died at Turin the 5th of November 1573. There are three plays extant of his: "The Treasurer's Wife," a comedy, in 1558; the "Death of Caesar," a tragedy; and the "Frighted Ones, (Les Esbahis)" a comedy, both acted the same day at the college of Beauvais in 1560. Grevin, though snatched away by a premature death, had acquired a great reputation, not only as a poet, but as a physician. Some of his countrymen, speaking of his dramas, give him this favourable testimony, "that he effaced all who preceded him on the French stage, and that eight or ten such poets as he would have put it on a good footing, his versification being easy and smooth, especially in his comedies, and his plots well contrived." His poems and plays were printed at Paris, 1561, 8vo. He left also a "Treatise on Poisons," and another "against Antimony," both translated into Latin, and printed in 4to. It was by his means that the absurd decree of the faculty of Paris, afterwards confirmed by parliament, against the use of antimony in medicine, was passed. He was a Calvinist, and united with Rochandieu and Florence Christian in their ingenious poem entitled "The Temple," which they wrote against Ronsard, who had abused the Calvinists in his discourse on the "Miseries of Time."1

GREVIUS. See GRÆVIUS.

GREW (OBADIAH), a worthy parish priest, was born in November 1607, at Atherston, in the parish of Manceter, Warwickshire; and, having been well grounded in grammar-learning under his uncle Mr. John Denison, was admitted a student of Baliol college, Oxford, in 1624. Here pursuing his studies carefully, he became qualified for academical honours; and, taking both his degrees in arts at the regular times, he was ordained at twenty-eight years of age by Dr. Wright, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. In the beginning of the civil wars he sided with the parliament party, took the covenant, and, at the request of the corporation of Coventry, became minister of the great parish of St. Michael in that city, in which station he was admired for his conscientious performance of all his duties. The soundness of his doctrine according to his persuasion, the prudence and sanctity of his conversation, the vigilancy and tenderness of his care, were of that constant tenor, that he seemed to do all which the best writers upon the

1 Niceron, vol. XXVI.—Moreri.-Freheri Theatrum.-Saxii Onomast.

pastoral office tell us should be done. As he sided with the presbyterians against the hierarchy, so he joined with that party also against the design of destroying the king. In this, as in other things, he acted both with integrity and courage, of which we have the following remarkable instances. In 1648, when Cromwell, then lieutenant-general, was at Coventry upon his march towards London, Mr. Grew took this opportunity to represent to him the wickedness of the design, then evidently on foot, for taking off his majesty, and the sad consequences thereof, should it take effect; earnestly pressing him to use his endeavours to prevent it, and not ceasing to solicit him till he obtained his promise for it. Nor was he satisfied with this; for afterwards, when the design became more apparent, he addressed a letter to him, reminding him of his promise, and took care to have his letter delivered into Cromwell's own hands. At another time he was required to read in the church the proclamation against sir George Booth, and threatened by Lambert's soldiers, then in Coventry, with the loss of his place if he refused, yet he determined not to read it. Of his liberality we have this instance: When Mr. Panton, a minister of the royalist party, was obliged to sell his library, Dr. Grew bought some of the books, and being afterwards requested to return them, with an offer of the money he paid, he returned the books, but refused the money, as he knew that Mr. Panton could not yet afford the money so well as himself.

In 1651 he accumulated the degrees of divinity, and completed that of doctor the ensuing act, when he preached the "Concio ad Clerum" with applause. In 1654 he was appointed one of the assistants to the commissioners of Warwickshire, for the ejection of such as were then called scandalous, ignorant, and insufficient ministers and schoolmasters. He continued at St. Michael's greatly esteemed and beloved among his parishioners, till his majesty's restoration; after which he resigned his benefice in pur suance to the act of conformity in 1661, although bishop Hacket was urgent with him to conform, and allowed him to preach a month beyond the prescribed time, but he delivered his farewell sermon, and afterwards restricted his labours to a few private hearers. Even in this, however, he was carefully watched, and underwent some severe trials, particularly an imprisonment of six months. He still, however, preserved the respect and affection of the citizens

of Coventry till his death, which happened October 22, 1689. He published "A Sinner's Justification by Christ, &c. delivered in several Sermons on Jer. ii. 6, 1670," 8vo; and "Meditations upon our Saviour's Parable of the Prodigal Son, &c. 1678," 4to, both at the request, and for the common benefit, of some of his quondam parishioners.'

GREW (NEHEMIAH), the first and most universal vegetable anatomist and physiologist of this country, the son of the preceding, was born at Coventry. The year of his birth is not mentioned, but from some circumstances appears to have been 1628. He was brought up a presbyterian, his father having taken the covenant; and on the change of the national form of religion, at the restoration of Charles II. he was sent to study in some foreign university, where he took his degree of doctor of physic. He settled first at Coventry, and probably resided there in 1664, when, as he informs us in the preface to his Anatomy of Plants, he first directed his thoughts to the subject of that work, "upon reading some of the many and curious inventions of learned men, in the bodies of animals. For considering that both of them came at first out of the same hand, and were therefore the contrivances of the same wisdom; I thence," says he, "fully assured myself, that it could not be a vain design to seek it in both.-That so I might put somewhat upon that side the leaf which the best botanicks had left bare and empty." Four years afterwards he consulted his brother-in-law, Dr. Henry Sampson, who encouraged him to go on, by pointing out a passage in Glisson's book "De Hepate," chap. 1, in which the anatomy of plants is hinted at as an unexplored, but very promising line of study for a practical observer. For some time he resided at Coventry, but determining to settle in London, he came thither about 1672. Before this his first essay on the anatomy of plants was communicated to the royal society in 1670, by bishop Wilkins, under the title of an "Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants." It was received with the honour and attention it deserved, being ordered to be printed, and its author, in that year also, on the recommendation of the same learned divine, became a fellow of the royal society. He was appointed secretary in 1677, in which capacity he published the Phi

Biog. Brit. note in art. Nehemiah Grew.-Calamy.-Miscellaneous Antiquities, in continuation of the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, No. I. by Benjamin Bartlett, esq, F. S. A,

losophical Transactions from Jan. 1677-8, to Feb. in the following year. In 1680 he was made an honorary fellow of the college of physicians.-He is said to have attained to considerable practice in his profession, nor did his being a nonconformist deprive him of the credit justly due to his piety and philosophical merit, even in the worst times. He lived indeed to see various changes of opinions and professions, apparently with the tranquillity becoming a philosopher and a good man, and died suddenly, March 25, 1711.

Dr. Grew's Anatomy of Vegetables, of Roots, and of Trunks, originally formed three separate publications in 8vo, but were subsequently collected into a folio volume, and published in 1682, with 83 plates. In this work, truly original, though Malpighi had about the same time, or rather before, pursued the same line of inquiry, scarcely any thing relative to the vegetable anatomy is left untouched. It was the character of Grew to observe every thing, and if a more philosophical observer, more aware of what is best worth remarking, be, in general estimation, a superior character, the latter is more likely to see through the false medium of dazzling theory. The works of Grew are a storehouse of facts, for the use of less original and more indolent authors. They seldom require correction, except where theory is interwoven with observation, and even his theories have passed current till very lately. His chemistry is, of course, that of his time, but his remarks on vegetable secretions, and their multifarious and peculiar properties, abound with ingenuity and originality, as well as his comparative examinations of the various kinds of fruits and seeds. If he had no correct ideas of the propulsion or direction of the sap, we must not forget that he was one of the first who adopted and illustrated the doctrine of the sexes of plants, nor did even the principles of methodical arrangement entirely escape his notice.

In 1681 Dr. Grew published a folio volume, entitled "Museum Regalis Societatis," or a catalogue and description of the natural and artificial rarities belonging to the Royal Society, and preserved at Gresham college. This is a scientific and descriptive catalogue, with learned references to preceding writers. It is accompanied by "the Comparative Anatomy of Stomachs and Guts begun, being several lectures read before the Royal Society in 1676." Twenty-two plates illustrate the first part of this volume,

and nine the latter, which were given to him by Daniel Colwell, esq. the founder of the collection. The latest publication of our author was "Cosmographia Sacra, or a Discourse of the Universe, as it is the creature and kingdom of God." He was an illustrious proof that it is the fool, and not the philosopher, "who hath said in his heart there is no God." The works of Grew were soon translated into French and Latin, but the latter very incorrectly. His funeral sermon was preached at the meeting in the Old Jewry by the rev. John Shower. It appears by this discourse that Dr. Grew illustrated his learned character by a life of strict piety, humility, and charity. '

GREY (Lady JANE), was an illustrious personage of the blood royal of England by both parents: her grandmother on her father's side, Henry Grey marquis of Dorset, being queen-consort to Edward IV.; and her grandmother on her mother's side, lady Frances Brandon, being daughter to Henry VII. queen-dowager of France, and mother of Mary queen of Scots. Lady Jane was born, 1537, at Bradgate, her father's seat in Leicestershire, and very early gave astonishing proofs of the pregnancy of her parts; insomuch that, upon a comparison with Edward VI. who was partly of the same age, and thought a kind of miracle, the superiority has been given to her in every respect. Her genius appeared in the works of her needle, in the beautiful character in which she wrote; besides which, she played admirably on various instruments of music, and accompanied them with a voice exquisitely sweet in itself, and assisted by all the graces that art could bestow. These, however, were only inferior ornaments in her character; and, as she was far from priding herself upon them, so, through the rigour of her parents in exacting them, they became her grief more than her pleasure. Her father had himself a tincture of letters, and was a great patron of the learned. He had two chaplains, Harding, and Aylmer afterwards bishop of London, both men of distinguished learning, whom he employed as tutors to his daughter; and under whose instructions she made such a proficiency as amazed them both. Her own language she spoke and wrote with peculiar accuracy: the French, Italian, Latin, and it is said Greek, were as natural to her

1 Biog. Brit.-Ward's Gresham Professors.-Rees's Cyclopædia.-Funeral Sermon, by Shower,