Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/283

 GROTON GROUCHY 269 ther WILLEM (1597-1662), who was a distin- guished lawyer, collected and published his Latin poems, and wrote a treatise on natural law (the Hague, 1655) and lives of the jurists named in the Pandects (Leyden, 1690). GROTON. I. A town of Middlesex co., Mas- sachusetts, on Nashua and Squannacook rivers, 30 m. N. W. of Boston and 13 m. W. of Lowell ; pop. in 1870, 3,584. Since the census the town of Ayer has been taken from it. Four rail- roads, viz., the Worcester and Nashua, the Fitchburg, the Stonybrook, and the Peter- borough and Shirley, intersect at Ayer Junction (formerly Groton Junction). Groton is the seat of the Lawrence academy, which was in- corporated in 1793, and owes a liberal endow- ment to the munificence of the Lawrence fam- ily, who are natives of this place. The academy has a library of 2,500 volumes and an endow- ment of $80,000. In 1872 the number of in- structors was 7, and of pupils 147, of whom 92 were males and 55 females. The town con- tains several saw and grist mills, manufactories of agricultural implements, paper, and leather, and 10 public schools. II* A town of New London co., Connecticut, on Long Island sound, at the E. side of the mouth of Thames river, and opposite New London ; pop. in 1870. 5,124. It is on the Stonington and Providence railroad, the principal village being 12 m. W. of Stoning- ton, and 62 m. by rail S. W. of Providence. There is a good harbor, and the town is inter- ested in the coasting trade, ship building, and the fisheries. A considerable export business is carried on with New York. Mystic and Pe- quonnock rivers flow through the town to Long Island sound, and supply valuable motive power, which is employed in running cotton mills, &c. There are founderies of brass and iron, manu- factories of britannia ware and carriages, two granite quarries, and 11 public schools. The town contains a United States naval station and five post offices, viz. : Groton, Centre Groton, Poquonoc Bridge, Noank, and Mystic River. Groton is the site of Fort Griswold, memorable for the massacre of an American garrison at the time of the destruction of New London and Groton by the British troops under Benedict Arnold, Sept. 6, 1781. The British having captured the fort after a desperate re- sistance, the American commander, Col. Led- I i yard, surrendered to the officer of the detach- ment, and was immediately killed with his own sword, most of his men being also butch- ered ; 85 of the Americans were killed and 60 wounded. A granite monument to commemo- rate this event was erected in Groton in 1830. GROTTO (It. grotto), a natural cavern, or an artificial excavation in the earth. Among the most famous caverns particularly designated by this name is the Kasegrotte at Bertrich, Rhe- nish Prussia, so called from the columnar piles of blocks of basalt shaded like cheeses, in the midst of which the cave extends. Still more celebrated is the Grotta del Cane, near Pozzu- oli, Naples, referred to by Pliny as one of the class of excavations known as " Charon's ditches." It would seem from his reference that in his time the mephitic gas for which it is still remarkable was exhaled in quantity suffi- cient to prove fatal to human life. At the present time this forms but a shallow stratum upon the floor, in which a candle is extin- guished and dogs are stifled by way of experi- ment. The custom of exhibiting the effect of the carbonic acid gas upon dogs has given the distinctive name to the grotto. The excavation is described as extending about 10 ft. into the base of a hill, with a width of 4 and a height of 9 ft. Prof. Silliman, in his " Notes on Eu- rope," speaks of it as a little hole dug arti- ficially into the foot of a hill facing Lake Agnano. The aperture is closed by a door, and the space within is barely sufficient for one person to stand erect. Into this narrow cell a dog is dragged, and placed in a depres- sion of the floor, where he is soon narcotized by the carbonic acid. The earth is warm to the hand, and the volume of gas given out is very constant. Among other celebrated grot- toes is that of the island of Antiparos. (See AN- TIPAROS.) GROUCHY, Emmanuel, marquis de, a French general, born in Paris, Oct. 23, 1766, died in St. Etienne, May 29, 1847. He entered the military service at the age of 14, and on the breaking out of the revolution had been for five years a lieutenant in the royal body guards. He was then placed in command of a regiment of chasseurs, served in 1792 under Lafayette, was made a brigadier general, commanded the cavalry in the army of the Alps, and contrib- uted to the conquest of Savoy. The decree of the convention cashiering all officers who belonged to noble families suspended his ca- reer for a while. Reentering the army as a private, he was reinstated in 1795 by a special decree and made a general of division. Being called to the army in Italy in 1798, he persua- ded the king of Sardinia to abdicate and sur- render Piedmont to France. In 1799, at the battle of Novi, he received 14 wounds and was taken prisoner. The battle of Marengo pro- cured his liberation ; he then joined Moreau on the Rhine, took part in the victory of Ho- henlinden, and was made inspector general of cavalry. He served in 1806 and 1807 in Prus- sia ; was governor of Madrid in 1808 ; assisted in 1809 in the battle of Wagram ; and finally signalized himself at the battle of Borodino in 1812. On the retreat from Moscow he was placed in command of the guard selected to accompany the emperor. After the battle of Leipsic he vigorously opposed the invasion of France by the allied troops, making a stand at Brienne, La Rothiere, Yauchamps, and Etoges. A wound received at Craonne, March 7, 1814, forced him to leave the army. Coldly treated by the Bourbons on the first restoration, he joined Napoleon at once on his return from Elba, and being placed in command of the army at Lyons, arrested the duke of Angou-