GROOMBRIDGE 



Groombridge. Village of Sus- 

 sex, England. It is 3J m. S.W. ot 

 Tunbridge Wells, 34J m. from Lon- 

 don, on the L.B. & S.C.R., which 

 has a junction here, and in the 

 parishes of Speldhurst (Kent) and 

 Withyham (Sussex). The church 

 at Speldhurst has windows by 

 Burne-Jones ; that of S. John the 

 Baptist, chapel- of -ease to Speld- 

 hurst Church, was formerly a 

 private chapel. From the Cob- 

 hams, who had a licence to hold a 

 market in 1285, the village passed 

 to the Wallers. Groombridge Place 

 is an old moated house. Pop. 790. 

 Groombridge, STEPHEN (1755- 

 1832). British astronomer. Born 

 Jan 7. 1755, he succeeded to the 

 ,,,, business of ;x 

 1 linen-draper in 

 ! r '] West Smith- 



field, London, 

 and it was not 

 till 1802 that 

 he was able to 

 l^SKr*- - ^fl study astron- 

 ; JJH omy seriously. 

 M I 3B In 1800 he 



S. Groombridge, began com- 

 British astronomer pi]ing a cata . 



From a print l Qgue Q f starg 



down to 8'9 magnitude, within 50 

 of the N. Pole, and six years later 

 he was made F.R.S. He had made 

 some 50,000 observations, and was 

 engaged upon the correction and 

 completion of his catalogue when 

 attacked by paralysis. His work 

 was published in 1838, under the 

 supervision of Sir George Airy. He 

 died March 30, 1832. 



Groome, FRANCIS HINDES 

 (1851-1902). British author. Born 

 at Earl Soham, Suffolk, Aug. 30, 

 1851, he graduated at Oxford and 

 Gottingen, and took up literature 

 as a profession. He was connected 

 with various encyclopedias, but is 

 principally known from his research 

 in gypsy lore. In Gypsy Tents, 

 1880, was his first contribution to 

 gypsy knowledge, and Gypsy 

 Folk Tales, 1899, contained much 

 of value and interest. ^He also 

 wrote A Short Border 'History. 

 1887, and Two Suffolk Friends^ 

 1895 ; and edited Borrow's Laven- 

 gro in 1900. He died Jan. 24, 1902. 



Groot OE GROETE, GERHARD 

 (1340-84). Dutch reformer. Born 

 at Deventer in the Netherlands, he 

 became a wandering preacher, and 

 founded the Brethren of the Com- 

 mon Life (q.v. ), a communal society 

 which continued to flourish till the 

 Reformation. He died Aug. 20, 1384. 



Groote Eylandt OR GREAT 

 ISLAND. Largest island in the Gulf 

 of Carpentaria. It lies off the S.E. 

 coast of ArnhemLand and measures 

 40m. in width and length. Its 

 mountainous centre and barren 

 shores have been little explored. 



37 1-3 



Groote Schuur. Official resi- 

 dence of the premier of the Union 

 of S. Africa. It is near Rondes- 

 bosch station, about 3J m. from 

 Cape Town, Observatory Road 

 connecting the two. The house 



Groote Schuur, near Cape Town. 



The official residence of the premier 



of South Africa 



was formerly the residence of Cecil 

 Rhodes, who built it, but there 

 appears to have been one here 

 before 1652 Near it is the Rhodes 

 Memorial, a replica of Physical 

 Energy, by G. F. Watts. 



Gros, ANTOINB JEAN, BARON 

 (1771-1835). French painter. Born 

 in Paris, March 16. 1771, he studied 

 under Jacques 

 Louis David 

 and in Italy. 

 Having won 

 the approval of 

 Napoleon b y 

 liis picture of 

 The Battle of 

 A r c o 1 a, he 

 made him the 

 central figure 

 of many of his 

 canvases, now in the Louvre and 

 at Versailles, among them Napoleon 

 Visiting the Plague - stricken at 

 Jaffa, 1804, The Battle of Aboukir, 

 1806, Napoleon at Eylau, 1808, 

 and The Battle of the Pyramids, 

 1810. After the Restoration Gros 

 continued to paint in the grand 

 manner, his chief work being the 

 decoration of the dome of the 

 Pantheon hi Paris. Having lost 

 his hold on the public, he took this 

 so much to heart that he drowned 

 himself in the Seine, his body 

 being found at Meudon, June 26, 

 1835. Besides battle and historical 

 pieces he painted numerous por- 

 traits. See Eylau. Pron. Gro. 



Grosart, ALEXANDER BALLOCH 

 (1827-99). British author, editor, 

 and antiquary. Born June 18, 



Antoine Jean Gros, 

 French painter 



GROSE 



1827, at Stirling, and educated at 

 Falkirkand Edinburgh universities, 

 he became United Presbyterian 

 minister at Kinross, 1856-65 ; 

 Princes Park, Liverpool, 1865-68 ; 

 and Blackburn, 1868-92. He died 

 9 in Dublin, March 16, 1899. Suc- 

 cessful as a preacher and minister, 

 his interest in Puritan theology led 

 him to a life-long study of the prose 

 and poetry of the 16th and 17th 

 centuries, with the result that he 

 made a substantial contribution to 

 the common knowledge of Eliza- 

 bethan and Jacobean literature, as 

 editor of works and MSS. not before 

 accessible to the general reader. 



He issued by subscription the 

 Fuller Worthies Library, 39 vols., 

 1868-76; Chertsey Worthies Li- 

 brary, 14 vols., 1876-81 ; Huth Li- 

 brary, 33 vols., 1881-86; and Occa- 

 sional Issues of RareBooks, 38 vols., 

 1875-81. He edited the prose of 

 Wordsworth, 1876, and the com- 

 plete works of Spenser, 1880-88, 

 and Daniel, 1896; and wrote 

 several works of devotion and 

 hymns. His discoveries included 

 poems by Richard Crashaw. 



Grosbeak (Fr. grosbec). Bird of 

 the finch family, nearly related to 

 the hawfinch. It is common in the 

 pine forests of 

 N. Europe, and 

 is a rare winter 

 migrant to 

 Great Britain, j 

 The male is j 

 rosy crimson, 

 the female 

 grey. The bird 

 has a large and 

 massive beak, 

 whence its \ 

 name.$eeBeak. 

 Groschen 

 (Low L a t. 

 grossus, big, 

 denarius, 

 penny). Obso- 

 lete coin of 

 silver with a considerable admix- 

 ture of copper, formerly current 

 in various parts of JNf. Germany. 

 Its value was -fa of a thaler, or 

 rather more than a penny. It 

 went out of circulation between 

 1873-76. Catherine I of Russia 

 struck a copper grosch in 1727, 

 value one kopeck. 



Grose, FRANCIS (1731-91 ). Eng- 

 lish draughtsman and antiquary. 

 Born at Greenford, Middlesex, 

 the son of an opulent Swiss 

 jeweller, he was Richmond herald, 

 1755-63, and became F.S.A. in 

 1757. Prolonged tours resulted in 

 his Antiquities of England and 

 Wales, 1773-87. While collecting 

 the material for his Antiquities of 

 Scotland, 1789-91, he met Burns, 

 who wrote a poem on the subject 

 of his peregrinations warning 



I 5 





Grosbeak. Speci- 

 men of the Cocco- 

 thraustes mela- 

 noxanthus 



