The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 217

GILPIN, WILLIAM, OF BOLDRE, an English author, who by his series of "Picturesque Tours" exercised an influence on English literature similar to that of White's "Selborne," at the same time (1724-1804).

GILRAY, JAMES, English caricaturist, born in Chelsea; distinguished for his broad humour and keen satire; his works were numerous and highly popular; died insane (1757-1815).

GIOBERTI, VINCENZO, an Italian philosophical and political writer, born at Turin; in 1825 he was appointed to the chair of Theology in his native city, and in 1831 chaplain to the Court of Charles Albert of Sardinia; two years later was exiled on a charge of complicity in the plots of the Young Italy party, and till 1847 remained abroad, chiefly in Brussels, busy with his pen on literary, philosophical, and political subjects; in 1848 he was welcomed back to Italy, and shortly afterwards rose to be Prime Minister of a short-lived government; his later years were spent in diplomatic work at Paris; in philosophy he reveals Platonic tendencies, while his political ideal was a confederated Italy, with the Pope at the head and the king of Sardinia as military guardian (1801-1852).

GIORDANO, LUCA, Italian painter, born at Naples; studied under various celebrated masters at Naples, Rome, Lombardy, and other places, finally returning to Naples; in 1692 he received a commission from Charles II. of Spain to adorn the Escurial, and in the execution of this work remained at Madrid till 1700, when he again settled in his native city; he was famous in his day for marvellous rapidity of workmanship, but this fluency combined with a too slavish adherence to the methods of the great masters has somewhat robbed his work of individuality; his frescoes in the Escurial at Madrid and others in Florence and Rome are esteemed his finest work (1632-1705).

GIORGIONE (i. e. Great George), the sobriquet given to Giorgio Barbarella, one of the early masters of the Venetian school, born near Castelfranco, in the NE. of Italy; at Venice he studied under Giovanni Bellini, and had t.i.tian as a fellow-pupil; his portraits are among the finest of the Italian school, and exhibit a freshness of colour and conception and a firmness of touch unsurpa.s.sed in his day; his works deal chiefly with scriptural and pastoral scenes, and include a "Holy Family"

in the Louvre, "Virgin and Child" in Venice, and "Moses Rescued"

(1447-1511).

GIOTTO, a great Italian painter, born at a village near Florence; was a shepherd's boy, and at 10 years of age, while tending his flock and drawing pictures of them, was discovered by Cimabue, who took him home and made a pupil of him; "never," says Ruskin, "checked the boy from the first day he found him, showed him all he knew, talked with him of many things he himself felt unable to paint; made him a workman and a gentleman, above all, a Christian, yet left him a shepherd.... His special character among the great painters of Italy was that he was a practical person; what others dreamt of he did; he could work in mosaic, could work in marble, and paint; could build ... built the Campanile of the Duomo, because he was then the best master of sculpture, painting, and architecture in Florence, and supposed in such business to be without a superior in the world.... Dante was his friend and t.i.tian copied him.... His rules in art were: You shall see things as they are; and the least with the greatest, because G.o.d made them; and the greatest with the least, because G.o.d made you, and gave you eyes and a heart; he threw aside all glitter and conventionality, and the most significant thing in all his work is his choice of moments." Cimabue still painted the Holy Family in the old conventional style, "but Giotto came into the field, and saw with his simple eyes a lowlier worth; and he painted the Madonna, St. Joseph, and the Christ,--yes, by all means if you choose to call them so, but essentially--Mamma, Papa, and the Baby; and all Italy threw up its cap" (1276-1336). See Ruskin's "Mornings in Florence."

GIOTTO'S O, a perfectly round O, such as Giotto is said to have sent the Pope in evidence of his ability to do some decorative work for his Holiness.

GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS (i. e. Giraldus of Cambria), ecclesiastic and author, born in Pembrokeshire, of Norman descent; studied with distinction in Paris; was a zealous churchman; obtained ecclesiastical preferment in England; was twice elected bishop of St. David's, but both times set aside; travelled in Ireland as well as Wales, and left record of his impressions, which give an entertaining picture and a valuable account of the times, though disfigured by credulity and personal vanity (1147-1223).

GIRARD, STEPHEN, a philanthropist, born at Bordeaux; in early life followed the career of a seaman and rose to be captain of an American coast-trader; in 1769 set up as a trader in Philadelphia, and in course of time establishing a bank, acc.u.mulated an immense fortune; during his lifetime he exhibited a strange mixture of n.i.g.g.ardliness, scepticism, public charitableness, and a philanthropy which moved him during a yellow-fever epidemic to labour as a nurse in the hospital; at his death he bequeathed $2,000,000 to found an orphanage for boys, attaching to the bequest the remarkable condition, that no clergyman should ever be on the board or ever be permitted to enter the building (1750-1831).

GIRARDIN, eMILE DE, journalist and politician, born in Switzerland, the natural son of General Alexandre de Girardin; took to stockbroking, but quitting it for journalism he soon established a reputation as a ready, vivacious writer, and in 1836 started _La Presse_, the first French penny paper; his rapid change of front in politics earned for him the nickname of "The Weatherc.o.c.k"; latterly he adhered to the Republican cause, and founded _La France_ in its interest; he published many political brochures and a few plays, and was for some years editor of _La Liberte_ (1806-1881).--His wife, DELPHINE GAY, enjoyed a wide celebrity both as a beauty and auth.o.r.ess; her poems, plays, and novels fill six vols. (1806-1881).

GIRARDIN, FRANcOIS SAINT-MARC, a French professor and litterateur, born at Paris; in 1827 was professor in the College Louis-le-Grand, and in 1834 was nominated to the chair of Literature in the Sorbonne; as leader-writer in the _Journal des Debats_ he vigorously opposed the Democrats, and sat in the Senate from 1834 to 1848; in 1869, as Saint-Beuve's successor, he took up the editorship of the _Journal des Savants_, and in 1871 became a member of the National a.s.sembly; he published his collected essays and also his popular literary lectures (1801-1873).

GIRONDE (794), a maritime department in SW. France, facing the Bay of Biscay on the W. and lying N. and S. between Charente-Inferieure and Landes; the Garonne and the Dordogne flowing through it form the Gironde estuary, and with their tributaries sufficiently water the undulating land; agriculture and some manufactories flourish, but wine is the chief product.

GIRONDINS or GIRONDISTS, a party of moderate republican opinions in the French Revolution; "men," says Carlyle, "of fervid const.i.tutional principles, of quick talent, irrefragable logic, clear respectability, who would have the reign of liberty establish itself, but only by respectable methods." The leaders of it were from the Gironde district, whence their name, were in succession members of the Legislative Body and of the Convention, on the right in the former, on the left in the latter, and numbered among them such names as Condorcet, Brissot, Roland, Carnot, and others; they opposed the court and the clerical party, and voted for the death of the king, but sought to rescue him by a proposal of appeal to the people; overpowered by the Jacobins in June 1793, with whom they came to open rupture, they sought in vain to provoke a rising in their favour; on October 24 they were arraigned before the Revolutionary tribunal, and on the 31st twenty-one of them were brought to the guillotine, singing the "Ma.r.s.eillaise" as they went and on the scaffold, while the rest, all to a few, perished later on either the same way or by their own hands.

GIRTIN, THOMAS, a landscape-painter, born in London; painted in water-colour views of scenes near Paris and London; was a friend of Turner (1773-1802).

GIRTON COLLEGE, a celebrated college for women, founded in 1869 at Hitchin, but since 1873 located at Girton, near Cambridge; the ordinary course extends to three years, and degree certificates of the standard of the Cambridge B.A. are granted; the staff consists of a "head" and five resident lecturers, all women, but there is a large accession of lecturers from Cambridge; the students number upwards of 100, the fee for board and education 35 per term.

GIZEH or GHIZEH (11), a town in Egypt, on the Nile, opposite Old Cairo, to which it is joined by a suspension bridge spanning the river; in the neighbourhood are the Great Pyramids.

GLACIER, a more or less snow-white ma.s.s of ice occupying an Alpine valley and moving slowly down its bed like a viscous substance, being fed by semi-melted snow at the top called _neve_ and forming streams at the bottom; it has been defined by Prof. J. D. FORBES (q. v.) as "a viscous body which is urged down slopes of a certain inclination by the mutual pressure of its parts"; in the Alps alone they number over 1000, have an utmost depth of 1500 ft., and an utmost length of 12 m.

GLADIATOR, one who fought in the arena at Rome with men or beasts for the amus.e.m.e.nt of the people, originally in connection with funeral games, under the belief, it is said, that the spirits of the dead were appeased at the sight of blood; exhibitions of the kind were common under the emperors, and held on high occasions; if the gladiator was wounded in the contest, the spectators decided whether he was to live or die by, in the former case, turning their thumbs downwards, and in the latter turning them upwards.

GLADSTONE, WILLIAM EWART, statesman, orator, and scholar, born at Liverpool, son of a Liverpool merchant, sometime of Leith, and of Ann, daughter of Andrew Robertson, Stornoway; educated at Eton and Oxford; entered Parliament in 1832 as member for Newark in the Tory interest; delivered his maiden speech on slavery emanc.i.p.ation on May 17, 1833; accepted office under Sir Robert Peel in 1834, and again in 1841 and 1846; and as member for Oxford, separating from the Tory party, took office under Lord Aberdeen, and in 1859, under Lord Palmerston, became Chancellor of the Exchequer; elected member for South Lancashire, 1865, he became leader of the Commons under Lord John Russell; elected for Greenwich, he became Premier for the first time in 1869, holding office till 1875; after a brilliant campaign in Midlothian he was returned for that county in 1880, and became Premier for the second time; became Premier a third time in 1886, and a fourth time in 1892. During his tenure of office he introduced and carried a great number of important measures, but failed from desertion in the Liberal ranks to carry his pet measure of Home Rule for Ireland, so he retired from office into private life in 1895; his last days he spent chiefly in literary work, the fruit of which, added to earlier works, gives evidence of the breadth of his sympathies and the extent of his scholarly attainments; but being seized by a fatal malady, his strong const.i.tution gradually sank under it, and he died at Hawarden, May 19, 1898; he was buried in Westminster Abbey at the expense of the nation and amid expressions of sorrow on the part of the whole community; he was a man of high moral character, transcendent ability, and strong will, and from the day he took the lead the acknowledged chief of the Liberal party in the country (1809-1898).

GLAISHER, JAMES, meteorologist and founder of the Royal Meteorological Society, born in London; his first observations in meteorology were done as an officer of the Irish Ordnance Survey; in 1836, after service in the Cambridge Observatory, he went to Greenwich, and from 1840 to 1874 he superintended the meteorological department of the Royal Observatory; in connection with atmospheric investigations he made a series of 28 balloon ascents, rising on one occasion to a height of 7 m., the greatest elevation yet attained: _b_. 1809.

GLAMORGANSHIRE (687), a maritime county in S. Wales, fronting the Bristol Channel, between Monmouth and Carmarthen; amid the hilly country of the N. lie the rich coal-fields and iron-stone quarries which have made it by far the most populous and wealthiest county of Wales; the S.

country--the garden of Wales--is a succession of fertile valleys and wooded slopes; dairy-farming is extensively engaged in, but agriculture is somewhat backward; the large towns are actively engaged in the coal-trade and in the smelting of iron, copper, lead, and tin; some interesting Roman remains exist in the county.

GLANVILL, JOSEPH, born at Plymouth, graduated at Oxford; was at first an Aristotelian and Puritan in his opinions, but after the Restoration entered the Church, and obtained preferment in various sees; his fame rests upon his eloquent appeal for freedom of thought in "The Vanity of Dogmatising" (1661) and upon his two works in defence of a belief in witches; he was one of the first Fellows of the Royal Society; he seems to have made Sir Thomas Browne his model, though he is not equal to him in the vigour of his thinking or the harmony of his style (1636-1680).

GLANVILL, RANULF DE, Chief-Justiciary of England in the reign of Henry II., born at Stratford, in Suffolk; is the author of the earliest treatise on the laws of England, a work in 14 books; was deposed by Richard I., and, joining the Crusaders, fell before Acre; _d_. 1190.

GLASGOW (815, including suburbs), the second city of the empire and the chief centre of industry in Scotland, is situated on the Clyde, in Lanarkshire, 45 m. W. from Edinburgh and 405 from London; it is conjectured that the origin of the name is found in Cleschu ("beloved green spot"), the name of a Celtic village which occupied the site previously, near which St. Mungo, or Kentigern, erected his church about A.D. 560; although a royal burgh in 1636, it was not till after the stimulus to trade occasioned by the Union (1707) that it began to display its now characteristic mercantile activity; since then it has gone forward by leaps and bounds, owing not a little of its success to its exceptionally favourable situation; besides the advantages of waterway derived from the Clyde, it is in the heart of a rich coal and iron district; spinning and weaving, shipbuilding, foundries, chemical and iron works, and all manner of industries, flourish; the city is s.p.a.ciously and handsomely laid out; the cathedral (1197) is the chief building of historical and architectural interest; there is a university (1451) and a variety of other colleges, besides several public libraries and art schools; Glasgow returns seven members of Parliament.

GLa.s.sE, MRS., auth.o.r.ess, real or fict.i.tious, of a cookery book, once in wide-spread repute; credited with the sage prescription, "First catch your hare."

GLa.s.sITES, a Christian sect founded in Scotland about 1730 by John Glas (1695-1773), a minister of the Church of Scotland, who in 1730 was deposed for denouncing all national establishments of religion as "inconsistent with the true nature of the Church of Christ," and maintaining that a Church and its office-bearers owed allegiance to none other than Christ; the sect, which developed peculiarities of doctrine and worship in conformity with those of the primitive Church, spread to England and America, where they became known as _Sandemanians_, after Robert Sandeman (1718-1771), son-in-law to Glas, and his zealous supporter.

GLAs...o...b..RY (4), an ancient town in Somersetshire, 36 m. S. of Bristol, on the Brue; it is a.s.sociated with many interesting legends and historical traditions that point to its existence in very early times; thus it was the _Avalon_ of Arthurian legend, and the place where Joseph of Arimathea, when he brought the Holy Grail, is said to have founded the first Christian Church; ruins are still extant of the old abbey founded by Henry II., which itself succeeded the ancient abbey of St. Dunstan (946); there is trade in gloves, mats, rugs, &c.

GLEIN, LUDWIG, German lyric poet, known as Father Glein for the encouragement he gave to young German authors; composed war songs for the Prussian army (1719-1803).

GLENCOE, a wild and desolate glen in the N. of Argyllshire, running eastward from Ballachulish 10 m.; shut in by two lofty and rugged mountain ranges; the Coe flows through the valley and enhances its lonely grandeur. See following.

GLENCOE, Ma.s.sACRE OF, a treacherous slaughter of the Macdonalds of that glen on the morning of 13th February 1691, to the number of 38, in consequence of the belated submission of MacIan, the chief, to William and Mary after the Revolution; the perpetrators of the deed were a body of soldiers led by Captain Campbell, who came among the people as friends, and stayed as friends among them for 12 days.

GLENDOWER, OWEN, a Welsh chief and patriot, a descendant of the old Welsh princes who stirred up a rebellion against the English under Henry IV., which, with the help of the Percies of Northumberland and Charles VI. of France, he conducted with varied success for years, but eventual failure (1349-1415). See Shakespeare's "Henry IV."

GLENLIVET, a valley in Banffshire, through which the Livet Water runs, about 20 m. SW. of Huntly; famed for its whisky.