of Dunkirk, 15 m. S.W. of Dunkirk on the railway to Calais. Pop. (1906) town, 1858; commune, 6284. Gravelines is situated on the Aa, 114 m. from its mouth in the North Sea. It is surrounded by a double circuit of ramparts and by a tidal moat. The river is canalized and opens out beneath the fortifications into a floating basin. The situation of the port is one of the best in France on the North Sea, though its trade has suffered owing to the nearness of Calais and Dunkirk and the silting up of the channel to the sea. It is a centre for the cod and herring fisheries. Imports consist chiefly of timber from Northern Europe and coal from England, to which eggs and fruit are exported. Gravelines has paper-manufactories, sugar-works, fish-curing works, salt-refineries, chicory-roasting factories, a cannery for preserved peas and other vegetables and an important timber-yard. The harbour is accessible to vessels drawing 18 ft. at high tides. The greater part of the population of the commune of Gravelines dwells in the maritime quarter of Petit-Fort-Philippe at the mouth of the Aa, and in the village of Les Huttes (to the east of the town), which is inhabited by the fisher-folk.
The canalization of the Aa by a count of Flanders about the middle of the 12th century led to the foundation of Gravelines (grave-linghe, meaning “count’s canal.”). In 1558 it was the scene of the signal victory of the Spaniards under the count of Egmont over the French. It finally passed from the Spaniards to the French by the treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659.
GRAVELOTTE, a village of Lorraine between Metz and the
French frontier, famous as the scene of the battle of the 18th
of August 1870 between the Germans under King William of
Prussia and the French under Marshal Bazaine (see Metz and
Franco-German War). The battlefield extends from the
woods which border the Moselle above Metz to Roncourt, near
the river Orne. Other villages which played an important part
in the battle of Gravelotte were Saint Privat, Amanweiler or
Amanvillers and Sainte-Marie-aux-Chênes, all lying to the N.
of Gravelotte.
GRAVES, ALFRED PERCEVAL (1846– ), Irish writer,
was born in Dublin, the son of the bishop of Limerick. He was
educated at Windermere College, and took high honours at
Dublin University. In 1869 he entered the Civil Service as
clerk in the Home Office, where he remained until he became in
1874 an inspector of schools. He was a constant contributor of
prose and verse to the Spectator, The Athenaeum, John Bull, and
Punch, and took a leading part in the revival of Irish letters.
He was for several years president of the Irish Literary Society,
and is the author of the famous ballad of “Father O’Flynn”
and many other songs and ballads. In collaboration with Sir
C. V. Stanford he published Songs of Old Ireland (1882), Irish
Songs and Ballads (1893), the airs of which are taken from the
Petrie MSS.; the airs of his Irish Folk-Songs (1897) were arranged
by Charles Wood, with whom he also collaborated in Songs of
Erin (1901).
His brother, Charles L. Graves (b. 1856), educated at Marlborough and at Christ Church, Oxford, also became well known as a journalist, author of two volumes of parodies, The Hawarden Horace (1894) and More Hawarden Horace (1896), and of skits in prose and verse. An admirable musical critic, his Life and Letters of Sir George Grove (1903) is a model biography.
GRAVESEND, a municipal and parliamentary borough,
river-port and market town of Kent, England, on the right bank
of the Thames opposite Tilbury Fort, 22 m. E. by S. of London
by the South-Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop. (1901) 27,196.
It extends about 2 m. along the river bank, occupying a slight
acclivity which reaches its summit at Windmill Hill, whence
extensive views are obtained of the river, with its windings and
shipping. The older and lower part of the town is irregularly
built, with narrow and inconvenient streets, but the upper and
newer portion contains several handsome streets and terraces.
Among several piers are the town pier, erected in 1832, and the
terrace pier, built in 1845, at a time when local river-traffic by
steamboat was specially prosperous. Gravesend is a favourite
resort of the inhabitants of London, both for excursions and as
a summer residence; it is also a favourite yachting centre.
The principal buildings are the town-hall, the parish church of
Gravesend, erected on the site of an ancient building destroyed
by fire in 1727; Milton parish church, a Decorated and Perpendicular
building erected in the time of Edward II.; and the
county courts. Milton Mount College is a large institution for
the daughters of Congregational ministers. East of the town
are the earthworks designed to assist Tilbury Fort in obstructing
the passage up river of an enemy’s force. They were originally
constructed on Vauban’s system in the reign of Charles II.
Rosherville Gardens, a popular resort, are in the western suburb
of Rosherville, a residential quarter named after James Rosher,
an owner of lime works. They were founded in 1843 by George
Jones. Gravesend, which is within the Port of London, has some
import trade in coal and timber, and fishing, especially of
shrimps, is carried on extensively. The principal other industries
are boat-building, ironfounding, brewing and soap-boiling.
Fruit and vegetables are largely grown in the neighbourhood
for the London market. Since 1867 Gravesend has returned a
member to parliament, the borough including Northfleet to the
west. The town is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18
councillors. Area, 1259 acres.
In the Domesday Survey “Gravesham” is entered among the bishop of Bayeux’s lands, and a “hythe” or landing-place is mentioned. In 1401 Henry IV. granted the men of Gravesend the sole right of conveying in their own vessels all persons travelling between London and Gravesend, and this right was confirmed by Edward IV. in 1462. In 1562 the town was granted a charter of incorporation by Elizabeth, which vested the government in 2 portreeves and 12 jurats, but by a later charter of 1568 one portreeve was substituted for the two. Charles I. incorporated the town anew under the title of the mayor, jurats and inhabitants of Gravesend, and a further charter of liberties was granted by James II. in 1687. A Thursday market and fair on the 13th of October were granted to the men of Gravesend by Edward III. in 1367; Elizabeth’s charters gave them a Wednesday market and fairs on the 24th of June and the 13th of October, with a court of pie-powder; by the charter of Charles I. Thursday and Saturday were made the market days, and these were changed again to Wednesday and Saturday by a charter of 1694, which also granted a fair on the 23rd of April; the fairs on these dates have died out, but the Saturday market is still held.
From the beginning of the 17th century Gravesend was the chief station for East Indiamen; most of the ships outward bound from London stopped here to victual. A customs house was built in 1782. Queen Elizabeth established Gravesend as the point where the corporation of London should welcome in state eminent foreign visitors arriving by water. State processions by water from Gravesend to London had previously taken place, as in 1522, when Henry VIII. escorted the emperor Charles V. A similar practice was maintained until modern times; as when, on the 7th of March 1863, the princess Alexandra was received here by the prince of Wales (King Edward VII.) three days before their marriage. Gravesend parish church contains memorials to “Princess” Pocahontas, who died when preparing to return home from a visit to England in 1617, and was buried in the old church. A memorial pulpit from the state of Indiana, U.S.A., made of Virginian wood, was provided in 1904, and a fund was raised for a stained-glass window by ladies of the state of Virginia.
GRAVINA, GIOVANNI VINCENZO (1664–1718), Italian
littérateur and jurisconsult, was born at Roggiano, a small town
near Cosenza, in Calabria, on the 20th of January 1664. He was
descended from a distinguished family, and under the direction
of his maternal uncle, Gregorio Caloprese, who possessed some
reputation as a poet and philosopher, received a learned education,
after which he studied at Naples civil and canon law. In
1689 he came to Rome, where in 1695 he united with several
others of literary tastes in forming the Academy of Arcadians.
A schism occurred in the academy in 1711, and Gravina and his
followers founded in opposition to it the Academy of Quirina.
From Innocent XII. Gravina received the offer of various
