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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Paeony

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​PAEONY (botanically Paeonia; Nat. ord. Ranunculaceae q.v.) a genus of plants remarkable for their large and gorgeous flowers. There are two distinct sets, one the strong-growing herbaceous kind, with fleshy roots and annual stems, derived mainly from Paeonia albiflora and P. officinalis; the other called the tree paeony, stiff-growing plants with half-woody permanent stems, which have sprung from the Chinese P. Moutan.
The herbaceous paeonies usually grow from 2 to 3 ft. in height, and have large much-divided leaves, and ample flowers of varied and attractive colours, and of a globular form in the double varieties which are those most prized in gardens. They usually blossom in May and June, and as ornaments for large beds in pleasure grounds, and for the front parts of shrubberies, few flowers equal them in gorgeous effect. A good moist loamy soil suits them best, and a moderate supply of manure is beneficial. They are impatient of frequent transplantings or repeated divisions for purposes of propagation, but when necessary they may be multiplied by this means, early in autumn, care being taken that a sound bud is attached to each portion of the tuberous roots.
The older varieties of P. albiflora include candida, festa, fragrans, Humei, Reevesii, rubescens, vestalis, Whitleyi, &c.; those of P. officinalis embrace albicans, anemoniflora, Baxteri, blanda, rosea, Sabini, &c. The garden varieties of modern times are, however, still more beautiful, the flowers being in many instances delicately tinted with more than one colour, such as buff with bronzy centre, carmine with yellowish centre, rose with orange centre, white tinted with rose, &c.
The Siberian P. tenuifolia, with finely cut leaves and crimson flowers, is a graceful border plant, and its double-flowered variety is perhaps the most elegant of its race.
The Moutans or tree paeonies are remarkable for their sub-shrubby habit, forming vigorous plants sometimes attaining a height of 6 to 8 ft., and producing in May magnificent flowers which vary in colour from white to lilac, purple magenta, violet and rose. These are produced on the young shoots, which naturally bud forth early in the spring, and are in consequence liable in bleak localities, unless protected, to be cut off by spring frosts. They require to be thoroughly ripened in summer, and therefore a hot season and a dryish situation are desirable for their well-being; and they require perfect rest during winter. Small plants with a single stem, if well matured so as to ensure their blossoming, make very attractive plants when forced. They are increased by grafting in late summer or autumn on the roots of the herbaceous paeonies.
The yellow-flowered tree paeony (P. lutea) was introduced from China in 1887, but is still very rare. There are hundreds of names given to the colour variations of both the herbaceous and tree paeonies, but as these have only a fleeting interest it is better to consult current catalogues for the latest types.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Paez, José Antonio

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​PAEZ, JOSÉ ANTONIO (1790–1873), Venezuelan president, was born of Indian parents near Acarigua in the province of Barinas on the 13th of June 1790. He came to the front in the war of independence against Spain, and his military career, which began about 1810, was distinguished by the defeat of the Spanish forces at Mata de la Miel (1815), at Montecal and throughout the province of Apure (1816), and at Puerto Cabello (1823). In 1829 he furthered the secession of Venezuela from the republic of Colombia, and he became its first president (1830–1834). He was again president in 1839–1843, and dictator in 1846; but soon afterwards headed a revolution against his successor and was thrown into prison. In 1850 he was released and left the country, but in 1858 he returned, and in 1860 was made minister to the United States. A year afterwards he again returned and made himself dictator, but in 1863 was overthrown and exiled. He died in New York on the 6th of May 1873.
His autobiography was published at New York in 1867–1869, and his son Ramon Paez wrote Public Life of J. A. Paez (1864). An Apoteosis by Guzman Blanco was published at Paris in 1889.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pagan (Burma)

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​PAGAN, a town and former capital, in Myingyan district, Upper Burma, 92 m. S.W. of Mandalay. It was founded by King Pyinbya in 847, and remained the capital until the extinction of the dynasty in 1298. Pagan itself is now a mere village, but hundreds of pagodas in various stages of decay meet the eye in every direction. The majority of them were built by King Anawra-hta, who overcame the Peguan king, Manuha of Thaton. It was Anawra-hta who introduced the Buddhist religion in Upper Burma, and who carried off nearly the whole Thaton population to build the pagodas at Pagan on the model of the Thaton originals. Many of these are of the highest architectural interest, besides being in themselves most imposing structures. Pagan is still a popular place of Buddhist pilgrimage, and a museum has been built for the exhibition of antiquities found in the neighbourhood. The population in 1901 was 6254.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Page, Thomas Nelson

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​PAGE, THOMAS NELSON (1853–), American author, was born at Oakland Plantation, Hanover county, Virginia, on the 23rd of April 1853, the great-grandson of Thomas Nelson (1738–1789) and of John Page (1744–1808), both governors of Virginia, the former being a signer of the Declaration of Independence. After a course at Washington and Lee University (1869–1872) he graduated in law at the university of Virginia (1874), and practised, chiefly in Richmond, until 1893, when he removed to Washington, D. C, and devoted himself to writing and lecturing. In 1884 he had published in the Century Magazine “Marse Chan,” a tale of life in Virginia during the Civil War, which immediately attracted attention. He wrote other stories of negro life and character (“Meh Lady,” “Unc’ Edinburg’s Drowndin’,” and “Ole ’Stracted”), which, with two others, were published in 1887 with the title In Ole Virginia, perhaps his most characteristic book. This was followed by Befo’ de War (1888), dialect poems, written with Armistead Churchill Gordon (b. 1855); On Newfound River (1891); The Old South (1891), social and political essays; Elsket and Other Stories (1892); The Burial of the Guns (1894); Pastime Stories (1894); The Old Gentleman of the Black Stock (1897); Social Life in Old Virginia before the War (1897); Two Prisoners (1898); Red Rock (1898), a novel of the Reconstruction period; Gordon Keith (1903); The Negro: the Southerner’s Problem (1904); Bred in the Bone and Other Stories (1904); The Coast of Bohemia (1906), poems; The Old Dominion: Her Making and her Manners (1907), a collection of essays; Under the Crust (1907), stories; Robert E. Lee, the Southerner (1908); John Marvel, Assistant (1909), a novel; and various books for children. He is at his best in those short stories in which, through negro character and dialect, he pictures the life of the Virginia gentry, especially as it centred about the mutual devotion of master and servant .
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Paez, Pedro

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​PAEZ, PEDRO (1564–1622), Jesuit missionary to Abyssinia, was born at Olmedo in Old Castile in 1564. Having entered the Society of Jesus, he was set apart for foreign mission service, and sent to Goa in 1588. Within a year he and a fellow missionary were dispatched from that place to Abyssinia to act as spiritual directors to the Portuguese residents. On his way thither, he fell into the hands of pirates at Dhofar and was sent to Sanaa, capital of the Yemen, where he was detained ​for seven years by the pasha as a slave. Having been redeemed by his order in 1596, he spent some years in mission work on the west coast of India, and it was not until 1603 that he again set out for Abyssinia, and landed at the port of Massawa. At the headquarters of his order, in Fremona, he soon acquired the two chief dialects of the country, translated a catechism, and set about the education of some Abyssinian children. He also established a reputation as a preacher, and having been summoned to court, succeeded in vanquishing the native priests and in converting Za-Denghel, the negus, who wrote to the pope and the king of Spain for more missionaries, an act of zeal which involved him in civil war with the Abyssinian priests (who dreaded the influence of Paez) and ultimately cost him his life (Oct. 1604). Paez, who is said to have been the first European to visit the source of the Blue Nile, died of fever in 1622.
In addition to the translation of the Catechism, Paez is supposed to be the author of a treatise De Abyssinorum erroribus and a history of Ethiopia (ed. C. Beccari in Rerum aethiopicarum scriptores occidentales inediti a saeculo XVI. ad XIX. (1905).
See A. de Backer, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus (ed. C. Sommervogel) vi. (1895); W. D. Cooley in Bulletin de la société de géographie (1872), 6th series, vol. iii.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pagan

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​PAGAN (Lat. paganus, of or belonging to a pagus, a canton, county district, village, commune), a heathen, one who worships a false god or false gods, or one who belongs to a race or nation which practises idolatrous rites and professes polytheism. In its early application paganus was applied by the Christian Church to those who refused to believe in the one true God, and still followed the Greek, Roman and other ancient faiths. It thus of course excluded Jews. In the middle ages, at the time of the crusades and later, “pagan” and “paynim” (O. Fr. paenime, Late Lat. paganismus, heathenism or heathen lands) were particularly applied to Mahommedans, and sometimes to Jews. A special significance attaches to the word when applied to one who adopts that attitude of cultured indifference to, or negation of, the various theistic systems of religion which was taken by so many of the educated and aristocratic classes in the ancient Hellenic and Roman world.
It has long been accepted that the application of the name paganus, villager, to non-Christians was due to the fact that it was in the rural districts that the old faiths lingered. This explanation assumes that the use of paganus in this sense arose after the establishment of Christianity as the religion generally accepted in the urban as opposed to the rural districts, and it is usually stated that an edict of the emperor Valentinian of 368 dealing with the religio paganorum (Cod. Theod. xvi. 2) contains the first documentary use of the word in this secondary sense. It has now been shown that the use can be traced much earlier. Tertullian (c. 202; De corona militis, xi.), says “Apud hunc (Christum) tam miles est paganus fidels quam paganus est miles infidelis.” This gives the clue to the true explanation. In classical Latin paganus is frequently found in contradistinction to miles or armatus (cf. especially Tac. Hist. i. 53; ii. 14, 88; iii. 24, 43, 77), where the opposition is between a regular enrolled soldier and the raw half-armed rustics who sometimes formed a rude militia in Roman wars, or, more widely, between a soldier and a civilian. Thus the Christians who prided themselves on being “soldiers of Christ” (milites) could rightly term the non-Christians pagani. See also Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (ed. Bury, 1896), ch. xxi. note ad fin.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Page

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​PAGE, (1) A term used of a boy, lad or young male person in various capacities, positions or offices. The etymology is doubtful; the word is common to the Romanic languages; cf. O. Fr. and Span, page, Port, pagem, Ital. paggio. The Med. Lat. pagius has been commonly referred to Gr. παιδίον, diminutive of παῖς, boy, but the connexion is extremely doubtful. Others refer the word to the pueri paedagogiani, young slaves trained to become paedagogi (Gr. παιδαγωγοί), or tutors to young boys attending school. Under the empire, numbers of such youths were attached to the imperial household for the purposes of ceremonial attendance on state occasions, thus occupying much the same position as that of the pages of a royal or noble household in medieval and modern times. In fact the term paedagogiani became equivalent to pueri honorarii, qui in palatio ministerio principis militabant (so Du Cange, Glossarium, s.v.). Littré refers pagius to pagensis, i.e. rustic, belonging to the country districts (pagus), and adduces from this the fact that the pagii were not necessarily boys or youths; and quotes from Claude Fauchet (1530–1601) the statement (Lib. I. Orig. milit. cap. i.) that up to the time of Charles VI. (1368–1403) and Charles VII. (1403–1461) “le mot de Page . . . . sembloit être seulement donné a de viles personnes, comme à garçons de pied.” Skeat (Etym. Dict.) points out that the form of the word in Portuguese, pagem, indicates the derivation from pagensis. The word “page” was applied in English to a boy or youth who was employed as an assistant to an older servant, acting as it were as an apprentice and learning his duties. In present usage the chief applications are: (a) to a boy or lad, generally wearing livery, and sometimes styled a “buttons,” who is employed as a domestic servant; and (b) to a young boy who, dressed in fancy costume, forms part of the bridal procession at weddings. The word is also used (c) as the title of various officials of different rank in royal and other households; thus in the British royal household there are pages of honour, a page of the chambers, pages of the presence, and pages of the back stairs. These, no doubt, descend from the pueri paedagogiani of the Roman imperial household through the young persons of noble or gentle birth, who, during the middle and later ages, served in the household of royal and noble persons, and received a training to fit them for their future position in society. In the times of chivalry the “page” was one who served a knight and was trained to knighthood, and ranked next to a squire. (See Knighthood and Valet.)
(2) In the sense of one side of a leaf of printed or written matter, the word is derived through Fr. from Lat. pagina (pangere, to fasten).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Govan

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​GOVAN, a municipal and police burgh of Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies on the south bank of the Clyde in actual contact with Glasgow, and in a parish of the same name which includes a large part of the city on both sides of the river. Pop. (1891) 61,589; (1901) 76,532. Govan remained little more than a village till 1860, when the growth of shipbuilding and allied trades gave its development an enormous impetus. Among its public buildings are the municipal chambers, combination fever hospital, Samaritan hospital and reception houses for the poor. Elder Park (40 acres) presented to the burgh in 1885 contains a statue of John Elder (1824–1869), the pioneer shipbuilder, the husband of the donor. A statue of Sir William Pearce (1833–1888), another well-known Govan shipbuilder, once M.P. for the burgh, stands at Govan Cross. The Govan lunacy board opened in 1896 an asylum near Paisley. Govan is supplied with Glasgow gas and water, and its tramways are leased by the Glasgow corporation; but it has an electric light installation of its own, and performs all other municipal functions quite independently of the city, annexation to which it has always strenuously resisted. Prince’s Dock lies within its bounds and the shipbuilding yards have turned out many famous ironclads and liners. Besides shipbuilding its other industries are match-making, silk-weaving, hair-working, copper-working, tube-making, weaving, and the manufacture of locomotives and electrical apparatus. The town forms the greater part of the Govan division of Lanarkshire, which returns one member to parliament.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Governor

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​GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide), in general, one who governs or exercises authority; specifically, an official appointed to govern a district, province, town, &c. In British colonies or dependencies the representative of the crown is termed a governor. Colonial governors are classed as governors-general, governors and lieutenant-governors, according to the status of the colony or group of colonies over which they preside. Their powers vary according to the position which they occupy. In all cases they represent the authority of the crown. In the United States (q.v.) the official at the head of every state government is called a governor.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gourmet

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​GOURMET, a French term for one who takes a refined and critical, or even merely theoretical pleasure in good cooking and the delights of the table. The word has not the disparaging sense attached to the Fr. gourmand, to whom the practical pleasure of good eating is the chief end. The O. Fr. grommet or gromet meant a servant, or shop-boy, especially one employed in a wine-seller's shop, hence an expert taster of wines, from which the modern usage has developed. The etymology of gourmet is obscure; it may be ultimately connected with the English "groom" (q.v.). The origin of gourmand is unknown. In English, in the form "grummet," the word was early applied to a cabin or ship's boy. Ships of the Cinque Ports were obliged to carry one "grummet"; thus in a charter of 1229 (quoted in the New English Dictionary) it is laid down servitia inde debita Domino Regi, xxi. naves, et in qualibet nave xxi. homines, cum uno gartione qui dicitur gromet.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gow, Niel

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​GOW, NIEL (1727–1807), Scottish musician of humble parentage, famous as a violinist and player of reels, but more so for the part he played in preserving the old melodies of Scotland. His compositions, and those of his four sons, Nathaniel, the most famous (1763–1831), William (1751–1791), Andrew (1760–1803), and John (1764–1826), formed the “Gow Collection,” comprising various volumes edited by Niel and his sons, a valuable repository of Scottish traditional airs. The most important of Niel’s sons was Nathaniel, who is remembered as the author of the well-known “Caller Herrin,” taken from the fishwives’ cry, a tune to which words were afterwards written by Lady Nairne. Nathaniel’s son, Niel Gow junior (1795–1823), was the author of the famous songs “Flora Macdonald’s Lament” and “Cam’ ye by Athol.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gourock

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​GOUROCK, a police burgh and watering-place of Renfrewshire, Scotland, on the southern shore of the Firth of Clyde, 3% m. W. by N. of Greenock by the Caledonian railway. Pop. (1901) 5261. It is partly situated on a fine bay affording good anchorage, for which it is largely resorted to by the numerous yacht clubs of the Clyde. The extension of the railway from Greenock (in 1889) to the commodious pier, with a tunnel 1½ m. long, the longest in Scotland, affords great facilities for travel to the ports of the Firth, the sea lochs on the southern Highland coast and the Crinan Canal. The eminence called Barrhill (480 ft. high) divides the town into two parts, the eastern known as Kempoch, the western as Ashton. Near Kempoch point is a monolith of mica-schist, 6 ft. high, called "Granny Kempoch," which the superstitious of other days regarded as possessing influence over the winds, and which was the scene, in 1662, of certain rites that led to the celebrants being burned as witches. Gamble Institute (named after the founder) contains halls, recreation rooms, a public library and baths. It is said that Gourock was the first place on the Clyde where herrings were cured. There is tramway communication with Greenock and Ashton. About 3 m. S.W. there stands on the shore the familiar beacon of the Cloch. Gourock became a burgh of barony in 1694.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gourville, Jean Herauld

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​GOURVILLE, JEAN HERAULD (1625–1703), French adventurer, was born at La Rochefoucauld. At the age of eighteen he entered the house of La Rochefoucauld as a servant, and in 1646 became secretary to François de la Rochefoucauld, author of the Maximes. Resourceful and quick-witted, he rendered services to his master during the Fronde, in his intrigues with the parliament, the court or the princes. In these negotiations he made the acquaintance of Condé, whom he wished to help to escape from the chateau of Vincennes; of Mazarin, for whom he negotiated the reconciliation with the princes; and of Nicolas Fouquet. After the Fronde he engaged in financial affairs, thanks to Fouquet. In 1658 he farmed the taille in Guienne. He bought depreciated rentes and had them raised to their nominal value by the treasury; he extorted gifts from the financiers for his protection, being Fouquet's confidant in many operations of which he shared the profits. In three years he accumulated an enormous fortune, still further increased by his unfailing good fortune at cards, playing even with the king. He was involved in the trial of Fouquet, and in April 1663 was condemned to death for peculation and embezzlement of public funds; but escaping, was executed in effigy. He sent a valet one night to take the effigy down from the gallows in the court of the Palais de Justice, and then fled the country. He remained five years abroad, being excepted in 1665 from the amnesty accorded by Louis XIV. to the condemned financiers. Having returned secretly to France, he entered the service of Condé, who, unable to meet his creditors, had need of a clever manager to put his affairs in order. In this way he was able to reappear at court, to assist at the campaigns of the war with Holland, and to offer himself for all the delicate negotiations ​for his master or the king. He received diplomatic missions in Germany, in Holland, and especially in Spain, though it was only in 1694, that he was freed from the condemnation pronounced against him by the chamber of justice. From 1696 he fell ill and withdrew to his estate, where he dictated to his secretary, in four months and a half, his Mémoires, an important source for the history of his time. In spite of several errors, introduced purposely, they give a clear idea of the life and morals of a financier of the age of Fouquet, and throw light on certain points of the diplomatic history. They were first published in 1724.
There is a modern edition, with notes, an introduction and appendix, by Lecestre (Paris, 1894–1895, 2 vols.).