The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 226

GROVE, SIR GEORGE, born at Clapham; trained as a civil engineer, and a.s.sisted Robert Stephenson in constructing the Britannia tubular bridge; in 1849 he became secretary to the Society of Arts, a position he held till 1852, when he became secretary and director of the Crystal Palace Company; subsequently he was editor of _Macmillan's Magazine_, a contributor to Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," and is best known for the "Dictionary of Music and Musicians" which he edited and partly wrote; was knighted in 1883; _b_. 1820.

GROVE. SIR WILLIAM ROBERT, lawyer and physicist, burn at Swansea; called to the bar; was made a judge in 1871, and knighted a year later, and from 1875 to 1887 he was one of the judges in the High Court of Justice; throughout his life he busied himself in optical and electrical research; in 1839 invented the electric battery named after him, and from 1840 to 1847 lectured on Natural Science in the London Inst.i.tution; in 1866 he was President of the British a.s.sociation; his scientific publications are various, and are important contributions to their subjects (1811-1896).

GRUB STREET, a street in London near Moorfields, formerly inhabited by a needy cla.s.s of jobbing literary men, and the birthplace of inferior literary productions.

GRUNDTVIG, NIKOLAI FREDERIK SEVERIN, Danish poet and theologian, born in Zealand; was early smitten with a pa.s.sion for the old Saga literature of the North, and published in 1808 "Northern Mythology,"

which was followed by other works of a similar nature, patriotic songs, and a translation of "Beowulf"; he entered the Church as a curate in 1811; engaged in ardent controversy with the rationalists; became leader of a Church reform party, the Grundtvigians; was for seven years suspended from preaching, and eventually rose to be a bishop in Copenhagen, but had no see (1783-1872).

GRUNDY, MRS., an old lady referred to in Thomas Morgan's comedy of "Speed the Plough," personifying the often affected extreme offence taken by people of the old school at what they consider violations of propriety.

GRUYeRE, a small town in FREIBURG (q. v.), where whole-milk cheese is made.

GUACHO, a native of the South American pampas.

GUADALQUIVIR, the most important river of Spain, rises in the Sierra de Cazorla, in the southern province of Jaen, and flows in a SW.

direction through Andalusia, pa.s.sing Cordova and Seville, to which town it is navigable for steamers; after a course of 374 m. it discharges into the Gulf of Cadiz at San Lucar de Barrameda.

GUADELOUPE (168), a French island among the Lesser Antilles, in the W. Indies; is subject to earthquakes; produces sugar and coffee; has belonged to France since 1816.

GUADIANA, an important river of Spain, has its source in the E. of the plateau of Mancha, and for a short distance is known as the Zancara, flows in a westerly direction as far as Badajoz, where it bends to the S., then forms the border between Portugal and Spain for a short distance, bends into Alemtejo, and again, ere reaching the Gulf of Cadiz, divides the two countries; it is 510 m. long, of which only 42 are navigable.

GUANAJUATO (1,007), a central province of Mexico; is rich in minerals, especially silver, and mining is the chief occupation; but stock-raising is of some importance, and large cotton and woollen factories have of recent years been introduced. The capital, Guanajuato (52), is built on both sides of a deep ravine traversed by a das.h.i.+ng torrent; it is the centre of the mining industry.

GUATEMALA (1,510), a republic of Central America, fronting the Pacific on the W., between Mexico on the N., and San Salvador and Honduras on the S.; is for the most part mountainous, with intervening valleys of rich fertility, little explored; minerals are abundant, and gold and silver are worked, but the wealth of the country lies in its fertile soil, which produces abundance of coffee, sugar, cotton, tobacco, and fruits of all kinds; there is some manufacture of textiles, pottery, &c.; the want of good roads has hindered the development of the country; Roman Catholicism prevails, and the government is vested in a President and Council; its independence was proclaimed in 1839. The capital, Guatemala (85), stands on a plateau 72 m. NE. of its port, San Jose; there is a cathedral and an archbishop's palace, also electric light, and tramway conveyance.

GUAYAQUIL (45), the princ.i.p.al port of Ecuador, stands at the entrance of the river Guayaquil into the Gulf of Guayaquil; the foreign trade is centred here; there are sawmills and iron-works; coffee is by far the largest export; the town is badly laid out, and yellow fever is common.

GUBERNATIS, ANGELO DE, a distinguished Italian scholar, born at Turin; in 1863 he was appointed professor of Sanskrit at Florence; was for a time smitten with the anarchist ideas of Bakunin, whose daughter he married, and resigned his chair, but soon returned to his professional labours; in 1891 he became professor of Sanskrit at Rome; his numerous writings witness to his unceasing industry and versatility, and deal with Orientalism, mythology, archaeology, and general literature; his work "Zoological Mythology," published in English by Mr. Trubner, is not unknown to scholars among us; _b_. 1840.

GUDRUN, a heroine in an old German epic so called; betrothed to Herwig, king of Zealand, and carried off by Hochmut, king of Norway, a rejected suitor; preferred out of respect to her vow to serve as a menial in his mother's kitchen rather than be his wife; was rescued from durance by her brother and her betrothed, and being married to Herwig, pardoned the suitor that had stolen her from his embraces.

GUELDERLAND (523), a province of Holland, stretching from the Zuider Zee on the NW. to Prussia on the SE.; agriculture is the staple industry; the Rhine crosses it in the S.

GUELPHS, a political party in Italy, who from the 11th to the 14th centuries maintained, against the claims of the Emperors, the independence of Italy, and the supremacy of the Pope, in opposition to the GHIBELLINES (q. v.).

GUERICKE, OTTO VON, a German physicist, born at Magdeburg; experimented on air, and invented the air-pump (1602-1686).

GUERIN, MAURICE DE, a French poet, of n.o.ble birth; bred for the Church, but broke away from it; of a genius of marked promise, whose days were cut short by an early death; his works included a prose poem called the "Centaur" (1810-1838).

GUERIN, PIERRE, a French painter; treated cla.s.sical subjects in the cla.s.sical style (1774-1833)

GUERNSEY (35), the second in size of the CHANNEL ISLANDS (q. v.); fruit and vegetables are largely exported, and it is noted for a fine breed of cows; St. Peter's Port is the only town, and has an excellent harbour.

GUERRAZZI, FRANCESCO DOMENICO, an Italian patriot and author, born at Leghorn; was trained to the law, but took to literature and produced a number of brilliant political novels; after the flight of the Duke of Tuscany in 1849 he was proclaimed dictator of the duchy, although little in sympathy with the republican government, and on the restoration of the duke was imprisoned for three years and banished to Corsica; later he sat in the Turin Parliament from 1862 to 1865 (1804-1873).

GUESCLIN, BERTRAND DU. See DU GUESCLIN, BERTRAND.

GUEST, EDWIN, master of Caius College, Cambridge, antiquary; wrote only one book "History of English Rhythms," a work of great learning, but contributed papers of great value on the early history of England in learned journals (1800-1880).

GUEUX, "the Beggars," the name a.s.sumed by the n.o.bles and others in the Low Countries in the War of Independence against Philip II. of Spain; being called beggars in reproach by the court party, they adopted the name as well as the dress, wore a fox's tail for a plume and a platter for a brooch.

GUIANA, an extensive tract of country in the N. of S. America fronting the Atlantic, bordering on Venezuela on the W., and for the rest hemmed in by Brazil; it is divided into British, Dutch, and French Guiana, all fronting the sea; the physical characteristics of all three are practically the same; a fertile alluvial foresh.o.r.e, with upward-sloping savannahs and forests to the unexplored highlands, dense with luxuriant primeval forest; rivers numerous, climate humid and hot, with a plentiful rainfall; vegetation, fauna, &c., of the richest tropical nature; timber, balsams, medicinal barks, fruits, cane-sugar, rice, cereals, &c., are the chief products; also some gold. BRITISH GUIANA (278) is the most westerly, and borders on Venezuela; area, 88,650 sq. m., divided into Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo; GEORGETOWN (q. v.) is the capital. DUTCH GUIANA or Surinam (73) occupies the central position; area, 46,058 sq. m.; capital PARAMARIBO (q. v.). FRENCH GUIANA or Cayenne (30) lies to the E.; area, 31,000 sq. m; capital, CAYENNE (q. v.).

GUICCIARDINI, an Italian statesman and historian, born in Florence; studied law; became professor of Jurisprudence there; was a disciple of Macchiavelli; did service as a statesman in the Papal territories; took a leading part in the political changes of Florence; secured the restoration of the Medici to power, and on his retirement composed a "History of Italy during his Own Time," which he had all but completed when he died (1485-1540).

GUICHARD, KARL, a Prussian officer, born at Magdeburg; joined Frederick the Great at Breslau, "a solid staid man, of a culture unusual for a soldier; brought with him his book, 'Memoirs Militaires sur les Grecs et les Romans,' a solid account of the matter by the first man who ever understood both war and Greek; very welcome to Frederick, whom he took to very warmly; dubbed him Quintus Icilius, and had his name so entered as major on the army books; promoted at length to colonel, a rank he held till the end of the war" (1721-1775). See Carlyle's "Frederick."

GUICOWAR, the hereditary t.i.tle of the Mahratta princes who rule over BARODA (q. v.), in Gujarat, East India.

GUIDO ARETINUS, a Benedictine monk who flourished at Arezzo, in Italy, during the 11th century, the first to promote the theoretical study of music; he is credited, amongst other things, with the invention of counterpoint, and was the first to designate notes by means of alphabetical letters, and to establish the construction of the stave.

GUIDO RENI, Italian painter of the school of Bologna; best known by his masterpiece "Aurora and the Hours" at Rome, painted on a ceiling, and his unfinished "Nativity" at Naples (1575-1642).

GUIENNE (a corruption of Aquitania), an ancient province of SW.

France, now subdivided into the departments of Gironde, Dordogne, Lot, Aveyron, and embraces parts of Lot-et-Garonne and Tarn-et-Garonne.