by Pope Eugenius III., whom St. Gilbert visited at Citeaux. He died in 1189 at the age of one hundred and six years.—T. A.
GILBERT, Bishop of London, surnamed for his knowledge the Universal, is supposed to have been a native of Brittany. He flourished in the first half of the twelfth century, and taught with distinction in the schools of Auxerre and of Nevers. He was, according to Le Neve's Fasti, a canon of Lyons; and having been appointed bishop of London by Henry I., was consecrated in the January of 1128; dying in the course of a journey to Rome on the 10th of August, 1134. Some glosses on the scripture have been attributed to Gilbert; but we have no satisfactory memorial of the knowledge which has earned for him the designation of Universal. The writer of the careful memoir of Gilbert in the Biographic Générale has omitted to notice the character for avarice given to the ancient scholar by Henry of Huntingdon, who describes his very boots, "well stuffed with gold and silver," as brought at his death into the royal treasury.—F. E.
GILBERTUS ANGLICANUS or Gilbertus Legleus, flourished in the year 1210. He was the earliest English writer on medicine, and exposed the erroneous practices of the monks in the treatment of disease. Leland bestows high praise on his skill in healing. His writings are chiefly compiled from the Arabian physicians, from whom, especially from Rhazes, he in some cases transcribes whole chapters. His best known work is entitled "Compendium medicinæ, tam morborum universalium, quam particularium." It was corrected by Michael Capello, and printed at Lyons in 1510. It subsequently appeared under the title of "Laurea Anglicana," 4to, Geneva, 1608.—R. H.
GILCHRIST, Ebenezer, M.D., an eminent Scotch physician, was born at Dumfries in 1707. He began the study of medicine in Edinburgh, proceeded afterwards to London, then went abroad, studied at Paris, and obtained the degree of doctor of medicine from the university of Rheims. In 1732 he returned to Scotland, where he continued to practise until his death in 1774. As a practitioner he was most successful, and contributed largely to the more enlightened views of the art of healing, which began to prevail towards the close of the last century. He wrote a treatise "On the use of Sea Voyages in Medicine," 8vo, 1756, which was translated into French by Dr. Bourru, 1770, and reprinted in English in 1771.—R. H.
GILCHRIST, John B., LL.D., a distinguished oriental scholar, was born at Edinburgh in 1759. Having prosecuted with much success the study of Hindostanee and Persic, he was appointed professor of these languages in the college of Calcutta, whence, after a long residence, he returned with a large fortune. He afterwards taught in Edinburgh and London; and, by the publication of his dictionary and grammar of the Hindostanee, which are standard books, he contributed largely to a better and more general acquaintance with the languages and dialects of Asia. He died at Paris in 1841.—J. B. J.
GILDAS is the name attached as that of author to one of the earliest of our literary monuments—the well-known treatise "De Excidio Britanniæ." In the introduction to the excellent edition of the Latin original of this work, published in 1838 by the English Historical Society, the learned editor, Mr Stevenson, makes the candid avowal—"We are unable to speak with certainty as to the parentage of Gildas, his country, or even his name, the period when he lived, or the works of which he was the author." Were the "De Excidio Britanniæ" a work of much historical importance, this uncertainty would be provoking, and might stimulate to an elimination of the truth possibly lurking in the two mythical and contradictory biographies of the supposed Gildas, both written at least four centuries after his alleged existence. But the "De Excidio" has little interest beyond that which attaches to antiquity; and of its antiquity there can be no question, since it is referred to by Bede. It is for the most part an angry declamation against the British priesthood; and this has led Mr. Thomas Wright (in his Biographia Britannica Literaria) to suppose that the work of the so-called Gildas is a fabrication of some Anglo-Saxon priest of the seventh century, forged as a weapon in the controversy of his brethren with the British clergy, who refused to admit the supremacy of Rome accepted and championed by the Anglo-Saxon church. The best edition of the "De Excidio" in the original is that of Mr. Stevenson already mentioned. An English translation by Dr. Giles, based on the old one of Halington, is printed among the Six Old English Chronicles of Mr. Bohn's Antiquarian Library.—F. E.
GILDON, Charles, a critic and dramatist, but chiefly indebted for his celebrity to the fact that he has been contemptuously mentioned by Pope in the Dunciad, and by Macaulay in his History of England, was born at Gillingham, near Shaftesbury, in Dorsetshire, in 1665. His parents, who were Roman catholics, wished him to become a priest, and sent him to be educated at Douay, where he continued for several years. Returning to England when he was about nineteen years of age, and coming into the possession of a considerable patrimony, he plunged into the gaieties and excesses of London life. He declared himself an infidel, and published Blount's Oracles of Reason, accompanying the work with a glowing panegyric on self-murder. About 1705—twelve years afterwards—he published "The Deist's Manual, or a rational inquiry into the Christian Religion," in which, as if to atone for his former hostility to religion, he vindicates the principal doctrines of divine truth, both natural and revealed. Having squandered his fortune, Gildon became an author and a performer on the stage; but his success was not great in either capacity. He wrote some unsuccessful plays, and a "Complete Art of Poetry," which have long since been forgotten; and died in 1723, with the reputation of being one of the most stupid and venal of literary hacks.—J. B. J.
GILES of Viterbo, an Augustine monk and cardinal, a native of Viterbo. He had an extensive knowledge of classical and oriental languages, and was much esteemed at the court of Rome. He held important offices in the church under Julius II. and Leo X., and died at Rome in 1532. His commentaries on the Psalms, and his epistles and odes were highly thought of in the century in which he lived.—A. S., O.
* GILES, Rev. J. A., LL.D., a most voluminous compiler and editor, who deserves the credit of attempting to familiarize English readers, by means of translations, with the meagre literature of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman period. He has also been complimented upon an English-Greek lexicon which he published. His editorial labours seem, when judged by the number of volumes printed under his auspices, incredibly great. Besides the "Scriptores Græci minores," we have thirty-five volumes of "Patres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ," and a supplementary volume; and twelve volumes of the works of the Venerable Bede, which are translated into English. He has also edited Thompson's Geoffrey of Monmouth; "Life and Times of Alfred the Great;" "Life and Letters of Thomas à Becket;" "Lives of the Abbots of Weremouth and Jarrow." He has published also a "History of the Ancient Britons," 2 vols.; "History of the Town and Parish of Bampton;" a Latin grammar; manuals of algebra and arithmetic; a "Historical Enquiry into the Old Testament;" a book on parsing; "The Uncanonical Gospels in Original Languages," 2 vols.; a "Story-book of English History;" selections from English poets for schools.—R. H.
GILES, Francis, an English civil engineer, born in 1787. First a surveyor, he made many surveys, considered as models in point of correctness and beauty, for the river and harbour works of John Rennie. He afterwards engaged in business as an engineer, and executed many works of importance in canals, river improvements, and harbours. He was also engaged in the construction of some of the largest works on the Newcastle and Carlisle railway, and of part of the South Western railway. The Warwick bridge in Cumberland is considered his masterpiece. He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, in whose Minutes of Proceedings for 1848 a memoir of his life was published. He died on the 4th of March, 1847.—W. J. M. R.
GILES, Nathaniel, a distinguished church musician, was born either in or near the city of Worcester, and was admitted to the degree of bachelor in music in 1585. He obtained his doctor's degree in the university of Oxford about forty years afterwards. He was one of the organists of St. George's chapel at Windsor, and master of the boys there. In 1597 he was appointed master of the children, and afterwards, in the reign of Charles I., organist of the chapel royal. In the Accounts of the Revels at Court, printed by the Shakspeare Society, we read—"To Nathaniel Giles, master of the children of the chappell, uppon the councell's warraunte, dated at Whitehall, May 4, 1601, for a play presented before her Majestie on Shrove Sondaye, at night, 10s.; and for a showe, with musyke and speciall songes prepared for ye purpose on Twelfth day, at night, 5s.—in all 15s." Dr. Giles' compositions are chiefly services and anthems, many of which possess considerable merit. He died in 1633, and was buried in the cloisters at Windsor. His epitaph is given in Ashmole's Berkshire.—E. F. R.
