province of Connaught; Lough Corrib (25 m. long) and Lough Mask (12 m.
long), stretching N. and S., divide the county into East and West
districts; the former is boggy, yet arable; the latter, including the
picturesque district known as CONNEMARA, is wild and hilly, and
chiefly consists of bleak morass and bogland; its rocky and indented
coast affords excellent harbourage in many places; the Suck, Shannon, and
Corrib are the chief rivers; the Slieve Boughta Mountains in the S. and
in the W. the Twelve Pins (2395 ft.) are the principal mountains;
fishing, some agriculture, and cattle-rearing are the chief employments;
it contains many interesting cromlechs and ruins.
GALWAY (14), the capital of Connaught and of the county of that
name; is situated on the N. side of Galway Bay, at the mouth of the
Corrib River, 50 m. NW. of Limerick; it is divided into the old and new
town, and contains several interesting ecclesiastical buildings, e. g.
the cruciform church of St. Nicholas (1320), and is the seat of a Queen's
College; fishing is an important industry, while wool and black marble
are exported.
GAMA, VASCO DA, a famous Portuguese navigator, the discoverer of the
route to India round the Cape of Good Hope, born at Sines, in Portugal,
of good family; he seems to have won the favour of King Emmanuel at an
early age, and already an experienced mariner, was in 1497 despatched on
his celebrated voyage, in which he rounded the Cape; on that occasion he
made his way to Calicut, in India, where he had to contend with the
enmity of the natives, stirred against him by jealous Arabian merchants;
in 1499 he returned to Lisbon, was received with great honour, and had
conferred on him an array of high-sounding titles; three years later he
was appointed to the command of an expedition to Calicut to avenge the
massacre of a small Portuguese settlement founded there a year previous
by Cabrat; in connection with this expedition he founded the colonies of
Mozambique and Sofala, and after inflicting a cruel punishment upon the
natives of Calicut, he returned to Lisbon in 1503; the following 20 years
of his life were spent in retirement at Evora, but in 1524 he was
appointed viceroy of Portuguese India, a position he held only for a
short time, but sufficiently long to re-establish Portuguese power in
India; he died at Cochin; the incidents of his famous first voyage round
the Cape are celebrated in Camoëns' memorable poem "The Lusiad"
(1469-1525).
GAMALIEL, a Jewish rabbi, the instructor of St. Paul in the
knowledge of the law, and distinguished for his tolerant spirit and
forbearance in dealing with the Apostles in their seeming departure from
the Jewish faith.
GAMBETTA, LÉON MICHEL, a French republican leader, born at Cahors,
of Italian descent; intended for the Church, to which he evinced no
proclivity; he early showed a _penchant_ for politics and adopted the
profession of law, in the prosecution of which he delivered a speech
which marked him out as the coming man of the French republic, from the
spirit of hostility it manifested against the Empire; at the fall of the
Empire he stood high in public regard, assumed the direction of affairs,
and made desperate attempts to repel the invading Germans; though he
failed in this, he never ceased to feel the shame of the loss of Alsace
and Lorraine, and strove hard to recover them, but all his efforts proved
ineffectual, and he died in Dec. 31, to the grief of the nation
(1838-1882).
GAMBIA, 1, a river of W. Africa, that flows through Senegambia and
discharges itself into the Atlantic at Bathurst after a course of more
than 1400 m. into a splendid estuary which, in some parts, has a breadth
of 27 m. but contracts to 2 m. at the seaward end; light craft can ascend
as far as Barraconda, 400 m. from the mouth. 2. A British settlement (15)
lying along the banks of the Gambia as far as Georgetown, with a
protectorate to Barraconda (pop. 50); it enjoys a separate government
under a British administrator, and produces hides, cotton, rice, &c.
GAMBIER, JAMES, LORD, British admiral, born in the Bahamas; at 22 he
was created a post-captain; in 1781 distinguished himself in an
engagement against the French at Jersey; and again under Lord Howe in
1794 he rendered material service in repulsing the French off Ushant; in
the following year he was made rear-admiral, and in 1799 vice-admiral;
for his gallant conduct as commander of the English fleet at the
bombardment of Copenhagen he was made a baron; a dispute with Lord
Cochrane at the battle of Aix Roads against the French led to his being
court-martialled, but he was honourably acquitted; on the accession of
William IV. he was made admiral of the fleet (1756-1833).
GAMP, SARAH, a nurse in "Martin Chuzzlewit," famous for her bulky
umbrella, and for confirming her opinions of things by a constant
reference to the authority of an imaginary Mrs. Harris.
GANDO (5,000), a native State traversed by the Niger in Western
Soudan, lying upon the NW. border of Sokoto, of which it is a dependency;
like Sokoto it has been brought within the sphere of influence of the
British Royal Niger Company; the inhabitants belong to the Fulah race,
and profess the Mohammedan religion; Gando is also the name of the
capital, an active centre of the cotton trade.
GANEGA, the Hindu god with an elephant's head and four arms; the
inspirer of cunning devices and good counsel, afterwards the patron of
letters and learned men.
GANELON, a count of Mayence, one of Charlemagne's paladins; trusted
by him but faithless, and a traitor to his cause; is placed by Dante in
the lowest hell.
GANGES, the great sacred river of India, which, though somewhat
shorter than the Indus, drains a larger area and traverses a more fertile
basin; it has its source in an ice-cave on the southern side of the
Himalayas, 8 m. above Gangotri, at an elevation of 13,800 ft. above the
sea-level; at this its first stage it is known as the Bhagirathi, and not
until 133 m. from its source does it assume the name of Ganges, having
already received two tributaries; issuing from the Himalayas at Sukhi, it
flows in a more or less southerly course to Allahabad, where it receives
the Jumna, and thence makes its way by the plains of Behar and past
Benares to Goalanda, where it is joined by the Brahmaputra; the united
stream, lessened by innumerable offshoots, pursues a SE. course till
joined by the Meghna, and under that name enters the Bay of Bengal; its
most noted offshoot is the HOOGHLY (q. v.), which pursues a
course to the S. of the Meghna; between these lies the Great Delta, which
begins to take shape 220 m. inland from the Bay of Bengal; the Ganges is
1557 m. in length, and offers for the greater part an excellent waterway;
it is held in great reverence as a sacred stream whose waters have power
to cleanse from all sin, while burial on its banks is believed to ensure
eternal happiness.
GANGES CANAL, constructed mainly for the purpose of irrigating the
arid land stretching between the Ganges and the Jumna Rivers, originally
extended from Hardwár to Cawnpore and Etawah, but has since been greatly
enlarged, and at present (including branches) has a total extent of 3700
m., of which 500 m. are navigable; it has contributed to mitigate
suffering caused by famines by affording a means of distributing ready
relief.
GANGRENE, the first stage of mortification in any part of a living
body.
GANGWAY, a passage in the House of Commons, running across the
house, which separates the independent members from the supporters of the
Government and the Opposition.
GANYMEDES, a beautiful youth, whom Zeus, attracted by his beauty,
carried off, disguised as an eagle, to heaven, conferred immortality on,
and made cup-bearer of the gods instead of Hebe.
GAO, KARVEH or KARVAH, a Persian blacksmith, whose sons
had been slain to feed the serpents of the reigning tyrant, raised his
leather apron on a spear, and with that for a standard excited a revolt;
the revolt proved successful, and the apron became the standard of the
new dynasty, which it continued to be till supplanted by the crescent.
GARAY, JÁNOS, Hungarian poet, born at Szegszard; his life was spent
chiefly in Pesth, where he held a post in the university library; he
published a number of dramas which show traces of German influence, and
was also the author of a book of lyrics as well as tales (1812-1853).
GARCIA, MANUEL, a noted singer and composer, born at Seville; in
1808 he went to Paris with a reputation already gained at Madrid and
Cadiz; till 1824 he was of high repute in London and Paris as an operatic
tenor; and in the following year visited the United States; when on the
road between Mexico and Vera Cruz he was robbed of all his money; he
spent his closing years in Paris as a teacher of singing, his voice being
greatly impaired by age as well as fatigue; his eldest daughter was the
celebrated Madame Malibran (1775-1832).
GARCIAS, DON PEDRO, a mythical don mentioned in the preface to "Gil
Blas" as buried with a small bag of doubloons, and the epitaph, "Here
lies interred the soul of licentiate Pedro Garcia."
GARCILASO, called the INCA, as descended from the royal family
of Peru; lived at Cordova; wrote "History of Peru," as well as a "History
of Florida" (1530-1568).
GARCILASO DE LA VEGA, a Spanish poet, born in Toledo, a soldier by
profession; accompanied Charles V. on his expeditions; died fighting
bravely in battle; his poems consist of sonnets, elegies, &c., and reveal
an unexpected tenderness (1503-1536).
GARCIN DE TASSY, Indian Orientalist, born at Marseilles (1794-1878).
GARD (419), a dep. in the S. of France, between the Cévennes and the
Rhône; slopes to the Rhône and the sea, with a marshy coast; produces
wine and olives, and is noted for its silkculture and breed of horses.
GARDA, LAGO DI, the largest of the Italian lakes; stretches, amidst
beautiful Alpine scenery, between Lombardy and Venetia. It is 35 m. long,
and from 2 to 10 broad. Its water is remarkably clear, and has a depth of
967 ft. It is studded with many picturesque islands, and is traversed by
steamers.
GARDE NATIONALE, of France, a body of armed citizens organised in
Paris in 1789 for the defence of the citizen interest, and soon by
extensions throughout the country became a force of great national
importance; the colours they adopted were the famous tricolor of red,
white, and blue, and their first commandant was Lafayette. In 1795 they
helped to repress the Paris mob, and under Napoleon were retained in
service. They played a prominent part in the Revolutions of 1830 and
1848, supporting the revolutionists; but in 1852 their powers were
curtailed, and in 1871 they were dissolved by the National Assembly.
GARDES SUISSES, a celebrated corps of the French army, formed in
1616 for defence of royalty, and numbering 2000. During the great
Revolution they gallantly defended the Louvre, but were overawed and
overpowered almost to annihilation by the infuriated Paris mob. "Their
work to die, and they did it," at that moment. The corps was finally
disbanded in 1830.
GARDINER, COLONEL JAMES, soldier, captain of dragoons, noted for his
bravery and piety; served under Marlborough; fell at Prestonpans; his
Life was written by Dr. Doddridge, and is much prized by religious people
(1688-1745).
GAIRDNER, JAMES, historian, born in Edinburgh, Assistant-Keeper
Record Office, London; edited a series of historical documents, and wrote
among other historical works the "Life and Reign of Richard III."; _b_.
1828.
GARDINER, SAMUEL RAWSON, English historian, born at Ropley, Hants;
his chief historical works include "History of England" in the reign of
James I. and Charles I.; "History of the Civil War," in four vols., and
the "History of the Protectorate," on which he is still engaged; a most
impartial and accurate historian; _b_. 1829.
GARDINER, STEPHEN, bishop of Winchester, born at Bury St. Edmunds;
was secretary to Wolsey; promoted the divorce of Queen Catharine, and
made bishop; imprisoned in the Tower under Edward VI.; restored to his
see, and made Chancellor under Mary (1483-1555).
GARFIELD, JAMES ABRAM, President of the United States, born in
Orange, Ohio; reared amid lowly surroundings; at the age of ten began to
help his widowed mother by working as a farmservant; an invincible
passion for learning prompted him to devote the long winters to study,
till he was able as a student to enter Hiram College, and subsequently to
William's College, Massachusetts, where, in 1856, he graduated; in the
following year he became President of Hiram College, and devoting his
attention to the study of law, in 1859 became a member of the State
Senate; he took an active part on the side of the Federalists in the
Civil War, and distinguished himself in several engagements, rising to be
major-general; in his thirty-third year he entered Congress, and soon
came to the front, acting latterly as leader of the Republican party; in
1880 he became a member of the Senate, and in the same year was elected
to the Presidency; he signalised his tenure of the presidential office by
endeavouring to purify and reform the civil service, but this attempt
drew on him the odium of a section of his party, and on the 2nd July 1881
he was shot down by Charles Guiteau, a disappointed place-hunter; after a
prolonged struggle with death he succumbed on the 19th of September
(1831-1881).
GARGANTUA, a gigantic personage, in Rabelais, of preternally lusty
appetite and guzzling and gourmandising power; lived several centuries,
and begat Pantagruel.
GARIBALDI, Italian patriot, began life as a sailor, associated
himself enthusiastically with Mazzini for the liberation of his country,
but being convicted of conspiracy fled to South America, where, both as a
privateer and a soldier, he gave his services to the young republics
struggling there for life; returned to Europe, and took part in the
defence of Rome against France, but being defeated fled to New York, to
return to the Isle of Caprera, biding his time; joined the Piedmontese
against Austria, and in 1860 set himself to assist in the overthrow of
the kingdom of Naples and the union of Italy under Victor Emmanuel,
landing in Calabria and entering Naples, driving the royal forces before
him without striking a blow, after which he returned to his retreat at
Caprera, ready still to draw sword, and occasionally offering it again,
in the cause of republicanism (1807-1882).
GARMENT OF GOD, LIVING, Living Nature, so called by Goethe, nature
being viewed by him as the garment, or vesture, with which God invests
Himself so as to reveal and impart Himself to man.
GARNET, a well-known precious stone of a vitreous lustre, and
usually of a dark-red colour, resembling a ruby, but also found in
various other shades, e. g. black, green, and yellow. The finest
specimens are brought from Ceylon, Pegu, and Greenland. The species of
garnet crystal known as Pyrope, when cut in the shape of a tallow drop,
is called a carbuncle.
GARNET, HENRY, a noted Jesuit, son of a Nottingham schoolmaster,
implicated in the Gunpowder Plot; bred in the Protestant faith, he early
turned Catholic and went abroad and joined the Jesuit order; in 1588 he
returned to England as Superior of the English Jesuits, and engaged in
various intrigues; on the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot he was
arrested, found guilty of cognisance of the Plot, and executed
(1555-1606).
GARNETT, RICHARD, philologist, born at Otley, Yorkshire, Keeper of
the Printed Books in the British Museum, and one of the founders of the
Philological Society, and contributor to its _Proceedings_ (1789-1850).
GARNETT, RICHARD, an acute critic, born in Lichfield, son of
preceding; long associated with the book department of the British
Museum; an admirer of Shelley, and biographer of Carlyle and Emerson;
_b_. 1835.
GARONNE, an important river of SW. France, which rises in the Val
d'Aran in the Spanish Pyrenees; 26 m. from its source it enters France
near Pont du Roi, and after it passes Toulouse flows in a north-westerly
direction; joined by the Dordogne, 20 m. below Toulouse, it gradually
widens into the Gironde estuary, which opens on the Bay of Biscay; it has
a length of 346 m., and is freely navigable as far as Toulouse.
GARRICK, DAVID, a famous English actor and dramatist, born at
Hereford; was educated at Lichfield, the home of his mother, and was for
some months in his nineteenth year a pupil of Samuel Johnson; in 1737 he
accompanied Johnson to London, with the intention of entering the legal
profession, but soon abandoned the purpose, and started in the wine
business with his brother; in 1741 he commenced his career as an actor,
making his first appearance at Ipswich; in the autumn of the same year he
returned to London, and as Richard III. achieved instant success; with
the exception of a sojourn upon the Continent for two years, his life was
spent mainly in the metropolis in the active pursuit of his profession;
in 1747 he became patentee, along with James Lacy, of Drury Lane Theatre,
which he continued to direct until his retirement from the stage in 1776;
three years later he died, and was buried in Westminster Abbey; he was
the author of many comedies and farces, which, however, are of no great
merit, but his abiding fame rests upon his powers as an actor, his
remarkable versatility enabling him to act with equal ease and success in
farce, comedy, and tragedy; his admirable naturalness did much to redeem
the stage from the stiff conventionalism under which it then laboured;
his wife, Eva Maria Violette, a celebrated dancer of Viennese birth, whom
he married in 1740, survived him till 1822, dying at the advanced age of
98 (1717-1779).
GARRISON, WILLIAM LLOYD, American journalist and abolitionist, born
at Newburyport, Mass.; in his native town he rose to be editor of the
_Herald_ at 19, and five years later became joint-editor of the _Genius
of Universal Emancipation_; his vigorous denunciation of slavery involved
him in a charge of libel and brought about his imprisonment, from which
he was liberated by a friend paying his fine; at Boston, in 1831, he
founded his celebrated _Liberator_, a paper in which he unweariedly, and
in the face of violent threats, advocated his anti-slavery opinions till
1865, when the cause was won; he visited England on several occasions in
support of emancipation, and in 1868 his great labours in the cause were
recognised by a gift of 30,000 dollars from his friends (1804-1879).
GARTER, THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE, a celebrated order of
knighthood instituted in 1344 by King Edward III.; the original number of
the knights was 26, of whom the sovereign was head; but this number has
been increased by extending the honour to descendants of George I., II.,
and III., and also to distinguished foreigners; it is the highest order
of knighthood, and is designated K.G.; the insignia of the order
includes surcoat, mantle, star, &c., but the knights are chiefly
distinguished by a garter of blue velvet worn on the left leg below the
knee, and bearing the inscription in gold letters _Honi soit qui mal y
pense_, "Evil be to him that evil thinks"; election to the order lies
with the sovereign.
GARTH, SIR SAMUEL, a distinguished physician, born in co. Durham;
had an extensive practice; author of a mock-heroic poem entitled "The
Dispensary" (1661-1718).
GASCOIGNE, SIR WILLIAM, English judge, born at Gawthorpe, Yorkshire;
during Richard II.'s reign he practised in the law courts, and in 1397
became king's serjeant; three years later he was raised to the Lord
Chief-Justiceship; his single-eyed devotion to justice was strikingly
exemplified in his refusal to pass sentence of death on Archbishop
Scrope; the story of his committing Prince Henry to prison, immortalised
by Shakespeare, is unauthenticated (1350-1419).
GASCONY, an ancient province of SW. France, lying between the
Atlantic, the Pyrenees, and the Garonne; it included several of the
present departments; the province was of Basque origin, but ultimately
became united with Aquitaine, and was added to the territory of the
French crown in 1453; the Gascons still retain their traditional
characteristics; they are of dark complexion and small in stature,
vivacious and boastful, but have a high reputation for integrity.
GASKELL, MRS., _née_ STEVENSON, novelist and biographer, born at
Cheyne Row, Chelsea; authoress of "Mary Barton," "Ruth," "Silvia's
Lovers," &c., and the "Life of Charlotte Brontë," her friend (1810-1865).
GASSENDI, PIERRE, a French mathematician and philosopher, born in
Provence; declared against scholastic methods out of deference to the
empirical; controverted the metaphysics of Descartes; became the head of
a school opposed to him; adopted the philosophy of Epicurus and
contributed to the science of astronomy, and was the friend of Kepler,
Galileo, and Hobbes; was a great admirer of Bayle, the head of his
school, a school of Pyrrhonists, tending to materialism (1592-1655).
GASSNER, JOHANN JOSEPH, a noted "exorcist," born at Bludenz, in the
Tyrol; while a Catholic priest at Klösterle he gained a wide celebrity by
professing to "cast out devils" and to work cures on the sick by means
simply of prayer; he was deposed as an impostor, but the bishop of
Ratisbon, who believed in his honesty, bestowed upon him the cure of
Bendorf (1727-1779).
GATAKER, THOMAS, an English divine, member of the Westminster
Assembly; disapproved of the introduction of the Covenant, declared for
Episcopacy, and opposed the trial of Charles I. (1574-1654).
GATE OF TEARS, the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, so called from the
shipwrecks frequent in it.
GATES, HORATIO, an American general, born at Maldon, Essex, in
England; served as an English officer in America till the peace of 1763,
and then retired to Virginia; in the War of Independence he fought on the
side of America, and, as commander of the northern army, defeated the
English at Saratoga in 1777; so great was his popularity in consequence
of this victory that ill-advised efforts were made to place him over
Washington, but in 1780 he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the
British at Camden, and was court-martialled; acquitted in 1782, he again
retired to Virginia, and subsequently in 1800 removed to New York, having
first emancipated and provided for his slaves (1728-1806).
GATESHEAD (86), an English town, situated on the Tyne, on N. border
of Durham; it is united to Newcastle by three bridges spanning the river;
it contains some handsome and interesting buildings, besides extensive
iron-works, foundries, soap, glass, and chemical manufactories; it was
here Defoe lived when he wrote "Robinson Crusoe."
GATH, Goliath's town, a city of the Philistines, on a cliff 12 m.
NE. of Ashdod.
GATLING, RICHARD JORDAN, the inventor of the Gatling gun, born in
Hertford County, N. Carolina, U.S.; he was bred to and graduated in
medicine, but in 1849 settled in Indianapolis and engaged in land and
railway speculation; his famous machine-gun, capable of firing 1200 shots
a minute, was brought out in 1861; another invention of his is a
steam-plough; _b_. 1818.
GATTY, MRS., writer of tales for young people, "Parables from
Nature," and editor of _Aunt Judy's Magazine_; daughter of the chaplain
of the _Victory_, Nelson's ship at Trafalgar, in whose arms Nelson
breathed his last (1809-1873).
GAUCHOS, a name bestowed upon the natives of the pampas of S.
America; they are of Indo-Spanish descent, and are chiefly engaged in
pastoral pursuits, herding cattle, &c.; they are dexterous horsemen, and
are courteous and hospitable; the wide-brimmed sombrero and loose poncho
are characteristic articles of their dress.
GAUDEN, JOHN, bishop of Worcester; protested against the trial of
Charles I., and after his execution published "EIKON BASILIKË"
(q. v.), or the "Portraiture of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitude and
Sufferings," which he declared was written by him (1605-1669).
GAUL, the name the ancients gave to two distinct regions, the one
CISALPINE GAUL, on the Roman side of the Alps, embracing the N. of
Italy, as long inhabited by Gallic tribes; and the other TRANSALPINE
GAUL, beyond the Alps from Rome, and extending from the Alps to the
Pyrenees, from the ocean to the Rhine, inhabited by different races;
subdued by Julius Cæsar 58-50 B.C., and divided by Augustus into four
provinces.
GAUNT, JOHN OF, Duke of Lancaster, third son of Edward III., born at
Ghent, who in 1362 succeeded to the estates of his father-in-law, the
Duke of Lancaster; having in 1372 married, as his second wife, the
daughter of the king of Castile, he made an unsuccessful attempt to seize
the Castilian throne; in the later years of Edward III.'s reign he took
an active part in public affairs, and by his opposition to the national
party and overbearing conduct towards the Commons made himself obnoxious
to the people; for selfish motives he for a time supported Wycliffe, but
in 1381 the Peasant Revolt drove him into Scotland; in 1386 he made
another ineffectual attempt to gain the crown of Castile; in his later
years he was engaged in various embassies in France (1339-1399).
GAUR or LAKHNAUTI, the ancient capital of Bengal, now in ruins,
but with Hindu remains of exceptional interest, is situated 4 m. S. of
Malda, between the rivers Ganges and Mahananda; the city is believed to
have been founded in the 11th century; it fell into decay after the Mogul
conquest in 1575, but pestilence and the deflection of the Ganges into a
new channel accelerated its fate.
GAUSS, KARL FRIEDRICH, a celebrated German mathematician and
astronomer, born at Brunswick; was director of the observatory at
Göttingen for 40 years; was equally great on theory of numbers and
practice of calculation; he made important discoveries in magnetism, and
was pronounced by Laplace the greatest mathematician in Europe
(1775-1855).
GAUTAMA, the name of the family Buddha belonged to, a Rajput clan
which at the time of his birth was settled on the banks on the Rohini, a
small affluent of the Gogra, about 137 m. N. of Benares.
GAUTIER, THÉOPHILE, a distinguished French poet, novelist, and
critic, born at Tarbes; began life as a painter, but turning to
literature soon attracted the attention of Sainte-Beuve by some studies
in the old French authors; by-and-by he came under the influence of
Victor Hugo, and in 1830 started his career as a poet by the publication
of "Albertus," five years after which appeared his famous novel
"Mademoiselle de Maupin"; for many years he was engaged in the work of
art criticism for the Paris newspapers, and those of his critiques
dealing with the drama have been republished, and fill six vols.; both as
poet and novelist his works have been numerous, and several delightful
books of travel in Spain, Turkey, Algeria, &c., have come from his pen;
as a literary artist Gautier has few equals to-day in France, but his
work is marred by a lax and paradoxical philosophy of life, which has, by
his more enthusiastic admirers, been elevated into a "cult" (1811-1872).
GAUTIER AND GARGUILLE, all the world and his wife.
GAVARNI, PAUL, the _nom de plume_ of Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier,
caricaturist, born in Paris; began life as an engineer's draughtsman, but
soon turned his attention to his proper vocation as a cartoonist; most of
his best work appeared in _Le Charivari_, but some of his bitterest and
most earnest pictures, the fruit of a visit to London, appeared in
_L'Illustration_; he also illustrated Balzac's novels, and Sue's
"Wandering Jew" (1801-1866).
GAVAZZI, ALESSANDRO, an Italian anti-papal agitator, born at
Bologna; admitted into the order of Barnabite monks; he became professor
of Rhetoric at Naples; one of the most energetic supporters of Pius IX.
in his liberal policy, he afterwards withdrew his allegiance; joined the
Revolution of 1848, and ultimately fled to England on the occupation of
Rome by the French; as an anti-papal lecturer he showed considerable
oratorical powers; delivered addresses in Italian in England and
Scotland against the papacy, which were received with enthusiasm,
although in Canada they led to riots; he was taken by some for an Italian
Knox; "God help them," exclaimed Carlyle, who regarded him as a mere
wind-bag (1809-1889).
GAVELKIND, descent of property to all the sons alike, the oldest to
have the horse and arms and the youngest the homestead.
GAWAIN, SIR, one of the Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur's
nephew; celebrated for his courtesy and physical strength.
GAY, JOHN, an English poet, born at Barnstaple the same year as
Pope, a friend of his, to whom he dedicated his "Rural Sports"; was the
author of a series of "Fables" and the "Beggar's Opera," a piece which
was received with great enthusiasm, and had a run of 63 nights, but which
gave offence at Court, though it brought him the patronage of the Duke
and Duchess of Queensberry, with whom he went to reside, and tinder whose
roof he died; was buried in Westminster (1688-1732).
GAYA (80), chief town of a district of the same name in Bengal, on
the Phalgu, 57 m. S. of Patna; it is a great centre of pilgrimage for
Hindus, and has associations with Buddha; 100,000 pilgrims visit it
annually.
GAY-LUSSAC, LOUIS JOSEPH, French chemist and physicist, born at St.
Leonard, Haute-Vienne; at the Polytechnic School, Paris, his abilities
attracted the attention of BERTHOLLET (q. v.), who appointed him
his assistant in the government chemical works at Arcueil; here he
assiduously employed himself in chemical and physical research, in
connection with which he made two balloon ascents; in 1809 he became
professor of Chemistry at the Paris Polytechnic School; in 1832 was
elected to a similar chair at the Jardin des Plantes; seven years later
was created a peer of France, while in 1829 he became chief assayer to
the Mint; his name is associated with many notable discoveries in
chemistry and physics, e. g. the law of volumes, isolation of cyanogen,
&c. (1778-1850).
GAZA, a Philistine town, the gates of which Samson carried off by
night; situated on a mound at the edge of the desert, 5 m. from the sea,
a considerable place to this day.
GAZETTE THE, an official newspaper in which government and legal
notices are published, issued on Tuesdays and Fridays; originally a
Venetian newspaper, the first of the kind so called as issued for a
farthing.
GEBIR or GEBER, the name under which several works on alchemy
and chemistry were written by Jabir ihn Haijan, an Arabic alchemist of
the 8th century; his birthplace is unknown, but he is said to have lived
at Damascus and Kufa.
GED, WILLIAM, the inventor of stereotyping, born in Edinburgh, where
he carried on business as a goldsmith; he endeavoured to push his new
process of printing in London by joining in partnership with a
capitalist, but, disappointed in his workmen and his partner, he returned
despondent to Edinburgh; an edition of Sallust and two prayer-books (for
Cambridge) were stereotyped by him (1699-1749).
GEDDES, ALEXANDER, biblical scholar, born at Arradowl, Banffshire;
was trained for the Catholic Church, and after prosecuting his studies at
Paris was appointed to the charge of a Catholic congregation at
Auchinhalrig; ten years later he was deposed for heresy, and removing to
London took to literary work; his most notable performance is his
unfinished translation of the Scriptures, and the notes appended, in
which he reveals a very pronounced rationalistic conception of holy writ;
this work, which anticipated the views of such men as Eichhorn and
Paulus, lost him his status as a priest, although to the end he professed
a sincere belief in Christianity; he was the author of volumes of poems,
&c. (1737-1802).
GEDDES, JENNY, an Edinburgh worthy who on 23rd July 1637
immortalised herself by throwing her stool at the head of Laud's bishop
as he proceeded from the desk of St. Giles's in the city to read the
_Collect_ for the day, exclaiming as she did so, "Deil _colic_ the wame
o' thee, fause loon, would you say _Mass_ at my lug," which was followed
by great uproar, and a shout, "A Pape, a Pape; stane him"; "a daring
feat, and a great," thinks Carlyle, "the first act of an audacity which
ended with the beheading of the king."
GEEFS, GUILLAUME, Belgian sculptor, born at Antwerp; executed a
colossal work at Brussels, "Victims of the Revolution," and numerous
statues and busts as well as imaginative productions; had two brothers
distinguished also as sculptors (1806-1860).
GEELONG (24), a prettily laid out city of Victoria, on Corio Bay, 45
m. SW. of Melbourne. The gold discoveries of 1851 gave a stimulus to the
town, which is now a busy centre of the wool trade, and has tanneries and
paper works, &c. The harbourage is excellent, and in summer the town is a
favourite resort as a watering-place.
GEFLE (25), a seaport, and the third commercial town in Sweden;
capital of the _län_ of Gefleborg; is situated on an inlet of the Gulf of
Bothnia, midway between Fahlun and Upsala; has an interesting old castle,
a school of navigation, and, since a destructive fire in 1869, has been
largely rebuilt.
GEHENNA, the valley of Hinnom, on the S. of Jerusalem, with
TOPHET (q. v.) at its eastern end; became the symbol of hell
from the fires kept burning in it night and day to consume the poisonous
gases of the offal accumulated in it.
GEHENNA BAILIFFS, ministers of hell's justice, whose function is to
see to and enforce the rights of hell.
GEIBEL, EMANUEL VON, a celebrated German poet, born at Lübeck; was
professor of Æsthetics at Münich; the tender, sentimental passion that
breathed in his poetry procured for him a wide-spread popularity,
especially among women (1815-1884).
GEIGER, ABRAHAM, an eminent Hebrew scholar and Rabbi, born at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, and editor of the _Zeitschrift für jüdische
Theologie_; strove hard to break down the barrier of Jewish exclusiveness
(1810-1874).
GEIJER, ERIK GUSTAV, great Swedish historian, born in Vermland; held
a post in the Record Office, Stockholm; was a poet as well as a
historian, his principal work being "History of the Swedish People"
(1783-1847).
GEIKIE, SIR ARCHIBALD, geologist, born at Edinburgh; at the age of
20 he joined the Geological Survey of Scotland, and in 1867 became
director; in 1870 he became Murchison professor of Geology at Edinburgh,
and in 1881 was appointed chief director of the Geological Survey of
Great Britain; in 1801 he was knighted, and from 1892 to 1893 was
President of the British Association; he is the author of various works
on geology, written with great lucidity, as well as essays much
appreciated; _b_. 1835.
GEIKIE, JAMES, geologist, brother of the preceding, born at
Edinburgh; in 1882, after serving 21 years in the Geological Survey of
Scotland, he succeeded his brother in the chair of Geology at Edinburgh;
his principal work as a scientist is "The Great Ice Age"; his literary
sympathies appear in his admirable volume of translations of, "Songs and
Lyrics of Heine"; _b_. 1839.
GEÏLER VON KAISERBERG, JOHANN, a famous German pulpit orator, born
at Schaffhausen; Strasburg was the principal scene of his labours; his
writings, though numerous, are rare, among them the "Narrenschiff, or
Ship of Fools" (1453-1510).
GELASIUS I., ST., Pope from 492 to 496; a vigorous man and strong
assertor of the supremacy of the chair of St. Peter; G. II., also
Pope from 1118 to 1119.
GELL, SIR WILLIAM, archæologist, born at Hopton, Derbyshire; after
graduating at Cambridge was elected to a Fellowship at Emmanuel College;
his passion for classical antiquities led him latterly to settle in
Italy, which bore fruit in various valuable works on the topography and
antiquities of Troy, Pompeii, Rome, Attica, &c.; he had for some time
previously been chamberlain to Queen Caroline, and appeared as a witness
at her trial (1777-1836).
GELLERT or KILLHART, a famous dog which figures in Welsh
tradition of the 13th century, and whose devotion and sad death are
celebrated in a fine ballad written by the Hon. William Robert Spencer
(1796-1834). The story is as follows: Prince Llewellyn on returning one
day from the chase discovered the cradle of his child overturned and
blood-stains on the floor. Immediately concluding that Gellert, whom he
had left in charge of the child, had been the culprit, he plunged his
sword into the breast of the dog and laid it dead. Too late he found his
child safe hidden in the blankets, and by its side the dead body of an
enormous wolf. Gellert's tomb is still pointed out in the village of
Beddgelert on the S. of Snowdon. A story similar even to details is
current in the traditionary lore of many other lands.
GELLERT, CHRISTIAN, a German poet, fabulist, and moralist, born in
Saxony; professor of Philosophy at Leipzig; distinguished for the
influence of his character and writings on the literature of the period
in Germany, in the effect of it culminating in the literature of Schiller
and Goethe; Frederick the Great, who had an interview with him,
pronounced him the most rational of German professors (1715-1769).
GELLUS, AULUS, a Latin grammarian, born at Rome; author of "Noctes
Atticæ," a miscellany professing to have been composed in a country house
near Athens during winter nights, and ranging confusedly over topics of
all kinds, interesting as abounding in extracts from ancient writings no
longer extant.
GELON, tyrant of Syracuse from 484 to 478 B.C.; rose from the
ranks, gained a victory in 480 B.C. on the day of the battle of Salamis
over a large host of Carthaginians who had invaded Sicily; _d_.
478 B.C., leaving behind him an honoured memory.
GEMARA, the second part of the Talmud, being a body of notes,
comments, &c. on the Mishna or text.
GEMINI, the Twins, two stars in the southern hemisphere named Castor
and Pollux; also the name of a sign of the zodiac.
GENDARMES (i. e. men-at-arms), a military police in France
organised since the Revolution, and charged with maintaining the public
safety. The gendarmerie is considered a part of the regular army, and is
divided into legions and companies; but the pay is better than that of an
ordinary soldier. In the 14th and 15th centuries the name was applied to
the heavy French cavalry, and later to the royal bodyguard of the
Bourbons.
GENESIS, the first book in the Bible, so called in the Septuagint,
as containing an account of the origin of the world, of the human family,
and of the Jewish race; a book of the oldest date possessing any human
interest.
GENEVA: 1. The smallest canton (106) of Switzerland, situated at the
western extremity of the lake of the name; the surface is hilly, but not
mountainous, and is watered by the Rhône and Arve; the soil is unfertile,
but the patient industry of the inhabitants has made it fruitful; the
cultivation of the vine, fruit-growing, and the manufacture of watches,
&c., are the chief industries; 85 per cent, of the people speak French.
2. Capital (78) of the canton, occupies a splendid geographical position
at the south-western end of the lake, at the exit of the Rhône; the town
existed in Cæsar's time, and after being subject in turn to Rome and
Burgundy, ere long won its independence in conjunction with Bern and
Freiburg. In Calvin's time it became a centre of Protestantism, and its
history, down to the time of its annexation by Napoleon in 1798, is
mainly occupied with the struggles between the oligarchical and
democratic factions. On the overthrow of Napoleon it joined the Swiss
Confederation. Since 1847 the town has been largely rebuilt, and
handsomely laid out. Among many fine buildings are the Transition
Cathedral of St. Peter (1124), the Academy founded by Calvin and others.
The Rhône flows through it, and compasses an island which forms part of
the city. It has many literary and historical associations, and was the
birthplace of Rousseau.
GENEVA, LAKE OF, or LAKE LEMAN, stretches in crescent shape
between Switzerland and France, curving round the northern border of the
French department of Haute-Savoie; length, 45 m.; greatest breadth, 9 m.;
maximum depth, 1022 ft. On the French side precipitous rocks descend to
the water's edge, and contrast with the wooded slopes of the north. The
water is of a deep-blue colour; many streams flow into it, notably the
Rhône, which flows out at Geneva.
GENEVIÈVE, the patron saint of Paris, born at Nanterre; by her
prayer the city, then called LUTETIA (q. v.) was saved from the
ravages of Attila (422-512) and his Huns.
GENGHIS KHAN (i. e. Very Mighty Ruler), a celebrated Mongol
conqueror, born near Lake Baikal, the son of a Mongol chief; his career
as a soldier began at the age of 13, an age at which he boldly assumed
the reins of government in succession to his father; by his military
skill and daring example he gradually raised his people to a position of
supremacy in Asia, and established by means of them a kingdom which, at
his death, stretched from the Volga to the Pacific, and from Siberia to
the Persian Gulf; he regarded himself as commissioned by Heaven to
conquer the world, a destiny which he almost fulfilled (1162-1227).
GENLIS, STEPHANIE FÉLICITÉ, COMTESSE DE, a celebrated French
novelist, born at Champceri, near Autun, Burgundy; at the age of 16 she
was married to the Comte de Genlis, who eventually fell a victim to the
fury of the Revolution; in 1770 she was a lady-in-waiting to the Duchesse
de Chartres, and 12 years later became governess to the children of the
Duc d'Orléans, amongst whom was the future king of the French,
Louis-Philippe; the Revolution drove her to Switzerland, but on the
elevation of Napoleon she returned to Paris, and received from him a
pension, which continued to be paid her even under the restored Bourbon
dynasty: she was a voluminous writer of moral tales, comedies, &c., and
her works amount to about 90 vols., among them the celebrated "Mémoirs"
of her life and times; she was ill-natured, and in her "Memoirs"
inaccurate, as well as prejudiced (1746-1830).
GEN`OA (138), a city and chief commercial seaport of Italy, built at
the foot of the Apennines as they slope down to the gulf of the name. The
encircling hills behind, which are strongly fortified, form a fine
background to the picturesquely laid-out city. There is excellent
harbourage for the extensive shipping, and an active export and import
trade is carried on. In the city are iron-works, cotton and cloth mills,
match factories, &c.; the streets are narrow and irregular, but many of
the buildings, especially the ducal palaces and the cathedral, are of
great historical and architectural interest; there is an excellent
university, a public library, and an Academy of Fine Arts; Columbus was
born here.
GENRE PAINTING, name given to paintings embracing figures as they
appear in ordinary life and in ordinary situations.
GENS, the name among the Romans for what we understand by the word
clan as consisting of families.
GENS BRACCATA, the Gauls, from wearing _braccæ_ or breeches.
GENS TOGATA, the Roman, from wearing the TOGA (q. v.) as
their distinguishing dress.
GEN`SERIC, king of the Vandals, son of Godigiselus, founder of the
Vandal kingdom in Spain, and bastard brother of Gunderic, whom he
succeeded in A.D. 429; from Spain he crossed to Africa, and in
conjunction with the Moors added to his kingdom the land lying W. of
Carthage, ultimately gaining possession of Carthage itself; he next set
himself to organise a naval force, with which he systematically from year
to year pillaged Spain, Italy, Greece, and the opposite lands of Asia
Minor, sacking Rome in 455; until his death in 477 he continued master of
the seas, despite strenuous efforts of the Roman emperors to crush his
power.
GENTILLY, a southern suburb of Paris, once a village beyond the
fortifications.
GENTLE SHEPHERD, a famous pastoral by Allan Ramsay, with some happy
descriptive scenes and a pleasant delineation of manners, published in
1723.
GENTLE SHEPHERD, a nickname George Grenville bore from a retort of
the elder Pitt one day in Parliament.
GENTLEMEN-AT-ARMS, next to the yeomen of the guard the oldest corps
in the British army, is the bodyguard of the sovereign; was formed by
Henry VIII. in 1509; now consists of a captain, lieutenant,
standard-bearer, adjutant, and 40 members, whose duties are limited to
attendance at State ceremonies.
GENTZ, FRIEDRICH VON, German politician and author, born at Breslau;
while in the Prussian civil service he warmly sympathised with the French
Revolution, but his zeal was greatly modified by perusal of Burke's
"Reflections," a treatise he subsequently translated, and in 1802 entered
the Austrian public service; in the capacity of a political writer he
bitterly opposed Napoleon, but for other purposes his pen and support
were at the service of the highest bidder; he was secretary at the
Congress of Vienna, and held a similar post in many of the subsequent
congresses (1764-1832).
GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, a celebrated chronicler and ecclesiastic of
the 12th century, born in Monmouth, where he was educated in a
Benedictine monastery; in 1152 he was made bishop of St. Asaph; his Latin
"Chronicon sive Historia Britonum" contains a circumstantial account of
British history compiled from Gildas, Nennius, and other early
chroniclers, interwoven with current legends and pieced together with
additions from his own fertile imagination, the whole professing to be a
translation of a chronicle found in Brittany; this remarkable history is
the source of the stories of King Lear, Cymbeline, Merlin, and of Arthur
and his knights as they have since taken shape in English literature;
_d_. about 1154.
GEOFFREY SAINT-HILAIRE, ÉTIENNE, zoologist and biologist, born at
Étampes; he was educated for the Church, but while studying theology at
Paris his love for natural science was awakened, and the study of it
henceforth became the ruling passion of his life; was made professor of
Zoology in the Museum of Natural History in Paris; accompanied Napoleon
to Egypt as a member of the scientific commission, and returned with rich
collections, while his labours were rewarded by his election to the
Academy of Sciences; a scientific mission to Portugal in 1808 next
engaged him, and a year later he was nominated to the chair of Zoology in
the Faculty of Sciences at Paris; the main object of his scientific
writing was to establish, in opposition to the theories of his friend
Cuvier, his conception of a grand unity of plan pervading the whole
organic kingdom (1772-1844).
GEOFFRIN, MARIE THÉRÈSE, a French patroness of letters, born at
Paris, the daughter of a _valet-de-chambre_; in her fifteenth year she
married a wealthy merchant, whose immense fortune she inherited; her love
of letters--which she cherished, though but poorly educated herself--and
her liberality soon made her _salon_ the most celebrated in Paris; the
_encyclopédists_, Diderot, D'Alembert, and Marmontel, received from her a
liberal encouragement in their great undertaking; Walpole, Hume, and
Gibbon were among her friends; and Stanislas Poniatowsky, who became king
of Poland, acknowledged her generosity to him by styling himself her son
and welcoming her royally to his kingdom (1699-1777).
GEORGE I., king of Great Britain from 1714 to 1727, and first of the
Hanoverian line; son of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, and of
Sophia, granddaughter of James I. of England; born in Hanover; in 1682 he
married his cousin, the Princess Sophia Dorothea of Zell, and in 1698
became Elector of Hanover; he co-operated actively with Marlborough in
opposing the schemes of Louis XIV., and commanded the Imperial forces; in
accordance with the Act of Settlement, he succeeded to the English throne
on the death of Queen Anne; his ignorance of English prevented him taking
part in Cabinet councils, a circumstance which had important results in
the growth of constitutional government, and the management of public
affairs during his reign devolved chiefly upon Sir Robert Walpole; the
abortive Jacobite rising of 1715, the South Sea Bubble (1720), and the
institution of Septennial Parliaments (1716), are among the main events
of his reign; in 1694 he divorced his wife on account of an amour with
Count Königsmark, and kept her imprisoned abroad till her death in 1724,
while he himself during these years lived in open profligacy with his
mistresses (1660-1727).
GEORGE II., king of Great Britain from 1727 to 1760, and Elector of
Hanover, born in Hanover, son of preceding; in 1705 he married Caroline
of Anspach, and in 1714 was declared Prince of Wales; he joined his
father in the struggle with Louis XIV., and distinguished himself on the
side of the Allies at the battle of Oudenarde; the period of his reign is
one of considerable importance in English history; Walpole and
subsequently Pitt were the great ministers of the age; war was waged
against Spain and France; the last Jacobite rising was crushed at
Culloden (1746); English power was established in Canada by the brilliant
victory of Wolfe at Quebec (1759); an empire was won in India by Clive;
the victory of Minden (1759) was gained in the Seven Years' War;
Methodism sprang up under Wesley and Whitfield; while a great development
in literature and art took place; against these, however, must be set the
doubling of the National Debt, mainly due to the Seven Years' War, and a
defeat by the French at Fontenoy (1745) (1683-1760).
GEORGE III., king of Great Britain from 1760 to 1820, and king of
Hanover (Elector from 1760 to 1815), eldest son of Frederick Lewis,
Prince of Wales, and grandson of preceding, born in London; in 1761 he
married Princess Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, by whom he had
fifteen children; more English in sentiment and education than his two
predecessors, George's main interest was centred in his English kingdom,
and never during his long life did he once set foot in his Hanoverian
possessions; the purity of his domestic life, his devotion to England,
and the pathos attaching to his frequent fits of insanity, won him the
affections of his people, an affection, however, sorely tried by his
obstinate blundering; the 60 years of his reign present a succession of
domestic episodes, far-reaching in their consequences to England and to
the civilised world; the conclusion of the Seven Years' War left England
predominant in North America, and with increased colonial possessions in
the West Indies, &c., but under the ill-guided and obstinate policy of
Lord North she suffered the loss of her American colonies, an event which
also involved her in war with France and Spain; in 1787 the famous trial
of WARREN HASTINGS (q. v.) began, and two years later came the
French Revolution; the great struggle with Napoleon followed, and gave
occasion for the brilliant achievements of Nelson and Wellington; during
these long years of war the commercial prosperity of England never
slackened, but through the inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and
Compton increased by leaps and bounds; freedom of the press was won by
Wilkes; and in 1802 the union with Ireland took place; the majestic
figure of Pitt stands out amidst a company of brilliant politicians that
included Burke and Fox and Sheridan; literature is represented by a line
of brilliant writers that stretches from Johnson to Keats, and includes
the names of Burns, Cowper, Shelley, and Byron (1738-1820).
GEORGE IV., king of Great Britain and of Hanover from 1820 to 1830,
eldest son of the preceding, born in London; in consequence of his
father's insanity he became Regent in 1810; a tendency to profligacy
early displayed itself in an intrigue with Mrs. Robinson, an actress; and
two years afterwards in defiance of the Royal Marriage Act he secretly
married MRS. FITZHERBERT (q. v.), a Roman Catholic; in 1795 he
publicly espoused Princess Caroline of Brunswick, whom later he
endeavoured to divorce; a Burmese War (1823), the victory of Admiral
Codrington at Navarino (1827), the Repeal of the Test and Corporation
Acts (1828), and the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Bill (1829),
were occurrences of some importance in an uneventful reign (1762-1830).
GEORGE I., king of Greece, son of King Christian of Denmark, and
brother of the Princess of Wales; became king of Greece in 1864; _b_.
1845.
GEORGE, HENRY, an American writer on social and economic questions,
born in Philadelphia; he first tried life on the sea, but in 1858 settled
in California as a printer, and there married; in course of time he took
to journalism, became an editor, and zealously addressed himself to the
discussion of public affairs; his peculiar views on the question of land
reform were set forth in "Our Land and Land Policy," published in 1870,
and nine years later appeared his more famous and widely popular work
"Progress and Poverty," in which he promulgated the theory that to the
increase in economic rent and land values is due the lack of increase in
wages and interest which the increased productive power of modern times
should have ensured; he proposed the levying of a tax on land so as to
appropriate economic rent to public uses, and the abolition of all taxes
falling upon industry and thrift; he lectured in Great Britain and
Ireland, Australia, &c.; in 1887 founded the _Standard_ paper in New
York; he died during his candidature for the mayoralty of Greater New
York (1839-1897).
GEORGE, ST., the patron saint of chivalry and of England; adopted as
such in the reign of Edward III.; believed to have been born in Armorica,
and to have suffered martyrdom under Diocletian in A.D. 303; he is
represented as mounted on horseback and slaying a DRAGON (q. v.),
conceived as an incarnation of the evil one.
GEORGETOWN: 1 (53), capital of British Guiana, at the mouth of the
Demerara River; is the see of an Anglican bishop; is neatly laid out, and
has some handsome buildings, but is considered unhealthy; the staple
industries are sugar and coffee. 2 (14), a port of entry in the District
of Columbia, on the Potomac, 2 m. NW. of Washington; is a terminus of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
GEORGIA: 1 (1,837), one of the 13 original States of the American
Union, lies to the S., fronting the Atlantic between Florida and S.
Carolina; is divided into 136 counties, Atlanta being the capital and
Savannah the chief port; it is well watered with rivers; is low and
swampy for some miles inland, but it rises into plateaux in the interior,
and the Appalachians and Blue Mountains intersect it in the NW.;
excellent crops of wheat and fruit are grown among the hills, rice in the
lowlands, while immense quantities of cotton are raised on the islands
skirting the coast; the vast forests of pitch-pine supply an increasing
lumber trade; the mountain lands are rich in minerals; the State was
named after George II. in 1733 by the founder, James Oglethorpe. 2, The
former name of an independent kingdom, which extended along the southern
slopes of the Caucasus, and which, since the beginning of the century,
has belonged to Russia under the name of Gruzia, and now forms the
central portion of Russian Transcaucasia; the Georgians number at present
about a million; they are a people of splendid physique, whose history
reaches back to the time of Alexander the Great, and who attained their
zenith in the 12th century; subsequently they suffered from Persian and
Turkish invasion, and eventually, as we have said, fell into the hands of
Russia; at present there is a Georgian literature growing, especially in
Tiflis, if that is any sign of advance.
GERA (30), a thriving city on the White Elster, 35 m. SW. of
Leipzig; has broad streets and fine buildings, with a castle; chief
manufactures woollen.
GERAINT, SIR, one of the Knights of the Round Table, the husband of
Enid, whose fidelity he for a time distrusted, but who proved herself a
true wife by the care with which she nursed him when he was wounded.
GÉRARD, ÉTIENNE MAURICE, COMTE, marshal of France, born at
Damvillers, Lorraine; in 1791 he entered the army and fought under
Bernadotte in various campaigns; at Austerlitz he won his brigade, and
subsequently fought at Jena, Erfurt, and Wagram; he joined Napoleon after
his flight from Elba, and was wounded at Wavre; on the downfall of the
Emperor he quitted France, but returned in 1817; in 1822 he was elected
to the Chamber of Deputies, and in 1831 assisted in driving the Dutch out
of Flanders; he was War Minister under Louis Philippe (1773-1855).
GÉRARD, FRANÇOIS PASCAL SIMON, BARON, painter, born at Rome, of
French and Italian parentage; came to Paris when a youth, where he
studied painting under David; in 1795 his "Blind Belisarius" brought him
to the front, whilst subsequent work as a portrait-painter raised him
above all his contemporaries; his masterpiece, "Entry of Henri IV. into
Paris," brought him a barony at the hands of Louis XVIII.; his historical
paintings, characterised by minute accuracy of detail, include "Napoleon
in his Coronation Robes," "Battle of Austerlitz," &c. (1770-1837).
GERHARDT, KARL FRIEDRICH, chemist, born at Strasburg; after a
training at Carlsruhe and Leipzig, worked in Liebig's laboratory at
Giessen; in 1838 he began lecturing in Paris, and made experiments along
with Cahours on essential oils, which bore fruit in an important
treatise; in 1844 he received the chair of Chemistry at Montpellier, but
returned to Paris four years later; there he matured and published his
theories of types, homologous series, &c., which have greatly influenced
the science of chemistry; in 1855 he became professor of Chemistry in
Strasburg (1816-1856).
GERHARDT, PAUL, a celebrated German hymn-writer of the Lutheran
Church, born at Gräfenhainichen, in Saxony; in 1657 he became dean of St.
Nicholas in Berlin, an appointment he held till 1666, when he was deposed
for his embittered opposition to the union of the Lutheran and Reformed
Churches; he was subsequently pastor at Lübben; his hymns, 123 in number,
rank amongst the finest of their class (1607-1676).
GERIZZIM, a mountain of 2848 ft. in height in the S. of the valley
of Shechem, opposite EBAL (q. v.), and from the slopes of which
the blessings were responded to by half the tribes of Israel on their
arrival in Canaan (Josh. viii. 30-35); the Samaritans erected a temple on
this mountain, ruins of which still remain.
GERM THEORY, the doctrine that certain diseases are due to
fermentation caused by the presence of germs in the system in the form of
minute organisms called bacteria.
GERMAN CATHOLICS, a sect formed in 1844 by secession from the
Catholic Church of Germany, under the leadership of Johann Ronge, on
account of the mummery under papal patronage connected with the
exhibition of the Holy Coat of Trèves and the superstitious influence
ascribed to it.
GERMAN VOLTAIRE, name given sometimes to Wieland and sometimes, but
less appropriately, to Goethe.
GERMANICUS, CÆSAR, Roman general, son of Nero Claudius Drusus and
Antonia, daughter of Mark Antony; he served with distinction under his
uncle Tiberius in Dalmatia and Pannonia; was awarded a triumph, and in
A.D. 12 was elected consul; his success and popularity as leader of the
army on the Rhine provoked the jealousy of Tiberius, who transferred him
to the East, where he subsequently died; his son Caligula succeeded
Tiberius on the imperial throne (15 B.C.-A.D. 19).
GERMANY (49,428), constituted an empire in 1871, occupies a
commanding position in Central Europe, and stretches from Switzerland in
the S. to the German Ocean and Baltic Sea on the N.; Austria lies to the
SE., Russia to the NE., while France, Belgium, and the Netherlands flank
the W.; is made up of 26 States of widely varying size and importance,
comprising four kingdoms (of which Prussia is by far the largest and most
influential), six grand-duchies, five duchies, seven principalities,
three free towns (Lübeck, Bremen, Hamburg), and one imperial province,
Alsace-Lorraine; the main physical divisions are (1) the great lowland
plain stretching from the centre to the Baltic and North Sea, well
watered by the Ems, Weser, Elbe, Oder, Vistula, and their tributaries, in
which, bating large sandy tracts, agriculture employs a large class, and
cereals, tobacco, and beetroot are raised; (2) the mountainous district,
in the interior of which the Fichtelgebirge is the central knot, in which
vast forests abound, and rich deposits of coal, fire-clays, iron, and
other metals are worked, giving rise to iron-works and potteries; (3) the
basin of the Rhine, on the W., where the vine is largely cultivated, and
extensive manufactures of silks, cottons, and hardware are carried on;
fine porcelain comes from Saxony and vast quantities of beer from
Bavaria; Westphalia is the centre of the steel and iron works; throughout
Germany there are 26,000 m. of railway line (chiefly State railways),
57,000 m. of telegraph line, while excellent roads, canals, and navigable
rivers facilitate communication; 65 per cent. of the people are
Protestants; education is compulsory and more highly developed than in
any other European country; the energies of the increasing population
have in recent years found scope for their action in their growing
colonial possessions; the military system imposes upon every German a
term of seven years' service, three in active service, and the remainder
in the reserve, and till his forty-sixth year he is liable to be called
out on any great emergency; under the emperor the government is carried
on by a _Federal Council_, the members of which are appointed by the
governments of the various estates, and the _Reichstag_, elected by
universal suffrage and ballot for three years.
GÉRÔME, LÉON, a celebrated French painter, born at Vésoul; he
studied at Paris under Paul Delaroche, with whom he subsequently
travelled in Italy; he travelled in the East and familiarised himself
with Eastern scenes; in 1863 he was appointed professor of Painting in
the Paris School of Fine Arts; among his most famous pictures, all
characterised by vivid colouring and strong dramatic effect, are "The Age
of Augustus and the Birth of Christ," "Roman Gladiators in the
Amphitheatre," "Cleopatra and Cæsar," &c.; _b_. 1824.
GERRY, ELBRIDGE, American statesman, born in Marblehead, Mass.; in
1773, eight years after graduating at Harvard, he was elected to the
Massachusetts Assembly, and in 1789 to the first National Congress; as
envoy to France in 1797 he assisted in establishing diplomatic relations
with that country, and after his recall in 1810 was chosen governor of
his native State; during his tenancy of this office, by an unfair
redistribution of the electoral districts in the State he gave undue
advantage to his own political party, a proceeding which led to the
coining of the word "gerrymandering"; subsequently he held office as
Vice-President of the Republic (1744-1814).
GERSON, JOHN CHARLIER DE, an eminent ecclesiastical scholar, born at
Gerson, in the diocese of Rheims; in 1395 he became chancellor of his old
university at Paris, and earned in that office a high reputation for
learning, becoming known as Doctor Christianissimus; he was a prominent
member of the councils of Pisa and Constance, advocating, as a remedy for
the Western Schism, the resignation of the rival Popes; in consequence of
his denunciation of the Duke of Burgundy for the murder of the Duke of
Orleans he was forced to become a refugee in Germany for some time, but
finally retired into the monastery of Lyons; his various works reveal an
intellect of keen intelligence, but somewhat tinged with a cloudy
mysticism (1363-1429).
GERSTÄCKER, FRIEDRICH, German author and traveller, born in Hamburg;
when 21 he emigrated to New York, and for six years led a wandering life
in different parts of America, working the while now at one occupation
now at another, a narrative of which he published on his return to
Germany; in 1849 he undertook a journey round the world which occupied
him three years; in 1860-61 he crossed S. America; in 1862 he was in
Africa with Duke Ernst of Gotha, and in 1863 in Central America; his many
writings, descriptive of these countries, exhibit a fresh and graphic
style, and have had a wide popularity; he is the author also of several
thrilling stories (1816-1872).
GERVASE OF TILBURY, a mediæval historical writer, born at Tilbury,
in Essex; said to have been a nephew of King Henry II.; he held a
lectureship in Canon Law at Bologna, and through the influence of Emperor
Otto IV. was made marshal of the kingdom of Arles; he was the author of
"Otia Imperiala," a historical and geographical work; _d_. about 1235.
GERVINUS, GEORG GOTTFRIED, German historian and Shakespearian
critic, born at Darmstadt; he was elected to the chair of History at
Göttingen in 1836, an appointment which was cancelled the following year
by his signing the protest against the abolition of the Hanoverian
constitution; in 1844 he was appointed honorary professor at Heidelberg,
and subsequently contributed greatly to the establishment of
constitutional liberty in Germany by means of his writings and by
founding the _Deutsche Zeitung_ there; in 1848 he became a member of the
National Assembly, but shortly afterwards withdrew, disgusted with the
course things were taking; he now engaged in literary studies, the fruit
of which appeared in his celebrated volumes of Shakespearian criticism
(1805-1871).
GERYON, a king of Erytheia (i. e. red island), on the western
borders of the world, with three bodies and three heads, who had a herd
of oxen guarded by a giant shepherd and his dog, the two-throated
Orthros, which were carried off by Hercules at the behest of his fate.
GESENIUS, an eminent German Hebraist and Biblical scholar, born in
Prussian Saxony, whose labours form an epoch in the study of the Hebrew
Scriptures; was 30 years professor of the language in Halle; produced a
Hebrew Grammar and Lexicon, and commentary on Isaiah on rationalistic
lines (1785-1842).
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 naïve 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.
GFRÖRER, 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).
GHÂTS, 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 Tûs, 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 Staël; 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 entrepôt 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 Königsberg and at Münich; 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 Göttingen; 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 "Mæviad"; 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° and
177° 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
Esdraëlon, 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, née 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 Britanniæ," 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, ÉMILE 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
Liberté_ (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, FRANÇOIS SAINT-MARC, a French professor and littérateur,
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 Débats_ 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-Inférieure 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 £35 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 _nevé_ 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 "Faërie 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.
GLÜCK, 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 Händel, 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 "Iphigénie 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 Ghâts 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.
Ghâts, 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 Neuchâtel; 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).