lively. The Turks generally practise what their reGreece, ligion enjoins, but the Greeks do not; and their mi- Greek. sery puts them upon a thousand mean shifts and scandalous practices, authorised by bad example, and perpetuated from father to son. The Greek women have fine features and beautiful complexions: their countenances still very much resemble those of the ancient Greek statues. See GREECE, SUPPLEMENT. GREEK, or GRECIAN, any thing belonging to ancient Greece. The Greek language, as preserved in the writings of the celebrated authors of antiquity, as Homer, Hesiod, Demosthenes, Aristotle, Plato, Xenophon, &c. has a great variety of terms and expressions, suitable to the genius and occasions of a polite and learned people, who had a taste for arts and sciences. In it, proper names are significative; which is the reason that the modern languages borrow so many terms from it. When any new invention, instrument, machine, or the like, is discovered, recourse is generally had to the Greek for a name to it; the facility wherewith words are there compounded, affording such as will be expressive of its use: such are, barometer, hygrometer, microscope, telescope, thermometer, &c. But of all sciences, medicine most abounds with such terms; as diaphoretic, diagnosis, diarrhoea, hæmorrhagy, hydrophobia, phthisis, atrophy, &c. Besides the copiousness and significancy of the Greek, wherein it excels most, if not all, other languages, it has also three numbers, viz. a singular, dual, and plural: also abundance of tenses in its verbs, which makes a variety in discourse, prevents a certain dryness that always accompanies too great an uniformity, and renders that language peculiarly proper for all kinds of verse. use of the participles, of the aorist and preterite, together with the compound words already mentioned, give it a peculiar force and brevity, without taking any thing from its perspicuity. Greece. The other patriarchs are those of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. Mr Tournefort tells us, that the patriarchates are now generally set to sale, and bestowed upon those who are the highest bidders. The patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, and bishops, are always chosen from among the Caloyers or Greek monks. Before the patriarchs receive their patents and the caftan, which is a vest of linsey-woolsey, or some other stuff, presented by the grand signior to ambassadors, and other persons newly invested with some considerable dignity, they are obliged to make large presents to the vizir, &c. The income of the patriarch of Constantinople is said to amount to no less than one hundred and twenty thousand guilders, of which he pays the one-half by way of annual tribute to the Ottoman Porte, adding six thousand guilders besides as a present at the feast of Bairam. The next person to a bishop among the ..clergy is an archimandrite, who is the director of one or more convents, which are called mandren; then come the abbot, the arch-priest, the priest, the deacon, the under-deacon, the chanter, and the lecturer. The secular clergy are subjected to no rules, and never rise higher than high-priest. They are allowed to marry once; but it must be with a virgin, and before they are ordained. They have neither glebe nor tythes, but depend upon the perquisites that arise from their office; and they seldom preach but in Lent. The Greeks have few nunneries; but a great many convents of monks, who are all priests, and, students excepted, obliged to follow some handicraft employ ment, and lead a very austere life. The Greeks deny the supremacy of the pope, and abhor the worship of images; but have a multitude of pictures of saints in their churches, whom they pray to as mediators. Their fasts are very severe. They believe also in the doctrine of transubstantiation, and that the Holy Ghost does not proceed from the Son. They admit not of purgatory, says Mr Thevenot: but yet they allow a third place, where they say the blessed remain, in expectation of the day of judgment. At At mass they consecrate with leavened bread; and communicate under both kinds, as well laics as priests, and as well women and children as men. When they carry the sacrament to the sick, they do not prostrate themselves before it, nor expose it to be adored: neither do they carry it in procession, or have any particular feast in honour of it. Baptism is perform ed among them by plunging the whole body of the child thrice into water. Immediately after baptism, they give it confirmation and the communion; and seven days after that, it undergoes the ceremony of ablution. When a priest is married, among other ceremonies, the bridegroom and bride drink each two glasses of wine; then the glass is given to the priest, who merrily drinks off the rest of the wine, and breaking the glass, says, So may the bridegroom break the virginity of the bride. As to the character of the modern Greeks, they are said to be very covetous, bypocritical, treacherous, great pederasts, and at the same time revengeful to the highest degree; but very superstitious. They are so much despised by the Turks, that these do not value even a Greek who turns Mahometan. The Turks are remarkable for their taciturnity; they never use any unnecessary words; but the Greeks, on the contrary, are very talkative and 3 The It is no easy matter to assign the precise difference between the modern and ancient Greek; which consists in the terminations of the nouns, pronouns, verbs, &c, not unlike what obtains between some of the dialects of the Italian or Spanish. There are also in the modern Greek many new words, not to be met with in the ancient. We may therefore distinguish three ages of the Greek tongue: the first of which ends at the time when Constantinople became the capital of the Roman empire; the second lasted from that period to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks; and the third from that time to this. GREEK Bible. See BIBLE. GREEK Church, is that part of the Christian church which is established in Greece; extending likewise to some other parts of Turkey. See GREECE.-It is thus called in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in contradistinction from the Latin or Romish church; as also the Eastern church, in distinction from the Western. The Romanists call the Greek church the Greek schism; because the Greeks do not allow the authority of the pope, but depend wholly, as to matters of religion, on their own patriarchs. They have treated them as schismatics ever since the revolt, as they call it, of the patriarch Photius. GREEK Monks and Nuns, of whatever order, consider St Basil as their founder and common father, and esteem GREEN, among painters and dyers. See COLOURMaking, N° 27. and DYEING, N° 367. GREEN-Cloth, a board or court of justice held in the compting-house of the king's household, composed of the lord steward and officers under him, who sit daily. To this court is committed the charge and oversight of the king's household in matters of justice and government, with a power to correct all offenders, and to maintain the peace of the verge, or jurisdiction of the court-royal; which is every way about 200 yards from the last gate of the palace where his majesty resides. It takes its name, board of green cloth, from a green cloth spread over the board where they sit. Without a warrant first obtained from this court, none of the king's servants can be arrested for debt. Clerks of the GREEN Cloth were two officers of the hoard of green cloth, who appointed the diet of the king and his household; and kept all records, legers, and papers relating thereto; made up bills, parcels, and debentures for salaries, and provisions and necessaries for the officers of the buttery, pantry, cellar, &c. They also waited upon foreign princes when entertained by his majesty. But this has been lately abolished. GREEN-Finch, the English name of the greenish fringilla, with the wings and tail variegated with yellow. See FRINGILLA, ORNITHOLOGY Index. GREEN-House, or Conservatory, a house in a garden, contrived for sheltering and preserving the most curious and tender exotic plants, which in our climate will not bear to be exposed to the open air, especially during the winter season. These are generally large and beautiful structures, equally ornamental and useful. The length of green-houses must be proportioned to the number of plants intended to be preserved in them, and cannot therefore be reduced to rule; but their depth should never be greater than their height in the clear; which, in small or middling houses, may be 16 or 18 feet, but in large ones from 20 to 24 feet; and the length of the windows should reach from about one foot and a half above the pavement, and within the same distance of the ceiling, which will admit of a corniche round the building over the heads of the windows. Their breadth cannot be in proportion to their length for if in the largest buildings they are more than seven or seven feet and a half broad, they will be extremely heavy and inconvenient. The piers between the windows must be as narrow as may be to support the building; for which reason they should either be of stone or of hard burnt bricks. If the piers are made of stone, they should be 30 inches wide in front, and Green sloped off behind to about 18 inches, by which means there will be no corners to take off the rays of the sun. house. If they are of brick, they will require to be at least three feet in front, but they should be in the same manner sloped off behind. Over the green-house may be rooms for drying and preserving seeds, roots, &c. and behind it a place for tools and other purposes; and both these behind, and the rooms above, will be of great use in keeping off the frosts, so that the wall between these need not be of more than two bricks and a half in thickness. The floor of the green-house, which should be laid either with Bremen squares, Purbeck stone, or flat tiles, must be raised two feet above the surface of the adjoining ground, or if the situation be damp, at least three feet; and if the whole is arched with low brick arches under the floor, they will be of great service in preventing damps: and under the floor, about two feet from the front, it will be very adviseable to make a flue of ten inches wide and two feet deep: this should be carried the whole length of the house, and then returned back along the hinder part, and there be carried up into funnels adjoining to the tool-house, by which the smoke may be carried off. The fire-place may be contrived at one end of the house, and the door at which the fuel is put in, as also the ash-grate, may be contrived to open into the tool-house, and the fuel being laid in the same place, the whole will be out of sight. Bradley advises, that the front of greenhouses, in the colder parts of England, be built in a sweep or semicircle, so that one part or other of it may receive the sun's rays all day. The use of fires must, however, be very sparing in this place: and it is not one winter in three or four that will require them in any part, only when the weather is very severe, and the frost cannot well be kept out any other way, this is an expedient that is good to have in readiness, as it may save a whole house of plants. Withinside of the windows, in front of the green-house, there should be good strong shutters, made with hinges, to fold back close to the piers, that they may not obstract the rays of the sun. The back part of the house should be either laid over with stucco or plastered with mortar, and whitewashed, in order to prevent the frosty air from penetrating through the walls. When the green-house is wainscotted, the walls should be plastered with lime and hair behind the wainscot, to keep out the cold; and the wainscot, as well as the ceiling, and every part within the house should be painted white, for the reflection of the sun's rays. There must be a number of tressels with forms of wood upon them, to support the pots and plants; the tallest to be placed bindmost, the lowest within four feet of the windows and the rows of plants should rise gradually, so that the heads of the second row should be entirely above the first; and behind them there should be a space of at least five feet, for the conveniency of watering the plants, and for a free circulation of air. It has been observed that the placing of the euphorbium, cereuses, and other succulent plants among orange-trees, and other common green-house plants, is always destructive of them, by making them receive an improper sort of effluvia, which plants of that kind imbibe very freely. They should therefore be placed in two wings Greenhouse Π Greenland. built at each end of the green-house; which, if well Whilst the front of the green-house is exactly south, wards the north pole, and likewise some islands to the Greenland. I described. This country is divided into West and East Green- West land. West Greenland is now determined by our latest Greenland maps to be a part of the continent of America, though upon what authority is not very clear. That part of it which the Europeans have any knowledge of is bounded on the west by Baffin's bay, on the south by Davis's straits, and on the east by the northern part of the Atlantic ocean. It is a very mountainous country, and some parts of it so high that they may be discerned 30 leagues off at sea. The inland mountains, hills, and rocks, are covered with perpetual snow; but the low lands on the sea-side are clothed with verdure in the summer season. The coast abounds with inlets, bays, and large rivers; and is surrounded with a vast number of islands of different dimensions. In a great many places, however, on the eastern coast especially, the shore is inaccessible by reason of the floating mountains of ice. The principal river, called Baal, falls into the sea in the 64th degree of latitude, where the first Danish lodge was built in 1721; and has been navigated above 40 miles up the country. land. West Greenland was first peopled by Europeans in Peopled by the eighth century. At that time a company of Ice- a colony landers, headed by one Ericke Rande, were by accident from Icedriven on that coast. On his return he represented the country in such a favourable light, that some families again followed him thither, where they soon became a thriving colony, and bestowed on their new habitation the name of Groenland or Greenland, on account of its verdant appearance. This colony was converted to Christianity by a missionary from Norway, sent thither by the celebrated Olaf, the first Norwegian monarch who embraced the true religion. The Greenland settlement continued to increase and thrive under his protection; and in a little time the country was provided with many towns, churches, convents, bishops, &c. under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Drontheim. A considerable commerce was carried on between Greenland and Norway; and a regular intercourse maintained between the two countries till the year 1406, when the last bishop was sent over. From that time all cor- All correAs to the management of the plants in the green-respondence was cut off, and all knowledge of Green- spondence house, Mortimer recommends the opening of the mould about them from time to time, and sprinkling a little fresh mould in them, and a little warm dung on that; as also to water them when the leaves begin to wither and curl, and not oftener, which would make them fade and be sickly; and to take off such leaves as wither and grow dry. 3 GREEN-Sickness. See CHLOROSIS, MEDICINE Index. GREEN-Silver, the name of an ancient custom within the manor of Writtel in the county of Essex in England; which is, that every tenant whose fore-door opens to Greenbury, shall pay an halfpenny yearly to the lord, by the name of green-silver. GREEN Wax, is used where estates are delivered to the sheriffs out of the exchequer, under the seal of that court, made in green wax, to be levied in the several counties. This word is mentioned the 43d stat. Ed. III. c. 9. and 7 Hen. IV. c. 7. GREENLAND, a general name by which are denoted the most easterly parts of America, stretching to5 land has been buried in oblivion. with it suddenly cut This strange and abrupt cessation of all trade and off. intercourse has been attributed to various causes; but the most probable is the following: The colony, from its first settlement, had been harassed by the natives, a barbarous and savage people, agreeing in customs, garb, language, and appearance, with the Esquimaux found about Hudson's bay. This nation, called Schrellings, at length prevailed against the Iceland settlers who inhabited the western district, and exterminated them in the 14th century: insomuch, that when their brethren Colony supof the eastern district came to their assistance, they posed to be found nothing alive but some cattle and flocks of sheep exterminarunning wild about the country. Perhaps they them-ted. selves afterwards experienced the same fate, and were totally destroyed by these Schrellings, whose descendants still inhabit the western parts of Greenland, and from tradition confirm this conjecture. They affirm that the houses and villages, whose ruins still appear, were inhabited by a nation of strangers, whom their ancestors 5 Account of Green land. ancestors destroyed. There are reasons, however, for believing that there may be still some descendants of the ancient Iceland colony remaining in the eastern district, though they cannot be visited by land, on account of the stupendous mountains, perpetually covered with snow, which divide the two parts of Greenland; while they have been rendered inaccessible by sea, by the vast quantity of ice driven from Spitzbergen, or East Greenland. One would imagine that there must have been some considerable alteration in the northern parts of the world since the 15th century, so that the coast of Greenland is now become almost totally inaccessible, though formerly visited with very little difficulty. It is also natural to ask, By what means the people of the eastern colony surmounted the above-mentioned obstacles when they went to the assistance of their western friends; how they returned to their own country; and in what manner historians learned the success of their expedition? Concerning all this we have very little satisfactory information. All that can be learned from the most authentic records is, that Greenland was divided into two districts, the colony. called West Bygd and East Bygd: that the western division contained four parishes and 100 villages: that the eastern district was still more flourishing, as being nearer to Iceland, sooner settled, and more frequented by shipping from Norway. There are also many accounts, though most of them romantic and slightly attested, which render it probable that part of the eastern colony still subsists, who, at some time or other, may have given the imperfect relation above mentioned. This colony, in ancient times, certainly comprehended twelve extensive parishes, one hundred and ninety villages, a bishop's see, and two monasteries. The present inhabitants of the western district are entirely ignorant of this part, from which they are divided by rocks, mountains, and deserts, and still more effectually by their apprehensions: for they believe the eastern Greenlanders to be a cruel, barbarous nation, that destroy and eat all strangers who fall into their hands. About a century after all intercourse between Norway and Greenland had ceased, several ships were sent successively by the kings of Denmark in order to discover the eastern district; but all of them miscarried. Among these adventurers, Mogens Heinson, Attempt after having surmounted many difficulties and dangers, got sight of the land; which, however, he could not approach. At his return, he pretended that the ship was arrested in the middle of her course by certain rocks of loadstone at the bottom of the sea. The same year, 1576, in which this attempt was made, has been rendered remarkable by the voyage of Captain Martin Frobisher, sent upon the same errand by Queen Elizabeth. He likewise descried the land; but could not reach it, and therefore returned to England; 6 yet not before he had sailed sixty leagues in the strait Greenland. to re-disco- Such was the success of this voyage, that another armament was fitted out under the auspices of Admiral Frobisher, consisting of 15 sail, including a considerable number of soldiers, miners, smelters, carpenters, and bakers, to remain all the winter near the mines in a wooden fort, the different pieces of which they carried out in the transports. They met with boisterous weather, impenetrable fogs, and violent currents upon the coast of Greenland, which retarded their operations until the season was far advanced. Part of their wooden fort was lost at sea; and they had neither provision nor fuel sufficient for the winter. The admiral therefore determined to return with as much ore as he could procure of this they obtained large quantities out of a new mine, to which they gave the name of the Countess of Sussex. They likewise built a house of stone and lime, provided with ovens; and here, with a view to conciliate the affection of the natives, they left a quantity of small morrice-bells, knives, beads, looking glasses, leaden pictures, and other toys, together with several loaves of bread. They buried the timber of the fort where it could be easily found next year; and sowed corn, pease, and other grain, by way of experiment, to know what the country would produce. Having taken these precautions, they sailed from thence in the beginning of September; and after a month's stormy passage arrived in England: but this noble design was never prosecuted. Christiern IV. king of Denmark, being desirous of discovering the old Greenland settlement, sent three ships thither, under the command of Captain Godske Lindenow; who is said to have reached the east coast of Greenland, where he traded with the savage inhabitants, such as they are still found in the western district, but saw no signs of a civilized people. Had he actually landed in the eastern division, he must have perceived some remains of the ancient colony, even in the ruins of their convents and villages. Lindenow kidnapped two of the natives, who were conveyed to Copenhagen; and the same cruel fraud (A) was prac tised (A) Nothing can be more inhuman and repugnant to the dictates of common justice than this practice of opposite to Iceland; but the vast shoale of ice, which Greenland. barricadoed that part of the coast, rendered this scheme impracticable. His Danish majesty, in the year 1728, caused horses to be transported to Greenland, in hope that the settlers might by their means travel over land to the eastern district: but the icy mountains were found impassable. Finally, Lieutenant Richards, in a ship which had wintered near the new Danish colony, attempted, in his return to Denmark, to land on the eastern shore; but all his endeavours proved abor tive. Mr Egede is of opinion, that the only practicable method of reaching that part of the country, will be to coast north about in small vessels, between the great flakes of ice and the shore; as the Greenlanders have declared, that the currents continully rushing from the bays and inlets, and running south-westwards along the shore, hinder the ice from adhering to the land; so that there is always a channel open, through which vessels of small burden might pass, especially if lodges were built at convenient distances on the shore, for the convenience and direction of the adventurers. 7 Green'and. tised by other two ships which sailed into Davis's straits, where they discovered divers fine harbours, and delightful meadows covered with verdure. In some places they are said to have found a considerable quantity of ore, every hundred pounds of which yielded twenty-six ounces of silver. The same Admiral Lindenow made another voyage to the coast of Greenland in the year 1606, directing his course to the westward of Cape Farewell. He coasted along the straits of Davis; and baving made some observations on the face of the country, the harbours, and islands, returned to Denmark. Carsten Richards, being detached with two ships on the same discovery, described the high land on the eastern side of Greenland; but was hindered by the ice from approaching the shore. Other expeditions of the same nature bave been planned and executed with the same bad success, under the auspices of a Danish company of merchants. Two ships returned from the western part of Greenland loaded with a kind of yellow sand, supposed to contain a large proportion of gold. This being assayed by the goldsmiths of Copenhagen, was condemned as useless, and thrown overboard; but from a small quantity of this sand, which was reserved as a curiosity, an expert chemist afterwards extracted a quantity of pure gold. The captain, who brought home this adventure, was so chagrined at his disappointment, that he died of grief, without having left any directions concerning the place where the sand had been discovered. In the year 1654, Henry Moller, a rich Dane, equipped a vessel under the command of David de Nelles, who sailed to the west coast of Greenland, from which he carried off three women of the country. Other efforts have been made, under the encouragement of the Danish king, for the discovery and recovery of the old Iceland colony in Greenland; but all of them miscarried, and people began to look upon such expeditions as wild and chimerical. At length the Green, land company at Bergen in Norway, transported a colony to the western coast, about the 64th degree of latitude; and these Norwegians sailed in the year 1712, accompanied by the Reverend Hans Egede, to whose care, ability, and precision, we owe the best and most authentic account of modern Greenland. This gentleman endeavoured to reach the eastern district, by coasting southwards, and advanced as far as the States promontory; but the season of the year, and continual storms, obliged him to return; and as he could not even find the strait of Frobisher, he concluded that no such place ever existed. In the year 1724, a ship, being equipped by the company, sailed on this discovery, with a view to land on the east side try. That part of the country which is now visited and Mr Egede's settled by the Danes and Norwegians, lies between account of the 64th and 68th degrees of north latitude; and thus the counfar it is said the climate is temperate. In the summer, which continues from the end of May to the middle of September, the weather is warm and comfortable, while the wind blows easterly; though even at this time storms frequently happen, which rage with incredible violence; and the sea-coasts are infested with fogs that are equally disagreeable and unhealthy.Near the shore, and in the bays and inlets, the low land is clothed with the most charming verdure; but the inland mountains are perpetually covered with ice and snow. To the northward of the 68th degree of latitude the cold is prodigiously intense; and towards the end of August all the coast is covered with ice, which never thaws till April or May, and sometimes not till the latter end of June. Nothing can exhibit a more dreadful, and at the same time a more dazzling, appearance, than those prodigious masses of ice that surround the whole coast in various forms, reflecting a multitude of colours from the sun-beams, and calling to mind the enchanted scenes of romance. Such prospects they yield in calm weather; but when the wind begins to blow, and the waves to rise in vast billows, the violent shocks of those pieces of ice dashing against one another, fill the mind with horror.-Greenland is seldom visited with thunder and lightning, but the Aurora Borealis is very frequent and bright. At the time of new and full moon, the tide rises and falls "pon this coast the countenance of his Danish majesty, and the caresses of the court and people, could not alleviate their grief. |