Grotta del Cane. [Grotto of the Dog.] A celebrated but small cave at the base of a rocky hill on the southern bank of the Lake Agnano near Naples. The cavern is constantly emitting from its sides and floor quantities of vapor mingled with carbonic-acid gas. The latter, being the heavier, accumulates at the bottom, leaving the upper part of the cave free from gas. The cave derives its name from the common experiment of subjecting a dog to the effects of the gas, and afterwards restoring him by exposure to the air. We tried the old experiment of a dog in the Grotto del Cane, or Charon's Cave; it is not above three or four paces deepe, and about the height of a man, nor very broad. Whatever having life enters it presently expires.... This experiment has been tried on men, as on that poor creature whom Peter of Toledo caus'd to go in; likewise on some Turkish slaves, two soldiers, and other foole-hardy persons, who all perished, and could never be recovered by the water of the lake, as are doggs; for which many learned reasons have been offered, as Simon Majolus in his booke of the Canicular days has mentioned. John Evelyn, 1644. Grotta della Sibylla. See SIBYL'S CAVE. Grotta di Posilipo. [Grotto of Posilipo.] An excavation in the volcanic soil near Naples, at the extremity of the street called the Chiaja. The earliest mention of it was in the time of Nero. It was enlarged in the fifteenth century by Alfonso I. In the centre of the tunnel is a recess, forming the chapel of the Virgin, before which a lamp is always burning. Near the top of the east entrance to the grotto is the Roman columbarium, or sepulchre, known as the tomb of Virgil. See VIRGIL'S TOMB. "Above the grotto are the remains of a columbarium, which, time out of mind, has enjoyed the honor of being called the tomb of Virgil. Nor is it by any means impossible that it is so, though it must be admitted that the weight of evidence is against the claim. But there is quite enough of interest clinging round it from the fact that a long line of poets and scholars, beginning with Petrarch and Boccaccio, have Ah! precious every drape of myrtle And leaf of laurel crowning Virgil's tomb! Is hewn Posilipo's most marvellous grot; And to the prince of Roman bards, whose sleep Is in this singular and lonely spot, Grotto de la Vierge. [Grotto of the Virgin.] A noted place of pilgrimage in the present century at Lourdes, France. Its celebrity began in 1858 through the declarations of a girl who affirmed that the Holy Virgin had appeared to her. In the following year over 200,000 persons visited the spot. In the cavern is a spring which is believed to possess miraculous properties of healing. Grotto of Adelsberg. A celebrated grotto, or cave, in the limestone rock near Adelsberg in Styria, Southern Austria. It is one of the most interesting and extensive in the world, and is hung with the most beautiful stalactites. Grotto of Antiparos. A celebrated stalactitic cavern on the island of Oliaros (Antiparo), in the Ægean Sea. Grotto of Egeria. See FOUNTAIN OF EGERIA. Grotto of Granville. A natural curiosity in Southern France, near Le Bugue. It is a cavern extending a mile in a straight line, and, with its branches, measuring some two or three miles. Grotto of Jeremiah. A spacious cave near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem. Grotto of St. John. A cavern, or grotto, belonging to the monastery of St. John in the island of Patmos, off the west coast of Asia Minor. It is the supposed abode of the apostle John, who had been banished to this island, A.D. 94, by the Roman emperor, Domitian, and who is reported to here have had the visions recorded in the Book of Revelation. Grottos of Beni Hassan. See BENI HASSAN. Growler, The. A United States vessel of war captured by the British, June 3, 1813. ery, and the literary profession was for a long time destroyed." Thackeray. Our theatres are now open, and all Grubstreet is preparing its advice to the managers. We shall undoubtedly hear learned disquisitions on the structure of one actor's legs, and another's eyebrows. We shall be told much of enunciations, tones, and attitudes, and shall have our lightest pleasures commented upon by didactic dulness. Goldsmith When we first visited Grub-street, and with bared head did reverence to the genius of the place, with a "* Salve, magna parens!" we were astonished to learn, on inquiry, that the authors did not dwell there now, but had all removed, years ago, to a sort of "High Life below Stairs," far in the west. Carlyle. Let Budgel charge low Grub-street with his quill, And write whate'er he please, - except my will. Pope. Not with less glory mighty Dulness crown'd, Shall take through Grub-street her tri umphant round, And her Parnassus glancing o'er at once, I'd sooner ballads write, and Grub-street Gay. Grub Street. The former title of Milton Street, Cripplegate, London, which was once the residence of authors of the less fortunate class, and the jest of the more favored. From its being inhabited by these literary hacks, the name was familiarly used to characterize any worthless author or any poor production. This character it seems to have obtained as far back as the time of Cromwell, when the street consisted of low and mean houses, which were let out in lodgings, Grüne Gewölbe. See GREEN GALin many instances to persons whose occupation was publishing anonymously what were then deemed libellous or treasonable works. John Foxe the martyrologist, Speed the historian, and other authors, resided in Grub Street. Memoirs of the Society of Grub Street appeared in 1737. Its name was changed to Milton Street in 1830. The name Grub Street, as a term of reproach or contempt, is said to have been first used with reference to the works of Foxe. The present designation of the street is taken from the name of one Milton, a build er, and not, as might naturally be conjectured, from that of the poet. "Pope's arrows are so sharp, and his slaughter so wholesale, that the reader's sympathies are often enlisted on the side of the devoted inhabitants of Grub Street. He it was who brought the notion of a vile Grub Street before the minds of the general public; he it was who created such associations as author and rags, author and dirt, author and gin. The occupation of authorship became ignoble through his graphic description of mis LERY. Grütli. A meadow on the shore of Guards. See Horse GUARDS. founded in 1810, and confined to Guelfa, Torre. See TORRE GUEL- Guernica, Oak of. See OAK OF "The wand of British invincibility was broken when the flag of the Guerrière came down. That one event was worth more to the Republic than all the money which has ever been expended for the navy. R. F. Stockton. Guildhall, The. A name of general application, but specially used to designate the Town-Hall of the city of London, where the principal corporation business is transacted, and its hospitality exercised. The Guildhall will contain between 6,000 and 7,000 persons. The inauguration dinners of the lord-mayors have been held here since 1501. It is magnificently decorated upon the occasion of royal entertainments. The present, or third Guildhall, was first built in 1411, though but little more than the walls of the original building now remain. See GOG AND MAGOG. "The building itself is a strange architectural medley. . The great hall, however, has the grandeur which, in architecture, is always given, in a certain degree, by size. It is 150 feet long. The building has its name from the fact that it was erected by the united efforts of the various guilds of the city, -associations, or rather trading and social institutions, of which the very germ seems not to have crossed the ocean." Richard Grant White. Our great fault with writers used to be, not that they were intrinsically more or less completed Dolts, with no eye or ear for the "open secret" of the world, or for any thing save the "open display " of the world, for its gilt ceilings, marketable pleasures, war-chariots, and all manner, to the highest manner, of Lord-Mayor shows and Guildhall dinners, and their own small part and lot therein: but the head and front of their offence lay in this, that they had not "frequented the society of the upper classes." Carlyle. Gloster. Go after, after, Cousin Buck ingham. The Mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post: There, at your meetest vantage of the time, Infer the bastardy of Edward's children: Tell them how Edward put to death a citizen, Only for saying he would make his son Heir to the crown; meaning, indeed, his house, Which, by the sign thereof, was termed so. Buck. I go; and, towards three or four o'clock, Look for the news that the Guildhall affords. Gutenberg. Shakespeare. A bronze statue of the inventor, modelled by Albert Bertel Thorwaldsen (1770-1844), erected in 1837 at Mayence, the expense being defrayed by subscriptions from all parts of Europe. Gutenfels. A well-known stately castle on the banks of the Rhine, near the town of Caub. It is alluded to as early as 1257. In 1504 it was besieged for six weeks by the Landgrave William of Hessen, but without success. It remained in a habitable condition till the beginning of the present century, when, in 1805, it was demolished by order of Napoleon, and is now but a picturesque ruin. Guy Fawkes's Cellar. An underground apartment, which formerly served as a kitchen, in the old palace at Westminster, and into which the conspirators obtained entrance from an adjoining house. The Parliament chamber above this vault was taken down about the year 1823. Guy's Cliff. A noted spot, the retreat of the famous Earl Guy of Warwick, where he and his countess are supposed to be buried, about a mile from Warwick Castle, in England. It has a fine mansion and a romantic cavern, and is one of the places generally visited by tourists. Guy's Hospital. An institution for the sick and lame, near London Bridge, in Southwark, London, founded by Thomas Guy (b 1645). Gymnasium of Ptolemy, or Stoa of Attalus. A marble building in ancient Athens. Pausanias says, that in the Gymnasium, "which is not far from the Agora, and is called Ptolemæum from him who built it, are Hermæ of stone worth inspection." HERMÆ. See Gyzen George. A remarkable portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger (1498?-1543), pronounced by Ruskin "inexhaustible." Now in Berlin, Prussia. H. See With ancient trophies of baronial might. Henry Alford. Hadrian's Gate, or Arch. ARCH OF HADRIAN. Hadrian's Mausoleum (Mole, or Tomb). See ST. ANGELO. The highest part [of a monument at St. Rémi] is a circular colonnade, a miniature copy of that which we know to have once encircled Hadrian's Mole. Fergusson. Hadrian's Villa. [Ital. Villa Adriana.] A famous and wonderful relic of imperial times on a plain at the foot of the hill of Tivoli, in the neighborhood of Rome. The emperor Hadrian having resolved to reproduce all the most striking objects which he had seen in his extensive travels, chose for the purpose a spot singularly favorable by its natural advantages; and in a short time, with the immense resources at his command, he covered the ground with a vast number of costly and extensive structures. He is said to have enclosed in this way a space eight or ten miles in circuit. At the present day the ruins present the appearance of a confused mass of buildings going to decay. Within seventy years after the death of Hadrian, many of the precious marbles used in the construction of these buildings were carried by Caracalla to Rome to decorate the Baths which he had then begun. "It rather resembled a city in itself than a single mansion. These proud imperial ruins are now lost among thick olive-groves; their floors, instead of being paved with pictured mosaics, are overgrown with grass; their once magnificent halls are filled with thickets of aged ilex; yet enough still remains to attest their former extent and splendor." Eaton. "Before quitting the Villa Adriana, I filled my pockets with bits of porphyry, alabaster, verd antique, and pieces of stucco and mosaic, all which afterwards threw away. Many trav ellers who have gone before me have written their names on the marbles of the Villa Adriana. They have hoped to prolong their existence by attaching a memorial of their fleeting presence to celebrated spots; but they have been deceived. While I was attempting to decipher a name newly written in pencil, a bird started from a tuft of ivy, and a few drops of the recent shower were shaken from its leaves, and, falling upon the name, blotted it out forever. Châteaubriand, Trans. Hadrian's Wall. This wall ex tended from Bowness (Tunnocelum) on the Solway Firth, a distance of nearly 70 miles, to Wallsend (Segedunum) on the Tyne. There were 23 towns on its line; and between these towns, at intervals of a Roman mile, were fortresses, or "mile-castles." The common opinion |