account as a builder. In Newcastle, till within a recent period, not a few of the streets and houses were of an antiquated construction, unsuited to the wants of its busy inhabitants, and in the very centre of the town there was an inconvenient piece of waste ground of the extent of twelve acres. But now the town has been much altered and improved, in great measure by the numerous and extensive speculations in building upon which, with the assistance originally of a fortune derived from his wife, Mr. Grainger entered. Prior to 1831 Mr. Grainger had planned and erected, in whole or in part, Higham Place, Leaze's Terrace and Crescent, Eldon Square (from which he realized £20,000, and the Royal Arcade—the last-mentioned alone costing £40,000. But his great work was the planning and construction upon the twelve acres in the centre of the town of nine streets and numerous buildings, to the value of nearly a million pounds sterling. This great undertaking was commenced about August, 1834, and was completed in five years in such a manner as to give to Newcastle some streets, such as Grey Street and Grainger Street, and some buildings, such as the new market, the exchange, and the new theatre, hardly equalled out of the metropolis. Mr. Grainger died July 4, 1861.—R. V. C.
GRAINGER, Thomas, a Scottish civil engineer, was born on the 12th of November, 1794, at Gogar Green, Ratho, near Edinburgh, and completed his education in the university of that city. Amongst other works, he executed the Monkland and Kirkintilloch railway, one of the earliest railways in Scotland; the Paisley and Renfrew railway; the Arbroath and Forfar railway; the Edinburgh, Leith, and Newhaven railway; the Edinburgh and Bathgate railway; and the Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee railway. He also planned and executed the Leeds, Dewsbury, and Manchester railway; the East and West Yorkshire Junction railway; and the Leeds Northern railway. He died on the 25th of July, 1852, in consequence of injuries received in a collision of railway trains.—W. J. M. R.
GRAINVILLE, Jean-Baptiste François Xavier Cousin de, born at Havre in 1746; died at Amiens in 1805. Grainville was educated for the church at the séminaire St. Sulpice. Grainville was first known by his vehement attacks on the projects of the Abbé Sieyes, and by his defence of the old regime. His sermons are described as very eloquent. He did not, however, feel at ease in the church, and he thought of literature as presenting a vocation more suitable to his talents. He wrote a drama, "The Judgment of Paris," which, however, was never acted. He submitted to such regulations as the state imposed on the clergy, but never theoretically assented to the doctrinal christianity of the republic, and was completely thrown out of all relations with the new ecclesiastical institute when the state decreed the worship of the goddess of Reason. He was imprisoned—we know not on what pretence of incivism—and only escaped by pretending to contract a civil marriage, which broke his chains as a priest to the church. An old relative of his was given by the public the name of his wife; in their family he called her cousin. He sought support by keeping a school, but the prejudices of the people against a married priest deprived him of any chance of pupils. A sister of Grainville was married to a brother of St. Pierre, and this led to St. Pierre's seeing a work of Grainville's called "The Last Man," of which he spoke with high praise. It was printed, abused in reviews, did not sell, and Grainville threw himself into the river Somme, which flowed at the end of his garden. Sir Herbert Croft a few years ago hazarded some foolish sentence of praise of Grainville's work, calling it an epic worthy to be classed with Klopstock or Milton. His praise was echoed by Nodier and others; and somebody undertook to translate "The Last Man," from Grainville's French prose into French verse.—J. A., D.
GRAM, Hans, a learned Dane, "the father of critical history," as he has been named, was born at Bjergby, October, 1685. He entered the university in 1703, and astonished the professors by his knowledge, especially of Greek. In 1714 he himself became professor of that language, and as such soon acquired a European reputation. In 1730 he was made royal historiographer and librarian of the royal library, and the following year keeper of the secret archives, whence he soon possessed himself of a vast store of valuable knowledge, which is mostly now to be found in the writings of the Copenhagen Scientific Society, founded at his instance in 1742. He also published various older historical works, and added valuable notes to Meursius' History of Denmark. He was very useful in the reformation of universities and high schools. He died as statsraad, 19th February, 1748.—M. H.
GRAMONT, Antoine III., Duc de, a French marshal, was born in 1604, and died in 1678. He entered the army very young, and was constantly engaged in active service from 1621 till within ten years of his death. He served in France, Germany, and the Netherlands; was eventually promoted to be marshal of France, and afterwards created a peer of the realm. He was also several times employed in diplomatic missions, and was present as ambassador-extraordinary at the election of the emperor at Frankfort in 1657. His last appointment was to the colonelcy of the French Guards. His "Mémoires" were published by his son in 1716.—R. M., A.
GRAMONT, Armand de, Comte de Guiche, a French general, and eldest son of Antoine III., was born in 1638, and died in 1674. He was twice exiled for being too deeply implicated in affairs of gallantly. The first time he withdrew to Poland, and served in the war against the Turks; and the second to Holland, when he fought bravely under De Ruyter at the naval battle of the Texel. Returned to France, he took service under the great Condé, and made himself famous at the celebrated passage of the Rhine during the campaign of 1672. His conduct on this occasion was celebrated by Boileau in his fourth epistle, and is recorded with feminine admiration in the charming letters of Sevigné. In the following year, however, Gramont was defeated in Germany, and shortly afterwards died of chagrin.—R. M., A.
GRAMONT, Gabriel de, a French prelate, son of Roger de Gramont, died in 1534. Gramont played an important part in the political affairs of his country. He was first bishop of Couserans and then of Tarbes. In 1526 he was sent to Spain to try to effect the deliverance of the king of France; and remained at Madrid for some time after the departure of his royal master. At this time Henry VIII. of England was moving heaven and earth to procure the divorce of Catherine of Arragon. As soon as it seemed likely that he would effect his purpose, the French court, anxious to provide the uxorious king with another wife, despatched Gramont on a mission to England. But the wily prelate's advocacy of the claims of the Duchess d'Alençon was in vain. On his return to France, Gramont was made archbishop of Bordeaux, but demitted his charge, a few months afterwards, in favour of his brother Charles de Gramont. The king then sent him to represent France at the Roman court. Among the last political services he rendered his country was the negotiation of the marriage between the duke of Orleans, afterwards Henry II., and the celebrated Catherine de Medicis. He died archbishop of Toulouse.—R. M., A.
GRAMONT, Philibert, Comte de, sometimes less accurately spelled Grammont; born in 1621; died in 1707; grandson of Philibert, comte de Gramont, whose wife was one of the mistresses of Henry IV. The family were fond of claiming to be descended from the intercourse of the king with this lady, and used to say that the king was at one time disposed to acknowledge the father of our hero as his son, and give him rights of precedence by such acknowledgment. He was educated at Pau, and in due time appearing at court as abbé, was given a benefice, and wavered for a while between seeking advancement in the church or the army. Meanwhile he added to such means of support as his benefice gave a good deal by play, in the more secret mysteries of which he was understood to be skilful. He was a professed admirer of the fair sex, and in this character was rash enough to devote his attentions to one of the mistresses of the king; the temptation to this not being the lady's beauty, but the distinction which he hoped to gain by such rivalry. He was exiled, and he chose England as the place of his residence. He had visited London a few years before in the days of Cromwell. It was now the period of the Restoration, and in the court of Charles he passed an idle epicurean life, of which we have an amusing account in the romance founded on facts by his brother-in-law, Hamilton. Gramont married while in England Elizabeth, granddaughter of the first earl of Abercorn. The marriage is said to have been forced upon him by her brothers. Gramont and she were engaged; he was returning to France; was followed to the coast by her brothers; one of whom courteously asked him—"Had he forgotten nothing?" "Oh, yes," was the reply, "I did forget that I was to be married to your sister," and he returned to fulfil the engagement. Gramont, with considerable talents for society, would have had no chance of being remembered but for Hamilton's Memoires de Gramont.—J. A., D.
