GILDON, CHARLES (1665-1724).—­Critic and dramatist, belonged to a Roman Catholic family, and was an unsuccessful playwright, a literary hack, and a critic of little acumen or discrimination.  He attacked Pope as “Sawny Dapper,” and was in return embalmed in The Dunciad.  He also wrote a Life of Defoe.

GILFILLAN, GEORGE (1813-1878).—­Poet and critic, s. of a dissenting minister at Comrie, Perthshire, studied at Glasgow Univ., and was ordained minister of a church in Dundee.  He was a voluminous author.  Among his writings are Gallery of Literary Portraits, and a Series of British Poets with introductions and notes in 48 vols.  He also wrote Lives of Burns, Scott, and others, and Night (1867), a poem in nine books.  His style was somewhat turgid, and his criticism rather sympathetic than profound.

GILFILLAN, ROBERT (1798-1850).—­Poet, b. at Dunfermline, was latterly Collector of Police Rates in Leith.  He wrote a number of Scottish songs, and was favourably mentioned in Noctes Ambrosianae (see Wilson, J.).  He was the author of the beautiful song, Oh, why left I my Hame?

GILLESPIE, GEORGE (1613-1648).—­Scottish Theologian, was b. at Kirkcaldy, and studied at St. Andrews.  He became one of the ministers of Edin., and was a member of the Westminster Assembly, in which he took a prominent part.  A man of notable intellectual power, he exercised an influence remarkable in view of the fact that he d. in his 36th year.  He was one of the most formidable controversialists of a highly controversial age.  His best known work is Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, a defence of the ecclesiastical claims of the high Presbyterian party.

GILLIES, JOHN (1747-1836).—­Historian, b. at Brechin and ed. there and at Glasgow, wrote a History of Greece (1786) from a strongly anti-democratic standpoint, a History of the World from Alexander to Augustus (1807), and a View of the Reign of Frederick II. of Prussia.  He also made various translations from the Greek.  He succeeded Principal Robertson as Historiographer Royal for Scotland.

GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS (literary name of GERALD DE BARRI) (1146?-1220?).—­Geographer and historian, was b. of a Norman family settled in Wales, which intermarried with the Royal family of that country.  He was an eminent scholar and Churchman, whose object of ambition was the Bishopric of St. David’s, to which he was twice elected by the chapter, but from which he was kept out by the opposition of the King.  When travelling in Ireland with Prince John (1185) he wrote Topographia Hibernica, a valuable descriptive account of the country, and in 1188 he wrote Itinerarium Cambriae, a similar work on Wales.  He left several other works, including an autobiography, De Rebus a se Gestis (concerning his own doings).