GUILDFORD 423 GUINEA regulate their affairs by their own laws; but it is usual to trace the origin of guilds to the Middle Ages. As soon as the citizens acquired an influence in the administration, the guilds became the basis of the municipal constitutions, and everyone who wished to participate in the municipal government was obliged to become a member of a guild. Guilds introduced the democratic element into society, and in their progress became the bulwarks of the citizen's liberty and the depositaries of much political power. By the close of the 12th century merchants' guilds were general throughout the cities of Europe. The Drapers' Company of Hamburg dates from 1153, and that of the Shoemakers of Magdeburg from 1157. With the increase of their wealth and strength, the guilds either pur- chased or extorted from their rulers priv- ileges which, once obtained, they were careful never to give up. By the 13th century they had acquired considerable power, and in the course of two suc- cessive ages they counterbalanced the power of the nobles. GUILDFORD (gil'ford), a town and county-seat of Surrey, England, in a break of the chalk ridge of the North Downs, on the navigable Wey, 30 miles S. W. of London. Its houses are still rich in quaint gables, projecting fi'onts, and long latticed windows. The square Norman keep of its royal castle is 70 feet high with walls 10 feet thick; on St. Catherine's Hill is a ruined chapel (1313) ; Abbot Hospital, founded in 1619 by Archbishop Abbot for 12 breth- ren and 8 sisters, is a picturesque red brick pile; and other buildings are the churches of St. Nicholas, St. Mary, and the Holy Trinity, the guildhall (1687), county hall (1862), county hospital (1868), and grammar school (1509- 1550). Guildford is famous for its grain market, the "Surrey wheats" being cele- brated. It was bequeathed in 901 by Alfred the Great to his nephew Ethel- wald, and in 1036 was the scene of the decimation by King Harold's men of the Norman followers of Alfred the Athel- ing, a crime that led up to the Norman conquest of England. The Dauphin Louis took the castle in 1216; and in 1685 Monmouth was temporarily con- fined in Abbot Hospital. Pop. about 23,000. GUILDHALL, a building in London, the place of assembly of sevei'al courts, and the scene of the civic banquets of the city corporation; originally built in 1411, but almost wholly destroyed by the gi'eat fire of 1666. It was rebuilt in 1789 in its modern form. GUILFORD COLLEGE, a coeduca- tional institution in Guilford, N. C; founded in 1837 under the auspices of the Society of Friends, reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors, 15; students, 177; president, Raymond Binford. GUILFORD COURT-HOUSE, a vil- lage in Guilford co., N. C; about 5 miles from Greensboro; noted for a battle fought between the Americans under General Greene and the British under Lord Cornwallis, on March 15, 1781. The Americans numbered about 4,400 and the British 2,400. Both armies lost heavily, and the engagement was indecisive. GUILLOTINE (gi-lo-ten') , an appara- tus for beheading persons at one stroke, adopted by the National Assembly of France during the first revolution, on the proposal of a Dr. Guillotin, after whom it is named. It was made by a German mechanic, named Schmidt, under the direction of Dr. Antoine Louis, secretary of the Academy of Surgery, and was at first called Louison, or Louis- ette. It was used the first time April 25, 1792, for the execution of a high- wayman named Pelletier. GUINEA (gin'i), the name formerly given a large section of the W. coast of Africa, from the Senegal, in about 14° N. lat., to Cape Negro, in 16° S. lat. It was divided into two parts. Upper and Lower Guinea, the dividing line being taken variously as the equator, the Ga- boon, and the Ogoway. The states and political territories comprised within this long stretch of coast-line, commenc- ing from the N., were as follows: the French colony of Senegal, the English settlements on the Gambia, the Portu- guese territory of Bissao or Bissajos, the coastal fringe before Futa-Jallon, Sierra Leone, the free negro republic of Liberia, the Ivory and Gold Coasts, the Slave Coast, the Niger delta, and the Kame- runs in Upper Guinea; and in Lower Guinea, the Spanish settlements on Co- risco Bay, Gaboon, the Kongo Free State, and the Portuguese territories of Am- briz, Angola, and Benguela. The coast- line is throughout tolerably uniform, and everywhere flat, with numerous shallow lagoons separated from the ocean by narrow spits of sand, lying parallel to the coast. Proceeding inland, the coun- try rises to the central plateau of the continent by a series of broad terrace- like steps, down which the longer rivers are generally precipitated in cataracts and rapids. The Genoese claim to have been the first European navigators to reach, in 1291, the coasts of Guinea.
