See Eadmer, Historia novorum, edited by M. Rule (London, 1884); and S. H. Cass, Bishops of Winchester (London, 1827).
GIFFEN, SIR ROBERT (1837-1910), British statistician and economist, was born at Strathaven, Lanarkshire. He entered a solicitor’s office in Glasgow, and while in that city attended courses at the university. He drifted into journalism, and after working for the Stirling Journal he went to London in 1862 and joined the staff of the Globe. He also assisted Mr John (afterwards Lord) Morley, when the latter edited the Fortnightly Review. In 1868 he became Walter Bagehot’s assistant-editor on the Economist; and his services were also secured in 1873 as city-editor of the Daily News, and later of The Times. His high reputation as a financial journalist and statistician, gained in these years, led to his appointment in 1876 as head of the statistical department in the Board of Trade, and subsequently he became assistant secretary (1882) and finally controller-general (1892), retiring in 1897. In connexion with his position as chief statistical adviser to the government, he was constantly employed in drawing up reports, giving evidence before commissions of inquiry, and acting as a government auditor, besides publishing a number of important essays on financial subjects. His principal publications were Essays on Finance (1879 and 1884), The Progress of the Working Classes (1884), The Growth of Capital (1890), The Case against Bimetallism (1892), and Economic Inquiries and Studies (1904). He was president of the Statistical Society (1882-1884); and after being made a C.B. in 1891 was created K.C.B. in 1895. In 1892 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Sir Robert Giffen continued in later years to take a leading part in all public controversies connected with finance and taxation, and his high authority and practical experience were universally recognized. He died somewhat suddenly in Scotland on the 12th of April 1910.
GIFFORD, ROBERT SWAIN (1840-1905), American marine and landscape painter, was born on Naushon Island, Massachusetts, on the 23rd of December 1840. He studied art with the Dutch marine painter Albert van Beest, who had a studio in New Bedford, and in 1864 he opened a studio for himself in Boston, subsequently settling in New York, where he was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1867 and an academician in 1878. He was also a charter member of the American Water Color Society and the Society of American Artists. From 1878 until 1896 he was teacher of painting and chief master of the Woman’s Art School of Cooper Union, New York, and from 1896 until his death he was director. Gifford painted longshore views, sand dunes and landscapes generally, with charm and poetry. He was an etcher of considerable reputation, a member of the Society of American Etchers, and an honorary member of the Society of Painter-Etchers of London. He died in New York on the 13th of January 1905.
GIFFORD, SANDFORD ROBINSON (1823-1880), American landscape painter, was born at Greenfield, New York, on the 10th of July 1823. He studied (1842-1845) at Brown University, then went to New York, and entered the art schools of the National Academy of Design, of which organization he was elected an associate in 1851, and an academician in 1854. Subsequently he studied in Paris and Rome. He was one of the best known of the Hudson River school group, though it was at Lake George that he found most of his themes. In his day he enjoyed an enormous popularity, and his canvases are in many well-known American collections. He died in New York City on the 29th of August 1880.
GIFFORD, WILLIAM (1756-1826), English publicist and man of letters, was born at Ashburton, Devon, in April 1756. His father was a glazier of indifferent character, and before he was thirteen William had lost both parents. The business was seized by his godfather, on whom William and his brother, a child of two, became entirely dependent. For about three months William was allowed to remain at the free school of the town. He was then put to follow the plough, but after a day’s trial he proved unequal to the task, and was sent to sea with the Brixham fishermen. After a year at sea his godfather, driven by the opinion of the townsfolk, put the boy to school once more. He made rapid progress, especially in mathematics, and began to assist the master. In 1772 he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and when he wished to pursue his mathematical studies, he was obliged to work his problems with an awl on beaten leather. By the kindness of an Ashburton surgeon, William Cooksley, a subscription was raised to enable him to return to school. Ultimately he proceeded in his twenty-third year to Oxford, where he was appointed a Bible clerk in Exeter College. Leaving the university shortly after graduation in 1782, he found a generous patron in the first Earl Grosvenor, who undertook to provide for him, and sent him on two prolonged continental tours in the capacity of tutor to his son, Lord Belgrave. Settling in London, Gifford published in 1794 his first work, a clever satirical piece, after Persius, entitled the Baviad, aimed at a coterie of second-rate writers at Florence, then popularly known as the Della Cruscans, of which Mrs Piozzi was the leader. A second satire of a similar description, the Maeviad, directed against the corruptions of the drama, appeared in 1795. About this time Gifford became acquainted with Canning, with whose help he in August 1797 originated a weekly newspaper of Conservative politics entitled the Anti-Jacobin, which, however, in the following year ceased to be published. An English version of Juvenal, on which he had been for many years engaged, appeared in 1802; to this an autobiographical notice of the translator, reproduced in Nichol’s Illustrations of Literature, was prefixed. Two years afterwards Gifford published an annotated edition of the plays of Massinger; and in 1809, when the Quarterly Review was projected, he was made editor. The success which attended the Quarterly from the outset was due in no small degree to the ability and tact with which Gifford discharged his editorial duties. He took, however, considerable liberties with the articles he inserted, and Southey, who was one of his regular contributors, said that Gifford looked on authors as Izaak Walton did on worms. His bitter opposition to Radicals and his onslaughts on new writers, conspicuous among which was the article on Keats’s Endymion, called forth Hazlitt’s Letter to W. Gifford in 1819. His connexion with the Review continued until within about two years of his death, which took place in London on the 31st of December 1826. Besides numerous contributions to the Quarterly during the last fifteen years of his life, he wrote a metrical translation of Persius, which appeared in 1821. Gifford also edited the dramas of Ben Jonson in 1816, and his edition of Ford appeared posthumously in 1827. His notes on Shirley were incorporated in Dyce’s edition in 1833. His political services were acknowledged by the appointments of commissioner of the lottery and paymaster of the gentleman pensioners. He left a considerable fortune, the bulk of which went to the son of his first benefactor, William Cooksley.