Early in 1782 a new form of gun-carriage wheel, allowing of a large angle of depression being given, was invented by an officer of the Royal Artillery, and indeed throughout the siege many experiments (such as would nowadays be carried out at a school of gunnery) were made with guns, mountings, ammunition, methods of fire, &c., both in Gibraltar and in the Spanish camp. The gun-carriage referred to enabled 93% of hits to be obtained at 1400 yds. range. In April grates for heating shot were constructed by order of the governor; these were destined to be famous. At the same time it was reported that the duc de Crillon was now to command the besiegers (French and Spaniards) with D’Arçon as his chief engineer. The grand attack was now imminent, and preparations were made to repel it (July 1782). The chief feature of the attack was to be, as reported on the 26th of July, ten ships “fortified 6 or 7 ft. thick ... with green timber bolted with iron, cork and raw hides; which were to carry guns of heavy metal and be bombproof on the top with a descent for the shells to slide off; that these vessels ... were to be moored within half gunshot of the walls,” &c. On the other side many of the now existing rock galleries were made about this time. The count of Artois and another French prince arrived in the French lines in August to witness the culminating effort of the besiegers, and some polite correspondence passed between Crillon and the governor (reprinted in Drinkwater, p. 267). The garrison made a preliminary trial of the red-hot shot on the 8th of September, and the success of the experiment not only elated the garrison but was partly instrumental in causing Crillon to hasten the main attack. After a preliminary bombardment the famous battering ships took up their positions in broad daylight on the 13th and opened fire. The British solid shot seem to have failed absolutely to penetrate the massive wooden armour on the sides and the roofs of the battering ships, and about noon the ships had settled down to their work and were shooting coolly and accurately. But between 1 and 2 P.M. the British artillerymen began to use the red-shot freely. All day the artillery duel went on, the shore guns, though inferior in number, steadily gaining the upper hand, and the battering ships were in great distress by nightfall. The struggle continued in the dark, the garrison now shooting rapidly and well, and one by one the ten ships were set on fire. Before noon on the 14th the attack had come to an end by the annihilation of the battering fleet, every ship having been blown up or burnt to the water’s edge. Upwards of 8300 rounds were expended by the garrison though less than a hundred pieces were in action. The enemy’s bombardment was, however, resumed and partial engagements continued up to the third naval relief of the fortress by Lord Howe, who won a great victory at sea over the Spaniards. The long siege came to an end on the 6th of February 1783, when the duc de Crillon informed Elliot that the preliminaries of peace had been signed. On the 31st of March the duke visited the fortress, and many courtesies passed between the late enemies. Captain (afterwards Colonel) John Drinkwater (1762-1844), the historian of the siege, first published his work in 1785. A new edition of A History of the Siege of Gibraltar was published in 1905. The history of the four eventful years’ siege is fully detailed also in the Memoir, attached to Green’s Siege of Gibraltar (1784), of its gallant defender Sir George Augustus Elliot, afterwards Lord Heathfield, whose military skill and moral courage place him among the best soldiers and noblest men of his time.
Since 1783 the history of Gibraltar has been comparatively uneventful. In the beginning of 1801 there were rumours of a Spanish and French attack, but the Spanish ships were defeated off Algeciras in June by Admiral Saumarez. Improvements in the fortifications, maintenance of military discipline and legislation in regard to trade and smuggling, are the principal matters of recent interest.
Bibliography.—To the works which have been already mentioned may be added: I. L. de Ayala, Historia de Gibraltar (Madrid, 1792); Jas. Bell, translation of Ayala’s history (London, 1845); F. Carter, Gibraltar to Malaga (London, 1777-1780); G. Cockburn, Gibraltar, Cadiz, &c. (London, 1815); O. Debeaux and G. Dautez, Synopsis de la flore de Gibraltar (1889); E. D. Fenton, Sorties from Gibraltar, (1872); H. M. Field, Gibraltar (New York, 1888); J. Galt, Gibraltar, Sardinia, &c. (London, 1813); J. Heriot, Historical Sketch of Gibraltar (London, 1792); R. Hort, The Rock of Gibraltar (London, 1839); L. W. L. Irby, Ornithology of the Straits (London, 1875); Thos. James, History of the Herculean Straits (London, 1771); J. H. Mann, Gibraltar and its Sieges (London, 1870); Montero, Historia de Gibraltar (Cadiz, 1860); A. M. Monti, Historia de Gibraltar (Seville, 1851); J. Navarrete, Las Llaves del Estrecho (Madrid, 1882); M. S. Pasley, Wild Flowers of Gibraltar (Portsmouth, 1887); John Purdy, Gibraltar and Mediterranean Sailing Directions (London, 1840); H. J. M. Rey, Essai sur la topographie médicale de Gibraltar (Paris, 1833); Captain Sayer, History of Gibraltar (London, 1862); D. Sutherland, Gibraltar to Constantinople (London, 1790); Walker, A Year’s Insect Hunting in Gibraltar (London, 1888).
(C. F. A.)
GIBSON, CHARLES DANA (1867- ), American artist and illustrator, was born at Roxbury, Massachusetts, on the 14th of September 1867. After a year’s study at the schools of the Art Students’ League, he began with some modest little drawings for the humorous weekly Life. These he followed up with more serious work, and soon made a place for himself as the delineator of the American girl, at various occupations, particularly those out of doors. These obtained an enormous vogue, being afterwards published in book form, running through many editions. The “Gibson Girl” stood for a type of healthy, vigorous, beautiful and refined young womanhood. Some book illustrations followed, notably for The Prisoner of Zenda. He was imitated by many of the younger draughtsmen, copied by amateurs, and his popularity was shown in his engagement by Collier’s Weekly to furnish weekly for a year a double page, receiving for the fifty-two drawings the sum of $50,000, said to have been the largest amount ever paid to an illustrator for such a commission. These drawings covered various local themes and were highly successful, being drawn with pen and ink with masterly facility and great directness and economy of line. So popular was one series, “The Adventures of Mr Pipp,” that a successful play was modelled on it. In 1906, although besieged with commissions, Gibson withdrew from illustrative work, determining to devote himself to portraiture in oil, in which direction he had already made some successful experiments; but in a few years he again returned to illustration.
GIBSON, EDMUND (1669-1748), English divine and jurist, was born at Bampton in Westmorland in 1669. In 1686 he was entered a scholar at Queen’s College, Oxford, where in 1692 he published a valuable edition of the Saxon Chronicle with a Latin translation, indices and notes. This was followed in 1693 by an annotated edition of the De institutione oratoria of Quintilian, and in 1695 by a translation in two volumes folio of Camden’s Britannia, “with additions and improvements,” in the preparation of which he had been largely assisted by William Lloyd, John Smith and other English antiquaries. Shortly after Thomas Tenison’s elevation to the see of Canterbury in 1694 Gibson was appointed chaplain and librarian to the archbishop, and in 1703 and 1710 respectively he became rector of Lambeth and archdeacon of Surrey. In the discussions which arose during the reigns of William and Anne relative to the rights and privileges of the Convocation, Gibson took a very active part, and in a series of pamphlets warmly argued for the right of the archbishop to continue or prorogue even the lower house of that assembly. The controversy suggested to him the idea of those researches which resulted in the famous Codex juris ecclesiastici Anglicani, published in two volumes folio in 1713,—a work which discusses more learnedly and comprehensively than any other the legal rights and duties of the English clergy, and the constitution, canons and articles of the English Church. In 1716 Gibson was presented to the see of Lincoln, whence he was in 1720 translated to that of London, where for twenty-five years he exercised an immense influence, being regularly consulted by Sir Robert Walpole on all ecclesiastical affairs. While a conservative in church politics, and declaredly opposed to methodism, he was no persecutor, and indeed broke with Walpole on the Quakers’ Relief Bill of 1736. He exercised a vigilant oversight over the morals of his diocese; and his fearless denunciation of the licentious masquerades which were popular at court finally lost him the royal favour. Among the literary efforts of his later years the principal were a series of Pastoral Letters in defence of the “gospel revelation,” against “lukewarmness” and “enthusiasm,” and on various topics of the day; also the Preservative against Popery, in 3 vols. folio (1738), a compilation of numerous controversial writings of eminent Anglican divines, dating chiefly from the period of James II. Gibson died on the 6th of September 1748.
A second edition of the Codex juris, “revised and improved, with large additions by the author,” was published at Oxford in 1761. Besides the works already mentioned, Gibson published a number of Sermons, and other works of a religious and devotional kind. The Vita Thomae Bodleii with the Historia Bibliothecae Bodleianae in the Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum (Oxford, 1697), and the Reliquiae Spelmannianae (Oxford, 1698), are also from his pen.