest account of him, as well as of
the history of the Exchange and Gresham College is that by J. M.
Burgon in his _Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham_ (2 vols., 1839).
See also a _Brief Memoir of Sir Thomas Gresham_ (1833); and _The Life
of Sir Thomas Gresham, Founder of the Royal Exchange_ (1845).
GRESHAM, WALTER QUINTON (1832-1895), American statesman and jurist, was
born near Lanesville, Harrison county, Indiana, on the 17th of March
1832. He spent two years in an academy at Corydon, Indiana, and one year
at the Indiana State University at Bloomington, then studied law, and in
1854 was admitted to the bar. He was active as a campaign speaker for
the Republican ticket in 1856, and in 1860 was elected to the State
House of Representatives as a Republican in a strong Democratic
district. In the House, as chairman of the committee on military
affairs, he did much to prepare the Indiana troops for service in the
Federal army; in 1861 he became colonel of the 53rd Indiana Volunteer
Infantry, and subsequently took part in Grant's Tennessee campaign of
1862, and in the operations against Corinth and Vicksburg, where he
commanded a brigade. In August 1863 he was appointed brigadier-general
of volunteers, and was placed in command of the Federal forces at
Natchez. In 1864 he commanded a division of the 17th Army Corps in
Sherman's Atlanta campaign, and before Atlanta, on the 20th of July, he
received a wound which forced him to retire from active service, and
left him lame for life. In 1865 he was brevetted major-general of
volunteers. After the war he practised law at New Albany, Indiana, and
in 1869 was appointed by President Grant United States District Judge
for Indiana. In April 1883 he succeeded Timothy O. Howe (1816-1883) as
postmaster-general in President Arthur's cabinet, taking an active part
in the suppression of the Louisiana Lottery, and in September 1884
succeeded Charles J. Folger as secretary of the treasury. In the
following month he resigned to accept an appointment as United States
Judge for the Seventh Judicial Circuit. Gresham was a candidate for the
Republican presidential nomination in 1884 and 1888, in the latter year
leading for some time in the balloting. Gradually, however, he grew out
of sympathy with the Republican leaders and policy, and in 1892
advocated the election of the Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland,
for the presidency. From the 7th of March 1893 until his death at
Washington on the 28th of May 1895, he was secretary of state in
President Cleveland's cabinet.
GRESHAM'S LAW, in economics, the name suggested in 1857 by H. D. Macleod
for the principle of currency which may be briefly summarized--"bad
money drives out good." Macleod gave it this name, which has been
universally adopted, under the impression that the principle was first
explained by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1558. In reality it had been well set
forth by earlier economic writers, notably Oresme and Copernicus.
Macleod states the law in these terms: the worst form of currency in
circulation regulates the value of the whole currency and drives all
other forms of currency out of circulation. Gresham's law applies where
there is under-weight or debased coin in circulation with full-weight
coin of the same metal; where there are two metals in circulation, and
one is undervalued as compared with the other, and where inconvertible
paper money is put into circulation side by side with a metallic
currency. See further BIMETALLISM; MONEY.
GRESSET, JEAN BAPTISTE LOUIS (1709-1777), French poet and dramatist, was
born at Amiens on the 29th of August 1709. His poem _Vert Vert_ is his
main title to fame. He spent, however, the last twenty-five years of his
life in regretting the frivolity which enabled him to produce this most
charming of poems. He was brought up by the Jesuits of Amiens. He was
accepted as a novice at the age of sixteen, and sent to pursue his
studies at the College Louis le Grand in Paris. After completing his
course he was appointed, being then under twenty years of age, to a post
as assistant master in a college at Rouen. He published _Vert Vert_ at
Rouen in 1734. It is a story, in itself exceedingly humorous, showing
how a parrot, the delight of a convent, whose talk was all of prayers
and pious ejaculations, was conveyed to another convent as a visitor to
please the nuns. On the way he falls among bad companions, forgets his
convent language, and shocks the sisters on arrival by profane swearing.
He is sent back in disgrace, punished by solitude and plain bread,
presently repents, reforms and is killed by kindness. The story,
however, is nothing. The treatment of the subject, the atmosphere which
surrounds it, the delicacy in which the little prattling ways of the
nuns, their jealousies, their tiny trifles, are presented, takes the
reader entirely by surprise. The poem stands absolutely unrivalled, even
among French _contes en vers_.
Gresset found himself famous. He left Rouen, went up to Paris, where he
found refuge in the same garret which had sheltered him when a boy at
the College Louis le Grand, and there wrote his second poem, _La
Chartreuse_. It was followed by the _Careme impromptu_, the _Lutrin
vivant_ and _Les Ombres_. Then trouble came upon him; complaints were
made to the fathers of the alleged licentiousness of his verses, the
real cause of complaint being the ridicule which _Vert Vert_ seemed to
throw upon the whole race of nuns and the anti-clerical tendency of the
other poems. An example, it was urged, must be made; Gresset was
expelled the order. Men of robust mind would have been glad to get rid
of such a yoke. Gresset, who had never been taught to stand alone, went
forth weeping. He went to Paris in 1740 and there produced _Edouard
III_, a tragedy (1740) and _Sidnei_ (1745), a comedy. These were
followed by _Le Mechant_ which still keeps the stage, and is qualified
by Brunetiere as the best verse comedy of the French 18th century
theatre, not excepting even the _Metromanie_ of Alexis Piron. Gresset
was admitted to the Academy in 1748. And then, still young, he retired
to Amiens, where his relapse from the discipline of the church became
the subject of the deepest remorse. He died at Amiens on the 16th of
June 1777.
The best edition of his poems is A. A. Renouard's (1811). See Jules
Wogue, _J. B. L. Gresset_ (1894).
GRETNA GREEN, or GRAITNEY GREEN, a village in the south-east of
Dumfriesshire, Scotland, about 8 m. E. of Annan, 9 m. N.N.W. of
Carlisle, and 3/4 m. from the river Sark, here the dividing-line between
England and Scotland, with a station on the Glasgow & South-Western
railway. The Caledonian and North British railways have a station at
Gretna on the English side of the Border. As the nearest village on the
Scottish side, Gretna Green was notorious as the resort of eloping
couples, who had failed to obtain the consent of parents or guardians to
their union. Up till 1754, when Lord Hardwicke's act abolishing
clandestine marriages came into force, the ceremony had commonly been
performed in the Fleet prison in London. After that date runaway couples
were compelled to seek the hospitality of a country where it sufficed
for them to declare their wish to marry in the presence of witnesses. At
Gretna Green the ceremony was usually performed by the blacksmith, but
the toll-keeper, ferryman or in fact any person might officiate, and the
toll-house, the inn, or, after 1826, Gretna Hall was the scene of many
such weddings, the fees varying from half a guinea to a sum as large as
impudence could extort or extravagance bestow. As many as two hundred
couples were married at the toll-house in a year. The romantic traffic
was practically, though not necessarily, put an end to in 1856, when the
law required one of the contracting parties to reside in Scotland three
weeks previous to the event.
GRETRY, ANDRE ERNEST MODESTE (1741-1813), French composer, was born at
Liege on the 8th of February 1741, his father being a poor musician. He
was a choir boy at the church of St Denis. In 1753 he became a pupil of
Leclerc and later of Renekin and Moreau. But of greater importance was
the practical tuition he received by attending the performance of an
Italian opera company. Here he heard the operas of Galuppi, Pergolesi
and other masters; and the desire of completing his own studies in Italy
was the immediate result. To find the necessary means he composed in
1759 a mass which he dedicated to the canons of the Liege cathedral, and
it was at the cost of Canon Hurley that he went to Italy in the March of
1759. In Rome he went to the College de Liege. Here Gretry resided for
five years, studiously employed in completing his musical education
under Casali. His proficiency in harmony and counterpoint was, however,
according to his own confession, at all times very moderate. His first
great success was achieved by _La Vendemmiatrice_, an Italian intermezzo
or operetta, composed for the Aliberti theatre in Rome and received with
universal applause. It is said that the study of the score of one of
Monsigny's operas, lent to him by a secretary of the French embassy in
Rome, decided Gretry to devote himself to French comic opera. On New
Year's day 1767 he accordingly left Rome, and after a short stay at
Geneva (where he made the acquaintance of Voltaire, and produced another
operetta) went to Paris. There for two years he had to contend with the
difficulties incident to poverty and obscurity. He was, however, not
without friends, and by the intercession of Count Creutz, the Swedish
ambassador, Gretry obtained a libretto from Marmontel, which he set to
music in less than six weeks, and which, on its performance in August
1768, met with unparalleled success. The name of the opera was _Le
Huron_. Two others, _Lucile_ and _Le Tableau parlant_, soon followed,
and thenceforth Gretry's position as the leading composer of comic opera
was safely established. Altogether he composed some fifty operas. His
masterpieces are _Zemire et Azor_ and _Richard Coeur de Lion_,--the
first produced in 1771, the second in 1784. The latter in an indirect
way became connected with a great historic event. In it occurs the
celebrated romance, _O Richard, o mon roi, l'univers t'abandonne_, which
was sung at the banquet--"fatal as that of Thyestes," remarks
Carlyle--given by the bodyguard to the officers of the Versailles
garrison on October 3, 1789. The _Marseillaise_ not long afterwards
became the reply of the people to the expression of loyalty borrowed
from Gretry's opera. The composer himself was not uninfluenced by the
great events he witnessed, and the titles of some of his operas, such as
_La Rosiere republicaine_ and _La Fete de la raison_, sufficiently
indicate the epoch to which they belong; but they are mere _pieces de
circonstance_, and the republican enthusiasm displayed is not genuine.
Little more successful was Gretry in his dealings with classical
subjects. His genuine power lay in the delineation of character and in
the expression of tender and typically French sentiment. The structure
of his concerted pieces on the other hand is frequently flimsy, and his
instrumentation so feeble that the orchestral parts of some of his works
had to be rewritten by other composers, in order to make them acceptable
to modern audiences. During the revolution Gretry lost much of his
property, but the successive governments of France vied in favouring the
composer, regardless of political differences. From the old court he
received distinctions and rewards of all kinds; the republic made him an
inspector of the conservatoire; Napoleon granted him the cross of the
legion of honour and a pension. Gretry died on the 24th of September
1813, at the Hermitage in Montmorency, formerly the house of Rousseau.
Fifteen years after his death Gretry's heart was transferred to his
birthplace, permission having been obtained after a tedious lawsuit. In
1842 a colossal bronze statue of the composer was set up at Liege.
See Michael Brenet, _Vie de Gretry_ (Paris, 1884); Joach. le Breton,
_Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Gretry_ (Paris,
1814); A. Gretry (his nephew), _Gretry en famille_ (Paris, 1814);
Felix van Hulst, _Gretry_ (Liege, 1842); L. D. S. _Notice biographique
sur Gretry_ (Bruxelles, 1859).
GREUZE, JEAN BAPTISTE (1725-1805), French painter, was born at Tournus,
in Burgundy, on the 21st of August 1725, and is generally said to have
formed his own talent; this is, however, true only in the most limited
sense, for at an early age his inclinations, though thwarted by his
father, were encouraged by a Lyonnese artist named Grandon, or Grondom,
who enjoyed during his lifetime considerable reputation as a
portrait-painter. Grandon not only persuaded the father of Greuze to
give way to his son's wishes, and permit the lad to accompany him as his
pupil to Lyons, but, when at a later date he himself left Lyons for
Paris--where his son-in-law Gretry the celebrated composer enjoyed the
height of favour--Grandon carried young Greuze with him. Settled in
Paris, Greuze worked from the living model in the school of the Royal
Academy, but did not attract the attention of his teachers; and when he
produced his first picture, "Le Pere de famille expliquant la Bible a
ses enfants," considerable doubt was felt and shown as to his share in
its production. By other and more remarkable works of the same class
Greuze soon established his claims beyond contest, and won for himself
the notice and support of the well-known connoisseur La Live de Jully,
the brother-in-law of Madame d'Epinay. In 1755 Greuze exhibited his
"Aveugle trompe," upon which, presented by Pigalle the sculptor, he was
immediately _agree_ by the Academy. Towards the close of the same year
he left France for Italy, in company with the Abbe Louis Gougenot, who
had deserted from the magistrature--although he had obtained the post of
"conseillier au Chatelet"--in order to take the "petit collet." Gougenot
had some acquaintance with the arts, and was highly valued by the
Academicians, who, during his journey with Greuze, elected him an
honorary member of their body on account of his studies in mythology and
allegory; his acquirements in these respects are said to have been
largely utilized by them, but to Greuze they were of doubtful advantage,
and he lost rather than gained by this visit to Italy in Gougenot's
company. He had undertaken it probably in order to silence those who
taxed him with ignorance of "great models of style," but the Italian
subjects which formed the entirety of his contributions to the Salon of
1757 showed that he had been put on a false track, and he speedily
returned to the source of his first inspiration. In 1759, 1761
("L'Accordee de village"--Louvre), and 1763 Greuze exhibited with
ever-increasing success; in 1765 he reached the zenith of his powers and
reputation. In that year he was represented with no less than thirteen
works, amongst which may be cited "La Jeune Fille qui pleure son oiseau
mort," "La Bonne Mere," "Le Mauvais fils puni" (Louvre) and "La
Malediction paternelle" (Louvre). The Academy took occasion to press
Greuze for his diploma picture, the execution of which had been long
delayed, and forbade him to exhibit on their walls until he had complied
with their regulations. "J'ai vu la lettre," says Diderot, "qui est un
modele d'honnetete et d'estime; j'ai vu la reponse de Greuze, qui est un
modele de vanite et d'impertinence: il fallait appuyer cela d'un
chef-d'oeuvre, et c'est ce que Greuze n'a pas fait." Greuze wished to be
received as a historical painter, and produced a work which he intended
to vindicate his right to despise his qualifications as a _peintre de
genre_. This unfortunate canvas--"Severe et Caracalla" (Louvre)--was
exhibited in 1769 side by side with Greuze's portrait of Jeaurat
(Louvre) and his admirable "Petite Fille au chien noir." The
Academicians received their new member with all due honours, but at the
close of the ceremonies the Director addressed Greuze in these
words--"Monsieur, l'Academie vous a recu, mais c'est comme peintre de
genre; elle a eu egard a vos anciennes productions, qui sont
excellentes, et elle a ferme les yeux sur celle-ci, qui n'est digne ni
d'elle ni de vous." Greuze, greatly incensed, quarrelled with his
_confreres_, and ceased to exhibit until, in 1804, the Revolution had
thrown open the doors of the Academy to all the world. In the following
year, on the 4th of March 1805, he died in the Louvre in great poverty.
He had been in receipt of considerable wealth, which he had dissipated
by extravagance and bad management, so that during his closing years he
was forced even to solicit commissions which his enfeebled powers no
longer enabled him to carry out with success. The brilliant reputation
which Greuze acquired seems to have been due, not to his acquirements as
a painter--for his practice is evidently that current in his own
day--but to the character of the subjects which he treated. That return
to nature which inspired Rousseau's attacks upon an artificial
civilization demanded expression in art. Diderot, in _Le Fils naturel et
le pere de famille_, tried to turn the vein of domestic drama to account
on the stage; that which he tried and failed to do Greuze, in painting,
achieved with extraordinary success, although his works, like the plays
of Diderot, were affected by that very artificiality against which they
protested. The touch of melodramatic exaggeration, however, which runs
through them finds an apology in the firm and brilliant play of line, in
the freshness and vigour of the flesh tints, in the enticing softness of
expression (often obtained by almost an abuse of _meplats_), by the
alluring air of health and youth, by the sensuous attractions, in short,
with which Greuze invests his lessons of bourgeois morality. As Diderot
said of "La Bonne Mere," "ca preche la population;" and a certain
piquancy of contrast is the result which never fails to obtain
admirers. "La Jeune Fille a l'agneau" fetched, indeed, at the Pourtales
sale in 1865, no less than 1,000,200 francs. One of Greuze's pupils,
Madame Le Doux, imitated with success the manner of her master; his
daughter and granddaughter, Madame de Valory, also inherited some
traditions of his talent. Madame de Valory published in 1813 a
comedie-vaudeville, _Greuze, ou l'accordee de village_, to which she
prefixed a notice of her grandfather's life and works, and the _Salons_
of Diderot also contain, besides many other particulars, the story at
full length of Greuze's quarrel with the Academy. Four of the most
distinguished engravers of that date, Massard pere, Flipart, Gaillard
and Levasseur, were specially entrusted by Greuze with the reproduction
of his subjects, but there are also excellent prints by other engravers,
notably by Cars and Le Bas.