GILDER, RICHARD WATSON (1844-1909). —Poet, b. at Borderstown, New Jersey, was successively a lawyer, a soldier, and a journalist, in which last capacity he ed. Scribner's (afterwards the Century) Magazine. He holds a high place among American poets as the author of The New Day (1875), The Celestial Passion, The Great Remembrance, Five Books of Song (1894), In Palestine (1898), In the Heights (1905), A Book of Music (collection) (1906), etc.
GILDON, CHARLES (1665-1724). —Critic and dramatist, belonged to a Roman Catholic family, and was an unsuccessful playwright, a literary hack, and a critic of little acumen or discrimination. He attacked Pope as "Sawny Dapper," and was in return embalmed in The Dunciad. He also wrote a Life of Defoe.
GILFILLAN, GEORGE (1813-1878). —Poet and critic, s. of a dissenting minister at Comrie, Perthshire, studied at Glasgow Univ., and was ordained minister of a church in Dundee. He was a voluminous author. Among his writings are Gallery of Literary Portraits, and a Series of British Poets with introductions and notes in 48 vols. He also wrote Lives of Burns, Scott, and others, and Night (1867), a poem in nine books. His style was somewhat turgid, and his criticism rather sympathetic than profound.
GILFILLAN, ROBERT (1798-1850). —Poet, b. at Dunfermline, was latterly Collector of Police Rates in Leith. He wrote a number of Scottish songs, and was favourably mentioned in Noctes Ambrosianæ (see Wilson, J.). He was the author of the beautiful song, Oh, why left I my Hame?
GILLESPIE, GEORGE (1613-1648). —Scottish Theologian, was b. at Kirkcaldy, and studied at St. Andrews. He became one of the ministers of Edin., and was a member of the Westminster Assembly, in which he took a prominent part. A man of notable intellectual power, he exercised an influence remarkable in view of the fact that he d. in his 36th year. He was one of the most formidable controversialists of a highly controversial age. His best known work is Aaron's Rod Blossoming, a defence of the ecclesiastical claims of the high Presbyterian party.