after the death of Trenchard. Sir Robert Walpole at length took Gordon into pay, to defend his administration, and made him commissioner of the wine licences. He died in 1750. Gordon translated Tacitus into English.

GORDON (Alexander), M. A. a Scotch writer and antiquary. He was successively secretary to the society for encouragement of learning, the Egyptian club, and the antiquarian society. He went to Carolina, with governor Glen, where he died.

GORDON (The hon. George), commonly called lord George Gordon, was the son of Cosmo George duke of Gordon, and born in 1750. He entered into the navy when young, but quitted it on account of some dispute with lord Sandwich. He afterwards sat in parliament for Ludgershall, and distinguished himself by some strange speeches against the king and his ministers. But what chiefly brought him into notice was his opposition to the bill for granting farther toleration to Roman Catholics. His intemperance on this occasion proved the cause of the shameful riots in 1780, for which he was tried and acquitted. In 1786 he was excommunicated for not appearing as a witness in some cause. In 1788 he was found guilty of publishing a libel against the queen of France, on which he fled to Holland. Some time after he returned to England, and was taken in the disguise of a Jew, which profession he had adopted, and was committed to Newgate, where he died in 1793.

GORDONIA. Loblolly bay. In botany, a genus of the class monadelphia, order polyandria. Calyx single; style five-sided, with a five-cleft stigma; capsule five-celled, seeds two, with a foliaceous wing on one side. Four species. Trees and shrubs of the West Indies, or Carolina. The following are chiefly worthy of notice.

1. G. lasianthus, with downy calyx villous at the edge; yellow flowers, on long peduncles; leaves coriaceous, glabrous; capsules ovate. The leaves are evergreen; the tree, which is tall and straight, begins to blossom in May, and continues to blossom through the whole of summer. 2. G. Franklini. A shrub indigenous, also, to Carolina, twenty feet high; with oblong serrate, glabrous leaves; flowers sessile axillary, white, with the petals curled; and fruit globular.

GORE, in heraldry, one of the abatements, which, according to Guillim, denotes a coward. It is a figure consisting of two arch lines drawn one from the sinister chief, and the other from the sinister base, both meeting in an acute angle in the middle of the fess point.

GORE. S. (gone, Saxon.) 1. Blood effused from the body (Spenser.) 2. Blood clotted or congealed (Milton).

To GORE. v. a. (geberian, Saxon.) 1. To stab; to pierce (Shakspeare.) 2. To pierce with a horn (Dryden).

GORE ISLAND, a place discovered by Captain Cook, in his last voyage. Lat. 64. 0 N. Lon. 169. 0 W.

GOREE, a small barren island extending about three quarters of a mile in length, of a triangular form. It belongs to the French. Lat. 14. 40 N. Lon. 17. 25 W.

GOREE, a town of Holland. Lat. 51. 40 N. Lon. 4. 20 E 1. The nar

GORGE, in architecture. rowest part of the Tuscan and Doric capitals, lying between the astragal and the annulets. 2. A concave moulding, wider than the Scotia, but not so deep. 3. The neck of a column. 4. The throat of a chimney, or the part between the chambranle and the crowning of the mantle.

GORGE, in fortification, the entrance of the platform of any work. See FORTIFICATION.

In all the outworks, the gorge is the interval betwixt the wings on the side of the great ditch, as the gorge of a ravelin, half-moon, &c. These, it is to be observed, are all destitute of parapets; because if there were any, the besiegers, having taken possession of the work, might use it to defend themselves from the shot of the place; which is the reason that they are only fortified with palisadoes, to prevent a surprise.

The gorge of a bastion is nothing but the prolongation of the curtins from their angle with the flanks, to the centre of the bastion where they meet. When the bastion is flat, the gorge is a right line, which terminates the distance between the two flanks.

GORGE. s. (gorge, French.) 1. The throat; the swallow (Sidney.) 2. That which is gorged or swallowed (Spenser).

To GORGE. v. n. (gorger, French.) 1. To fill up to the throat; to glut; to satiate (Add.) 2. To swallow: as, the fish has gorged the hook.

GORGED, in heraldry, the bearing of a crown, coronet, or the like, about the neck of a lion, a swan, &c. and in that case it is said, the lion or cygnet is gorged with a ducal coronet, &c. Gorged is also used when the gorge, or neck of a peacock, swan, or the like bird, is of a different colour or metal from the rest.

Hav

GORGED, among farriers,, denotes any diffused swelling about a horse; but chiefly in his legs, occasioned rather by severe and hard work, than the effect of humours originating in a sizey or morbid state of the blood. A horse having his back sinews flushed, and legs thickened, so as to go short and stiff in action, but not broken down, is said to be gorged. ing the same appearances from humours, or a viscidity of the blood, he is said to be foul, and must be relieved by purgatives or diuretics, assisted by much hand-rubbing and other friction. Gorged horses should be blistered, and turned out in time, by which they frequently get fresh again: continued at work too long, they break down, and become cripples.

GORGEOUS. a. (gorgias, old French.) Fine; glittering in various colours; showy; splendid; magnificent (Milton).

GO'SLING. s. (from goose.) 1. A young goose; a goose not yet full grown (Swift). 2. A catkin on nut-trees and pines. GOSPEL, a history of the life, actions, death, resurrection, ascension, and doctrine of Jesus Christ.

The word is Saxon, and of the same import with the Latin term evangelium, or the Greek ay, which signifies glad tidings, or good news, or good message; the history of our Saviour being the best history ever published to mankind. This history is contained in the writings of St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John; who from thence are called Evangelists. The Christian church never acknowledged any more than these four gospels as canonical, notwithstanding which, several apocryphal gospels are handed down to us, and others are entirely lost.

The word gospel is also used to denote the doctrines peculiar to the Christian religion, or those which point out the way by which man, as a fallen and rebellious creature, may be restored to the image and favour of his Maker, may be, "created anew unto holiness," though Christ Jesus, and thus be, "made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light."

To GOSPEL. v. n. (from the noun.) To fill with sentiments of religion (Shakspeare). GOSPELLER. s. (from gospel.) A name of the followers of Wickliffe, who first attempted a reformation in popery, given them by the papists in reproach (Rowe).

GOSPORT, a fortified town in Hampshire, on the W. side of the harbour of Portsmouth, over which is a ferry. It has a market on Saturday; and here is a noble hospital, called Haslar hospital, for the sick and wounded of the royal navy. Lat. 50. 49 N. Lon. 1.

3 W.

GOSSAMER, a fine filmy substance, like cobweb, seen to float in the air in clear days in autumn, and more observable in stubble-fields, and upon furze and other low bushes. This is probably formed by the flying-spider, which, in traversing the air for food, shoots out these threads from its anus, which are borne down by the dew, &c.

It has been commonly affirmed, that the gossamer, when it settles, deposits itself in directions nearly north and south, that is, parallel to the direction of the magnetic needle. But this is not true. A near inspection shews that the threads lie in all directions: but as they are generally observed when the sun is near the horizon, and at a time of the year when the luminary rises and sets about the east and west points of the compass, the rays of the sun cause those which lie from north to south to be visible at a distance from which the others

are not seen.

GOSSAMER-INSECT, in entomology. See

ACARUS.

GOʻSSIP. s. (from god and ryp, relation, Saxon.) 1. One who answers for the child in baptism. 2. A tippling companion

(Shakspeare.) 3. One who runs about tatthing like women at a lying-in (Dryden).

To Go'ssIP. v. n. (from the noun.) 1. To chat; to prate; to be merry (Shakspeare.) 2. To be a pot-companion (Shakspeare.).

GOSSIPRED. s. (gossipry, from gossip.) Gossipred, or compaternity, by the canon law is a spiritual affinity (Davies).

GOSSIPIUM. Cotton." In botany, genus of the class monadelphia, order polyandria. Calyx double; the outermost threecleft: capsule three or four-celled; seeds wrapped in cotton. Ten species; a few American, but by far the greater number Asiatic plants.

Most of these afford a wool that may be usefully applied to mechanical or domestic purposes, or woven into cloths. The cotton shrubs of the American islands grow without the smallest cultivation, but their wool is coarse and short, and hence cannot easily be spun; if imported into Europe it might answer the purpose of felts in the manufacture of hats, but it is generally consumed by the inhabitants themselves, as stuffing for pillows and mattresses.

The generality of the West Indian species are annuals; but G. arboreum of India is a perennial tree, both in root and branch, rising in a straight line about eight feet high, with leaves in five palmate lobes: the lobes lanceolate, obtuse, and mucronate.

The cotton chiefly selected for propagation is G. herbaceum, a native of the East Indies; a pubescent herb; with the stem spotted with black at its top; leaves downy, peduncles branched, shorter than the petioles ; outer calyx three-parted, with heart-shape, cut segments dotted with black; corol one-petalled, with a short tube, five-parted, the segments pale yellow, with five red spots at bottom; capsule three-valved, three-celled. The pods are not unfrequently as large as middling-sized apples, The common cotton plant thrives best in respect of good in new grounds; but best in respect of fruit in dry stony ground that has been tilled already; and hence such is the soil generally preferred by our planters. The period of cultivation commences in March and April, and continues during the spring rains. The holes for the seeds are made in distinct rows, something like hop-planting, at a distance of seven or eight feet from each other; the seeds are thrown in and earthed over; and when they have shot forth to the height of five or six inches, all the stems are pulled up, excepting two or three of the strongest. These are cropped twice before the end of August, nor do they bear fruit till after the second pruning. By such repeated croppings, the plant, though naturally an annual, may be prolonged

and made to bear sufficiency of fruit to repay the planter for three years, yet it is better to renew them if there be opportunity. When the cotton is gathered in, the seeds are picked out from the wool, by means of a cottonmill, of a simple contrivance, and perfectly adequate to the purpose.