Part 226 (1/2)
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.