pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
GRAVESANDE, William Jacob, was descended of an ancient and honourable family, and born at Delft, in Holland, on the 27th of September 1688. The name of his family was properly Storm van s’Gravesande. He studied the civil law at Leyden; but the mathematics, for which he had evinced an early inclination, were his favourite pursuit. When he had taken his doctor’s degree in 1707, he settled at the Hague, where he practised at the bar, and cultivated the acquaintance of learned men. In the month of May 1713, he, in conjunction with a society of young men distinguished for their acquirements, undertook the composition of a periodical review entitled Le Journal Littéraire, which was continued without interruption until the year 1722. In 1715, 'sGravesande, in the capacity of secretary of legation, accompanied the deputies of the states-general, sent to London to compliment George I. on his accession to the throne; and having there formed a connection with Dr Burnet, bishop of Salisbury, he was admitted a member of the Royal Society. He returned the following year to the Hague, and, in 1715, was appointed ordinary professor of mathematics and astronomy in the academy of Leyden. During the vacations of 1721 and 1722, 'sGravesande made two journeys to Cassel to visit the landgrave of Hesse, a prince who showed an enlightened taste for experimental philosophy, and generously promoted its advancement. In 1724, he resigned the rectorship of the academy, to which he had previously been promoted, and on this occasion pronounced a discourse De Evidentia, which has been prefixed to the third edition of his Elements of Physics. In 1730, he added to his ordinary course civil and military architecture, which he taught in Dutch; and, in 1734, he was also appointed to teach philosophy, including logic, mewphysics, and ethics. , sGravesande died on the 28th of February 1742, at the age of fifty-five, after a period of protracted suffering, during which he preserved unimpaired all his characteristic vivacity. His principal works are as follow, viz. 1. Essai de Perspective, Hague, 1711; 2. Physices Elementa Mathematica, experimentis confirmata, sive Introductio ad Philosophiam Newtonianam, Hague, in two vols. 4to; 3. Philosophia: Newtonianae Institutiones in usus academico, an abridgment of the preceding, Leyden, 1723, 1728, and 1744; 4. Matheseos Universalis Elementa, quibus accedunt, specimen commentarii in Arithmeticam universalem Newtoni, et de determinanda forma serici infinitae adsumtae Nova Regula, Leyden, 1727, in 8vo; 5. Introductio ad Philosophiam, Metaphysicam et Logicam continens, Leyden, 1736, 1737. In the Dictionaire Historique of Prosper Marchand may be found a detailed biography of ’ sGravesande by Allemand, the editor of the work, who was intimately connected with ’ sGravesande and his family.
GRAVESEND, a market-town of the county of Kent, in the hundred of Toltingtrough, of the lathe of Ayleslòrd, twenty-three miles from London. It is situated on the south bank of the river Thames, from which the principal street ascends up a gentle hill. It depends chiefly on the ships which resort to the port of London, as at the customhouse all vessels report their arrival, and outward bound ships receive their clearances. There are strong batteries above and below the town, which defend the passage, in conjunction with Tilbury Fort, opposite the town, on the Essex shore. There is a constant, almost hourly, intercourse with the metropolis by steam, and other passage boats, which find ample employment in conveying the numerous pilots, custom-house officers, masters of vessels, merchants, and seamen, backwards and forwards. The soil round the town is favourable for gardens, and the supply of vegetables to ships departing is amply furnished; and this, with the sale of poultry, fresh butter, eggs, and meal, is a source of profit to the inhabitants. A little below the town, establishments have been formed of late years for bathing, as the river, with the flood tide, is perfectly salt. The great road to Dover passes the end of the town, and contributes in some degree to its prosperity. It is a corporate borough, governed by a mayor, twelve jurats, and twenty-four common councilmen, who have an elegant town-hall, but return no members to parliament. The church is a modern building, erected, under the act ofQueen Anne, for building fifty churches, in 1731. There is a good market on Saturday. The population amounted in 1801 to 2483, in 1811 to 3119, in 1821 to 3814, and in 1831 to 5097.
GRAVITATION, in Natural Philosophy, signifies either the force by which bodies are pressed towards the surface of the earth, or the manifest effect of that force; in which last sense the word has the same signification with weight or heaviness.
GRAVITY, Specific, denotes the weight belonging to an equal bulk of every different substance. Thus the exact weight of a cubic inch of gold, compared with a cubic inch of water, tin, lead, or any other substance, is called its specific gravity.
GRAZALEMA, a city of Spain, in the province of Granada. It is a romantic place, of Moorish building, partly on the side and partly on the summit of a lofty hill in the Sierra de Ronda, and contains 5000 inhabitants, who are occupied in making coarse woollens.
GREAT, a term of comparison, denoting that one thing has more extension than some other to which it is referred. Thus we say, a great space, a great distance, a great figure, a great body, and the like.

Great is likewise used figuratively in matters of morality, &c. to signify ample, noble, elevated, extraordinary, important, and the like. Thus we say, Shakspeare was a great genius, Da Vinci a great painter, Galileo a great philosopher, Bossu a great critic, and so on.

Great is also a title or quality appropriated to certain princes and other illustrious personages. Thus we say, the great Turk, the great Mogul, the great Khan of Tartary, the great Duke of Florence.
GREAVES, John, an eminent mathematician and antiquary, was the eldest son of John Greaves, rector of Cole-more, near Alresford in Hampshire, and born in 1602. He was educated at Baliol College, Oxford, from which he removed to Merton. He was afterwards, on the ground of merit, chosen professor of geometry in Gresham College. His ardent thirst of knowledge soon led him to visit several parts of Europe, where he eagerly availed himself of every opportunity to improve it. His travels were next into the countries of the East, where nothing remarkable seems to have escaped his observation. With indefatigable industry, and even at the peril of his life, he collected for Archbishop Laud a considerable number of Arabic, Persic, and Greek manuscripts, of which he well knew the value, as he was a master of the languages in which they were written. He also collected for that prelate many oriental gems and coins. He made a more accurate survey of the pyramids of Egypt than any traveller who had preceded him, and afterwards digested his observations in a work on that subject. On his return from the East, he visited a second time several parts of Italy; and during his stay at Rome instituted inquiries into the ancient weights and measures. Soon after his return he was appointed to the Savilian professorship of astronomy at Oxford; an office for which he was eminently qualified, as the works of the ancient and modern astronomers were alike familiar to him. But, after enjoying this preferment for some time, Greaves was deprived of it by the parliamentary visitors, on account of his strong royalist predilections, and died on the 8th of October 1652, of a fatal disorder, which appears to have been brought on by excessive application. Besides his papers in the Philosophical Transactions, the works of Greaves printed separately are, 1. Pyramidologia, or a description of the Pyramids in Egypt, London, 1646, in 8vo; 2. A Discourse of the Roman Foot and Denarius, ibid. 1649, in 4to; 3. Elementa Linguae Per-sicae, ibid. 1649, in 4to; 4. Epoch« celebriores Astronomie, Historicis, Chronologie Chataiorum, Syro-Graecorum, Arabum, Persarum, &c. usitate, ex traditione Ulug Beig, Arab, et Lat-London, 1650, in 4to; 5. Chorasmiae et Mawarnal-nabrae, hoc est, Regionum extra fluvium Oxum, descriptio, ibid. 1650 ļ 6. Astronomic« quaedam, ex traditione Shah Cholgii Persae, una cum hypothesibus Planetarum, ibid. 1652, in 4to. In 1737, Dr Birch published the Miscellaneous Works of Greaves, in two vols. 8vo, containing some of those above mentioned, with additions, and a biographical notice of the author.
[7:10:720]
GREEN, one of the original prismatic colours exhibited by the refraction of the rays of light.

• Green- Cloth, a board or court of justice held in the counting-house of the king’s household, composed of the lord steward and officers under him, who sit daily. To this court is committed the charge and superintendence of the king’s household in matters of justice and government, with a power to correct all offenders, and to maintain the peace of the verge, or jurisdiction of the court-royal, which is about two hundred yards every way from the last gate of the palace where his majesty resides. It takes its name, board of green cloth, from a green cloth spread over the board where the members sit. Without a warrant first obtained from this court, none of the king’s servants can be arrested for debt.

Clerks of the Green Cloth were two officers of the board of green cloth, who appointed the diet of the king and his household; kept all records, ledgers, and papers relating thereto; and made up bills, parcels, and debentures for salaries, provisions, and necessaries for the officers of the buttery, pantry, cellar, and the like. They also waited upon foreign princes when entertained by his majesty. But these clerkships have been abolished.

Green- House, or Conservatory, a house in a garden, contrived for the purpose of sheltering and preserving the most curious and tender exotic plants, which in our climate will not bear to be exposed to the open air, especially in winter. Conservatories are generally large and beautiful structures, equally ornamental and useful.
GREGARIOUS, amongst zoologists, a term applied to such animals as do not live solitary, but associate in herds.
GREGORIAN Calendar, that which shows the new and full moon, with the time of Easter, and the moveable feasts depending thereon, by means of epacts, disposed through the several months of the Gregorian year. See Chronology.
GREIFFENHAGEN, a circle of the Prussian province of Pomerania, and.government of Stettin. It extends over 241 square miles, and comprehends three towns and thirty-four villages, with 19,840 inhabitants. The capital is a city of that name, situated on a branch of the river Oder. It contains 4150 inhabitants, depending chiefly on agriculture, on brewing, tanning, and distilling, and some trade by the river.
GREIFSWALDE, a city of Prussia, capital of a circle of the same name, in the province of Pomerania. It is situated on an arm of the sea, is fortified, and has pleasant public walks. It is the seat of a university, well endowed, but not much frequented by students. It contains 808 houses, and 7970 inhabitants, who are engaged in refining salt and sugar, ship-building, and foreign trade. The larger ships anchor below the city, at Wyk. Long. 13. 46. 25. E. I. at. 54. 4. 35. N.
GREISBACH, a bailiwick of the circle of the Lower Danube, in the kingdom of Bavaria, extending over 308 square miles. It contains four market-towns, 146 villages, and 660 hamlets, with 27,870 inhabitants. It is one of the best cultivated districts in the kingdom. The chief town, of the same name, contains only 840 inhabitants.
GREIZ, a city, the capital of the principality of Reuss, of the elder branch. It is surrounded with walls, and contains 566 houses, with 6195 inhabitants. The palace of the prince is on a hill adjoining the city, with a fine ornamental garden and orangery.
GRENAILLE, a name given by the French writers to a preparation of copper, which the Chinese use as a red colour in some of their finest china, particularly for that colour which is called oil red or red in oil.
GRENOBLE, an arrondissement of the department of the Isère, in France, extending over 1320 square miles. It is divided into twenty cantons, and 217 communes, and contains 177,690 inhabitants. The capital is the city of the same name, situated near the Rachet Mountains, on a beautiful plain, ’ which is watered by the river Isère, after it has been increased by the stream of the Drac. It is surrounded by walls and ditches, and defended by a citadel, which serves the purpose of an arsenal. The cathedral, the episcopal palace, the hall of justice, and the great hospital, are the principal buildings. There is an academy with the power of conferring degrees; a public library of 60,000 volumes; a botanic garden; a museum of natural history, antiquities, and medals; and other establishments appropriate to the purposes of medical, legal, and military education. There are several manufactures carried on in the city. That of gloves, for which it was long celebrated, has fallen off, but still employs many persons. Watchmaking is another employment for a number of persons, who annually make about 10,000 watches. There are, besides, cotton and linen spinning and weaving, with distilleries for brandy, ratafia, and other liqueurs. It has some beautiful public walks near the city. The houses amount to 2406, and the inhabitants to 22,149. Long. 5. 38. 19. E. Lat. 45. 11.42. N.
GRESHAM, Sir Thomas, an opulent merchant of London, descended from an ancient and honourable family of Norfolk, was born in 1519. He was, as his father had been before him, appointed king’s agent at Antwerp, [7:10:776]and in 1551 he removed to that city with his family. This employment was suspended on the accession of Queen Mary; but on a proper representation being made in his favour, it was restored to him. Queen Elizabeth conferred the honour of knighthood upon him, and appointed him lier agent in foreign parts. About this time he thought of providing himself in the city with a mansion-house, suited to his station and dignity; and with this view he built a large house on the west side of Bishopsgate Street, afterwards known by the name of Gresham College. His father had proposed building a house or exchange for the merchants to meet in, instead of walking in the open street; but this design it was reserved for the son to execute. Sir Thomas in fact went beyond his father. He offered, if the citizens would provide a proper piece of ground, to build a house at his own expense; and this offer being accepted, he fulfilled his promise, and built an exchange upon the plan of that at Antwerp. When the new edifice was opened, the queen, on the 29th of January 1570, came and dined with the founder, and caused a herald with a trumpet to proclaim it by the name of the Royal Exchange. In pursuance also of a promise to endow a college for the profession of the seven liberal sciences, he by a testamentary disposition bequeathed his house in London for that purpose; leaving one moiety of the Royal Exchange to the corporation of London, and the other to the mercers’ company, for the salaries of seven lecturers in divinity, law, physic, astronomy, geometry, music, and rhetoric, at L.50 per annum each. He left several other considerable benefactions, and died in 1579. As to the college, it was afterwards pulled down in consequence of an application to parliament from the city, and the excise office erected in its stead. The lectures are read, or rather hurried through, in a chamber over the Royal Exchange. Sir Thomas Gresham had the happiness of a mind every way suited to his fortune; he was generous and benign; ready to perform any good action, and to encourage the same disposition in others. He was a great friend and patron of John Fox the martyrologist. He was acquainted with the ancient and several of the modern languages; he had a comprehensive knowledge of all affairs relating to commerce, whether foreign or domestic; and his success as a merchant was proportioned to his general attainments, for in his time he was esteemed the highest commoner in England. He transacted Queen Elizabeth’s mercantile affairs so constantly, that he was called the royal merchant; and his house was sometimes appointed for the reception of foreign princes upon their arrival in London.
GREVILLE, Fulke, Lord Brooke, a poet and miscellaneous writer, was born in the year 1554, and descended from the noble families of Beauchamps of Powick and Willoughby de Brooke. In company with his cousin Sir Philip Sidney, he began his education at a school in Shrewsbury; whence he went to Oxford, where he remained for some time as a gentleman commoner, and then removed to Trinity Coìlege, Cambridge. Having left the university, he visited foreign courts, and thus to his knowledge of the ancient languages added an acquaintance with the modern. On his return to England he was introduced to Queen Elizabeth by his uncle Robert Greville, at that time in her majesty’s service; and by means of Sir Henry Sidney, lord president of Wales, he was nominated to some lucrative employments in that principality.

On the accession of King James I. he was installed knight of the bath; and soon afterwards obtained a grant of the ruinous castle of Warwick, which he repaired at a considerable expense, and where he probably resided during the earlier part of this reign. In the year 1614, he was made under-treasurer and chancellor of the exchequer, a member of the privy-council, and gentleman of the bed-chamber; and in 1620 he was raised to the dignity of baron by the style and title of Lord Brooke of Beauchamp’s Court. He was also privy-councillor to King Charles I., in the beginning of whose reign he founded an historical lecture in Cambridge. Having thus attained the age of seventy-four, through a life of continued prosperity, and being universally admired as a gentleman and a scholar, he fell by the hand of an assassin, one of his own domestics, who immediately stabbed himself with the same weapon with which he had murdered his master. Notwithstanding Lord Orford’s flippant and depreciatory estimate of Lord Brooke’s talents, he appears to have cherished a taste for polite learning, particularly for poetry and history. His principal works are, 1. The Life of the renowned Sir Philip Sidney, London, 1652, in 12mo; 2. Certaine Learned and Elegant Werkes of the Right Hon. Fulke Lord Brooke, written in his youth and familiar exercise with Sir Philip Sidney, London, 1633; 3. The Remains of Sir Fulke Greville Lord Brooke, being Poems of Monarchy and Religion, never before printed, London, 1670, in 8vo. Lord Orford erroneously attributes to him “Five Yeares of King James, or the condition of the State of England, and the relation it hath to other Provinces,” 1643; a work which was evidently written by one of the Presbyterians, and which was republished with additions in 1651, 4to.
GREVIUS. See Gbaevius.
GREW, Neiiemiah, the first vegetable anatomist and physiologist of this country, was born at Coventry about the year 1628. He was educated as a Presbyterian; and on the change of the national form of religion, at the restoration of Charles Il., he was sent to study at some foreign university, where he took his degree of doctor of physic. He settled first at Coventry, but removed afterwards to London, where he obtained considerable practice as a physician; and at length succeeded Mr Oldenburg in the office of secretary to the Royal Society. In this capacity, pursuant to an order of council, he drew up a catalogue of the natural and artificial rarities belonging to the society, under the title of Musteum Regalis Societatis, 1681. Besides several papers in the Philosophical Transactions, he also wrote, 1. The Comparative Anatomy of the Stomach and Guts, folio; 2. The Anatomy of Vegetables, of Roots and of Trunks, 1682, in folio; 3. Tractatus de Salis Cathartici Natura et Usu; 4. Cosmologia Sacra, or a Discourse of the Universe, as it is the Creature and Kingdom of God, folio. The works of Grew were translated into French and Latin; but, as it appears, by no means correctly, at least in the latter of these languages. He died suddenly, on the 25th of March 1711.
GRIERSON, Constantia, one of the most learned women on record, though she died in 1733, at the early age of twenty-seven, was the daughter of poor parents resident in the county of Kelkenny, in Ireland. She was an excellent Greek and Latin scholar, and understood history, divinity, philosophy, and mathematics. She proved her skill in Latin by her dedication of the Dublin edition of Tacitus to Lord Carteret, and by that of Terence to his son, to whom also she addressed a Greek epigram. She wrote many elegant English poems, several of which were inserted by Mrs Barber amongst her own. When Lord Carteret was lord lieutenant of Ireland, he obtained for her husband Mr Grierson the patent office of king’s printer; and to reward the uncommon merit of his wife, caused her life to be included in it.
GRIFFON, or Grjfpin (Gryphus, l’ftrψ), in the natural history of the ancients, the name of an imaginary bird of prey, of the eagle species, represented with four legs, wings, and a beak; the upper part resembling an eagle, and the lower a lion. This animal, which was supposed to watch over gold mines and hidden treasures, was consecrated to the sun; and the ancient painters represented the chariot of tire sun as drawn by griffins. According to 8panheim, those of Jupiter and Nemesis were similarly provided. The griffin of Scripture is that species of the eagle called in Latin ossifraga, or osprey. The griffin is frequently seen on ancient medals, and is still borne in escutcheons. Guillim blazons it rampant, alleging, that any very fierce animal may be so blazoned as well as the lion; but Sylvester, Morgan, and others, use the terms segreiant instead of rampant. The griffin was also an architectural ornament in constant use amongst the Greeks, and was copied from them, with the other elegancies of architectural enrichment, by the Romans.
GRIMALDI, Francisco, an eminent painter, generally known by the appellation of Bolognese, was born at Bologna in 1606, where he became a disciple of Annibal Caracci, and proved an honour to that illustrious master. From the school of Annibal he went to ∞mplete his studies at Rome, and improved himself daily by copying the works of those artists in which he observed the greatest excellence. He died of a dropsy at Rome in 1680, and left a considerable fortune to his children. The genius of Grimaldi directed him chiefly to landscape, which he executed most happily. His colouring is strong, and his touch light and delicate; his situations are uncommonly pleasing, and the leafing of his trees is admirable.
GRIMMA, a bailiwick in the circle of Leipsic, in the kingdom of Saxony, containing five cities, ninety-three villages, and 18,460 inhabitants. The capital, of the same name, is a city situated on the Mulda, containing five churches, 560 houses, and 3500 inhabitants. Several manufactures are carried on, for cloth, flannels, hosiery, cotton articles, linen; surgical, mathematical, and musical instruments; and especially tobacco-pipes, of which some millions are annually made.
GRIMSBY, Great, a borough-town of the county of Lincoln, of the hundred of Bradley, in the division of Lindsay, 171 miles from London, and thirty-six from Lincoln. It stands at the mouth of the river Humber, opposite to Hull. The harbour having been injured, the trade declined; but some recent improvements have produced a revival. It is an ancient borough, and now returns one member to parliament, but formerly two, who were chosen by the freemen, which privilege was obtained by being born in the town, or by marriage with the daughter of a freeman. It had formerly two churches, but only one remains, which is large, in the form of a cross, and contains some handsome monuments. There is an excellent corn market on Thursday. The population amounted in 1801 to 1524, in 1811 to 2747, in 1821 to 3064, and in 1831 to 4225.