[Garnet], a well-known precious stone of a vitreous lustre, and usually of a dark-red colour, resembling a ruby, but also found in various other shades, e. g. black, green, and yellow. The finest specimens are brought from Ceylon, Pegu, and Greenland. The species of garnet crystal known as Pyrope, when cut in the shape of a tallow drop, is called a carbuncle.
[Garnet, Henry], a noted Jesuit, son of a Nottingham schoolmaster, implicated in the Gunpowder Plot; bred in the Protestant faith, he early turned Catholic and went abroad and joined the Jesuit order; in 1588 he returned to England as Superior of the English Jesuits, and engaged in various intrigues; on the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot he was arrested, found guilty of cognisance of the Plot, and executed (1555-1606).
[Garnett, Richard], philologist, born at Otley, Yorkshire, Keeper of the Printed Books in the British Museum, and one of the founders of the Philological Society, and contributor to its Proceedings (1789-1850).
[Garnett, Richard], an acute critic, born in Lichfield, son of preceding; long associated with the book department of the British Museum; an admirer of Shelley, and biographer of Carlyle and Emerson; b. 1835.
[Garonne], an important river of SW. France, which rises in the Val d'Aran in the Spanish Pyrenees; 26 m. from its source it enters France near Pont du Roi, and after it passes Toulouse flows in a north-westerly direction; joined by the Dordogne, 20 m. below Toulouse, it gradually widens into the Gironde estuary, which opens on the Bay of Biscay; it has a length of 346 m., and is freely navigable as far as Toulouse.
[Garrick, David], a famous English actor and dramatist, born at Hereford; was educated at Lichfield, the home of his mother, and was for some months in his nineteenth year a pupil of Samuel Johnson; in 1737 he accompanied Johnson to London, with the intention of entering the legal profession, but soon abandoned the purpose, and started in the wine business with his brother; in 1741 he commenced his career as an actor, making his first appearance at Ipswich; in the autumn of the same year he returned to London, and as Richard III. achieved instant success; with the exception of a sojourn upon the Continent for two years, his life was spent mainly in the metropolis in the active pursuit of his profession; in 1747 he became patentee, along with James Lacy, of Drury Lane Theatre, which he continued to direct until his retirement from the stage in 1776; three years later he died, and was buried in Westminster Abbey; he was the author of many comedies and farces, which, however, are of no great merit, but his abiding fame rests upon his powers as an actor, his remarkable versatility enabling him to act with equal ease and success in farce, comedy, and tragedy; his admirable naturalness did much to redeem the stage from the stiff conventionalism under which it then laboured; his wife, Eva Maria Violette, a celebrated dancer of Viennese birth, whom he married in 1740, survived him till 1822, dying at the advanced age of 98 (1717-1779).
[Garrison, William Lloyd], American journalist and abolitionist, born at Newburyport, Mass.; in his native town he rose to be editor of the Herald at 19, and five years later became joint-editor of the Genius of Universal Emancipation; his vigorous denunciation of slavery involved him in a charge of libel and brought about his imprisonment, from which he was liberated by a friend paying his fine; at Boston, in 1831, he founded his celebrated Liberator, a paper in which he unweariedly, and in the face of violent threats, advocated his anti-slavery opinions till 1865, when the cause was won; he visited England on several occasions in support of emancipation, and in 1868 his great labours in the cause were recognised by a gift of 30,000 dollars from his friends (1804-1879).
[Garter, the most noble Order of the], a celebrated order of knighthood instituted in 1344 by King Edward III.; the original number of the knights was 26, of whom the sovereign was head; but this number has been increased by extending the honour to descendants of George I., II., and III., and also to distinguished foreigners; it is the highest order of knighthood, and is designated K.G.; the insignia of the order includes surcoat, mantle, star, &c., but the knights are chiefly distinguished by a garter of blue velvet worn on the left leg below the knee, and bearing the inscription in gold letters Honi soit qui mal y pense, "Evil be to him that evil thinks"; election to the order lies with the sovereign.
[Garth, Sir Samuel], a distinguished physician, born in co. Durham; had an extensive practice; author of a mock-heroic poem entitled "The Dispensary" (1661-1718).
[Gascoigne, Sir William], English judge, born at Gawthorpe, Yorkshire; during Richard II.'s reign he practised in the law courts, and in 1397 became king's serjeant; three years later he was raised to the Lord Chief-Justiceship; his single-eyed devotion to justice was strikingly exemplified in his refusal to pass sentence of death on Archbishop Scrope; the story of his committing Prince Henry to prison, immortalised by Shakespeare, is unauthenticated (1350-1419).