Page:EB1911 - Volume 11.djvu/408

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GAIRDNER—GAISFORD
  

a Tudor tower of brick. A literary and scientific institute occupy part of the building. Gainsborough possesses a grammar school (founded in 1589 by a charter of Queen Elizabeth) and other schools, town-hall, county court-house, Albert Hall and Church of England Institute. There is a large carrying trade by water on the Trent and neighbouring canals. Shipbuilding and iron-founding are carried on, and there are manufactures of linseed cake, and agricultural and other machinery.

Gainsborough (Gegnesburh) was probably inhabited by the Saxons on account of the fishing in the Trent. The Saxon Chronicle states that in 1013 the Danish king Sweyn landed here and subjugated the inhabitants. Gainsborough, though not a chartered borough, was probably one by prescription, for mention is made of burghal tenure in 1280. The privilege of the return of writs was conferred on the lord of the manor, Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, in 1323, and confirmed to Ralph de Percy in 1383. Mention is made in 1204 of a Wednesday market, but there is no extant grant before 1258, when Henry III. granted a Tuesday market to William de Valence, earl of Pembroke, who also obtained from Edward I. in 1291 licence for an annual fair on All Saints’ Day, and the seven preceding and eight following days. In 1243 Henry III. granted to John Talbot licence for a yearly fair on the eve, day and morrow of St James the Apostle. Queen Elizabeth in 1592 granted to Thomas Lord Burgh two fairs, to begin on Easter Monday and on the 9th of October, each lasting three days. Charles I. in 1635–1636 extended the duration of each to nine days. The Tuesday market is still held, and the fair days are Tuesday and Wednesday in Easter-week, and the Tuesday and Wednesday after the 20th of October.

See Adam Stark, History and Antiquities of Gainsburgh (London, 1843).

GAIRDNER, JAMES (1828–), English historian, son of John Gairdner, M.D., was born in Edinburgh on the 22nd of March 1828. Educated in his native city, he entered the Public Record Office in London in 1846, becoming assistant keeper of the public records (1859–1893). Gairdner’s valuable and painstaking contributions to English history relate chiefly to the reigns of Richard III., Henry VII. and Henry VIII. For the “Rolls Series” he edited Letters and Papers illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III. and Henry VII. (London, 1861–1863), and Memorials of Henry VII. (London, 1858); and he succeeded J. S. Brewer in editing the Letters and Papers, foreign and domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII. (London, 1862–1905). He brought out the best edition of the Paston Letters (London, 1872–1875, and again 1896), for which he wrote a valuable introduction; and for the Camden Society he edited the Historical collections of a Citizen of London (London, 1876), and Three 15th-century Chronicles (London, 1880). His other works include excellent monographs on Richard III. (London, 1878, new and enlarged edition, Cambridge, 1898), and on Henry VII. (London, 1889, and subsequently); The Houses of Lancaster and York (London, 1874, and other editions); The English Church in the 16th century (London, 1902); Lollardy and the Reformation in England (1908); and contributions to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Dictionary of National Biography, the Cambridge Modern History, and the English Historical Review. Gairdner received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the university of Edinburgh in 1897, and was made a C.B. in 1900.

GAIRLOCH (Gaelic geàrr, short), a sea loch, village and parish in the west of the county of Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. Pop. of parish (1901) 3797. The parish covers a large district on the coast, and stretches inland beyond the farther banks of Loch Maree, the whole of which lies within its bounds. It also includes the islands of Dry and Horisdale in the loch, and Ewe in Loch Ewe, and occupies a total area of 200,646 acres. The place and loch must not be confounded with Gareloch in Dumbartonshire. Formerly an appanage of the earldom of Ross, Gairloch has belonged to the Mackenzies since the end of the 15th century. Flowerdale, an 18th-century house in the pretty little glen of the same name, lying close to the village, is the chief seat of the Gairloch branch of the clan Mackenzie. William Ross (1762–1790), the Gaelic poet, who was schoolmaster of Gairloch, of which his mother was a native, was buried in the old kirkyard, where a monument commemorates him.

GAISERIC, or Genseric (c. 390–477), king of the Vandals, was a son of King Godegisel (d. 406), and was born about 390. Though lame and only of moderate stature, he won renown as a warrior, and became king on the death of his brother Gonderic in 428. In 428 or 429 he led a great host of Vandals from Spain into Roman Africa, and took possession of Mauretania. This step is said to have been taken at the instigation of Boniface, the Roman general in Africa; if true, Boniface soon repented of his action, and was found resisting the Vandals and defending Hippo Regius against them. At the end of fourteen months Gaiseric raised the siege of Hippo; but Boniface was forced to fly to Italy, and the city afterwards fell into the hands of the Vandals. Having pillaged and conquered almost the whole of Roman Africa, the Vandal king concluded a treaty with the emperor Valentinian III. in 435, by which he was allowed to retain his conquests; this peace, however, did not last long, and in October 439 he captured Carthage, which he made the capital of his kingdom. According to some authorities Gaiseric at this time first actually assumed the title of king. In religious matters he was an Arian, and persecuted the members of the orthodox church in Africa, although his religious policy varied with his relations to the Roman empire. Turning his attention in another direction he built a fleet, and the ravages of the Vandals soon made them known and feared along the shores of the Mediterranean. “Let us make,” said Gaiseric, “for the dwellings of the men with whom God is angry,” and he left the conduct of his marauding ships to wind and wave. In 455, however, he led an expedition to Rome, stormed the city, which for fourteen days his troops were permitted to plunder, and then returned to Africa laden with spoil. He also carried with him many captives, including the empress Eudoxia, who is said to have invited the Vandals into Italy. The Romans made two attempts to avenge themselves, one by the Western emperor, Majorianus, in 460, and the other by the Eastern emperor, Leo I., eight years later; but both enterprises failed, owing principally to the genius of Gaiseric. Continuing his course on the sea the king brought Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic Islands under his rule, and even extended his conquests into Thrace, Egypt and Asia Minor. Having made peace with the eastern emperor Zeno in 476, he died on the 25th of January 477. Gaiseric was a cruel and cunning man, possessing great military talents and superior mental gifts. Though the effect of his victories was afterwards neutralized by the successes of Belisarius, his name long remained the glory of the Vandals. The name Gaiseric is said to be derived from gais, a javelin, and reiks, a king.

See Vandals; also T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, vol. ii. (London, 1892); E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (ed. J. B. Bury, 1896–1900); L. Schmidt, Geschichte der Vandalen (Leipzig, 1901); and F. Martroye, Genseric; La Conquête vandale en Afrique (Paris, 1907).


GAISFORD, THOMAS (1779–1855), English classical scholar, was born at Iford, Wiltshire, on the 22nd of December 1779. Proceeding to Oxford in 1797, he became successively student and tutor of Christ Church, and was in 1811 appointed regius professor of Greek in the university. Taking orders, he held (1815–1847) the college living of Westwell, in Oxfordshire, and other ecclesiastical preferments simultaneously with his professorship. From 1831 until his death on the 2nd of June 1855, he was dean of Christ Church. As curator of the Bodleian and principal delegate of the University Press he was instrumental in securing the co-operation of distinguished European scholars as collators, notably Bekker and Dindorf. Among his numerous contributions to Greek literature may be mentioned, Hephaestion’s Encheiridion (1810); Poëtae Graeci minores (1814–1820); Stobaeus’ Florilegium (1822); Herodotus, with variorum notes (1824); Suidas’ Lexicon (1834); Etymologicon magnum (1848); Eusebius’s Praeparatio (1843) and Demonstratio evangelica (1852). In 1856 the Gaisford prizes, for Greek composition, were founded at Oxford to perpetuate his memory.