the religious parties of his age, and Gladstone thought that the catholicity of the Anglican Church was better exemplified in his career than in those of more prominent ecclesiastics (pref. to A. W. Hutton’s edition of S. R. Maitland’s Essays on the Reformation). He was not satisfied with the Elizabethan settlement, had great respect for the Fathers, and was with difficulty induced to subscribe. Archbishop Sandys’ views on the Eucharist horrified him; but on the other hand he maintained friendly relations with Bishop Pilkington and Thomas Lever, and the Puritans had some hope of his support.
A life of Bernard Gilpin, written by George Carleton, bishop of Chichester, who had been a pupil of Gilpin’s at Houghton, will be found in Bates’s Vitae selectorum aliquot virorum, &c. (London, 1681). A translation of this sketch by William Freake, minister, was published at London, 1629; and in 1852 it was reprinted in Glasgow, with an introductory essay by Edward Irving. It forms one of the lives in Christopher Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Biography (vol. iii., 4th ed.), having been compared with Carleton’s Latin text. Another biography of Gilpin, which, however, adds little to Bishop Carleton’s, was written by William Gilpin, M.A., prebendary of Ailsbury (London, 1753 and 1854). See also Dict. Nat. Biog.
GILSONITE (so named after S. H. Gilson of Salt Lake City),
or Uintahite, or Uintaite, a description of asphalt occurring in
masses several inches in diameter in the Uinta (or Uintah)
valley, near Fort Duchesne, Utah. It is of black colour; its
fracture is conchoidal, and it has a lustrous surface. When
warmed it becomes plastic, and on further heating fuses perfectly.
It has a specific gravity of 1.065 to 1.070. It dissolves freely
in hot oil of turpentine. The output amounted to 10,916 short
tons for the year 1905, and the value was $4.31 per ton.
GILYAKS, a hybrid people, originally widespread throughout
the Lower Amur district, but now confined to the Amur delta
and the north of Sakhalin. They have been affiliated by some
authorities to the Ainu of Sakhalin and Yezo; but they are more
probably a mongrel people, and Dr A. Anuchin states that
there are two types, a Mongoloid with sparse beard, high cheek-bones
and flat face, and a Caucasic with bushy beard and more
regular features. The Chinese call them Yupitatse, “Fish-skin-clad
people,” from their wearing a peculiar dress made from
salmon skin.
See E. G. Ravenstein, The Russians on the Amur (1861); Dr A. Anuchin, Mem. Imp. Soc. Nat. Sc. xx., Supplement (Moscow, 1877); H. von Siebold, Über die Aino (Berlin, 1881); J. Deniker in Revue d’ethnographie (Paris, 1884); L. Schrenck, Die Völker des Amurlandes (St Petersburg, 1891).
GIMBAL, a mechanical device for hanging some object so that it should keep a horizontal and constant position, while the body from which it is suspended is in free motion, so that the motion of the supporting body is not communicated to it. It is thus used particularly for the suspension of compasses or chronometers and lamps at sea, and usually consists of a ring freely moving on an axis, within which the object swings on an axis at right angles to the ring.
The word is derived from the O. Fr. gemel, from Lat. gemellus, diminutive of geminus, a twin, and appears also in gimmel or jimbel and as gemel, especially as a term for a ring formed of two hoops linked together and capable of separation, used in the 16th and 17th centuries as betrothal and keepsake rings. They sometimes were made of three or more hoops linked together.
GIMLET (from the O. Fr. guimbelet, probably a diminutive of the O.E. wimble, and the Scandinavian wammle, to bore or
twist; the modern French is gibelet), a tool used for boring small
holes. It is made of steel, with a shaft having a hollow side,
and a screw at the end for boring the wood; the handle of wood
is fixed transversely to the shaft. A gimlet is always a small
tool. A similar tool of large size is called an “auger” (see Tool).
GIMLI, in Scandinavian mythology, the great hall of heaven
whither the righteous will go to spend eternity.
GIMP, or Gymp. (1) (Of somewhat doubtful origin, but probably
a nasal form of the Fr. guipure, from guiper, to cover or
“whip” a cord over with silk), a stiff trimming made of silk
or cotton woven around a firm cord, often further ornamented
by a metal cord running through it. It is also sometimes
covered with bugles, beads or other glistening ornaments. The
trimming employed by upholsterers to edge curtains, draperies,
the seats of chairs, &c., is also called gimp; and in lace work
it is the firmer or coarser thread which outlines the pattern and
strengthens the material. (2) A shortened form of gimple (the
O. E. wimple), the kerchief worn by a nun around her throat,
sometimes also applied to a nun’s stomacher.
GIN, an aromatized or compounded potable spirit, the characteristic
flavour of which is derived from the juniper berry.
The word “gin” is an abbreviation of Geneva, both being
primarily derived from the Fr. genièvre (juniper). The use of
the juniper for flavouring alcoholic beverages may be traced to
the invention, or perfecting, by Count de Morret, son of Henry
IV. of France, of juniper wine. It was the custom in the early
days of the spirit industry, in distilling spirit from fermented
liquors, to add in the working some aromatic ingredients, such
as ginger, grains of paradise, &c., to take off the nauseous
flavour of the crude spirits then made. The invention of juniper
wine, no doubt, led some one to try the juniper berry for this
purpose, and as this flavouring agent was found not only to
yield an agreeable beverage, but also to impart a valuable
medicinal quality to the spirit, it was generally made use of by
makers of aromatized spirits thereafter. It is probable that the
use of grains of paradise, pepper and so on, in the early days of
spirit manufacture, for the object mentioned above, indirectly
gave rise to the statements which are still found in current textbooks
and works of reference as to the use of Cayenne pepper,
cocculus indicus, sulphuric acid and so on, for the purpose of
adulterating spirits. It is quite certain that such materials are
not used nowadays, and it would indeed, in view of modern
conditions of manufacture and of public taste, be hard to find a
reason for their use. The same applies to the suggestions that
such substances as acetate of lead, alum or sulphate of zinc are
employed for the fining of gin.
There are two distinct types of gin, namely, the Dutch geneva or hollands and the British gin. Each of these types exists in the shape of numerous sub-varieties. Broadly speaking, British gin is prepared with a highly rectified spirit, whereas in the manufacture of Dutch gin a preliminary rectification is not an integral part of the process. The old-fashioned Hollands is prepared much after the following fashion. A mash consisting of about one-third of malted barley or bere and two-thirds rye-meal is prepared, and infused at a somewhat high temperature. After cooling, the whole is set to ferment with a small quantity of yeast. After two to three days the attenuation is complete, and the wash so obtained is distilled, and the resulting distillate (the low wines) is redistilled, with the addition of the flavouring matter (juniper berries, &c.) and a little salt. Originally the juniper berries were ground with the malt, but this practice no longer obtains, but some distillers, it is believed, still mix the juniper berries with the wort and subject the whole to fermentation. When the redistillation over juniper is repeated, the product is termed double (geneva, &c.). There are numerous variations in the process described, wheat being frequently employed in lieu of rye. In the manufacture of British gin,[1] a highly rectified spirit (see Spirits) is redistilled in the presence of the flavouring matter (principally juniper and coriander), and frequently this operation is repeated several times. The product so obtained constitutes the “dry” gin of commerce. Sweetened or cordialized gin is obtained by adding sugar and
- ↑ The precise origin of the term “Old Tom,” as applied to unsweetened gin, appears to be somewhat obscure. In the English case of Boord & Son v. Huddart (1903), in which the plaintiffs established their right to the “Cat Brand” trade-mark, it was proved before Mr Justice Swinfen Eady that this firm had first adopted about 1849 the punning association of the picture of a Tom cat on a barrel with the name of “Old Tom”; and it was at one time supposed that this was due to a tradition that a cat had fallen into one of the vats, the gin from which was highly esteemed. But the term “Old Tom” had been known before that, and Messrs Boord & Son inform us that previously “Old Tom” had been a man, namely “old Thomas Chamberlain of Hodge’s distillery”; an old label book in their possession (1909) shows a label and bill-head with a picture of “Old Tom” the man on it, and another label shows a picture of a sailor lad on shipboard described as “Young Tom.”
