Part 218 (1/2)
GLENROY, a narrow glen 14 m. long, in Inverness-s.h.i.+re, in the Lochaber district; Fort William lies 13 m. NE. of its SW. extremity; the Roy flows through the valley; the steep sides are remarkable for three regular and distinctly-formed shelves or terraces running parallel almost the entire distance of the glen, the heights on either side exactly corresponding; these are now regarded as the margins of a former loch which gradually sank as the barrier of glacial ice which dammed the waters up slowly melted.
GLOGAU (20), a town with a strong fortress in Silesia, on the Oder, 35 m. NW. of Liegnitz; is a place of manufacture; was brilliantly taken by Frederick the Great in the Silesian War on the 9th March 1741 by scalade, in one hour, at the very break of day.
GLOMMEN or STOR-ELV (i. e. Great River), the largest river in Norway; has its source in Lake Aursund, and, after a southward course of 350 m., broken by many falls, and for the most part unnavigable, discharges into the Skager Rack at Frederikstad.
GLORIANA, Queen Elizabeth, represented in her capacity as sovereign in Spenser's ”Faerie Queen.”
GLOUCESTER: 1 (39), the capital of Gloucesters.h.i.+re, 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 flouris.h.i.+ng commerce is favoured by fine docks and a ca.n.a.l; chemicals, soap, &c., are manufactured. 2 (25), a seaport of Ma.s.sachusetts, U.S., 30 m. NE. of Boston; is a favourite summer resort, an important fis.h.i.+ng-station, and has an excellent harbour; granite is hewn in large quant.i.ties 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.
GLOUCESTERs.h.i.+RE (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 princ.i.p.al rivers are the Wye, Severn, Lower and Upper Avon, and Thames; BRISTOL (q. v.) is the largest town.
GLuCK, 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 Handel, attained a loftier ideal, and returned to the Continent, where, especially at Vienna and Paris, he achieved his triumphs, becoming founder of a new era in operatic music; in Paris he had a rival in Piccini, and the public opinion was for a time divided, but the production by him of ”Iphigenie en Aulide” established his superiority, and he carried off the palm (1714-1787).
GNOMES, a set of imaginary beings misshapen in form and of diminutive size, viewed as inhabiting the interior of the earth and presiding over its secret treasures.
GNOSTICS, heretics, consisting of various sects that arose in the Apostolic age of Christianity, and that sought, agreeably to the philosophic opinions which they had severally embraced, to extract an esoteric meaning out of the letter of Scripture and the facts especially of the Gospel history, such as only those of superior speculative insight could appreciate; they set a higher value on Knowledge (_gnosis_, whence their name) than Faith; thus their understanding of Christianity was speculative, not spiritual, and their knowledge of it the result of thinking, not of life; like the Jews they denied the possibility of the Word becoming flesh and of a realisation of the infinite in the finite; indeed, Gnosticism was at once a speculative and a practical denial that Christ was G.o.d manifest in the flesh, and that partic.i.p.ation in Christianity was, as He presented it (John vi. 53), partic.i.p.ation in His flesh. See CHRISTIANITY.
GOA (495), a Portuguese possession in W. India, lying between the Western Ghats and the sea-coast, 250 m. SE. of Bombay; large quant.i.ties 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.
G.o.dAV'ARI, an important river of India, rises on the E. side of W.
Ghats, traverses in a SE. direction the entire Deccan, and forming a large delta, falls into the Bay of Bengal by seven mouths after a course of 900 m.; its mighty volume of water supplies irrigating and navigable ca.n.a.ls 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.
G.o.dET, FREDERICK, Swiss theologian, born at Neuchatel; became professor of Theology there; author of commentaries on St. John's and Luke's Gospels and on the Epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians, along with other works; _b_. 1812.
G.o.dFREY 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 t.i.tle to fame rests on the gallantry and devotion he displayed in the first Crusade, of which he was a princ.i.p.al 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).
G.o.dIVA, 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.
G.o.dOLPHIN, SYDNEY G.o.dOLPHIN, EARL OF, a celebrated English statesman and financier, born at G.o.dolphin 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 a.s.sumed 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).
G.o.dOY, 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 t.i.tle 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).