The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 228

GUSTAVUS IV., king of Sweden from 1792 to 1809, son of preceding; his incompetency and stubbornness made him an ill ruler; territory was lost to the French, and Finland to Russia, while an attack on Norway proved a failure; popular indignation rose to a height in 1809; he was deposed, and the crown given to his uncle, Charles XIII.; after this he lived on the Continent (1778-1837).

GUTENBURG, JOHANNES or HENNE, also called GENSFLEISCH, claimed by the Germans to have been the inventor of the art of printing with movable types, born at Mainz; for some time lived in Strasburg as a polisher of precious stones, mirrors, &c.; he set up his first printing-press at Mainz about 1450 (1400-1468).

GUTHRIE, THOMAS, a Scottish clergyman, distinguished as a pulpit orator and a philanthropist, born in Brechin; was minister at Arbirlot, near Arbroath, and then in Edinburgh; left the Established Church at the Disruption, and became minister of St. John's; traversed the country (1845-46) to raise a fund to provide manses for the Disruption ministers, and realised 116,000 for the object; came forward as an advocate for ragged schools, and founded one in Edinburgh; he was a warm-hearted man as well as an eloquent, who could both move his audience to tears and rouse it to enthusiasm (1803-1873).

GUTTA-PERCHA, the insp.i.s.sated juice of a tree found in the Malay Archipelago.

GUY, THOMAS, founder of Guy's Hospital, London, born at Horsleydown, Southwark, London; he started as a bookseller in 1668, and after the importation of English Bibles from Holland was stopped he obtained the privilege of printing Bibles for Oxford University; lucky speculation in South Sea stock, combined with his printing business, enabled him to ama.s.s an immense fortune, which he devoted largely to charitable purposes; from 1695 to 1702 he sat in Parliament (1645-1724).

GUY OF WARWICK, a hero of English romance of the 13th century, who won the hand of the daughter of the Earl of Warwick by a succession of astonis.h.i.+ng feats of valour, but repented of the slaughter he had made, and went a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; returned to his wife disguised as a palmer; retired into a hermitage; when about to die sent a ring to her, upon which she came and interred him; she died 15 days after him, and was buried by his side.

GUYON, SIR, a knight in Spenser's "Faerie Queene," the impersonation of temperance and self-control; he subdued the sorceress Acrasia (i. e.

intemperance), and was the destroyer of her "Bower of Bliss."

GWALIOR (3,378), a native State of Central India, under British protection since 1803; governed by the Maharajah Sindhia; area, 29,067 sq. m.; consists of scattered districts in the basins of the Jumna and Nerbudda; opium is the chief export. Gwalior, the capital (1,041), is situated 65 m. S. of Agra; the citadel is very strongly posted on a steep rocky base 340 ft. high.

GWYNN, NELL, a "pretty, witty" actress of Drury Lane, who became mistress of Charles II., whose son by her was created Duke of St. Albans; the king was very fond of her and took special thought of her when he was dying (1640-1691).

GYGES, a young shepherd of Lydia, who, according to cla.s.sic legend, possessed a magic ring of gold by which he could render himself invisible; he repaired to the Court of Candaules, whose first minister he became, whose chamber he entered invisibly, and whom he put to death to reign in his stead.

GYMNOSOPHISTS, a set of contemplative philosophers among the Hindus who practised an extreme asceticism and went about almost naked.

GYMNOTUS, an electric eel of South America, and found in the fresh waters of Brazil and Guiana.

GYPSIES, a race of people of wandering habits, presumed to be of Indian origin, found scattered over Europe, Asia, and Africa, and even in America, who appear to have begun to migrate westward from the valley of the Indus about A.D. 1000, and to have reached Europe in the 14th century, and to owe their name gypsies to their supposed origin in Egypt.

They in general adhere to their unsettled habits wherever they go, show the same tastes, and follow the same pursuits, such as tinkering, mat-making, basket-making, fortune-telling. On their first appearance they were mere vagabonds and thieves.

H

HAAFIZ. See HaFIZ.

HAARLEM (58), a handsome town in the province of N. Holland on the Spaarne, 4 m. from the sea, and 12 m. W. of Amsterdam; has a fine 15th-century church with a famous organ (8000 pipes), linen and other factories, &c., and is noted for its tulip-gardens and trade in flower-bulbs; it is intersected by several ca.n.a.ls as well as the rivers; there existed at one time a lagoon of the Zuyder Zee called HAARLEM LAKE, which stretched southward as far as Leyden, between Amsterdam and Haarlem; but destructive inundations, caused by the tidal advance in 1836, compelled the Government to set about draining it, and this difficult engineering operation was successfully carried through by an English company during 1839-52.

HABAKKUK, a book of the Old Testament by a Levite, whose name it bears, and who appears to have flourished in the 7th century B.C., containing a prophecy which belongs, both in substance and form, to the cla.s.sic period of Hebrew literature, and is written in a style which has been described as being "for grandeur and sublimity of conception, for gorgeousness of imagery, and for melody of language, among the foremost productions of that literature." The spirit of it is one: faith, namely, in the righteous ways of the Lord; but the burden is twofold; to denounce the judgment of G.o.d on the land for the violence and wrong that prevailed in it, as about to be executed on it by a power still more violent and unjust in its ways; and to comfort the generation of the righteous with the a.s.surance of a time when this very rod of G.o.d's wrath shall in the pride of its power be broken in pieces, and the Lord be revealed as seated in His Holy Temple.

HABBERTON, JOHN, author of "Helen's Babies," born in Brooklyn, New York; was first a clerk and then a journalist; his other works include "Other People's Children," "The Worst Boy in Town," &c.; _b_. 1842.

HABEAS CORPUS, an Act of Parliament pa.s.sed in the reign of Charles II. to ensure the protection of one accused of a crime prior to conviction in an open court of justice.

HABINGTON, THOMAS, a Worcester gentleman of fortune, involved at one time in a conspiracy to release Mary, Queen of Scots, from prison, and convicted at another of concealing some of the agents in the Gunpowder Plot (1560-1647).

HABINGTON, WILLIAM, poet and historian, son of the preceding; a devoted Catholic, "who did not run with the times"; author of "Castara,"

a collection of exquisite lyrics in homage to his wife, and in celebration of her charms and virtues (1605-1654).

HACHETTE, JEAN, French mathematician; one of the founders of the ecole Polytechnique (1769-1834).

HACHETTE, JEANNE, a French heroine, born in Beauvais, who took part in the defence of her native town when besieged in 1472 by Charles the Bold.

HACKLaNDER, German novelist and dramatist, born near Aix-la-Chapelle; his writings, which show a genial humour, have been compared to those of d.i.c.kens (1816-1877).

HACKNEY (230), an important parish and borough of Middles.e.x, a suburb of London, 3 m. NE. of St. Paul's; returns three members of Parliament.

HACO V., king of Norway from 1223 to 1263; was defeated by Alexander III. of Scotland at Largs, and died at the Orkneys on his way home.

HADDINGTON (3), the county town, on the Tyne, 17 m. E. of Edinburgh; has interesting ruins of an abbey church, called the "Lamp of Lothian," a cruciform pile with a central tower, a corn exchange, &c.; was the birthplace of John Knox, Samuel Smiles, and Jane Welsh Carlyle.

HADDINGTONs.h.i.+RE or EAST LOTHIAN (37), a maritime county of Scotland, on the E. fronting the Firth of Forth and the North Sea, N. of Berwicks.h.i.+re; on the southern border lie the Lammermuir Hills; the Tyne is the only river; considerable quant.i.ties of coal and limestone are wrought, but agriculture is the chief industry, 64 per cent, of the land being under cultivation.

HADEN, SIR FRANCIS SEYMOUR, an etcher and writer on etching, born in London; was bred to medicine, and in 1857 became F.R.C.S.; in 1843 he took up etching as a pastime and has since pursued it with enthusiasm and conspicuous success; he has won medals in France, America, and England for the excellency of his workmans.h.i.+p, while his various writings have largely contributed to revive interest in the art; he is President of the Society of Painters, and in 1894 a knighthood was conferred upon him; _b_. 1818.

HADES (lit. the Unseen), the dark abode of the shades of the dead in the nether world, the entrance into which, on the confines of the Western Ocean, is unvisited by a single ray of the sun; originally the G.o.d of the nether world, and a synonym of PLUTO (q. v.).

HADITH, the Mohammedan Talmud, being a traditional account of Mahomet's sayings and doings.

HADJI, a Mohammedan who has made his Hadj or pilgrimage to Mecca, and kissed the Black Stone of the CAABA (q. v.); the term is also applied to pilgrims to Jerusalem.