[Gascony], an ancient province of SW. France, lying between the Atlantic, the Pyrenees, and the Garonne; it included several of the present departments; the province was of Basque origin, but ultimately became united with Aquitaine, and was added to the territory of the French crown in 1453; the Gascons still retain their traditional characteristics; they are of dark complexion and small in stature, vivacious and boastful, but have a high reputation for integrity.
[Gaskell, Mrs., née Stevenson], novelist and biographer, born at Cheyne Row, Chelsea; authoress of "Mary Barton," "Ruth," "Silvia's Lovers," &c., and the "Life of Charlotte Brontë," her friend (1810-1865).
[Gassendi, Pierre], a French mathematician and philosopher, born in Provence; declared against scholastic methods out of deference to the empirical; controverted the metaphysics of Descartes; became the head of a school opposed to him; adopted the philosophy of Epicurus and contributed to the science of astronomy, and was the friend of Kepler, Galileo, and Hobbes; was a great admirer of Bayle, the head of his school, a school of Pyrrhonists, tending to materialism (1592-1655).
[Gassner, Johann Joseph], a noted "exorcist," born at Bludenz, in the Tyrol; while a Catholic priest at Klösterle he gained a wide celebrity by professing to "cast out devils" and to work cures on the sick by means simply of prayer; he was deposed as an impostor, but the bishop of Ratisbon, who believed in his honesty, bestowed upon him the cure of Bendorf (1727-1779).
[Gataker, Thomas], an English divine, member of the Westminster Assembly; disapproved of the introduction of the Covenant, declared for Episcopacy, and opposed the trial of Charles I. (1574-1654).
[Gate of Tears], the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, so called from the shipwrecks frequent in it.
[Gates, Horatio], an American general, born at Maldon, Essex, in England; served as an English officer in America till the peace of 1763, and then retired to Virginia; in the War of Independence he fought on the side of America, and, as commander of the northern army, defeated the English at Saratoga in 1777; so great was his popularity in consequence of this victory that ill-advised efforts were made to place him over Washington, but in 1780 he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the British at Camden, and was court-martialled; acquitted in 1782, he again retired to Virginia, and subsequently in 1800 removed to New York, having first emancipated and provided for his slaves (1728-1806).
[Gateshead] (86), an English town, situated on the Tyne, on N. border of Durham; it is united to Newcastle by three bridges spanning the river; it contains some handsome and interesting buildings, besides extensive iron-works, foundries, soap, glass, and chemical manufactories; it was here Defoe lived when he wrote "Robinson Crusoe."
[Gath], Goliath's town, a city of the Philistines, on a cliff 12 m. NE. of Ashdod.
[Gatling, Richard Jordan], the inventor of the Gatling gun, born in Hertford County, N. Carolina, U.S.; he was bred to and graduated in medicine, but in 1849 settled in Indianapolis and engaged in land and railway speculation; his famous machine-gun, capable of firing 1200 shots a minute, was brought out in 1861; another invention of his is a steam-plough; b. 1818.