GIBBONS, GRINLING. 



GIBSON, DR. EDMUND. 



of Letter* written by or to Mr. Gibbon ; ' ' Abstracts of the Books he 

 raw), with Reflertions ; ' ' Kztrmcto from hi* Journal ; ' ' Outline* of the 

 Hirtory of the World ; ' ' A Dissertation on the Subject of L'Homme 

 an Masque de Fer;' 'Antiquitie* of the House of Brunswick; 

 'Mfaoire tur U Monarchic de Medea;' 'Norninn Gentcsque Autiquro 

 Italic,' Remarkj on Blaokatone'i Commentaries ;' 'On the Position 

 of the Meridional Line, and the supposed Circumnavigation of Africa 

 bj the Ancient*,' and other piece* of less importance. 



GIBBONS, GKINL1NO, an arti*t celebrated for the extraordinary 

 taste and delicacy of execution he displayed in wood-earring, is 

 . -'nippoMd to hare been of Dutch origin, though a native of London, 

 where he was born in Spur Alley, Strand, in 1648. Having been 

 recommended by Evelyn to Charles II., the king bestowed upon him 

 place in the Hoard of Works, and employed him in the chapel ol 

 Windsor, where he executed much of the ornamental carving, con- 

 sisting of such emblematic object* a* doves, pelicans, palm-branches, 

 Ac. For the choir of St. Paul's he likewise did much of the foliage 

 and festoons belonging to the stall-work, and those in lime-tree which 

 decorate the side aisles of the choir. There is a great deal of his 

 work at Chatsworth mere ornament indeed, such as foliage, flowers, 

 feather*, Ac., but finished with such exceeding delicacy and truth, 

 that the workmanship not only confers value on the material, but 

 also on the subject. Occasionally he exerted his skill on subjects 

 altogether trivial in themselves, and merely curiosities in art; for 

 instance, feathers and pens that might be mistaken for real ones ; and 

 such productions as the point-lace cravat wrought up in wood, winch 

 he presented to the Duke of Devonshire on completing his labours at 

 Chatsworth. At Southwick, in Hants, he did the embellishments of 

 an entire gallery ; and also a room at Petwortb, which last has gene- 

 rally been considered one of his chief performances. All these works 

 were merely ornamental, and analogous to what is termed still-life 

 in painting, and it is by them that he was distinguished ; yet that 

 Gibbons had talents for those of a higher character is proved by his 

 fctatue of James II., behind the Banqueting House, Whitehall. In his 

 own peculiar walk Gibbons has probably never been equalled for 

 exuberant fancy and exquisite skill in execution. Unfortunately the 

 wood in which most of his works ore carved appears to be suffering 

 from the ravages of insects, but Mr. Rogers, who in our day has 

 almost rivalled the skill of Gibbons in wood-carving, has shown that 

 it is possible to arrest the progress of the evil, lie died August 3, 

 1721. 



GIBBONS, ORLANDO, who was not only " one of the rarest musi- 

 cians of hi time," as Anthony Wood styles him, but one of the finest 

 geniuses that ever lived, was born at Cambridge in 1583. At the age 

 of twenty-one he became organist of the Chapel-Royal. In 1622 he 

 was honoured, at Oxford, with the degree of Doctor, on the recom- 

 mendation of his friend Cnmden, the learned antiquary. In 1625, 

 attending officially the ceremonial of the marriage of Charles I., for 

 which occasion he composed the music, he took the small-pox, and 

 died on the Whit-Sunday following. He was buried in Canterbury 

 Cathedral, where a monument, erected to bis memory by his wife, is 

 one of the object* that attract the notice of visitors to that noble 

 structure. 



It is observed by the biographer of Gibbons in the ' Harmonicon,' 

 that " the sacred works of Gibbons are still fresh and in constant use. 

 His service in F is indeed above all pruise for novelty, and for richness 

 and purity of harmony. His three anthems, ' Hosanno, to the Son of 

 David,' ' Almighty and everlasting God ! ' and ' O clap your hands 

 together,' are masterpieces of the most ingenious and scientific writing 

 in fugue that musical skill ever brought forth. But next to his service, 

 we must avow our preference for his madrigals : ' Dainty sweet Bird,' 

 and ' O ! that the learned Poets,' are far above most other things of 

 the kind; and 'The Silver Swan* is even superior to both of these 

 superior, not in elaborate contrivance, for it is comparatively simple, 

 but in effect the great and ouly true touchstone of art." 



Dr. Gibbons left a ton, Christopher, who at the Restoration, besides 

 being appointed principal organist to the king, and to Westminster 

 Abbey, was created Doctor in Music by the University of Oxford, in 

 consequence of a letter written by Charles II. himself, which in inserted 

 In the ' Fasti Oxon.' He was celebrated fur his organ-playing, and is 

 aid to have instructed Dr. Blow on this instrument. Orlando had 

 also two brothers, Edward, organist of Bristol, and Ellis, organist of 

 Salisbury. The former was sworn in a gentleman of the Cuapol-ltoyal 

 in 1604, and was master to Matt. Lock. During the civil wars he 

 silted Charles I. with the sum of 10002., for which he was afterwards 

 deprived of a considerable estate, and, with his three grand-children, 

 thrust out of his house, at a very advanced age. In the ' Triumphs of 

 Oriana* are two madrigals by Ellis Gibbons. 



GIBBS, JAMES, an architect of considerable eminence, in his day, 

 was born about 1674 at Aberdeen, where he was educated and took 

 the degree of Master of Arts at the Marischal College. In bis twentieth 

 year be visited Holland, where he entered into the employment of an 

 architect, with whom he continued till 1700, when, by the advice aud 

 aided by the assistance of his countryman the Earl of .Mar, who had 

 if a taste for architecture, ho proceeded to Italy iu order to 

 improve himself in his art. Diligence ho did not lack, and therefore, 

 a* far as relates to making studies, sketches, and memoranda, he may 

 be laid to have employed luu time successfully; yet that he wonted 



discrimination, and the ability to improve upon hi* models, is too 

 plainly attested by nearly all his works. After spending ten yean in 

 Italy, during several of which he studied at Rome under on architect 

 named Garroli, he returned to England, and found his patron, the 

 Earl of Mar, in the ministry, liy that nobleman he was recommended 

 to the commissioner* for building the fifty new churche-, and this 

 circumstance opened to him those opportunities which in the opinion 

 of hi* admirers ho employed o worthily. Another ten years how- 

 ever elapsed before ho was called upon to make trial of his ability in 

 any of the metropolitan churches, for his first one, namely, St. Martin'*, 

 was not commenced till 1720-21. In the interim he erected what U 

 called the new building at King* College, Cambridge, a design which, 

 with many palpable faults, is not distinguished by originality or any 

 other excellence. If this work is little spoken of (St. Martin's), which 

 was completed in 1726, it has been liberally extolled not only a* it* 

 author'* chef d'acuvre, but as a first-rate piece of architecture, chiefly 

 it would seem as an application of a portico upon a satisfactory scale 

 and at a time when such a feature was by no means so common a* 

 it has since become. Certain it is, that, in regard to the exterior at 

 least, few have extended their eulogium to any other part of it ; yet 

 for the portico borrowed from the Pantheon at Rome ho found a 

 model ready prepared to his hands, requiring only to be adapted to a 

 specific purpose, and if in selecting it he paid a tribute to the cl . 

 grandeur of the original, ho seems to have looked at it ouly with the 

 eye of a copyist. Every other feature of the building is at variance 

 with the portico and the order; lumpish, heavy, and uncouth, without 

 even anything of that picturesque richness which sometimes r 

 from exaggerated details aud other subordinate forms ; and the inte- 

 rior is not at all better. For this church Gibbs submitted two other 

 designs, which he himself, he tells us, considered preferable to the ono 

 executed. They are both given in the folio volume of designs which 

 he published in 1728. Much as those differ from the present building 

 the body of the church in both of them being circular iu its plan 

 (about 95 feet in diameter) so for from displaying invention, they 

 show, even in the way of alteration, very little more than was abso- 

 lutely called for by such change of the general form. The taste 

 manifested in them partakes far more of Holland, tho country where 

 Gibbs made his first sojourn abroad, than of classical Rome. The 

 same remark will apply to his next work, the church of St. Mary in 

 the Strand, an exceedingly heterogeneous composition, with nothing 

 in its ensemble to reconcile us to its individual solecisms. 



In tho church of All Saints at Derby, where he added a new body 

 to the old Gothic tower, he did little more than repeat, with some 

 flbht variation, what he had done for St. Martin's. Ho also built 

 Maryleboue Chapel, the upper part of the steeple of St. Clement's 

 Danes, and St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Ilia best work ia the R:i 

 Library at Oxford, a rotunda about 140 feet in diameter externally, 

 covered by a dome 105 feet ia diameter; for, notwithstanding that the 

 niches and some other parts are the reverse of elegant, and that the 

 building seems very ill adapted ta its purpose, there is some approach 

 to simplicity in the general moss and its contours, and something of 

 grandeur in the interior. To this library, which was begun in 1737 

 and completed iu about ten years, and the designs for which ho 

 published in a separate volume, containing 23 plates, Gibbs made a 

 valuable bequest of books. Ho died August 5th, 1754, and having 

 never been married, left his property, amounting to about 15,0002,, to 

 different individuals and public charities. 



The works of Gibbs certainly do not display either grace or happi- 

 ness of invention. They have for the most part all the heaviness of 

 Yanbrugh's designs, without their other redeeming qualities. They 

 discover neither au innate nor acquired perception of beauty in forms 

 and of harmony in their combination. Nevertheless, iu respect of 

 what he almost accidentally borrowed on one occasion, ho is generally 

 spoken of, not as a judicious copier, but as an artist of original mind 

 and unquestionable genius. 



GIBSON, DR. EDMUND, Bishop of London, born 1609, died 1748. 

 1-Uliop Gibson was the son of EJuiund and Jane Gibson, of the parMi 

 of Hampton, in Westmorland. He pursued hia studies with great 

 vigour, first in his owu county and then in the Cniv, rsity of Oxford, 

 of which perhaps the best proof that could be required is given by his 

 laving at the age of twenty-two prepared an edition of the ' 8:1x011 

 Chronicle,' with a translation into Latin, and suitable indexes and 

 other assistances iu the use of that valuable historical remain. Tho 

 work was printed at Oxford in 1092 in a 4to volume. At that early 

 jcriod of his life he projected and accomplished an enlarged edition 

 of the English translation of Cauiden's ' Britannia,' and he had already 

 acquired fame and interest sufficient to engage iu hi.! assistance ninny 

 antiquaries in different parts of the kingdom, by whose contributions 

 the work was enriched, and came forth from the hands of Dr. Gibson 

 a great improvement on the old English edition of Philemon Holland. 

 Phis work appeared in 2 vols. fol. in 1695. It appeared again in an 

 enlarged form in 1722, and a-ain iu 1772. Richard Gough, an eminent 

 lOpograpbical scholar, enlarged it still more, and it appeared in 3 vols. 

 ol. iu 1789. It was still further enlarged to 4 vols. fol. in 

 Vnothcr early production of Dr. Gibson win nu edition of home his- 

 oricul remains of the eminent antiquary Sir Henry Spelman, which 

 vas published at Oxford in 1698, under the title ' Keliquiic Spelman- 

 aux.' Thefco works show the original predisposition of Bishop Gibeou'a 



