[1] The first part of the word has been usually treated as an
etymological corruption either of this Dutch word or the allied Ger.
_Krausbeere_, or of the earlier forms of the Fr. _groseille_. The
_New English Dictionary_ takes the obvious derivation from "goose"
and "berry" as probable; "the grounds on which plants and fruits have
received names associating them with animals are so commonly
inexplicable, that the want of appropriateness in the meaning affords
no sufficient ground for assuming that the word is an etymologizing
corruption." Skeat (_Etym. Dict._, 1898) connects the French, Dutch
and German words, and finds the origin in the M.H.G. _krus_, curling,
crisped, applied here to the hairs on the fruit. The French word was
latinized as _grossularia_ and confused with _groseus_, thick, fat.
GOOTY, a town and hill fortress in southern India, in the Anantapur
district of Madras, 48 m. E. of Bellary. Pop. (1901) 9682. The town is
surrounded by a circle of rocky hills, connected by a wall. On the
highest of these stands the citadel, 2100 ft. above sea-level and 1000
ft. above the surrounding country. Here was the stronghold of Morari Rao
Ghorpade, a famous Mahratta warrior and ally of the English, who was
ultimately starved into surrender by Hayder Ali in 1775.
GOPHER (_Testudo polyphemus_), the only living representative on the
North American continent of the genus _Testudo_ of the family
_Testudinidae_ or land tortoises; it occurs in the south-eastern parts
of the United States, from Florida in the south to the river Savannah in
the north. Its carapace, which is oblong and remarkably compressed,
measures from 12-18 in. in extreme length, the shields which cover it
being grooved, and of a yellow-brown colour. It is characterized by the
shape of the front lobe of the plastron, which is bent upwards and
extends beyond the carapace. The gopher abounds chiefly in the forests,
but occasionally visits the open plains, where it does great damage,
especially to the potato crops, on which it feeds. It is a nocturnal
animal, remaining concealed by day in its deep burrow, and coming forth
at night to feed. The eggs, five in number, almost round and 1-1/2 in.
in diameter, are laid in a separate cavity near the entrance. The flesh
of the gopher or mungofa, as it is also called, is considered excellent
eating.
The name "gopher" is more commonly applied to certain small rodent
mammals, particularly the pocket-gopher.
GOPPINGEN, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Wurttemberg, on the
right bank of the Fils, 22 m. E.S.E. of Stuttgart on the railway to
Friedrichshafen. Pop. (1905) 20,870. It possesses a castle built, partly
with stones from the ruined castle of Hohenstaufen, by Duke Christopher
of Wurttemberg in the 16th century and now used as public offices, two
Evangelical churches, a Roman Catholic church, a synagogue, a classical
school, and a modern school. The manufactures are considerable and
include linen and woollen cloth, leather, glue, paper and toys. There
are machine shops and tanneries in the town. Three m. N. of the town are
the ruins of the castle of Hohenstaufen. Goppingen originally belonged
to the house of Hohenstaufen, and in 1270 came into possession of the
counts of Wurttemberg. It was surrounded by walls in 1129, and was
almost entirely rebuilt after a fire in 1782.
See Pfeiffer, _Beschreibung und Geschichte der Stadt Goppingen_
(1885).
GORAKHPUR, a city, district and division of the United Provinces of
British India. The city is situated on the left bank of the river Rapti.
Pop. (1901) 64,148. It is believed to have been founded about 1400 A.D.
It is the civil headquarters of the district and was formerly a military
cantonment. It consists of a number of adjacent village sites, sometimes
separated by cultivated land, and most of the inhabitants are
agriculturists.
The DISTRICT OF GORAKHPUR has an area of 4535 sq. m. It lies immediately
south of the lower Himalayan slopes, but itself forms a portion of the
great alluvial plain. Only a few sandhills break the monotony of its
level surface, which is, however, intersected by numerous rivers studded
with lakes and marshes. In the north and centre dense forests abound,
and the whole country has a verdant appearance. The principal rivers are
the Rapti, the Gogra, the Gandak and Little Gandak, the Kuana, the
Rohin, the Ami and the Gunghi. Tigers are found in the north, and many
other wild animals abound throughout the district. The lakes are well
stocked with fish. The district is not subject to very intense heat,
from which it is secured by its vicinity to the hills and the moisture
of its soil. Dust-storms are rare, and cool breezes from the north,
rushing down the gorges of the Himalayas, succeed each short interval of
warm weather. The climate is, however, relaxing. The southern and
eastern portions are as healthy as most parts of the province, but the
_tarai_ and forest-tracts are still subject to malaria.
Gautama Buddha, the founder of the religion bearing his name, was born,
and died near the boundaries of the district. From the beginning of the
6th century the country was the scene of a continuous struggle between
the Bhars and their Aryan antagonists, the Rathors. About 900 the
Domhatars or military Brahmans appeared, and expelled the Rathors from
the town of Gorakhpur, but they also were soon driven back by other
invaders. During the 15th and 16th centuries, after the district had
been desolated by incessant war, the descendants of the various
conquerors held parts of the territory, and each seems to have lived
quite isolated, as no bridges or roads attest any intercourse with each
other. Towards the end of the 16th century Mussulmans occupied Gorakhpur
town, but they interfered very little with the district, and allowed it
to be controlled by the native rajas. In the middle of the 18th century
a formidable foe, the Banjaras from the west, so weakened the power of
the rajas that they could not resist the fiscal exactions of the Oudh
officials, who plundered the country to a great extent. The district
formed part of the territory ceded by Oudh to the British under the
treaty of 1801. During the Mutiny it was lost for a short time, but
under the friendly Gurkhas the rebels were driven out. The population in
1901 was 2,957,074, showing a decrease of 3% in the decade. The district
is traversed by the main line and several branches of the Bengal &
North-Western railway, and the Gandak, the Gogra and the Rapti are
navigable.
The DIVISION has an area of 9534 sq. m. The population in 1901 was
6,333,012, giving an average density of 664 persons per sq. m., being
more than one to every acre, and the highest for any large tract in
India.
GORAL, the native name of a small Himalayan rough-haired and
cylindrical-horned ruminant classed in the same group as the chamois.
Scientifically this animal is known as _Urotragus_ (or _Cemas_) _goral_;
and the native name is now employed as the designation of all the other
members of the same genus. In addition to certain peculiarities in the
form of the skull, gorals are chiefly distinguished from serows (q.v.)
by not possessing a gland below the eye, nor a corresponding depression
in the skull. Several species are known, ranging from the Himalaya to
Burma, Tibet and North China. Of these, the two Himalayan gorals (_U.
goral_ and _U. bedfordi_) are usually found in small parties, but less
commonly in pairs. They generally frequent grassy hills, or rocky ground
clothed with forest; in fine weather feeding only in the mornings and
evenings, but when the sky is cloudy grazing throughout the day.
GORAMY, or GOURAMY (_Osphromenus olfax_), reputed to be one of the
best-flavoured freshwater fishes in the East Indian archipelago. Its
original home is Java, Sumatra, Borneo and several other East Indian
islands, but thence it has been transported to and acclimatized in
Penang, Malacca, Mauritius and even Cayenne. Being an almost omnivorous
fish and tenacious of life, it seems to recommend itself particularly
for acclimatization in other tropical countries; and specimens kept in
captivity become as tame as carps. It attains the size of a large
turbot. Its shape is flat and short, the body covered with large scales;
the dorsal and anal fins are provided with numerous spines, and the
ventral fins produced into long filaments. Like _Anabas_, the climbing
perch, it possesses a suprabranchial accessory respiratory organ.
[Illustration: Goramy.]
GORBERSDORF, a village and climatic health resort of Germany, in the
Prussian province of Silesia, romantically situated in a deep and
well-wooded valley of the Waldenburg range, 1900 ft. above the sea, 60
m. S.W. of Breslau by the railway to Friedland and 3 m. from the
Austrian frontier. Pop. 700. It has four large sanatoria for
consumptives, the earliest of which was founded in 1854 by Hermann
Brehmer (1826-1889).
GORBODUC, a mythical king of Britain. He gave his kingdom away during
his lifetime to his two sons, Ferrex and Porrex. The two quarrelled and
the younger stabbed the elder. Their mother, loving the latter most,
avenged his death by murdering her son, and the people, horrified at her
act, revolted and murdered both her and King Gorboduc. This legend was
the subject of the earliest regular English tragedy which in 1561 was
played before Queen Elizabeth in the Inner Temple hall. It was written
by Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst and Thomas Norton in collaboration.
Under the title of _Gorboduc_ it was published first very corruptly in
1565, and in better form as _The Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex_ in 1570.
GORCHAKOV, or GORTCHAKOFF, a noble Russian family, descended from
Michael Vsevolodovich, prince of Chernigov, who, in 1246, was
assassinated by the Mongols. PRINCE ANDREY IVANOVICH (1768-1855),
general in the Russian army, took a conspicuous part in the final
campaigns against Napoleon. ALEXANDER IVANOVICH (1769-1825) served with
distinction under his relative Suvarov in the Turkish Wars, and took
part as a general officer in the Italian and Swiss operations of 1799,
and in the war against Napoleon in Poland in 1806-1807 (battle of
Heilsberg). PETR DMITRIEVICH (1790-1868) served under Kamenski and
Kutusov in the campaign against Turkey, and afterwards against France in
1813-1814. In 1820 he suppressed an insurrection in the Caucasus, for
which service he was raised to the rank of major-general. In 1828-1829
he fought under Wittgenstein against the Turks, won an action at Aidos,
and signed the treaty of peace at Adrianople. In 1839 he was made
governor of Eastern Siberia, and in 1851 retired into private life. When
the Crimean War broke out he offered his services to the emperor
Nicholas, by whom he was appointed general of the VI. army corps in the
Crimea. He commanded the corps in the battles of Alma and Inkerman. He
retired in 1855 and died at Moscow, on the 18th of March 1868.
PRINCE MIKHAIL DMITRIEVICH (1795-1861), brother of the last named,
entered the Russian army in 1807 and took part in the campaigns against
Persia in 1810, and in 1812-1815 against France. During the
Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829 he was present at the sieges of Silistria
and Shumla. After being appointed, in 1830, a general officer, he was
present in the campaign in Poland, and was wounded at the battle of
Grochow, on the 25th of February 1831. He also distinguished himself at
the battle of Ostrolenka and at the taking of Warsaw. For these services
he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. In 1846 he was
nominated military governor of Warsaw. In 1849 he commanded the Russian
artillery in the war against the Hungarians, and in 1852 he visited
London as a representative of the Russian army at the funeral of the
duke of Wellington. At this time he was chief of the staff of the
Russian army and adjutant-general to the tsar. Upon Russia declaring war
against Turkey in 1853, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the
troops which occupied Moldavia and Wallachia. In 1854 he crossed the
Danube and besieged Silistria, but was superseded in April by Prince
Paskevich, who, however, resigned on the 8th of June, when Gorchakov
resumed the command. In July the siege of Silistria was raised, and the
Russian armies recrossed the Danube; in August they withdrew to Russia.
In 1855 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian forces in the
Crimea in place of Prince Menshikov. Gorchakov's defence of Sevastopol,
and final retreat to the northern part of the town, which he continued
to defend till peace was signed in Paris, were conducted with skill and
energy. In 1856 he was appointed governor-general of Poland in
succession to Prince Paskevich. He died at Warsaw on the 30th of May
1861, and was buried, in accordance with his own wish, at Sevastopol.
PRINCE GORCHAKOV, ALEXANDER MIKHAILOVICH (1798-1883). Russian statesman,
cousin of Princes Petr and Mikhail Gorchakov, was born on the 16th of
July 1798, and was educated at the lyceum of Tsarskoye Selo, where he
had the poet Pushkin as a school-fellow. He became a good classical
scholar, and learnt to speak and write in French with facility and
elegance. Pushkin in one of his poems described young Gorchakov as
"Fortune's favoured son," and predicted his success. On leaving the
lyceum Gorchakov entered the foreign office under Count Nesselrode. His
first diplomatic work of importance was the negotiation of a marriage
between the grand duchess Olga and the crown prince Charles of
Wurttemberg. He remained at Stuttgart for some years as Russian minister
and confidential adviser of the crown princess. He foretold the outbreak
of the revolutionary spirit in Germany and Austria, and was credited
with counselling the abdication of Ferdinand in favour of Francis
Joseph. When the German confederation was re-established in 1850 in
place of the parliament of Frankfort, Gorchakov was appointed Russian
minister to the diet. It was here that he first met Prince Bismarck,
with whom he formed a friendship which was afterwards renewed at St
Petersburg. The emperor Nicholas found that his ambassador at Vienna,
Baron Meyendorff, was not a sympathetic instrument for carrying out his
schemes in the East. He therefore transferred Gorchakov to Vienna, where
the latter remained through the critical period of the Crimean War.
Gorchakov perceived that Russian designs against Turkey, supported by
Great Britain and France, were impracticable, and he counselled Russia
to make no more useless sacrifices, but to accept the bases of a
pacification. At the same time, although he attended the Paris
conference of 1856, he purposely abstained from affixing his signature
to the treaty of peace after that of Count Orlov, Russia's chief
representative. For the time, however, he made a virtue of necessity,
and Alexander II., recognizing the wisdom and courage which Gorchakov
had exhibited, appointed him minister of foreign affairs in place of
Count Nesselrode. Not long after his accession to office Gorchakov
issued a circular to the foreign powers, in which he announced that
Russia proposed, for internal reasons, to keep herself as free as
possible from complications abroad, and he added the now historic
phrase, "_La Russie ne boude pas; elle se recueille_." During the Polish
insurrection Gorchakov rebuffed the suggestions of Great Britain,
Austria and France for assuaging the severities employed in quelling it,
and he was especially acrid in his replies to Earl Russell's despatches.
In July 1863 Gorchakov was appointed chancellor of the Russian empire
expressly in reward for his bold diplomatic attitude towards an
indignant Europe. The appointment was hailed with enthusiasm in Russia,
and at that juncture Prince Chancellor Gorchakov was unquestionably the
most powerful minister in Europe.
An _approchement_ now began between the courts of Russia and Prussia;
and in 1863 Gorchakov smoothed the way for the occupation of Holstein by
the Federal troops. This seemed equally favourable to Austria and
Prussia, but it was the latter power which gained all the substantial
advantages; and when the conflict arose between Austria and Prussia in
1866, Russia remained neutral and permitted Prussia to reap the fruits
and establish her supremacy in Germany. When the Franco-German War of
1870-71 broke out Russia answered for the neutrality of Austria. An
attempt was made to form an anti-Prussian coalition, but it failed in
consequence of the cordial understanding between the German and Russian
chancellors. In return for Russia's service in preventing the aid of
Austria from being given to France, Gorchakov looked to Bismarck for
diplomatic support in the Eastern Question, and he received an
instalment of the expected support when he successfully denounced the
Black Sea clauses of the treaty of Paris. This was justly regarded by
him as an important service to his country and one of the triumphs of
his career, and he hoped to obtain further successes with the assistance
of Germany, but the cordial relations between the cabinets of St
Petersburg and Berlin did not subsist much longer. In 1875 Bismarck was
suspected of a design of again attacking France, and Gorchakov gave him
to understand, in a way which was not meant to be offensive, but which
roused the German chancellor's indignation, that Russia would oppose any
such scheme. The tension thus produced between the two statesmen was
increased by the political complications of 1875-1878 in south-eastern
Europe, which began with the Herzegovinian insurrection and culminated
at the Berlin congress. Gorchakov hoped to utilize the complications in
such a way as to recover, without war, the portion of Bessarabia ceded
by the treaty of Paris, but he soon lost control of events, and the
Slavophil agitation produced the Russo-Turkish campaign of 1877-78. By
the preliminary peace of San Stefano the Slavophil aspirations seemed to
be realized, but the stipulations of that peace were considerably
modified by the congress of Berlin (13th June to 13th July 1878), at
which the aged chancellor held nominally the post of first
plenipotentiary, but left to the second plenipotentiary, Count Shuvalov,
not only the task of defending Russian interests, but also the
responsibility and odium for the concessions which Russia had to make to
Great Britain and Austria. He had the satisfaction of seeing the lost
portion of Bessarabia restored to his country by the Berlin treaty, but
at the cost of greater sacrifices than he anticipated. After the
congress he continued to hold the post of minister for foreign affairs,
but lived chiefly abroad, and resigned formally in 1882, when he was
succeeded by M. de Giers. He died at Baden-Baden on the 11th of March
1883. Prince Gorchakov devoted himself entirely to foreign affairs, and
took no part in the great internal reforms of Alexander II.'s reign. As
a diplomatist he displayed many brilliant qualities--adroitness in
negotiation, incisiveness in argument and elegance in style. His
statesmanship, though marred occasionally by personal vanity and love of
popular applause, was far-seeing and prudent. In the latter part of his
career his main object was to raise the prestige of Russia by undoing
the results of the Crimean War, and it may fairly be said that he in
great measure succeeded. (D. M. W.)
GORDIAN, or GORDIANUS, the name of three Roman emperors. The first,
Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus Romanus Africanus (A.D. 159-238),
an extremely wealthy man, was descended from the Gracchi and Trajan,
while his wife was the great-granddaughter of Antoninus Pius. While he
gained unbounded popularity by his magnificent games and shows, his
prudent and retired life did not excite the suspicion of Caracalla, in
whose honour he wrote a long epic called _Antoninias_. Alexander Severus
called him to the dangerous honours of government in Africa, and during
his proconsulship occurred the usurpation of Maximin. The universal
discontent roused by the oppressive rule of Maximin culminated in a
revolt in Africa in 238, and Gordian reluctantly yielded to the popular
clamour and assumed the purple. His son, Marcus Antonius Gordianus
(192-238), was associated with him in the dignity. The senate confirmed
the choice of the Africans, and most of the provinces gladly sided with
the new emperors; but, even while their cause was so successful abroad,
they had fallen before the sudden inroad of Cappellianus, legatus of
Numidia and a supporter of Maximin. They had reigned only thirty-six
days. Both the Gordians had deserved by their amiable character their
high reputation; they were men of great accomplishments, fond of
literature, and voluminous authors; but they were rather intellectual
voluptuaries than able statesmen or powerful rulers. Having embraced the
cause of Gordian, the senate was obliged to continue the revolt against
Maximin, and appointed Pupienus Maximus and Caelius Balbinus, two of its
noblest and most esteemed members, as joint emperors. At their
inauguration a sedition arose, and the popular outcry for a Gordian was
appeased by the association with them of M. Antonius Gordianus Pius
(224-244), grandson of the elder Gordian, then a boy of thirteen.
Maximin forthwith invaded Italy, but was murdered by his own troops
while besieging Aquileia, and a revolt of the praetorian guards, to
which Pupienus and Balbinus fell victims, left Gordian sole emperor. For
some time he was under the control of his mother's eunuchs, till
Timesitheus,[1] his father-in-law and praefect of the praetorian guard,
persuaded him to assert his independence. When the Persians under Shapur
(Sapor) I. invaded Mesopotamia, the young emperor opened the temple of
Janus for the last time recorded in history, and marched in person to
the East. The Persians were driven back over the Euphrates and defeated
in the battle of Resaena (243), and only the death of Timesitheus (under
suspicious circumstances) prevented an advance into the enemy's
territory. Philip the Arabian, who succeeded Timesitheus, stirred up
discontent in the army, and Gordian was murdered by the mutinous
soldiers in Mesopotamia.
See lives of the Gordians by Capitolinus in the _Scriptores historiae
Augustae_; Herodian vii. viii.; Zosimus i. 16, 18; Ammianus
Marcellinus, xxiii. 5; Eutropius ix. 2; Aurelius Victor, _Caesares_,
27; article SHAPUR (I.); Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie_, i. 2619 f.
(von Rohden).