he was appointed on Archbishop Warham's recommendation master or warden of All Hallow s College at Maidstone in Kent, we find him still obliged to borrow from his friends, and even to pledge his plate as a security. He died probably in 1519, and was buried in the collegiate church at Maidstone. With the exception of a few lines of Latin verse, and a letter to Aldus Manutius at the head of Linacre s translation of Proclus s Sphcera (Venice, 1499), Grocyn has left no literary proof of his scholarship or abilities. He was a great admirer of Aristotle, but his proposal to execute a translation of the philosopher in com pany with Linacre and Latimer was never carried out. By Erasmus he has been described as " vir severissimse castis- sima; vita?, ecclesiasticarum constitutionum observantissimus pene usque ad superstitionem, scholastics theologia3 ad un- guem doctus ac natura etiarn acerrimi judicii, demum in omni disciplinarum genere exacte versatus " (Declarationes adCensuras Facultatis Theologian Parisiance, 1522).
See John Noble Johnson, Life of Thomas Linacre, London, 1835; Wood s Athence Oxonicnsrs; Cunningham, Lives of Eminent Englishmen, vol. ii., 1835; Knight, Life of Erasmus.
GRODNO, a western province or government of Russia
in Europe, lying between 52 and 54 N. lat, 23 and 26
E. long., and bounded N. by Vilna, E. by Minsk, S. by
Volhynia, and W. by the former kingdom of Poland ; area
14,961 square miles. The country is a wide plain, in
some parts very swampy and covered with large pine forests.
Of these that of Bieloviecza in the district of Prushana,
comprising a circuit of over 100 miles, deserves notice, for
here bisons are preserved. The navigable rivers are the
Niemen, Bug, Narev, and Bobra. There are also several
canals, among which those of Augustow and Oginsky are
the most important. The soil, being chiefly alluvial deposit
intermixed with sand, is favourable for agriculture and the
rearing of cattle and bees. The atmosphere is damp and
misty, and the climate in winter is cold. Large quantities
of rye, barley, oats, hops, hemp, and flax are raised, but the
amount of fruit and vegetables grown is small. The mineral
products are insignificant. The manufactures consist of
woollen cloths, hats, leather, paper, and spirits ; there is
also a good export trade in grain, wool, cattle, and timber.
Some forty fairs are held annually in the province. Grodno
is divided into nine districts, viz., Grodno, Brest, Bielostock,
Bielsk, Volkovysk, Kobryn, Prushana, Slonim, and Sokolka.
The administration of the whole province is in the hands
of a governor appointed by the crown. In 1870 the popu
lation was 1,008,521, comprising Lithuanians, Russians,
Poles, Tartars, and a few German colonists.
Grodno, capital of the province of the same name, stands on the right bank of the Niemen in 53 40 N. lat., 23 50 E. long., and is connected by railway with St Petersburg, Moscow, and Warsaw. It is the seat of the provincial government, and contains eight Roman Catholic, a Greek Eastern and two United Greek Catholic churches, a Lutheran chapel, and two Jewish synagogues. The Govern ment office is a splendid edifice. There are two fine palaces erected respectively by Stephen Batory, who died here in 1586, and Augustus III., kings of Poland. Among the other buildings are a public library, a school of medicine, a gymnasium, and several seminaries. The inhabitants (24,789) are engaged in the manufacture of woollens, silks, hats, paper, and the preparation of wax. Three fairs are held annually. Grodno was built in the 12th century, and at the commencement of the 13th was annexed to Poland. The Polish diet held there in 1793 ratified the second partition of Poland. Two years later Stanislaus Augustus, the last king, signed his abdication there.
GROEN VAN PRINSTERER, Wilhelm (1801-1876), Dutch statesman, historian, and publicist, was born at
Voorburg, on August 21, 1801, received his grammar school
education at the Hague, and studied law, philosophy, and
history at the university of Leyden. At the age of twenty-
five he published a volume of miscellaneous essays ( Vers-
preide Geschriften, 1826), and in 1827 he was appointed
private secretary to King William I. From this post he
retired in 1833, in order that he might devote himself with
less interruption to the historical researches which resulted
in the gradual publication of his Archives ou Correspondance
inedite de la Alaison d Orange-Nassau, in fifteen volumes
(Leyden, 1835-64). An ardent conservative en all the
ecclesiastical and political questions of the day, he entered
the chamber of representatives in 1840, and took part with
both tongue and pen in all the more important discussions
of the years that followed, especially in those of 1848 and
1849. Between 1849 and 1865 he frequently sat in the
second chamber, and from 1850 to 1855 the anti-liberal
newspaper Nederlander was managed by him. The mortifi
cation which European events in 1864 and 1866 had caused
him found expression in^the occasional writings entitled La
Prusse et les Pays-Bas, A mes amis d, Berlin, and L Empire
Prussien et L Apocalypse (1867). Shortly afterwards he
withdrew entirely from public affairs, but continued his
literary pursuits, his latest production Maurice et Barnevelt,
an able vindication of the Calvinistic prince as against the
Arminian statesman, having been completed (1875) only a
short time before his death, which occurred 19th May 1876.
Among other works of this author may be mentioned a
HandboeJcder Geschiedenisvan het Vaterland (1835), and an
essay entitled Onyeloof en Revolutie (1847); but his sole
claim to European celebrity rests upon the Archives, with
their able if one-sided Prolegomena. The letters and docu
ments comprised in the series are of extraordinary interest
and value for the whole of the important period which
elapsed between the outbreak of the revolution in the
Netherlands and the establishment of the commercial
oligarchy upon the death of William II.
GRONINGEN, a town of the Netherlands, in the province of the same name, is situated on the Hunse at the influx of the Aa, 45^- miles in an eastward direction from Harlingen. The central and more ancient part of the town is still sur rounded by the old ditch, and communication is maintained with the outer portions by eighteen bridges. In the centre of the old town lies a group of open places, of which the greatest, the Breedemarkt, is one of the most spacious in the Netherlands. Five of the principal streets bear the name of as many ancient families the Boterings, the Ebbings, the Gelkings, the Huddings, and the Folkings. Among the public buildings of Groningen the town-house (Radhuis) is one of the finest. It was built between 1793 and 1810 according to the plans of Jacob Otten Husley, and was ex tended in 1873. The administrative offices of the province of Groningen also occupy a fine building, which received a splendid front in 1870-1871. The provincial court of justice, transformed in the middle of the 18th century : the corn exchange, dating from 1825 ; and the weigh-house, completed in 1874; the so-called Ommelanderhuis, or house formerly devoted to the administration of the surrounding district ; the civil and military prison ; and the arsenal, are also all worthy of mention. There are twelve churches in Groningen, including two for the Roman Catholics, and five for the Reformed Church of the Netherlands, as well as a Jewish synagogue. St Martin s, the Aa Church, and the New Church (all Reformed) are the principal. Of these the first is a Gothic building founded in 1253, and the last dates from the 17th century. The university of Groningen was founded in 1614, and its buildings were erected in 1847-1850. According to the Annales Academici (Leyden, 1877), the number of the students in 1874 was only 173, the strongest faculty being that of the physical sciences with 57. It has a library, an observatory, botanical
