68 



GALLOWAY 



GALT 



Robert Bruce in his struggle with England for the 

 Scottish crown. The province was traversed 

 successively by Wallace, Edward I., and Bruce, 

 and was at length subdued for his brother by 

 Edward Bruce in 1308. Again in 1334 it was 

 seized by Edward Baliol, but his power was at 

 length overthrown, and in 1369 the eastern part of 

 Galloway was granted by the crown to Archibald 

 Douglas, surnamed the Grim, who built himself 

 the stronghold of Threave Castle on a small island 

 in the Dee. His haughty and turbulent descendants 

 built Tip a power so formidable as to threaten the 

 crown itself, until they fell finally in 1455, when 

 the lordship of Galloway was attached to the 

 crown. These ages of troubles had generated a 

 turbulent spirit among the Galwegians, and it was 

 long before they settled down into peaceful and 

 industrious citizens. They achieved a more honour- 

 able eminence by their devoted loyalty to the 

 Covenant, which they had embraced with all their 

 ancient ardour. Not all the infamous cruelties 

 carried out at the bidding of a corrupt government 

 by Turner, Grierson, and Claverhouse could crush 

 the spirit of these ' wild western Whigs ' whose 

 martyr-graves are scattered over the moors of 

 Galloway. 



See Symson's Description of Galloway, 1684 ( 1823 ) ; 

 Murray's Literary History of Galloway ( 1822 ) ; Mac- 

 kenzie's History of Galloway ( 2 vols. Kirkc. 1841 ) ; Sir 

 Andrew Agnew's History of the Hereditary Sheriffs of 

 Galloway (new ed. 18SM) ; M'Kerlie's History of the 

 Lands and their Owners in Galloway ( 5 vols. 1870-78 ) ; 

 and Galloway in Ancient and Modern Times (1891); 

 Sir H. E. Maxwell's Studies on the Topography of Gallo- 

 way (1887). 



Galloway, MULL OF, a bold headland of 

 precipitous rock, the southern extremity of the 

 peninsula called the Rhinns of Galloway, in 

 Wigtownshire, and the most southern point of 

 Scotland. It is 1 J mile long, and of a mile broad, 

 and rises to a height of 210 feet at its eastern 

 extremity, on which stands a lighthouse 60 feet 

 high, whose intermittent light is visible at a 

 distance of 23 nautical miles. The summit of the 

 lighthouse commands a magnificent prospect of 

 sea and sky, extending to the Isle of Man, 23 miles 

 to the south, to the coast of Ireland, 26 miles to 

 the west, and sometimes even to the Cumbrian 

 mountains, more than 50 miles distant. The Mull 

 is part of the parish of Kirkmaiden, and is 5 miles 

 from Drumore and 23 south of Stranraer. 



GallOWglass, a heavy armed foot-soldier in the 

 ancient Irish wars. They are grouped with kernes 

 in Shakespeare's Macbeth (I. ii. 13) as coming from 

 the western isles of Scotland. The word is of 

 course Irish, formed from giolla, 'a man-servant,' 

 and cognate with the well-known gillie. 



Galls ( when large, dry, and nut-like often called 

 GALL-NUTS, also Nut-galls and Oak-apples) are the 

 abnormal vegetative growths produced in various 

 plants through the introduction of the eggs, and 

 the development of the larvae of the various gall- 

 insects. For the economic usefulness and consequent 

 commercial importance of so many of the forms 

 essentially due to the presence of a large quantity 

 of tannic acid, see TANNIN, and under Leather 

 TANNING. See also GALL-FLY, GALLIC ACID. 



Gall-stone. See CALCULUS. 



Gallus, C. CORNELIUS, a Roman poet, born at 

 Forum Julii (mod. Frejus), in Gaul, about 66 B.C. 

 He lived at Rome in intimate friendship with Virgil, 

 Asinius Pollio, Varus, and Ovid, and was appointed 

 by Augustus prefect of Egypt, but fell deservedly 

 into disfavour and was banished, whereupon he 

 ended his disgrace with his own sword about the 

 year 26 B.C. Gallus was reckoned the founder o: 

 the Roman elegy, from his four books of elegies 



upon his mistress Lycoris, of which but a few slight 

 ragments have come down to us. His name was 

 adopted by W. A. Becker as the title of his well- 

 iiiown picture of Roman domestic life : Gallus, 

 Romische Szenen aus der Zeit Augusts ( 1838). See 

 Volker, Commentatio de C. Galli vita et scriptu 

 1840-44). 



Gallus* TREBONIANUS, Roman emperor (251- 

 253 A.D.), was the successor of the ill-fated Decius, 

 and is memorable only from the dishonourable peace 

 which he purchased from the Goths, followed by 

 a dreadful pestilence in Italy. His end was to be 

 murdered by his own soldiers. 



Galop, a lively kind of dance of German origin, 

 somewhat resembling a waltz, danced in f time. 

 See DANCING. 



Galston, a village of Ayrshire, 5 miles SE. of 

 Kilmarnock by rail, with manufactures of muslins 

 and lace. There is coal in the neighbourhood. 

 Pop. (1891) 4292. 



Gait, a town of Canada, province of Ontario, 

 stands on the Grand River, 25 miles by rail E. by 

 N. of Hamilton. The environs of the town are 

 noted for their beauty. The chief industries are the 

 manufacture of flour, machines, cast-iron, paper, 

 soap, wooden ware, axes, ftnd leather. Gait was 

 founded in 1816. Pop. (1881) 5187; (1891) 7535, 

 the majority being of Scotch descent. 



Gait, JOHN, Scotch novelist, was born at Irvine, 

 in Ayrshire, May 2, 1779. His father, who was 

 captain of a ship in the West Indian trade, left 

 Ayrshire in 1789, and fixed his residence in 

 Greenock. In that town Gait received his educa- 

 tion, and was then placed in the custom-house. 

 He remained there till 1804, when, panting for 

 literary distinction, he proceeded to London with 

 an epic poem on the battle of Largs in his portman- 

 teau. On reaching the metropolis he printed his 

 epic, but, becoming dissatisfied with its merits, 

 ultimately withdrew it from the market. After a 

 few years his health began to fail, and he was 

 obliged to seek relief in a more genial climate. At 

 Gibraltar he made the acquaintance of Lord Byron 

 and his friend Hobhouse, and the three travellers 

 became fellow -voyagers; but soon after Gait separ- 

 ated from his new friends to visit Sicily, then Malta, 

 and finally Greece, where he again renewed his 

 acquaintance with Byron, and had an interview 

 with Ali Pasha. He next proceeded to Constant- 

 inople, and afterwards to the shores of the Black 

 Sea. On one occasion when detained by quaran- 

 tine he sketched six dramas which were afterwards 

 given to the world. On his return he published 

 with considerable success his Letters from the 

 Levant, but first displayed distinct and individual 

 power in The Ayrshire Legatees, which appeared in 

 Blackwood's Magazine in' 1820. Its successor, The 

 Annals of the Parish (1821), met with unquestion- 

 able success, and remains his masterpiece. Having 

 hit on the true vein he worked it assiduously, and 

 produced in quick succession Sir Andrew Wylie, 

 The Entail, The Steamboat, and The Provost. He 

 then diverged into the walk of historical romance, 

 and published Ringan Gilhaize, a tale of the 

 Covenanters ; The Spaewife, Rothelan, and The 

 Omen. These works, although full of striking 

 scenes and really good writing, were not so success- 

 ful as his earlier and less ambitious performances. 

 Gait, whose hands were always equally full of 

 literary and commercial undertakings, was now 

 busily engaged in the formation of the Canada 

 Company ; but before he left England for his dis- 

 tant scene of labour he gave to the world The Last 

 of the Lairds. 



He departed for Canada in 1826, but three years 

 later returned to England a ruined man, and at 

 once recommenced his literary labours with his 



