CHARTREUSE, LA GRANDE, the mother house of the order of Carthusian monks (see CARTHUSIANS). It is situated in the French department of the Isere, about 12-1 m. N. of Gre noble, at a height of 3,205 ft. above the sea, in the heart of a group of limestone mountains, and not far from the source of the Guiers Mort. The original settlement here was founded by St. Bruno about 1084, and derived its name from the small village to the south-east, formerly known as Cartusia, and now as St. Pierre de Chartreuse. The first convent on the present site was built between 1132 and 1137, but the actual buildings date only from about 1676, the older ones often having been burnt. One of the most famous of the early Carthusian monks was St. Hugh of Lincoln, who lived here from 1160 to 1181, when he went to England to found the first Carthusian house at Witham in Somer set; in 1186 he became bishop of Lincoln, and before his death in 1200 had built the angel choir and other portions of the cathedral there.
The monks were expelled in 1793, but were allowed to return in 1816, when they had to pay rent for the use of the buildings and the forests around. They were again expelled in 1904, and are dispersed in various houses in England, at Pinerolo (Italy) and at Tarragona (Spain) . (See above.) The high roofs of dark slate, the cross-surmounted turrets and the lofty clock-tower are the chief features of the buildings of the convent, which are not very striking. Women were formerly lodged in the old infirmary, close to the main gate, which is now a hotel. Within the con ventual buildings are four halls formerly used for the reception of the priors of various branch houses in France, Italy, Burgundy and Germany. The very plain and unadorned chapel dates from the 15th century, but the cloisters, around which cluster the 36 small houses for the fully professed monks, are of later date. The library contained before the Revolution a very fine collection of books and mss., most of them now in the town library at Grenoble. CHARWOMAN. A word of interesting origin, meaning one who is hired to do occasional household work. "Char" or "chare," which forms the first part of the word, is common, in many forms, to Teutonic languages, meaning a "turn," and, in this original sense, is seen in "ajar," properly "on char," of a door "on the turn" in the act of closing. It is thus applied to a "turn of work," an odd job, and is so used, in the form "chore," in the United States, and in dialects of the south-west of England.