which ended the Gurkha War of 1814, definitely limited their territorial growth. The Gurkhas of the present day remain Hindus by religion, but show in their appearance a strong admixture of Mongolian blood. They make splendid infantry soldiers, and by agreement with their government about 20,000 have been recruited for the Gurkha regiments of the Indian army. As a rule they are bold, enduring, faithful, frank, independent and self-reliant. They despise other Orientals, but admire and fraternize with Europeans, whose tastes in sport and war they share. They strongly resemble the Japanese, but are of a sturdier build. Their national weapon is the kukri, a heavy curved knife, which they use for every possible purpose.
See Capt. Eden Vansittart, Notes on the Gurkhas (1898); and P. D. Bonarjee, The Fighting Races of India (1899).
GURNALL, WILLIAM (1617–1679), English author, was born
in 1617 at King’s Lynn, Norfolk. He was educated at the free
grammar school of his native town, and in 1631 was nominated
to the Lynn scholarship in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where
he graduated B.A. in 1635 and M.A. in 1639. He was made
rector of Lavenham in Suffolk in 1644; and before he received
that appointment he seems to have officiated, perhaps as curate,
at Sudbury. At the Restoration he signed the declaration
required by the Act of Uniformity, and on this account he was
the subject of a libellous attack, published in 1665, entitled
Covenant-Renouncers Desperate Apostates. He died on the 12th
of October 1679. Gurnall is known by his Christian in Complete
Armour, published in three volumes, dated 1655, 1658 and 1662.
It consists of a series of sermons on the latter portion of the 6th
chapter of Ephesians, and is described as a “magazine from
whence the Christian is furnished with spiritual arms for the
battle, helped on with his armour, and taught the use of his
weapon; together with the happy issue of the whole war.”
The work is more practical than theological; and its quaint
fancy, graphic and pointed style, and its fervent religious tone
render it still popular with some readers.
See also An Inquiry into the Life of the Rev. W. Gurnall, by H. M‘Keon (1830), and a biographical introduction by Bishop Ryle to the Christian in Complete Armour (1865).
GURNARD (Trigla), a genus of fishes forming a group of the
family of “mailed cheeks” (Triglidae), and easily recognized by
three detached finger-like appendages in front of the pectoral fins,
and by their large, angular, bony head, the sides of which are
protected by strong, hard and rough bones. The pectoral
appendages are provided with strong nerves, and serve not only
as organs of locomotion when the fish moves on the bottom, but
also as organs of touch, by which it detects small animals on
which it feeds. Gurnards are coast-fishes, generally distributed
over the tropical and temperate areas; of the forty species
known six occur on the coast of Great Britain, viz. the red
gurnard (T. pini), the streaked gurnard (T. lineata), the sapphirine
gurnard (T. hirundo), the grey gurnard (T. gurnardus), the piper
(T. lyra) and the long-finned gurnard (T. obscura or T. lucerna).
Although never found very far from the coast, gurnards descend
to depths of several hundred fathoms; and as they are bottom-fish
they are caught chiefly by means of the trawl. Not rarely,
however, they may be seen floating on the surface of the water,
with their broad, finely coloured pectoral fins spread out like
fans. In very young fishes, which abound in certain localities
on the coast in the months of August and September, the pectorals
are comparatively much longer than in the adult, extending to
the end of the body; they are beautifully coloured and kept
expanded, the little fishes looking like butterflies. When caught
and taken out of the water, gurnards emit a grunting noise,
which is produced by the vibrations of a diaphragm situated
transversely across the cavity of the bladder and perforated in
the centre. This grunting noise gave rise to the name “gurnard,”
which is probably an adaptation or variation of the Fr.
grognard, grumbler, cf. the Fr. grondin, gurnard, from gronder,
and Ger. Knurrfisch. Their flesh is very white, firm and wholesome.
 |
| Trigla pleuracanthica. |
GURNEY, the name of a philanthropic English family of
bankers and merchants, direct descendants of Hugh de Gournay,
lord of Gournay, one of the Norman noblemen who accompanied
William the Conqueror to England. Large grants of land were
made to Hugh de Gournay in Norfolk and Suffolk, and Norwich
has since that time been the headquarters of the family, the
majority of whom were Quakers. Here in 1770 the brothers
John and Henry Gurney founded a banking-house, the business
passing in 1779 to Henry’s son, Bartlett Gurney. On the death of
Bartlett Gurney in 1802 the bank became the property of his
three cousins, of whom John Gurney (1750–1809) was the most
remarkable. One of his daughters was Elizabeth Fry; another
married Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton. Of his sons one was Joseph
John Gurney (1788–1847), a well-known philanthropist of the
day; another, Samuel Gurney (1786–1856) assumed on his
father’s death the control of the Norwich bank. Samuel Gurney
also took over about the same time the control of the London bill-broking
business of Richardson, Overend & Company, in which
he was already a partner. This business had been founded in
1800 by Thomas Richardson, clerk to a London bill-discounter,
and John Overend, chief clerk in the bank of Smith, Payne &
Company at Nottingham, the Gurneys supplying the capital.
At that time bill-discounting was carried on in a spasmodic
fashion by the ordinary merchant in addition to his regular
business, but Richardson considered that there was room for a
London house which should devote itself entirely to the trade in
bills. This, at that time, novel idea proved an instant success.
The title of the firm was subsequently changed to Overend,
Gurney & Company, and for forty years it was the greatest
discounting-house in the world. During the financial crisis of
1825 Overend, Gurney & Company were able to make short
loans to many other bankers. The house indeed became known as
“the bankers’ banker,” and secured many of the previous clients
of the Bank of England. Samuel Gurney died in 1856. He was
a man of very charitable disposition, and during the latter years
of his life charitable and philanthropic undertakings almost
monopolized his attention. In 1865 the business of Overend,
Gurney & Company, which had come under less competent
control, was converted into a joint stock company, but in 1866
the firm suspended payment with liabilities amounting to eleven
millions sterling.
GURNEY, EDMUND (1847–1888), English psychologist, was
born at Hersham, near Walton-on-Thames, on the 23rd of March
1847. He was educated at Blackheath and at Trinity College,
Cambridge, where he took a high place in the classical tripos and
obtained a fellowship. His work for the schools was done, says
his friend F. W. H. Myers, “in the intervals of his practice on the
piano.” Dissatisfied with his own executive skill as a musician,
he wrote The Power of Sound (1880), an essay on the philosophy
of music. He then studied medicine with no intention of practising,
devoting himself to physics, chemistry and physiology. In
1880 he passed the second M.B. Cambridge examination in the
science of the healing profession. These studies, and his great
logical powers and patience in the investigation of evidence, he
devoted to that outlying field of psychology which is called
“Psychical Research.” He asked whether, as universal tradition
declares, there is an unexplored region of human faculty transcending
the normal limitations of sensible knowledge. That
there is such a region it was part of the system of Hegel to declare,
and the subject had been metaphysically treated by Hartmann,
Schopenhauer, Du Prel, Hamilton and others, as the philosophy
