Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/228

Grierson published six engravings from the following pictures in the royal collection at Kensington Palace: ‘Hercules between Virtue and Vice,’ after Paolo de Matteis; ‘The Adoration of the Shepherds,’ after Palma Vecchio; ‘Esther fainting before Ahasuerus,’ and ‘The Nine Muses in Olympus,’ after Tintoretto; ‘The Birth of Jupiter and Juno’ (or rather ‘The Birth of Apollo and Diana’), after Giulio Romano; and ‘The Judgment of Midas,’ after Andrea Schiavone. But his most important work was a large engraving on three plates, finished in 1730, of ‘The Apotheosis of James I,’ from the painting by Rubens on the ceiling of the banquetting house at Whitehall. None of his plates, however, give any adequate idea of the style of the masters from whom they are copied, and, as Vertue remarks, ‘at best are neat memorandums.’ He also engraved some portraits, among which are those of William III and Queen Mary, after Fowler; William, duke of Gloucester, after Sir Godfrey Kneller; Frederick, duke of Schomberg; James, duke of Ormonde, after Dahl; Sir William Dawes, archbishop of York, after Clostermann; and a small full-length of Anthony, third earl of Shaftesbury, after the same painter, for the edition of the ‘Characteristics’ issued in 1714. There is also by him a set of thirty-seven plates of designs for goldsmith's work, as well as a large number of vignettes and head- and tail-pieces for the decoration of books. Gribelin died in Long Acre, London, on 18 Jan. 1733, aged seventy-two, from a cold caught in going to see the king in the House of Lords. There is in the British Museum a volume of all his smaller plates, collected by himself, which was formerly in the possession of George Vertue.

Gribelin had a son who was an engraver, and went as a draughtsman to Turkey in the suite of George Hay,seventh earl of Kinnoull [q.v.]

[Vertue's Cat. of Engravers, 1765, p. 118; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum, 1849, iii. 964; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves, 1886-9, i. 601.]  GRIERSON, CONSTANTIA (1706?–1733), classical scholar, whose maiden name has been doubtfully stated to have been Phillipps (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. i. 341), was born apparently at Kilkenny. Her parents seem to have been in narrow circumstances, but her father is said to have first encouraged her love of study. In her eighteenth year she began to study obstetrics under Dr. Van Lewen, a Dublin physician of repute, father of Mrs. Letitia Pilkington. She soon afterwards married George Grierson, an eminent Dublin printer, who obtained from Lord Carteret, when lord-lieutenant, a patent as king's printer in Ireland, chiefly, it is conjectured, owing to Carteret's admiration of Mrs. Grierson's attainments. Mrs. Pilkington, who knew Mrs. Grierson personally, writes that she was mistress of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French, understood mathematics well, and wrote elegantly in verse and prose. Mrs. Grierson was on intimate terms with Dean Swift, Thomas Sheridan, and Patrick Delany, D.D. A poem by her was included by Mrs. Barber [q. v.] in her volume of ‘Poems on Several Occasions,’ London, 1734. Mrs. Grierson edited Latin classics published by her husband. Of these the principal were ‘Terence,’ 1727, and ‘Tacitus,’ 1730. The first was inscribed to Robert, son of Lord Carteret, viceroy of Ireland, and her edition of ‘Tacitus’ was dedicated in elegant Latin to Carteret himself. Dr. Harwood, the classical bibliographer, pronounced Mrs. Grierson's ‘Tacitus’ to be ‘one of the best edited books ever delivered to the world.’ Mrs. Grierson is also stated to have written several English poems, of which copies have not been preserved. Her learning and virtue were referred to in a poem by Henry Brooke (1703?-1783) [q. v.], author of ‘Gustavus Vasa.’ She was engaged on an edition of ‘Sallust’ at the time of her death in 1733. A copy of it with her annotations came into the possession of Lord George Germain [q. v.], and at the sale of his books was purchased by John Wilkes, who valued it highly. Her son, George Abraham Grierson, described as ‘a gentleman of uncommon learning, great wit and vivacity,’ was a friend of Dr. Johnson. He died at Düsseldorf in 1755, aged 27. Several volumes of his manuscript collections, in various languages, relating to European history are in the possession of representatives of his family.

[Memoirs of Mrs. L. Pilkington, 1748; Memoirs of British Ladies, by G. Ballard, 1775; E. Harwood's View of Editions of Classics, 1790; Brookiana, 1804; Swift's Works, ed. Sir Walter Scott, 1824; Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill; Hist. of City of Dublin, vol. ii. 1859; Autobiography of Mrs. Delany, vol. i., 1861; manuscripts of Grierson family.]

 GRIERSON or GRISSON, JOHN (d. 1564?), Dominican, perhaps a member of the family of Grierson of Lag in Dumfriesshire, was a student of the university of Aberdeen (, Murthlacensium et Aberdonensium Episcoporum vitæ, p. 63, Bannatyne Club), and in 1500 was principal of the King's College at that university. Previously to 1517 he became prior of the Dominican house at St. Andrews (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1513-46, p. 228), and rose to be provincial of his order