first used to imply an explosive shell fired from a gun; this survives to the present day in the German Granate. These weapons were employed after about 1660, by special troops called “grenadiers” (q.v.), and in the wars of the 17th and 18th centuries they are continually met with. They became obsolete in the 19th century, but were given a new lease of life in the 20th, owing to their employment in the siege of Port Arthur in 1904, where hand-grenades of a modern type, and containing powerful modern explosives, proved very effective (see Ammunition, Shell). Hand-grenades filled with chemicals and made of glass are used as a method of fire-extinction, and similar vessels containing a liquid with a very strong smell are used to discover defects in a drain or sewer.
GRENADIER, originally a soldier whose special duty it was
to throw hand-grenades. The latter were in use for a considerable
time before any special organization was given to the troops
who were to use them. In 1667 four men per company in the
French Régiment du Roi were trained with grenades (siege of
Lille), and in 1668–1670 grenadier companies were formed in
this regiment and in about thirty others of the French line.
Evelyn, in his Diary, tells us that on the 29th of June 1678 he
saw at Hounslow “a new sort of soldiers called granadiers, who
were dexterous in flinging hand-granades.” As in the case of
the fusiliers, the French practice was therefore quickly copied
in England. Eventually each English battalion had a grenadier
company (see for illustrations Archaeological Journal, xxiii. 222,
and xlvii. 321–324). Besides their grenades and the firelock,
grenadiers carried axes which, with the grenades, were employed
in the assault of fortresses, as we are told in the celebrated song,
“The British Grenadiers.”
The grenadier companies were formed always of the most powerful men in the regiment and, when the grenade ceased to be used, they maintained their existence as the “crack” companies of their battalions, taking the right of the line on parade and wearing the distinctive grenadier headdress. This system was almost universal, and the typical infantry regiment of the 18th and early 19th century had a grenadier and a light company besides its “line” companies. In the British and other armies these élite companies were frequently taken from their regiments and combined in grenadier and light infantry battalions for special service, and Napoleon carried this practice still further in the French army by organizing brigades and divisions of grenadiers (and correspondingly of voltigeurs). Indeed the companies thus detached from the line practically never returned to it, and this was attended with serious evils, for the battalion at the outbreak of war lost perhaps a quarter of its best men, the average men only remaining with the line. This special organization of grenadiers and light companies lasted in the British army until about 1858. In the Prussian service the grenadiers became permanent and independent battalions about 1740, and the gradual adoption of the four-company battalion by Prussia and other nations tended still further to place the grenadiers by themselves and apart from the line. Thus at the present day in Germany, Russia and other countries, the title of “grenadiers” is borne by line regiments, indistinguishable, except for details of uniform and often the esprit de corps inherited from the old élite companies, from the rest. In the British service the only grenadiers remaining are the Grenadier Guards, originally the 1st regiment of Foot Guards, which was formed in 1660 on the nucleus of a regiment of English royalists which followed the fortunes of Charles II. in exile. In Russia a whole army corps (headquarters Moscow), inclusive of its artillery units, bears the title.
The special headdress of the grenadier was a pointed cap, with peak and flaps, of embroidered cloth, or a loose fur cap of similar shape; both these were light field service caps. The fur cap has in the course of time developed into the tall “bearskin” worn by British guards and various corps of other armies; the embroidered field cap survives, transformed, however, into a heavy brass headdress, in the uniform of the 1st Prussian Foot Guards, the 1st Prussian Guard Grenadiers and the Russian Paul (Pavlovsky) Grenadier Guards.
GRENADINES, a chain of islets in the Windward Islands,
West Indies. They stretch for 60 m. between St Vincent and
Grenada, following a N.E. to S.W. direction, and consist of some
600 islets and rocks. Some are a few square miles in extent,
others are merely rocky cones projecting from the deep. For
purposes of administration they are divided between St Vincent
and Grenada. Bequia, the chief island in the St Vincent group,
is long and narrow, with an area 6 sq. m. Owing to a lack of
water it is only slightly cultivated, but game is plentiful.
Admiralty Bay, on the W. side, is a safe and commodious
harbour. Carriacou, belonging to Grenada, is the largest of the
group, being 7 m. long, 2 m. wide and 13 sq. m. in extent. A ridge
of hills, rising to an altitude of 700 ft., traverses the centre from
N.E. to S.W.; here admirable building stone is found. There
are two good harbours on the west coast, Hillsborough Bay on
which stands Hillsborough, the chief town, and Tyrell Bay,
farther south. The island is thickly populated, the negro
peasantry occupying small lots and working on the metayer
system. Excellent oysters are found along the coast, and cotton
and cattle are the chief exports. Pop. of the group, mostly on
Carriacou (1901) 6497.
GRENOBLE, the ancient capital of the Dauphiné in S.E. France, and now the chief town of the Isère department, 75 m.
by rail from Lyons, 38½ m. from Chambéry and 85½ m. from
Gap. Pop. (1906), town, 58,641; commune, 73,022. It is one
of the most beautifully situated, and also one of the most strongly
fortified, cities in Europe. Built at a height of 702 ft. on both
banks of the river Isère just above its junction with the Drac,
the town occupies a considerable plain at the south-western end
of the fertile Graisivaudan valley. To the north rise the mountains
of the Grande Chartreuse, to the east the range of Belledonne,
and to the south those of Taillefer and the Moucherotte,
the higher summits of these ranges being partly covered with
snow. From the Jardin de Ville and the quays of the banks of
the Isère the summit of Mont Blanc itself is visible. The greater
part of the town rises on the left bank of the Isère, which is
bordered by broad quays. The older portion has the tortuous
and narrow streets usual in towns that have been confined within
fortifications, but in modern times these hindrances have been
demolished. The newer portion of the town has wide thoroughfares
and buildings of the modern French type, solid but not
picturesque. The original town (of but small extent) was built
on the right bank of the Isère at the southern foot of the Mont
Rachais, now covered by a succession of fortresses that rise
picturesquely on the slope of that hill to a very considerable
height (885 ft. above the town).
Grenoble is the seat of a bishopric which was founded in the 4th century, and now comprises the department of the Isère—formerly a suffragan of Vienne it now forms part of the ecclesiastical province of Lyons. The most remarkable building in the town is the Palais de Justice, erected (late 15th century to 16th century) on the site of the old palace of the Parlement of the Dauphiné. Opposite is the most noteworthy church of the city, that of St André (13th century), formerly the chapel of the dauphins of the Viennois: in it is the 17th century monument of Bayard (1476–1524), the chevalier sans peur et sans reproche, which was removed hither in 1822; but it is uncertain whose bones are therein. The cathedral church of Notre Dame is a heavy building, dating in part from the 11th century. The church of St Laurent, on the right bank of the Isère, is the oldest in the city (11th century) and has a remarkable crypt, dating from Merovingian times. The town hall is a mainly modern building, constructed on the site of the palace of the dauphins, while the prefecture is entirely modern. The town library contains a considerable collection of paintings, mainly of the modern French school, but is more remarkable for its very rich collection of MSS. (7000) and printed books (250,000 vols.) which in great part belonged till 1793 to the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse. The natural history museum houses rich collections of various kinds, which contain (inter alia) numerous geological specimens from the neighbouring districts of the Dauphiné and Savoy. The university, revived in modern times
