the duty was comparatively light. Backed by capital obtained through Henry Gilbey, they accordingly opened in 1857 a small retail business in a basement in Oxford Street, London. The Cape wines proved popular, and within three years the brothers had 20,000 customers on their books. The creation of the off-licence system by Mr Gladstone, then chancellor of the exchequer, in 1860, followed by the large reduction in the duty on French wines effected by the commercial treaty between England and France in 1861, revolutionized their trade and laid the foundation of their fortunes. Three provincial grocers, who had been granted the new off-licence, applied to be appointed the Gilbeys’ agents in their respective districts, and many similar applications followed. These were granted, and before very long a leading local grocer was acting as the firm’s agents in every district in England. The grocer who dealt in the Gilbeys’ wines and spirits was not allowed to sell those of any other firm, and the Gilbeys in return handed over to him all their existing customers in his district. This arrangement was of mutual advantage, and the Gilbeys’ business increased so rapidly that in 1864 Henry Gilbey abandoned his own undertaking to join his brothers. In 1867 the three brothers secured the old Pantheon theatre and concert hall in Oxford Street for their headquarters. In 1875 the firm purchased a large claret-producing estate in Médôc, on the banks of the Gironde, and became also the proprietors of two large whisky-distilleries in Scotland. In 1893 the business was converted, for family reasons, into a private limited liability company, of which Walter Gilbey, who in the same year was created a baronet, was chairman. Sir Walter Gilbey also became well known as a breeder of shire horses, and he did much to improve the breed of English horses (other than race-horses) generally, and wrote extensively on the subject. He became president of the Shire Horse Society, of the Hackney Horse Society, and of the Hunters’ Improvement Society, and he was the founder and chairman of the London Cart Horse Parade Society. He was also a practical agriculturist, and president of the Royal Agricultural Society.
GILDAS, or Gildus (c. 516–570), the earliest of British
historians (see Celt: Literature, “Welsh”), surnamed by some
Sapiens, and by others Badonicus, seems to have been born in
the year 516. Regarding him little certain is known, beyond
some isolated particulars that may be gathered from hints
dropped in the course of his work. Two short treatises exist,
purporting to be lives of Gildas, and ascribed respectively to the
11th and 12th centuries; but the writers of both are believed to
have confounded two, if not more, persons that had borne the
name. It is from an incidental remark of his own, namely, that
the year of the siege of Mount Badon—one of the battles fought
between the Saxons and the Britons—was also the year of his
own nativity, that the date of his birth has been derived; the
place, however, is not mentioned. His assertion that he was
moved to undertake his task mainly by “zeal for God’s house and
for His holy law,” and the very free use he has made of quotations
from the Bible, leave scarcely a doubt that he was an ecclesiastic
of some order or other. In addition, we learn that he went
abroad, probably to France, in his thirty-fourth year, where,
after 10 years of hesitation and preparation, he composed, about
560, the work bearing his name. His materials, he tells us,
were collected from foreign rather than native sources, the
latter of which had been put beyond his reach by circumstances.
The Cambrian Annals give 570 as the year of his death.
The writings of Gildas have come down to us under the title of Gildae Sapientis de excidio Britanniae liber querulus. Though at first written consecutively, the work is now usually divided into three portions,—a preface, the history proper, and an epistle,—the last, which is largely made up of passages and texts of Scripture brought together for the purpose of condemning the vices of his countrymen and their rulers, being the least important, though by far the longest of the three. In the second he passes in brief review the history of Britain from its invasion by the Romans till his own times. Among other matters reference is made to the introduction of Christianity in the reign of Tiberius; the persecution under Diocletian; the spread of the Arian heresy; the election of Maximus as emperor by the legions in Britain, and his subsequent death at Aquileia; the incursions of the Picts and Scots into the southern part of the island; the temporary assistance rendered to the harassed Britons by the Romans; the final abandonment of the island by the latter; the coming of the Saxons and their reception by Guortigern (Vortigern); and, finally, the conflicts between the Britons, led by a noble Roman, Ambrosius Aurelianus, and the new invaders. Unfortunately, on almost every point on which he touches, the statements of Gildas are vague and obscure. With one exception already alluded to, no dates are given, and events are not always taken up in the order of their occurrence. These faults are of less importance during the period when Greek and Roman writers notice the affairs of Britain; but they become more serious when, as is the case from nearly the beginning of the 5th century to the date of his death, Gildas’s brief narrative is our only authority for most of what passes current as the history of our island during those years. Thus it is on his sole, though in this instance perhaps trustworthy, testimony that the famous letter rests, said to have been sent to Rome in 446 by the despairing Britons, commencing:—“To Agitius (Aetius), consul for the third time, the groans of the Britons.”
Gildas’s treatise was first published in 1525 by Polydore Vergil, but with many avowed alterations and omissions. In 1568 John Josseline, secretary to Archbishop Parker, issued a new edition of it more in conformity with manuscript authority; and in 1691 a still more carefully revised edition appeared at Oxford by Thomas Gale. It was frequently reprinted on the Continent during the 16th century, and once or twice since. The next English edition, described by Potthast as editio pessima, was that published by the English Historical Society in 1838, and edited by the Rev. J. Stevenson. The text of Gildas founded on Gale’s edition collated with two other MSS., with elaborate introductions, is included in the Monumenta historica Britannica, edited by Petrie and Sharpe (London, 1848). Another edition is in A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, Councils and Eccles. Documents relating to Great Britain (Oxford, 1869); the latest edition is that by Theodor Mommsen in Monum. Germ. hist. auct. antiq. xiii. (Chronica min. iii.), 1894.
GILDER, RICHARD WATSON (1844–1909), American editor
and poet, was born in Bordentown, New Jersey, on the 8th of
February 1844, a brother of William Henry Gilder (1838–1900),
the Arctic explorer. He was educated at Bellevue Seminary,
an institution conducted by his father, the Rev. William Henry
Gilder (1812–1864), in Flushing, Long Island. After three years
(1865–1868) on the Newark, New Jersey, Daily Advertiser, he
founded, with Newton Crane, the Newark Morning Register. In
1869 he became editor of Hours at Home, and in 1870 assistant
editor of Scribner’s Monthly (eleven years later re-named The
Century Magazine), of which he became editor in 1881. He was
one of the founders of the Free Art League, of the International
Copyright League, and of the Authors’ Club; was chairman of
the New York Tenement House Commission in 1894; and was a
prominent member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters,
of the Council of the National Civil Service Reform League, and
of the executive committee of the Citizens’ Union of New York
City. His poems, which are essentially lyrical, have been collected
in various volumes, including Five Books of Song (1894), In
Palestine and other Poems (1898), Poems and Inscriptions (1901),
and In the Heights (1905). A complete edition of his poems was
published in 1908. He also edited ”Sonnets from the Portuguese”
and other Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning; ”One Word
More” and other Poems by Robert Browning (1905). He died in
New York on the 18th of November 1909. His wife, Helena
de Kay, a grand-daughter of Joseph Rodman Drake, assisted,
with Saint Gaudens and others, in founding the Society of
American Artists, now merged in the National Academy,
and the Art Students’ League of New York. She translated
Sensier’s biography of Millet, and painted, before her marriage
in 1874, studies in flowers and ideal heads, much admired for
their feeling and delicate colouring.
GILDERSLEEVE, BASIL LANNEAU (1831–), American classical scholar, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 23rd of October 1831, son of Benjamin Gildersleeve (1791–1875), a Presbyterian evangelist, and editor of the Charleston Christian Observer in 1826–1845, of the Richmond (Va.) Watchman and
