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silicates and minor accessories such as apatite, zircon, sphene and iron oxides. The aplites, pegmatites, graphic granites and muscovite granites are usually richest in silica, while with increase of biotite and hornblende, augite and enstatite the analyses show the presence of more magnesia, iron and lime.

In the weathering of granite the quartz suffers little change; the felspar passes into dull cloudy, soft aggregates of kaolin, muscovite and secondary quartz, while chlorite, quartz and calcite replace the biotite, hornblende and augite. The rock often assumes a rusty brown colour from the liberation of the oxides of iron, and the decomposed mass is friable and can easily be dug with a spade; where the granite has been cut by joint planes not too close together weathering proceeds from their surfaces and large rounded blocks may be left embedded in rotted materials. The amount of water in the rock increases and part of the alkalis is carried away in solution; they form valuable sources of mineral food to plants. The chemical changes are shown by the following analyses:

	H2O.	SiO2.	TiO2.	Al2O3.	FeO.	Fe2O3.	CaO.	MgO.	Na2O.	K2O.	P2O5.
I.	1.22	69.33	n.d.	14.33	3.60	..	3.21	2.44	2.70	2.67	0.10
II.	3.27	66.82	n.d.	15.62	1.69	1.88	3.13	2.76	2.58	2.44	n.d.
III.	4.70	65.69	0.31	15.23	..	4.39	2.63	2.64	2.12	2.00	0.06

Analyses of I., fresh grey granite; II. brown moderately firm granite; III. residual sand, produced by the weathering of the same mass (anal. G. P. Merrill).

The differences are surprisingly small and are principally an increase in the water and a diminution in the amount of alkalis and lime together with the oxidation of the ferrous oxide.  (J. S. F.) 

GRAN SASSO D’ITALIA (“Great Rock of Italy”), a mountain of the Abruzzi, Italy, the culminating point of the Apennines, 9560 ft. in height. In formation it resembles the limestone Alps of Tirol and there are on its elevated plateaus a number of doline or funnel-shaped depressions into which the melted snow and the rain sink. The summit is covered with snow for the greater part of the year. Seen from the Adriatic, Monte Corno, as it is sometimes called, from its resemblance to a horn, affords a magnificent spectacle; the Alpine region beneath its summit is still the home of the wild boar, and here and there are dense woods of beech and pine. The group has numerous other lofty peaks, of which the chief are the Pizzo d’Intermesole (8680 ft.), the Corno Piccolo (8650 ft.), the Pizzo Cefalone (8307 ft.) and the Monte della Portella (7835 ft.). The most convenient starting-point for the ascent is Assergi, 10 m. N.E. of Aquila, at the S. foot of the Gran Sasso. The Italian Alpine Club has erected a hut S.W. of the principal summit, and has published a special guidebook (E. Abbate, Guida al Gran Sasso d’ Italia, Rome, 1888). The view from the summit extends to the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west and the mountains of Dalmatia on the east in clear weather. The ascent was first made in 1794 by Orazio Delfico from the Teramo side. In Assergi is the interesting church of Sta. Maria Assunta, dating from 1150, with later alterations (see Gavini, in L’ Arte, 1901, 316, 391).

GRANT, SIR ALEXANDER, 8th Bart. (1826–1884), British scholar and educationalist, was born in New York on the 13th of September 1826. After a childhood spent in the West Indies, he was educated at Harrow and Oxford. He entered Oxford as scholar of Balliol, and subsequently held a fellowship at Oriel from 1849 to 1860. He made a special study of the Aristotelian philosophy, and in 1857 published an edition of the Ethics (4th ed. 1885) which became a standard text-book at Oxford. In 1855 he was one of the examiners for the Indian Civil Service, and in 1856 a public examiner in classics at Oxford. In the latter year he succeeded to the baronetcy. In 1859 he went to Madras with Sir Charles Trevelyan, and was appointed inspector of schools; the next year he removed to Bombay, to fill the post of Professor of History and Political Economy in the Elphinstone College. Of this he became Principal in 1862; and, a year later, vice-chancellor of Bombay University, a post he held from 1863 to 1865 and again from 1865 to 1868. In 1865 he took upon himself also the duties of Director of Public Instruction for Bombay Presidency. In 1868 he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council. In the same year, upon the death of Sir David Brewster, he was appointed Principal of Edinburgh University, which had conferred an honorary LL.D. degree upon him in 1865. From that time till his death (which occurred in Edinburgh on the 30th of November 1884) his energies were entirely devoted to the well-being of the University. The institution of the medical school in the University was almost solely due to his initiative; and the Tercentenary Festival, celebrated in 1884, was the result of his wisely directed enthusiasm. In that year he published The Story of the University of Edinburgh during its First Three Hundred Years. He was created Hon. D.C.L. of Oxford in 1880, and an honorary fellow of Oriel College in 1882.

GRANT, ANNE (1755–1838), Scottish writer, generally known as Mrs Grant of Laggan, was born in Glasgow, on the 21st of February 1755. Her childhood was spent in America, her father, Duncan MacVicar, being an army officer on service there. In 1768 the family returned to Scotland, and in 1779 Anne married James Grant, an army chaplain, who was also minister of the parish of Laggan, near Fort Augustus, Inverness, where her father was barrack-master. On her husband’s death in 1801 she was left with a large family and a small income. In 1802 she published by subscription a volume of Original Poems, with some Translations from the Gaelic, which was favourably received. In 1806 her Letters from the Mountains, with their spirited description of Highland scenery and legends, awakened much interest. Her other works are Memoirs of an American Lady, with Sketches of Manners and Scenery in America as they existed previous to the Revolution (1808), containing reminiscences of her childhood; Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland (1811); and Eighteen Hundred and Thirteen, a Poem (1814). In 1810 she went to live in Edinburgh. For the last twelve years of her life she received a pension from government. She died on the 7th of November 1838.

See Memoir and Correspondence of Mrs Grant of Laggan, edited by her son J. P. Grant (3 vols., 1844).

GRANT, CHARLES (1746–1823), British politician, was born at Aldourie, Inverness-shire, on the 16th of April 1746, the day on which his father, Alexander Grant, was killed whilst fighting for the Jacobites at Culloden. When a young man Charles went to India, where he became secretary, and later a member of the board of trade. He returned to Scotland in 1790, and in 1802 was elected to parliament as member for the county of Inverness. In the House of Commons his chief interests were in Indian affairs, and he was especially vigorous in his hostility to the policy of the Marquess Wellesley. In 1805 he was chosen chairman of the directors of the East India Company and he retired from parliament in 1818. A friend of William Wilberforce, Grant was a prominent member of the evangelical party in the Church of England; he was a generous supporter of the church’s missionary undertakings. He was largely responsible for the establishment of the East India college, which was afterwards erected at Haileybury. He died in London on the 31st of October 1823. His eldest son, Charles, was created a peer in 1835 as Baron Glenelg.

See Henry Morris, Life of Charles Grant (1904).

GRANT, SIR FRANCIS (1803–1878), English portrait-painter, fourth son of Francis Grant of Kilgraston, Perthshire, was born at Edinburgh in 1803. He was educated for the bar, but at the age of twenty-four he began at Edinburgh systematically to study the practice of art. On completing a course of instruction he removed to London, and as early as 1843 exhibited at the Royal Academy. At the beginning of his career he utilized his sporting experiences by painting groups of huntsmen, horses and hounds, such as the “Meet of H.M. Staghounds” and the “Melton Hunt”; but his position in society gradually made him a fashionable portrait-painter. In drapery he had the taste of a connoisseur, and rendered the minutest details of costume with felicitous accuracy. In female portraiture he achieved considerable success, although rather in depicting the high-born graces and external characteristics than the true personality. Among his portraits of this class may be mentioned Lady