earliest large collection of tales in the English tongue. In his old age G. became blind. He had, when about 70, retired to the Priory of St. Mary Overies, the chapel of which is now the Church of St. Saviour, Southwark, where he spent his last years, and to which he was a liberal benefactor. G. represented the serious and cultivated man of his time, in which he was reckoned the equal of Chaucer, but as a poet he is heavy and prolix.
Grafton, Richard (d. 1572).—Printer and chronicler, printed various ed. of the Bible and Prayer-book; also the Proclamation of the Accession of Lady Jane Grey, for which he was cast into prison, where he compiled an Abridgement of the Chronicles of England (1563). To this he added in 1568 A Chronicle at Large. Neither holds a high place as authorities.
Grahame, James (1765-1811).—Poet, s. of a lawyer, was b. and ed. in Glasgow. After spending some time in a law office in Edin., he was called to the Scottish Bar. His health being delicate, and his circumstances easy, he early retired from practice, and taking orders in the Church of England in 1809, was appointed curate successively of Shipton, Gloucestershire, and Sedgefield, Durham. He wrote several pleasing poems, of which the best is The Sabbath (1804). He d. on a visit to Glasgow in his 47th year. His poems are full of quiet observation of country sights expressed in graceful verse.
Grahame, Simon or Simion (1570-1614).—B. in Edin., led a dissolute life as a traveller, soldier, and courtier on the Continent. He appears to have been a good scholar, and wrote the Passionate Sparke of a Relenting Minde, and Anatomy of Humours, the latter of which is believed to have suggested to Burton his Anatomy of Melancholie. He became an austere Franciscan.
Grainger, James (1721-1766).—Poet, of a Cumberland family, studied medicine at Edin., was an army surgeon, and on the peace settled in practice in London, where he became the friend of Dr. Johnson, Shenstone, and other men of letters. His first poem, Solitude, appeared in 1755. He subsequently went to the West Indies (St. Kit's), where he made a rich marriage, and pub. his chief poem, The Sugar-Cane (1764).
Granger, James (1723-1776).—Biographer, was at Oxf. and, entering the Church, became Vicar of Shiplake, Oxon. He pub. a Biographical History of England from Egbert the Great to the Revolution (1769). He insisted on the importance of collecting engravings of portraits and himself gathered 14,000, and gave a great impulse to the practice of making such collections.
Grant, Mrs. Anne (M' Vicar) (1755-1838).—Was b. in Glasgow, and in 1779 m. the Rev. James Grant, minister of Laggan, Inverness-shire. She pub. in 1802 a vol. of poems. She also wrote Letters from the Mountains, and Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlands. After 1810 she lived in Edin., where she was the friend of Sir W. Scott and other eminent men, through whose influence a pension of £100 was bestowed upon her.
