GOW, NEIL, a famous Scotch fiddler, born at Inver, near Dunkeld, of lowly origin; during his long life he enjoyed a wide popularity amongst the Scotch n.o.bility, his especial patron being the Duke of Atholl; Raeburn painted his portrait on several occasions; he composed over a hundred strathspeys, laments, &c., giving a fresh impulse and character to Scotch music, but his fame rests mainly on his violin playing (1727-1807).

GOWER, JOHN, an English poet, contemporary and friend of Chaucer, but of an older school; was the author of three works: "Speculum Meditantis," the "Thinker's Mirror," written in French, lost for long, but recovered lately; "Vox Clamantis," the "Voice of One Crying," written in Latin, an allegorising, moralising poem, "cataloguing the vice of the time," and suggested by the Wat Tyler insurrection, 1381; and "Confessio Amantis," "Confession of a Lover," written in English, treating of the course of love, the morals and metaphysics of it, ill.u.s.trated by a profusion of apposite tales; was appropriately called by Chaucer the "moral Grower"; his tomb is in St. Mary's, Southwark (1325-1408).

GOWKTHRAPPLE, a "pulpit-drumming" Covenanter preacher in "Waverley,"

described by Scott as in his own regard a "chosen vessel."

GOWRIE CONSPIRACY, a remarkable and much disputed episode in the reign of James VI. of Scotland; the story goes that Alexander Ruthven and his brother, the Earl of Gowrie, enticed the king to come to Gowrie House in Perth on the 5th August 1600 for the purpose of murdering or kidnapping him, and that in the scuffle Ruthven and Gowrie perished.

Historians have failed to trace any motive incriminating the brothers, while several good reasons have been brought to light why the king might have wished to get rid of them.

GOZO (17), an island in the Mediterranean which, together with Malta and Comino, forms a British crown colony; lies 4 m. NW. of Malta. Babato is the chief town.

GOZZI, COUNT CARLO, Italian dramatist, born at Venice; was 39 when his first dramatic piece, "Three Oranges," brought him prominently before the public; he followed up this success with a series of dramas designed to uphold the old methods of Italian dramatic art, and to resist the efforts of Goldoni and Chiari to introduce French models; these plays dealing with wonderful adventures and enchantments in the manner of Eastern tales ("dramatic fairy tales," he called them), enjoyed a wide popularity, and spread to Germany and France. Schiller translated "Turandot" (1722-1806).--His elder brother, COUNT GASPARO GOZZI, was an active litterateur; the author of various translations, essays on literature, besides editor of a couple of journals; was press censor in Venice for a time, and was in his later days engaged in school and university work (1713-1786).

GRACCHUS, CAIUS SEMp.r.o.nIUS, Roman tribune and reformer, brother of the succeeding, nine years his junior; devoted himself and his oratory on his brother's death to carry out his measures; was chosen tribune in 123 B.C., and re-elected in 122; his measures of reform were opposed and undone by the Senate, and being declared a public enemy he was driven to bay, his friends rallying round him in arms, when a combat took place in which 3000 fell, upon which Gracchus made his slave put him to death; "overthrown by the Patricians," he is said, "when struck with the fatal stab, to have flung dust toward heaven, and called on the avenging deities; and from this dust," says one, "there was born Marius--not so ill.u.s.trious for exterminating the Cimbri as for overturning in Rome the tyranny of the n.o.bles."

GRACCHUS, TIBERIUS SEMp.r.o.nIUS, Roman tribune and reformer, eldest son of Cornelia, and brought up by her; proposed, among others, a measure for the more equal distribution of the public land, which he had to battle for against heavy odds three successive times, but carried it the third time; was killed with others of his followers afterwards in a riot, and his body thrown into the Tiber and refused burial, 138 B.C., aged 40.

GRACE, the term in Scripture for that which is the free gift of G.o.d, unmerited by man and of eternal benefit to him.

GRACE, DR. W. G., the celebrated cricketer, born near Bristol; distinguished as a batsman, fielder, and bowler; earned the t.i.tle of champion, which was spontaneously and by universal consent conferred on him; has written on cricket; _b_. 1848.

GRACE CUP, a silver bowl with two handles pa.s.sed round the table after grace at all banquets in London City.

GRACES, THE, reckoned at one time two in number, but originally they appear to have been regarded as being, what at bottom they are, _one_. At last they are spoken of as _three_, and called Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia: Thalia, the blooming one, or life in full bloom; Euphrosyne, the cheerful one, or life in the exuberance of joy and sympathy; and Aglaia, the shining one, or life in its effulgence of sunny splendour and glory.

But these three are one, involved each in the other, and made perfect in one. There is not Thalia by herself, or Aglaia, but where one truly is, there, in the same being also, the other two are. They are three sisters, as such always inseparable, and in their inseparability alone are Graces.

Their secret is not learned from one, but from all three; and they give grace only with fulness, buoyancy, and radiancy of soul, or life, united all in one. They are in essence the soul in its fulness of life and sympathy, pouring itself rhythmically through every obstruction, before which the most solid becomes fluid, transparent, and radiant of _itself_.

GRACIOSA, a princess in a fairy tale, persecuted by her stepmother, and protected by Prince Percinet, her lover.

GRACIOSO, a fool in a Spanish comedy, who ever and anon appears on the stage during the performance with his jokes and gibes.

GRADGRIND, a character in "Hard Times," who weighs and measures everything by a hard and fast rule and makes no allowances.

GRAFTON, AUGUSTUS HENRY FITZROY, DUKE OF, English statesman in the reign of George III.; held various offices of State under Rockingham, Chatham, and North; was bitterly a.s.sailed in the famous "Junius Letters"

(1735-1811).

GRAHAM, SIR JOHN, companion of Sir William Wallace, who fell at the battle of Falkirk.

GRAHAM, JOHN, VISCOUNT DUNDEE. See CLAVERHOUSE.

GRAHAM, THOMAS, celebrated Scottish chemist, born in Glasgow, where in 1830 he became professor of Chemistry in the Andersonian University; seven years later he was appointed to a similar chair in University College, London; in 1855 he resigned his professorship on succeeding Herschel as Master of the Mint; his name is honourably a.s.sociated with important researches relating to the diffusion of gases and liquids, and with contributions to the atomic theory of matter (1805-1869).

GRAHAME, JAMES, a Scottish poet, born in GLASGOW; bred a lawyer; took to the Church; author of a poem on the "Sabbath," instinct with devout feeling, and containing good descriptive pa.s.sages (1765-1811).

GRAHAM'S d.y.k.e, a Roman wall extending between the Firths of Forth and Clyde.

GRAHAMSTOWN (16), capital of the eastern province of Cape Colony, 25 m. from the sea and 106 m. NE. of Port Elizabeth; is beautifully situated 1728 ft. above sea-level at the base of the Zuurberg Mountains; has an exceedingly salubrious climate; some fine buildings, and is the seat both of a Catholic and a Protestant bishop.

GRAIae, three old women in the Greek mythology, born with grey hair, had only one tooth and one eye among them, which they borrowed from each other as they wanted them; were personifications of old age.

GRAIL, THE HOLY, the cup or vessel, said to have been made of an emerald stone, that was used by Christ at the Last Supper, and in which Joseph of Arimathea caught up the blood that flowed from His wounds on the Cross; it was brought to England by Joseph, it is alleged, but after a term disappeared; to recover it formed an object of quest to the Knights of the Round Table, in which Sir Galahad succeeded, when it was seen by certain other knights, but it has not been seen since, for none is permitted to see it or can set eye on it but such as are of a pure heart.

GRAMONT or GRAMMONT, PHILIBERT, COMTE DE, a celebrated French courtier in the age of Louis XIV.; he greatly distinguished himself in the army, as also at the court by his lively wit and gallant bearing, and soon established himself in the king's favour, but an intrigue with one of the royal mistresses brought about his exile from France; at the profligate court of Charles II of England he found a warm welcome and congenial surroundings; left memoirs which were mainly the work of his brother-in-law, Anthony Hamilton, and which give a marvellously witty and brilliant picture of the licentiousness and intrigue of the 17th-century court life (1621-1707).

GRAMPIANS, 1, a name somewhat loosely applied to the central and chief mountain system of Scotland, which stretches E. and W. right across the country, with many important offshoots running N. and S.; the princ.i.p.al heights are Ben Nevis (4406 ft), Ben Macdhui (4296 ft.), Cairntoul (4200 ft.). 2, A range of mountains in the W. of Victoria, Australia, highest elevation 5600 ft.

GRANADA, the last of the ancient Moorish kingdoms to be conquered (1492) in Spain, in the SE. of Andalusia, fronting the Mediterranean, now divided into Granada, Almeria, and Malaga; the modern province (484) has an area of 4928 sq. m.; Granada (72), the capital, is beautifully situated at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, on an eminence 2245 ft. above sea-level, 140 m. SE. of Seville; the Jenil flows past it; has a large university, a cathedral, and monastery; was founded by the Moors in the 8th century, but has been largely rebuilt on modern principles.

GRANADA, NEW (9), a commercial town in Nicaragua, Central America, on the NW. sh.o.r.e of Lake Nicaragua.

GRANBY, JOHN MANNERS, MARQUIS OF, an English general, eldest son of the third Duke of Rutland; rose to be commander-in-chief of the British army in Germany during the Seven Years' War; distinguished himself at Warburg; in 1763 he was master-general of the ordnance, and in 1766 commander-in-chief of the army; was the victim of some of Junius's most scathing invectives (1721-1770).

GRAND ALLIANCE, an alliance signed at Vienna 1689 by England, Germany, and the States-General to prevent the union of France and Spain.

GRAND JURY, a jury appointed to decide whether there are grounds for an accusation to warrant a trial.

GRAND LAMAISM, a belief of the people of Thibet that Providence sends down always an incarnation of Himself into every generation.