When the Norsemen came to Greenland they found various remains indicating, as the old sagas say, that there had been people of a similar kind as those they met with in Vinland, in America, whom they calledSkraeling(the meaning of the word is uncertain, it means possibly weak people); but the sagas do not report that they actually met the natives then. But somewhat later they have probably met with the Eskimo farther north on the west coast in the neighbourhood of Disco Bay, where the Norsemen went to catch seals, walrus, &c. The Norse colonists penetrated on these fishing expeditions at least to 73º N., where a small runic stone from the 14th century has been found. On a voyage in 1267 they penetrated even still farther north into the Melville Bay.
Christianity was introduced by Leif Ericsson at the instance of Olaf Trygvasson, king of Norway, in 1000 and following years. In the beginning of the 12th century Greenland got its own bishop, who resided at Garolar, near the present Eskimo station Igoliko, on an isthmus between two fjords, Igaliksfjord (the old Einarsfjord) and Tunugdliarfik (the old Eriksfjord), inside the present colony Julianehaab. The Norse colonies had twelve churches, one monastery and one nunnery in the Österbygd, and four churches in the Vesterbygd. Greenland, like Iceland, had a republican organization up to the years 1247 to 1261, when the Greenlanders were induced to swear allegiance to the king of Norway. Greenland belonged to the Norwegian crown till 1814, when, at the dissolution of the union between Denmark and Norway, neither it nor Iceland and the Faeroes were mentioned, and they, therefore, were kept by the Danish king and thus came to Denmark. The settlements were called respectivelyÖster Bygd(or eastern settlement) andVester(western)Bygd, both being now known to be on the south and west coast (in the districts of Julianehaab and Godthaab respectively), though for long the view was persistently held that the first was on the east coast, and numerous expeditions have been sent in search of these “lost colonies” and their imaginary survivors. These settlements at the height of their prosperity are estimated to have had 10,000 inhabitants, which, however, is an over-estimate, the number having probably been nearer one-half or one-third of that number. The last bishop appointed to Greenland died in 1540, but long before that date those appointed had never reached their sees; the last bishop who resided in Greenland died there in 1377. After the middle of the 14th century very little is heard of the settlements, and their communication with the motherland, Norway, evidently gradually ceased. This may have been due in great part to the fact that the shipping and trade of Greenland became a monopoly of the king of Norway, who kept only one ship sailing at long intervals (of years) to Greenland; at the same time the shipping and trade of Norway came more and more in the hands of the Hanseatic League, which took no interest in Greenland. The last ship that is known to have visited the Norse colony in Greenland returned to Norway in 1410. With no support from home the settlements seem to have decayed rapidly. It has been supposed that they were destroyed by attacks of the Eskimo, who about this period seem to have become more numerous and to have extended southwards along the coast from the north. This seems a less feasible explanation; it is more probable that the Norse settlers intermarried with the Eskimo and were gradually absorbed. About the end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century it would appear that all Norse colonization had practically disappeared. When in 1585 John Davis visited it there was no sign of any people save the Eskimo, among whose traditions are a few directly relating to the old Norsemen, and several traces of Norse influence.40For more than two hundred years Greenland seems to have been neglected, almost forgotten. It was visited by whalers, chiefly Dutch, but nothing in the form of permanent European settlements was established until the year 1721, when the first missionary, the Norwegian clergyman Hans Egede, landed, and established a settlement near Godthaab. Amid many hardships and discouragements he persevered; and at the present day the native race is civilized and Christianized. Many of the colonists of the 18th century were convicts and other offenders; and in 1750 the trade became a monopoly in the hands of a private company. In 1733-1734 there was a dreadful epidemic of smallpox, which destroyed a great number of the people. In 1774 the trade ceased to be profitable as a private monopoly, and to prevent it being abandoned the government took it over. Julianehaab was founded in the following year. In 1807-1814, owing to the war, communication was cut off with Norway and Denmark; but subsequently the colony prospered in a languid fashion.
Authorities.—As to the discovery of Greenland by the Norsemen and its early history see Konrad Maurer’s excellent paper, “Geschichte der Entdeckung Ostgrönlands” in the report ofDie zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt 1869-1870(Leipzig, 1874), vol. i.; G. Storm,Studies on the “Vineland” Voyages(Copenhagen, 1889);Extraits des Mémoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord(1888); K. J. V. Steenstrup, “Om Österbygden,”Meddelelser om Grönland, part ix. (1882), pp. 1-51; Finnur Jônsson, “Grönlands gamle Topografi efter Kilderne” inMeddelelser om Grönland, part xx. (1899), pp. 265-329; Joseph Fischer,The Discoveries of the Norsemen in America, translated from German by B. H. Soulsby (London, 1903). As to the general literature on Greenland, a number of the more important modern works have been noticed in footnotes. The often-quotedMeddelelser om Grönlandis of especial value; it is published in parts (Copenhagen) since 1879, and is chiefly written in Danish, but each part has a summary in French. In part xiii. there is a most valuable list of literature about Greenland up to 1880. See alsoGeographical Journal, passim.Amongst other important books on Greenland may be mentioned: Hans Egede,Description of Greenland(London, 1745); Crantz,History of Greenland(2 vols., London, 1820);Grönlands historiske Mindesmerker(3 vols., Copenhagen, 1838-1845); H. Rink,Danish Greenland(London, 1877); H. Rink,Tales of the Eskimo(London, 1875); (see also same, “Eskimo Tribes” inMeddelelser om Grönland, part xi.); Johnstrup,Giesecke’s Mineralogiske Reise i Grönland(Copenhagen, 1878).
Authorities.—As to the discovery of Greenland by the Norsemen and its early history see Konrad Maurer’s excellent paper, “Geschichte der Entdeckung Ostgrönlands” in the report ofDie zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt 1869-1870(Leipzig, 1874), vol. i.; G. Storm,Studies on the “Vineland” Voyages(Copenhagen, 1889);Extraits des Mémoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord(1888); K. J. V. Steenstrup, “Om Österbygden,”Meddelelser om Grönland, part ix. (1882), pp. 1-51; Finnur Jônsson, “Grönlands gamle Topografi efter Kilderne” inMeddelelser om Grönland, part xx. (1899), pp. 265-329; Joseph Fischer,The Discoveries of the Norsemen in America, translated from German by B. H. Soulsby (London, 1903). As to the general literature on Greenland, a number of the more important modern works have been noticed in footnotes. The often-quotedMeddelelser om Grönlandis of especial value; it is published in parts (Copenhagen) since 1879, and is chiefly written in Danish, but each part has a summary in French. In part xiii. there is a most valuable list of literature about Greenland up to 1880. See alsoGeographical Journal, passim.
Amongst other important books on Greenland may be mentioned: Hans Egede,Description of Greenland(London, 1745); Crantz,History of Greenland(2 vols., London, 1820);Grönlands historiske Mindesmerker(3 vols., Copenhagen, 1838-1845); H. Rink,Danish Greenland(London, 1877); H. Rink,Tales of the Eskimo(London, 1875); (see also same, “Eskimo Tribes” inMeddelelser om Grönland, part xi.); Johnstrup,Giesecke’s Mineralogiske Reise i Grönland(Copenhagen, 1878).
(F. N.)
1Inglefield,Summer Search for Franklin(London, 1853).2Second Grinnell Expedition(2 vols., Philadelphia, 1856).3Davis, Polaris (Hall’s)North Polar Expedition(Washington, 1876). See also Bessels,Die amerikanische Nordpol-Expedition(Leipzig, 1879).4Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale Fishery(1823).5Die zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt(1873-1875).6Reise til Östkysten af Grönland(1832; trans. by G. Gordon Macdougall, 1837).7Meddelelser om Grönland, parts ix. and x. (Copenhagen, 1888).8The First Crossing of Greenland, vol. i. (London, 1890), H. Mohn and F. Nansen; “Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse von Dr F. Nansen Durchquerung von Grönland” (1888). Ergänzungsheft No. 105 zuPetermanns Mitteilungen(Gotha, 1892).9A. F. Nordenskiöld,Den andra Dicksonska Expeditionen til Grönland(Stockholm, 1885).10Meddelelser om Grönland, pts. xvii.-xix. (Copenhagen, 1895-1896).11Geografisk Tidskrift, xv. 53-71 (Copenhagen, 1899).12Ibid.vii. 76-79 (Copenhagen, 1884).13The Geographical Journal, xiv. 534 (1899); xvii. 48 (1901);Två Somrar i Norra Ishafvet(Stockholm, 1901).14Meddelelser om Grönland, parts xxvi.-xxvii.15Nares,Voyage to the Polar Sea(2 vols. London, 1877). See also Blue Book, journals, &c., (Nares) Expedition, 1875-1876 (London, 1877).16A. W. Greely,Report on the Proceedings of the United States Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, Grinnell Land, vols. i. and ii. (Washington, 1885);Three Years of Arctic Service(2 vols. London, 1886).17R. E. Peary,Northward over the “Great Ice”(2 vols. New York, 1898); E. Astrup,Blandt Nordpolen’s Naboer(Christiania, 1895).18Meddelelser om Grönland, part i. (Copenhagen, 1879).19Ibid.part xvi. (Copenhagen, 1896).20See C. Kruuse inGeografisk Tidskrift, xv. 64 (Copenhagen, 1899). See also F. Nansen, “Die Ostküste Grönlands,” Ergänzungsheft No. 105 zuPetermanns Mitteilungen(Gotha, 1892), p. 55 and pl. iv., sketch No. 11.21E. v. Drygalski,Grönland-Expedition der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1891-1893(2 vols., Berlin, 1897).22Meddelelser om Grönland, part viii. pp. 203-270 (Copenhagen, 1889).23Ibid.part iv. p. 230 (Copenhagen, 1883); see also part xiv. pp. 317 et seq., 323.24Ibid.part xiv. p. 323 (Copenhagen, 1898).25Ibid.part ii. pp. 181-188 (Copenhagen, 1881).26Ibid.part i. pp. 99-101 (Copenhagen, 1879).27Ibid.part ii. p. 39 (Copenhagen, 1881); part xvi. pp. 150-154 (1896).28Ibid., part xix. p. 175 (1896).29Ibid.part i. p. 34; part ii. p. 40; part xiv. pp. 343-347; part iv. p. 237; part viii. p. 26.30See A. G. Nathorst, “Bidrag till nordöstra Grönlands geologi,” with mapGeologiska Foreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar, No. 257, Bd. 23, Heft 4, 1901; O. Heer,Flora fossilis Arctica(7 vols., 1868-1883), and especiallyMeddelelser om Grönlandfor numerous papers on the geology and palaeontology.31Medd. om Grönl., part iv. pp. 115-131 (Copenhagen, 1883).32See Peary,Northward over the “Great Ice,”ii. 604 et seq. (New York, 1898).33Seeloc. cit.pp. 127-128.34H. Mohn, “The Climate of the Interior of Greenland,”The Scott. Geogr. Magazine, vol. ix. (Edinburgh, 1893), pp. 142-145, 199; H. Mohn and F. Nansen, “Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse,” &c. Ergänzungsheft No. 105zu Petermanns Mitteilungen(1892), p. 51.35On the climate of the east coast of Greenland see V. Willaume-Jantzen,Meddelelser om Grönland, part ix. (1889), pp. 285-310, part xvii. (1895), pp. 171-180.36See A. Paulsen,Meteorolog. Zeitschrift(1889), p. 241; F. Nansen,The First Crossing of Greenland(London, 1890), vol. ii. pp. 496-497; H. Mohn and F. Nansen, “Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse,” &c. Ergänzungsheft No. 105zu Petermanns Mitteilungen(1892), p. 51.37H. Winge, “Grönlands Fugle,”Meddelelser om Grönland, part xxi. pp. 62-63 (Copenhagen, 1899).38See J. Lange, “Conspectus florae Groenlandicae,”Meddelelser om Grönland, part iii. (Copenhagen, 1880 and 1887); E. Warming, “Om Grönlands Vegetation,”Meddelelser om Grönland, part xii. (Copenhagen, 1888); and inBotanische Jahrbücher, vol. x. (1888-1889). See also A. Blytt,Englers Jahrbücher, ii. (1882), pp. 1-50; A. G. Nathorst,Ötversigt af K. Vetenskap. Akad. Forhandl.(Stockholm, 1884); “Kritische Bemerkungen über die Geschichte der Vegetation Grönlands,”Botanische Jahrbücher, vol. xiv. (1891).39Owing to representations of the Swedish government in 1874 as to the killing of seals at breeding time on the east coast of Greenland, and the consequent loss of young seals left to die of starvation, the Seal Fisheries Act 1875 was passed in England to provide for the establishment of a close time for seal fishery in the seas in question. This act empowered the crown, by order in council, to put its provisions in force, when any foreign state, whose ships or subjects were engaged in the seal fishery in the area mentioned in the schedule thereto, had made, or was about to make, similar provisions with respect to its ships and subjects. An order in council under the act, declaring the season to begin on the 3rd of April in each year, was issued February 8, 1876. Rescinded February 15, 1876, it was re-enacted on November 28, 1876, and is still operative.40Cf. F. Nansen,Eskimo Life(London, 1893).
1Inglefield,Summer Search for Franklin(London, 1853).
2Second Grinnell Expedition(2 vols., Philadelphia, 1856).
3Davis, Polaris (Hall’s)North Polar Expedition(Washington, 1876). See also Bessels,Die amerikanische Nordpol-Expedition(Leipzig, 1879).
4Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale Fishery(1823).
5Die zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt(1873-1875).
6Reise til Östkysten af Grönland(1832; trans. by G. Gordon Macdougall, 1837).
7Meddelelser om Grönland, parts ix. and x. (Copenhagen, 1888).
8The First Crossing of Greenland, vol. i. (London, 1890), H. Mohn and F. Nansen; “Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse von Dr F. Nansen Durchquerung von Grönland” (1888). Ergänzungsheft No. 105 zuPetermanns Mitteilungen(Gotha, 1892).
9A. F. Nordenskiöld,Den andra Dicksonska Expeditionen til Grönland(Stockholm, 1885).
10Meddelelser om Grönland, pts. xvii.-xix. (Copenhagen, 1895-1896).
11Geografisk Tidskrift, xv. 53-71 (Copenhagen, 1899).
12Ibid.vii. 76-79 (Copenhagen, 1884).
13The Geographical Journal, xiv. 534 (1899); xvii. 48 (1901);Två Somrar i Norra Ishafvet(Stockholm, 1901).
14Meddelelser om Grönland, parts xxvi.-xxvii.
15Nares,Voyage to the Polar Sea(2 vols. London, 1877). See also Blue Book, journals, &c., (Nares) Expedition, 1875-1876 (London, 1877).
16A. W. Greely,Report on the Proceedings of the United States Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, Grinnell Land, vols. i. and ii. (Washington, 1885);Three Years of Arctic Service(2 vols. London, 1886).
17R. E. Peary,Northward over the “Great Ice”(2 vols. New York, 1898); E. Astrup,Blandt Nordpolen’s Naboer(Christiania, 1895).
18Meddelelser om Grönland, part i. (Copenhagen, 1879).
19Ibid.part xvi. (Copenhagen, 1896).
20See C. Kruuse inGeografisk Tidskrift, xv. 64 (Copenhagen, 1899). See also F. Nansen, “Die Ostküste Grönlands,” Ergänzungsheft No. 105 zuPetermanns Mitteilungen(Gotha, 1892), p. 55 and pl. iv., sketch No. 11.
21E. v. Drygalski,Grönland-Expedition der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1891-1893(2 vols., Berlin, 1897).
22Meddelelser om Grönland, part viii. pp. 203-270 (Copenhagen, 1889).
23Ibid.part iv. p. 230 (Copenhagen, 1883); see also part xiv. pp. 317 et seq., 323.
24Ibid.part xiv. p. 323 (Copenhagen, 1898).
25Ibid.part ii. pp. 181-188 (Copenhagen, 1881).
26Ibid.part i. pp. 99-101 (Copenhagen, 1879).
27Ibid.part ii. p. 39 (Copenhagen, 1881); part xvi. pp. 150-154 (1896).
28Ibid., part xix. p. 175 (1896).
29Ibid.part i. p. 34; part ii. p. 40; part xiv. pp. 343-347; part iv. p. 237; part viii. p. 26.
30See A. G. Nathorst, “Bidrag till nordöstra Grönlands geologi,” with mapGeologiska Foreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar, No. 257, Bd. 23, Heft 4, 1901; O. Heer,Flora fossilis Arctica(7 vols., 1868-1883), and especiallyMeddelelser om Grönlandfor numerous papers on the geology and palaeontology.
31Medd. om Grönl., part iv. pp. 115-131 (Copenhagen, 1883).
32See Peary,Northward over the “Great Ice,”ii. 604 et seq. (New York, 1898).
33Seeloc. cit.pp. 127-128.
34H. Mohn, “The Climate of the Interior of Greenland,”The Scott. Geogr. Magazine, vol. ix. (Edinburgh, 1893), pp. 142-145, 199; H. Mohn and F. Nansen, “Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse,” &c. Ergänzungsheft No. 105zu Petermanns Mitteilungen(1892), p. 51.
35On the climate of the east coast of Greenland see V. Willaume-Jantzen,Meddelelser om Grönland, part ix. (1889), pp. 285-310, part xvii. (1895), pp. 171-180.
36See A. Paulsen,Meteorolog. Zeitschrift(1889), p. 241; F. Nansen,The First Crossing of Greenland(London, 1890), vol. ii. pp. 496-497; H. Mohn and F. Nansen, “Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse,” &c. Ergänzungsheft No. 105zu Petermanns Mitteilungen(1892), p. 51.
37H. Winge, “Grönlands Fugle,”Meddelelser om Grönland, part xxi. pp. 62-63 (Copenhagen, 1899).
38See J. Lange, “Conspectus florae Groenlandicae,”Meddelelser om Grönland, part iii. (Copenhagen, 1880 and 1887); E. Warming, “Om Grönlands Vegetation,”Meddelelser om Grönland, part xii. (Copenhagen, 1888); and inBotanische Jahrbücher, vol. x. (1888-1889). See also A. Blytt,Englers Jahrbücher, ii. (1882), pp. 1-50; A. G. Nathorst,Ötversigt af K. Vetenskap. Akad. Forhandl.(Stockholm, 1884); “Kritische Bemerkungen über die Geschichte der Vegetation Grönlands,”Botanische Jahrbücher, vol. xiv. (1891).
39Owing to representations of the Swedish government in 1874 as to the killing of seals at breeding time on the east coast of Greenland, and the consequent loss of young seals left to die of starvation, the Seal Fisheries Act 1875 was passed in England to provide for the establishment of a close time for seal fishery in the seas in question. This act empowered the crown, by order in council, to put its provisions in force, when any foreign state, whose ships or subjects were engaged in the seal fishery in the area mentioned in the schedule thereto, had made, or was about to make, similar provisions with respect to its ships and subjects. An order in council under the act, declaring the season to begin on the 3rd of April in each year, was issued February 8, 1876. Rescinded February 15, 1876, it was re-enacted on November 28, 1876, and is still operative.
40Cf. F. Nansen,Eskimo Life(London, 1893).
GREENLAW(a “grassy hill”), a town of Berwickshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 611. It is situated on the Blackadder, 62¼ m. S.E. of Edinburgh by the North British railway company’s branch line from Reston Junction to St Boswells. The town was built towards the end of the 17th century, to take the place of an older one, which stood about a mile to the S.E. It was the county town from 1696 to 1853, when for several years it shared this dignity with Duns, which, however, is now the sole capital. The chief manufactures are woollens and agricultural implements. About 3 m. to the S. the ruin of Hume Castle, founded in the 13th century, occupies a commanding site. Captured by the English in 1547, in spite of Lady Home’s gallant defence, it was retaken two years afterwards, only to fall again in 1569. After its surrender to Cromwell in 1650 it gradually decayed. Towards the close of the 18th century the 3rd earl of Marchmont had the walls rebuilt out of the old stones, and the castle, though a mere shell of the original structure, is now a picturesque ruin.
GREENLEAF, SIMON(1783-1853), American jurist, was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, on the 5th of December 1783. When a child he was taken by his father to Maine, where he studied law, and in 1806 began to practise at Standish. He soon removed to Gray, where he practised for twelve years, and in 1818 removed to Portland. He was reporter of the supreme court of Maine from 1820 to 1832, and published nine volumes ofReports of Cases in the Supreme Court of Maine(1822-1835). In 1833 he became Royall professor, and in 1846 succeeded Judge Joseph Story as Dane professor of law in Harvard University; in 1848 he retired from his active duties, and became professor emeritus. After being for many years president of the Massachusetts Bible Society, he died at Cambridge, Mass., on the 6th of October 1853. Greenleaf’s principal work is aTreatise on the Law of Evidence(3 vols., 1842-1853). He also publishedA Full Collection of Cases Overruled, Denied, Doubted, or Limited in their Application, taken from American and English Reports(1821), andExamination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence administered in the Courts of Justice, with an account of the Trial of Jesus(1846; London, 1847). He revised for the American courts William Cruise’sDigest of Laws respecting Real Property(3 vols., 1849-1850).
GREEN MONKEY,a west African representative of the typical group of the guenon monkeys technically known asCercopithecus callitrichus, taking its name from the olive-greenish hue of the fur of the back, which forms a marked contrast to the white whiskers and belly.
GREENOCK,a municipal and police burgh and seaport of Renfrewshire, Scotland, on the southern shore of the Firth of Clyde, 23 m. W. by N. of Glasgow by the Caledonian and the Glasgow & South-Western railways, 21 m. by the river and firth. Pop. (1901) 68,142. The town has a water frontage of nearly 4 m. and rises gradually to the hills behind the town in which are situated, about 3 m. distant, Loch Thom and Loch Gryfe, from both of which is derived the water supply for domestic use, and for driving several mills and factories. The streets arelaid out on the comparatively level tract behind the firth, the older thoroughfares and buildings lying in the centre. The west end contains numerous handsome villas and a fine esplanade, 1½ m. long, running from Prince’s Pier to Fort Matilda, which is supplied with submarine mines for the defence of the river. The capacious bay, formerly known as the Bay of St Lawrence from a religious house long since demolished, is protected by a sandbank that ends here, and is hence known as the Tail of the Bank. The fairway between this bank, which begins to the west of Dumbarton, and the southern shore constitutes the safest anchorage in the upper firth. There is a continuous line of electric tramways, connecting with Port Glasgow on the east and Gourock on the west, a total distance of 7½ m. The annual rainfall amounts to 64 in. and Greenock thus has the reputation of being the wettest town in Scotland.
Many of the public buildings are fine structures. The municipal buildings, an ornate example of Italian Renaissance, with a tower 244 ft. high, were opened in 1887. The custom house on the old steamboat quay, in classic style with a Doric portico, dates from 1818. The county buildings (1867) have a tower and spire 112 ft. high. The Watt Institution, founded in 1837 by a son of the famous engineer, James Watt, contains the public library (established in 1783), the Watt scientific library (presented in 1816 by Watt himself), and the marble statue of James Watt by Sir Francis Chantrey. Adjoining it are the museum and lecture hall, the gift of James McLean, opened in 1876. Other buildings are the sheriff court house, and the Spence Library, founded by the widow of William Spence the mathematician. In addition to numerous board schools there are the Greenock academy for secondary education, the technical college (1900), the school of art, and a school of navigation and engineering. The charitable institutions include the infirmary; the cholera hospital; the eye infirmary; the fever reception house; Sir Gabriel Wood’s mariners’ asylum, an Elizabethan building erected in 1851 for the accommodation of aged merchant seamen; and the Smithson poorhouse and lunatic asylum, built beyond the southern boundary in 1879. Near Albert Harbour stands the old west now the north parish church (a Gothic edifice dating from 1591) containing some stained-glass windows by William Morris; in its kirkyard Burns’s “Highland Mary” was buried (1786). The west parish church in Nicholson Street (1839) is in the Italian Renaissance style and has a campanile. The middle parish church (1759) in Cathcart Square is in the Classic style with a fine spire. Besides burial grounds near the infirmary and attached to a few of the older churches, a beautiful cemetery, 90 acres in extent, has been laid out in the south-western district. The parks and open spaces include Wellington Park, Well Park in the heart of the town (these were the gift of Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart), Whin Hill, Lyle Road—a broad drive winding over the heights towards Gourock, constructed as a “relief work” in the severe winter of 1879-1880.
Greenock is under the jurisdiction of a town council with provost and bailies. It is a parliamentary burgh, represented by one member. The corporation owns the supplies of water (the equipment of works and reservoirs is remarkably complete), gas, electric light and power, and the tramways (leased to a company). The staple industries are shipbuilding (established in 1760) and sugar refining (1765). Greenock-built vessels have always been esteemed, and many Cunard, P. & O. and Allan liners have been constructed in the yards. The town has been one of the chief centres of the sugar industry. Other important industries include the making of boilers, steam-engines, locomotives, anchors, chain-cables, sailcloth, ropes, paper, woollen and worsted goods, besides general engineering, an aluminium factory, a flax-spinning mill, distilleries and an oil-refinery. The seal and whale fisheries, once vigorously prosecuted, are extinct, but the fishing-fleets for the home waters and the Newfoundland grounds are considerable. Till 1772 the town leased the first harbour (finished in 1710) from Sir John Shaw, the superior, but acquired it in that and the following year, and a graving dock was opened in 1786. Since then additions and improvements have been periodically in progress, and there are now several tidal harbours—among them Victoria harbour, Albert harbour, the west harbour, the east harbour, the northern tidal harbour, the western tidal harbour, the great harbour and James Watt dock (completed in 1886 at a cost of £650,000 with an area of 2000 ft. by 400 ft. with a depth at low water of 32 ft.), Garvel graving dock and other dry docks. The quayage exceeds 100 acres in area and the quay walls are over 3 m. in length. Both the Caledonian and the Glasgow & South-Western railways (in Prince’s Pier the latter company possesses a landing-stage nearly 1400 ft. long) have access to the quays. From first to last the outlay on the harbour has exceeded £1,500,000.
In the earlier part of the 17th century Greenock was a fishing village, consisting of one row of thatched cottages. A century later there were only six slated houses in the place. In 1635 it was erected by Charles I. into a burgh of barony under a charter granted to John Shaw, the government being administered by a baron-bailie, or magistrate, appointed by the superior. Its commercial prosperity received an enormous impetus from the Treaty of Union (1707), under which trade with America and the West Indies rapidly developed. The American War of Independence suspended progress for a brief interval, but revival set in in 1783, and within the following seven years shipping trebled in amount. Meanwhile Sir John Shaw—to whom and to whose descendants, the Shaw-Stewarts, the town has always been indebted—by charter (dated 1741 and 1751) had empowered the householders to elect a council of nine members, which proved to be the most liberal constitution of any Scots burgh prior to the Reform Act of 1832, when Greenock was raised to the status of a parliamentary burgh with the right to return one member to parliament. Greenock was the birthplace of James Watt, William Spence (1777-1815) and Dr John Caird (1820-1898), principal of Glasgow University, who died in the town and was buried in Greenock cemetery. John Galt, the novelist, was educated in Greenock, where he also served some time in the custom house as a clerk. Rob Roy is said to have raided the town in 1715.
GREENOCKITE,a rare mineral composed of cadmium sulphide, CdS, occurring as small, brilliant, honey-yellow crystals or as a canary-yellow powder. Crystals are hexagonal with hemimorphic development, being differently terminated at the two ends. The faces of the hexagonal prism and of the numerous hexagonal pyramids are deeply striated horizontally. The crystals are translucent to transparent, and have an adamantine to resinous lustre; hardness 3-3½; specific gravity 4.9. Crystals have been found only in Scotland, at one or two places in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, where they occur singly on prehnite in the amygdaloidal cavities of basaltic igneous rocks—a rather unusual mode of occurrence for a metallic sulphide. The first, and largest crystal (about ½ in. across) was found, about the year 1810, in the dolerite quarry at Bowling in Dumbartonshire, but this was thought to be blende. A larger number of crystals, but of smaller size, were found in 1840 during the cutting of the Bishopton tunnel on the Glasgow & Greenock railway; they were detected by Lord Greenock, afterwards the 2nd earl of Cathcart, after whom the mineral was named. A third locality is the Boyleston quarry near Barrhead. At all other localities—Przibram in Bohemia, Laurion in Greece, Joplin in Missouri, &c.—the mineral is represented only as a powder dusted over the surface of zinc minerals, especially blende and calamine, which contain a small amount of cadmium replacing zinc.
Isomorphous with greenockite is the hexagonal zinc sulphide (ZnS) known as wurtzite. Both minerals have been prepared artificially, and are not uncommon as furnace products. Previous to the recent discovery in Sardinia of cadmium oxide as small octahedral crystals, greenockite was the only known mineral containing cadmium as an essential constituent.
(L. J. S.)
GREENORE,a seaport and watering-place of county Louth, Ireland, beautifully situated at the north of Carlingford Lough on its western shore. It was brought to importance by the action of the London & North-Western railway company of England, which owns the pier and railways joining the Great Northern system at Dundalk (12½ m.) and Newry (14 m.). A regularservice of passenger steamers controlled by the company runs to Holyhead, Wales, 80 m. S.E. A steam ferry crosses the Lough to Greencastle, for Kilkeel, and the southern watering-places of county Down. The company also owns the hotel, and laid out the golf links. In the vicinity a good example of raised beach, some 10 ft. above present sea-level, is to be seen.
GREENOUGH, GEORGE BELLAS(1778-1855), English geologist, was born in London on the 18th of January 1778. He was educated at Eton, and afterwards (1795) entered Pembroke College, Oxford, but never graduated. In 1798 he proceeded to Göttingen to prosecute legal studies, but having attended the lectures of Blumenbach he was attracted to the study of natural history, and, coming into the possession of a fortune, he abandoned law and devoted his attention to science. He studied mineralogy at Freiburg under Werner, travelled in various parts of Europe and the British Isles, and worked at chemistry at the Royal Institution. A visit to Ireland aroused deep interest in political questions, and he was in 1807 elected member of parliament for the borough of Gatton, continuing to hold his seat until 1812. Meanwhile his interest in geology increased, he was elected F.R.S. in 1807, and he was the chief founder with others of the Geological Society of London in 1807. He was the first chairman of that Society, and in 1811, when it was more regularly constituted, he was the first president: and in this capacity he served on two subsequent occasions, and did much to promote the advancement of geology. In 1819 he publishedA Critical Examination of the First Principles of Geology, a work which was useful mainly in refuting erroneous theories. In the same year was published his famousGeological Map of England and Wales, in six sheets; of which a second edition was issued in 1839. This map was to a large extent based on the original map of William Smith; but much new information was embodied. In 1843 he commenced to prepare a geological map of India, which was published in 1854. He died at Naples on the 2nd of April 1855.
GREENOUGH, HORATIO(1805-1852), American sculptor, son of a merchant, was born at Boston, on the 6th of September 1805. At the age of sixteen he entered Harvard, but he devoted his principal attention to art, and in the autumn of 1825 he went to Rome, where he studied under Thorwaldsen. After a short visit in 1826 to Boston, where he executed busts of John Quincy Adams and other people of distinction, he returned to Italy and took up his residence at Florence. Here one of his first commissions was from James Fenimore Cooper for a group of Chanting Cherubs; and he was chosen by the American government to execute the colossal statue of Washington for the national capital. It was unveiled in 1843, and was really a fine piece of work for its day; but in modern times it has been sharply criticized as unworthy and incongruous. Shortly afterwards he received a second government commission for a colossal group, the “Rescue,” intended to represent the conflict between the Anglo-Saxon and Indian races. In 1851 he returned to Washington to superintend its erection, and in the autumn of 1852 he was attacked by brain fever, of which he died in Somerville near Boston on the 18th of December. Among other works of Greenough may be mentioned a bust of Lafayette, the Medora and the Venus Victrix in the gallery of the Boston Athenaeum. Greenough was a man of wide culture, and wrote well both in prose and verse.
See H. T. Tuckerman,Memoir of Horatio Greenough(New York, 1853).
See H. T. Tuckerman,Memoir of Horatio Greenough(New York, 1853).
GREENOUGH, JAMES BRADSTREET(1833-1901), American classical scholar, was born in Portland, Maine, on the 4th of May 1833. He graduated at Harvard in 1856, studied one year at the Harvard Law School, was admitted to the Michigan bar, and practised in Marshall, Michigan, until 1865, when he was appointed tutor in Latin at Harvard. In 1873 he became assistant professor, and in 1883 professor of Latin, a post which he resigned hardly six weeks before his death at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 11th of October 1901. Following the lead of Goodwin’sMoods and Tenses(1860), he set himself to study Latin historical syntax, and in 1870 publishedAnalysis of the Latin Subjunctive, a brief treatise, privately printed, of much originality and value, and in many ways coinciding with Berthold Delbrück’sGebrauch des Conjunctivs und Optativs in Sanskrit und Griechischen(1871), which, however, quite overshadowed the Analysis. In 1872 appearedA Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges, founded on Comparative Grammar, by Joseph A. Allen and James B. Greenough, a work of great critical carefulness. His theory ofcum-constructions is that adopted and developed by William Gardner Hale. In 1872-1880 Greenough offered the first courses in Sanskrit and comparative philology given at Harvard. His fine abilities for advanced scholarship were used outside the classroom in editing the Allen and Greenough Latin Series of text-books, although he occasionally contributed toHarvard Studies in Classical Philology(founded in 1889 and endowed at his instance by his own class) papers on Latin syntax, prosody and etymology—a subject on which he planned a long work—on Roman archaeology and on Greek religion at the time of the New Comedy. He assisted largely in the founding of Radcliffe College. An able English scholar and an excellent etymologist, he collaborated with Professor George L. Kittredge onWords and their Ways in English Speech(1901), one of the best books on the subject in the language. He wrote clever light verse, includingThe Blackbirds, a comedietta, first published inThe Atlantic Monthly(vol. xxxix. 1877);The Rose and the Ring(1880), a pantomime adapted from Thackeray;The Queen of Hearts(1885), a dramatic fantasia; andOld King Cole(1889), an operetta.
See the sketch by George L. Kittredge inHarvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. xiv. (1903). pp. 1-17 (also printed inHarvard Graduates’ Magazine, vol. x., Dec. 1901, pp. 196-201).
See the sketch by George L. Kittredge inHarvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. xiv. (1903). pp. 1-17 (also printed inHarvard Graduates’ Magazine, vol. x., Dec. 1901, pp. 196-201).
GREEN RIBBON CLUB,one of the earliest of the loosely combined associations which met from time to time in London taverns or coffee-houses for political purposes in the 17th century. It had its meeting-place at the King’s Head tavern at Chancery Lane End, and was therefore known as the “King’s Head Club.” It seems to have been founded about the year 1675 as a resort for members of the political party hostile to the court, and as these associates were in the habit of wearing in their hats a bow, or “bob,” of green ribbon, as a distinguishing badge useful for the purpose of mutual recognition in street brawls, the name of the club became changed, about 1679, to the Green Ribbon Club. The frequenters of the club were the extreme faction of the country party, the men who supported Titus Oates, and who were concerned in the Rye House Plot and Monmouth’s rebellion. Roger North tells us that “they admitted all strangers that were confidingly introduced, for it was a main end of their institutions to make proselytes, especially of the raw estated youth newly come to town.” According to Dryden (Absalom and Achitophel) drinking was the chief attraction, and the members talked and organized sedition over their cups. Thomas Dangerfield supplied the court with a list of forty-eight members of the Green Ribbon Club in 1679; and although Dangerfield’s numerous perjuries make his unsupported evidence worthless, it receives confirmation as regards several names from a list given to James II. by Nathan Wade in 1885 (Harleian MSS.6845), while a number of more eminent personages are mentioned inThe Cabal, a satire published in 1680, as also frequenting the club. From these sources it would appear that the duke of Monmouth himself, and statesmen like Halifax, Shaftesbury, Buckingham, Macclesfield, Cavendish, Bedford, Grey of Warke, Herbert of Cherbury, were among those who fraternized at the King’s Head Tavern with third-rate writers such as Scroop, Mulgrave and Shadwell, with remnants of the Cromwellian régime like Falconbridge, Henry Ireton and Claypole, with such profligates as Lord Howard of Escrik and Sir Henry Blount, and with scoundrels of the type of Dangerfield and Oates. An allusion to Dangerfield, notorious among his other crimes and treacheries for a seditious paper found in a meal-tub, is found in connexion with the club inThe Loyal Subjects’ Litany, one of the innumerable satires of the period, in which occur the lines:
“From the dark-lanthorn Plot, and the Green Ribbon ClubFrom brewing sedition in a sanctified Tub,Libera nos, Domine.”
“From the dark-lanthorn Plot, and the Green Ribbon Club
From brewing sedition in a sanctified Tub,
Libera nos, Domine.”
The club was the headquarters of the Whig opposition to the court, and its members were active promoters of conspiracy and sedition. The president was either Lord Shaftesbury or Sir Robert Peyton, M.P. for Middlesex, who afterwards turned informer. The Green Ribbon Club served both as a debating society and an intelligence department for the Whig faction. Questions under discussion in parliament were here threshed out by the members over their tobacco and ale; the latest news from Westminster or the city was retailed in the tavern, “for some or others were continually coming and going,” says Roger North, “to import or export news and stories.” Slander of the court or the Tories was invented in the club and sedulously spread over the town, and measures were there concerted for pushing on the Exclusion Bill, or for promoting the pretensions of the duke of Monmouth. The popular credulity as to Catholic outrages in the days of the Popish Plot was stimulated by the scandalmongers of the club, whose members went about in silk armour, supposed to be bullet proof, “in which any man dressed up was as safe as a house,” says North, “for it was impossible to strike him for laughing”; while in their pockets, “for street and crowd-work,” they carried the weapon of offence invented by Stephen College and known as the “Protestant Flail.”
The genius of Shaftesbury found in the Green Ribbon Club the means of constructing the first systematized political organization in England. North relates that “every post conveyed the news and tales legitimated there, as also the malign constructions of all the good actions of the government, especially to places where elections were depending, to shape men’s characters into fit qualifications to be chosen or rejected.” In the general election of January and February 1679 the Whig interest throughout the country was managed and controlled by a committee sitting at the club in Chancery Lane. The club’s organizing activity was also notably effective in the agitation of the Petitioners in 1679. This celebrated movement was engineered from the Green Ribbon Club with all the skill and energy of a modern caucus. The petitions were prepared in London and sent down to every part of the country, where paid canvassers took them from house to house collecting signatures with an air of authority that made refusal difficult. The great “pope-burning” processions in 1680 and 1681, on the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s accession, were also organized by the club. They ended by the lighting of a huge bon-fire in front of the club windows; and as they proved an effective means of inflaming the religious passions of the populace, it was at the Green Ribbon Club that themobile vulgusfirst received the nickname of “the mob.” The activity of the club was, however, short-lived. The failure to carry the Exclusion Bill, one of the favourite projects of the faction, was a blow to its influence, which declined rapidly after the flight of Shaftesbury, the confiscation of the city of London’s charter, and the discovery of the Rye House Plot, in which many of its members were implicated. In 1685 John Ayloffe, who was found to have been “a clubber at the King’s Head Tavern and a green-ribon man,” was executed in front of the premises on the spot where the “pope-burning” bon-fires had been kindled; and although the tavern was still in existence in the time of Queen Anne, the Green Ribbon Club which made it famous did not survive the accession of James II. The precise situation of the King’s Head Tavern, described by North as “over against the Inner Temple Gate,” was at the corner of Fleet Street and Chancery Lane, on the east side of the latter thoroughfare.
See Sir George Sitwell,The First Whig(Scarborough, 1894), containing an illustration of the Green Ribbon Club and a pope-burning procession; Roger North,Examen(London, 1740); Anchitell Grey,Debates of the House of Commons, 1667-1684, vol. viii. (10 vols., London, 1769); Sir John Bramston,Autobiography(Camden Soc., London, 1845).
See Sir George Sitwell,The First Whig(Scarborough, 1894), containing an illustration of the Green Ribbon Club and a pope-burning procession; Roger North,Examen(London, 1740); Anchitell Grey,Debates of the House of Commons, 1667-1684, vol. viii. (10 vols., London, 1769); Sir John Bramston,Autobiography(Camden Soc., London, 1845).
(R. J. M.)
GREENSAND,in geology, the name that has been applied to no fewer than three distinct members of the Cretaceous System, viz. the Upper Greensand (seeGault), the Lower Greensand and the so-called Cambridge Greensand, a local phase of the base of the Chalk (q.v.). The term was introduced by the early English geologists for certain sandy rocks which frequently exhibited a greenish colour on account of the presence of minute grains of the green mineral glauconite. Until the fossils of these rocks came to be carefully studied there was much confusion between what is now known as the Upper Greensand (Selbornian) and the Lower Greensand. Here we shall confine our attention to the latter.
The Lower Greensand was first examined in detail by W. H. Fitton (Q.J.G.S.iii., 1847), who, in 1845, had proposed the name “Vectine” for the formation. The name was revived under the form “Vectian” in 1885 by A. J. Jukes-Browne, because, although sands and sandstones prevail, the green colour has often changed by oxidation of the iron to various shades of red and brown, and other lithological types, clays and limestones represent this horizon in certain areas. The Lower Greensand is typically developed in the Wealden district, in the Isle of Wight, in Dorsetshire about Swanage, and it appears again beneath the northern outcrop of the Chalk in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire, and thence it is traceable through Norfolk and Lincolnshire into east Yorkshire. It rests conformably upon the Wealden formation in the south of England, but it is clearly separable from the beds beneath by the occurrence of marine fossils, and by the fact that there is a marked overlap of the Lower Greensand on the Weald in Wiltshire, and derived pebbles are found in the basal beds. The whole series is 800 ft. thick at Atherfield in the Isle of Wight, but it thins rapidly westward. It is usually clearly marked off from the overlying Gault.
In the Wealden area the Lower Greensand has been subdivided as follows, although the several members are not everywhere recognizable:—
The Atherfield Clay is usually a sandy clay, fossiliferous. The basal portion, 5-6 ft., is known as the “Perna bed” from the abundance ofPerna Mulleti; other fossils areHoplites Deshayesii,Exogyra sinuata,Ancyloceras Mathesonianum. The Hythe beds are interstratified thin limestones and sandstones; the former are bluish-grey in colour, compact and hard, with a certain amount of quartz and glauconite. The limestone is known locally as “rag”; the Kentish Rag has been largely employed as a building stone and roadstone; it frequently contains layers of chert (known as Sevenoaks stone near that town). The sandy portions are very variable; the stone is often clayey and calcareous and rarely hard enough to make a good building stone; locally it is called “hassock” (or Calkstone). The two stones are well exposed in the Iguanodon Quarry near Maidstone (so called from the discovery of the bones of that reptile). Southwest of Dorking sandstone and grit become more prevalent, and it is known there as “Bargate stone,” much used around Godalming. Pulborough stone is another local sandstone of the Hythe beds. Fuller’s earth occurs in parts of this formation in Surrey. The Sandgate beds, mainly dark, argillaceous sand and clay, are well developed in east Kent, and about Midhurst, Pulborough and Petworth. At Nutfield the celebrated fuller’s earth deposits occur on this horizon; it is also found near Maidstone, at Bletchingley and Red Hill. The Folkestone beds are light-coloured, rather coarse sands, enclosing layers of siliceous limestone (Folkestone stone) and chert; a phosphatic bed is found near the top. These beds are well seen in the cliffs at Folkestone and near Reigate. At Ightham there is a fine, hard, white sandstone along with a green, quartzitic variety (Ightham stone). In Sussex the limestone and chert are usually lacking, but a ferruginous grit, “carstone,” occurs in lenticular masses and layers, which is used for road metal at Pulborough, Fittleworth, &c.
The Lower Greensand usually forms picturesque, healthy country, as about Leith Hill, Hindhead, Midhurst, Petworth, at Woburn, or at Shanklin and Sandown in the Isle of Wight. Outside the southern area the Lower Greensand is represented by the Faringdon sponge-bearing beds in Berkshire, the Sandy andPotton beds in Bedfordshire, the Shotover iron sands of Oxfordshire, the sands and fuller’s earth of Woburn, the Leighton Buzzard sands, the brick clays of Snettisham, and perhaps the Sandringham sands of Norfolk, and the carstone of that county and Lincolnshire. The upper ironstone, limestone and clay of the Lincolnshire Tealby beds appear to belong to this horizon along with the upper part of the Speeton beds of Yorkshire. The sands of the Lower Greensand are largely employed for the manufacture of glass, for which purpose they are dug at Aylesford, Godstone, near Reigate, Hartshill, near Aylesbury and other places; the ferruginous sand is worked as an iron ore at Seend.
This formation is continuous across the channel into France, where it is well developed in Boulonnais. According to the continental classification the Atherfield Clay is equivalent to the Urgonian or Barremian; the Sandgate and Hythe beds belong to the Aptian (q.v.); while the upper part of the Folkestone beds would fall within the lower Albian (q.v.).