G O W 



G 6 W 



tinivcrrally ) to tkf pct'uliar circumftances of the patient's 

 agf, fi.reiigth, and conftitiition. 



GovT-'cUort, in Bolitiiy. See Asc.ELICA. 

 GOUTIER, GoTRE. or Goiire, terms in ^uiypry, ap- 

 phcd to a chronic enlargement of the th)Told gland. See 

 Bitos'ciion'.r.i- and Goithe. 



GOUTY-I.AND, in y^^riiu'liin; a term uted by tlie 

 farmers to denote a hollow fuz/v black earth, with little 

 fprings, that have no free outlet, nud therefore fwell anc^^•le- 

 vate tlic furiarcin many places. 



GOUVEA, in Geo;^raphy, a town of Portugal, in Eftre- 

 madura ; 20 miles S.E. of Vifeu. 



GOUX DE I.A Bovlayj:, Fn vxrts i.e, in Biogra- 

 phy, a celebrated traveller, was born in the province of An- 

 jou about the year ]6lo. Little is known of his early life, 

 but that lie fell a ftrong propenfity for rambling into foreign 

 tiov.ntries : he employed ten years fuccellively in traverliiig 

 various parts of the globe. He feems to have been willing 

 to become all things to all men, in order to obtain his wiflies 

 in fafety. In Africa and many parts of Afia he palled for 

 a Mahometan, and in Europe he was a good Catholic. On 

 ills return, he publilhed an account of his travels, under the 

 title of " Les Voyages des Obfervations de Erani;ois de la 

 Boulaye le Goux, en divers Pays, d'Europe, d'Ahe, et 

 •I'Afrique, jufqu'a I'Annce 1650." This work was publilhed 

 in^to. and illuftrated and adorned with engravings. The 

 fiyle is incorreft, but the fafts, as far as they are borne out 

 with truth, are faid to be very curious. He was fo much 

 Jiltered in liis perfon during his abfence from France, that 

 iiis motlier even, either could not, or would not recognize 

 him, and he was obliged to inllitute a law-fuit to cihiblifli 

 liis rights as heir in the family. In 1668 he was appointed 

 ambalFador to the Porte and the great mogul, by I^ewis 

 XIV. who was verr delirous of renewing his commerce with 

 the Eaft. Le Boufaye died in Perfia of a fever before he 

 had executed this million. Moreri. 



GOUYE, Thomas, was born at Dieppe in the year 

 1650. He was brought up among the .Tefuits, and was at 

 an early period diftinguilhed by an ardent love for matlienia- 

 ticaland fcientilie purfuits. In 1699 ^'-" ^^''^ elefted a mem- 

 ber of tlie Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, of which 

 body he became an affiduous attendant, and was highly 

 elleemed for the ufetul contributions which he made to tiieir 

 memoirs. He died at Paris in 1725, leaving behind him, as 

 •nemorials of his learning and induilrv, " Phyfical and Ma- 

 thematical Obfervations tending to the Improvement of 

 Aftronomy and Geography, fent from Siam to the Academy 

 of Sciei;ees at Paris, by the Jetuit Mifhonaries, witli Reflec- 

 tions and Notes, in two volumes." The iirll volume was 

 publilhed in 16S8, the fecond in i6y2, and both have been ■ 

 mierted in thefeventh volume of the collections of the Aca- 

 demy. Moreri. 



GOW, in Geofrrap/.'v, a town of Hindooftan, in Bahar ; 

 40 miles S.S.W. ot Bahar. N. lat. 25 . E. h)ng. 



GOV/ER, Joiix, in B'w^rnphy, an ancient Engiilh poet 

 of tiie fourteenth century, is faid to have been defeeiided 

 from a family at .Stitenham in Yorkfhire. He had the bell 

 ."ducation which the tim.es afforded, and at a proper age be- 

 cam.e a member of the fociety of the Inner Temple, where 

 he attained to a high degree of refpeclability in the profeffion 

 of the law, aiKl where lie became acquainted with Chaucer. 

 Some writers affirm that, in the courfe of his profefnonal 

 duties he was appoiited chief juftice of the court of Com- 

 mon Pleas, though otliers think the judge wiis another perfon 

 of the fame name wlio was a contemporary v.ith the poet. 

 Gower attached bimfeJf to the duke of Glouceftcr, uncle to 



Richard II., and was much noticed by the king himfelf, at 

 whofe delire tie wrote his prmcipal work. He had, however, 

 a pliable mind, and could turn his pen to different iiiterells ; 

 for on the acceflion of Henry IV. he not only wrote in 

 adulatory terms to the new king, but even reflected on the 

 mil-government of the one who had been depofed, and who 

 had been his patron. His circumllancea were fuch as 10 put 

 him beyond the fear of want, for he appears to iiave been a li- 

 beral contributor to the rebuilding of the cliurch of St. Mary 

 Overy in Southwark. During tiie lirfl year of Henry's reign, 

 our poet liad tlie misfortune to he deprived of his light, an 

 affliction whieli he did not long furvive. He died in tlie year 

 1402, at a very advanced age. Go-ver, fays his biographer, 

 is entitled to a place among Engiilh writers only relative- 

 ly to the time in whicli he flourilhed ; for though well fur- 

 niflied with karning, and a fuccefsful culti\ator of his native 

 language, he has irot the leail pretentions to genius or inven- 

 tion. He is characterized by his friend Chaucer, as the 

 " moral Gower ;" he was uniformly grave, even upon topics 

 that might infpire vivacity. He was author of thret" volumes, 

 entitled " Speculum Meditantis ;" " Vox Clamantis ;'' and 

 " ConfefTio Amantis." Of thefe, the lu-fl is a moral trail, 

 and relates to conjugal duties; the fecond is a metrical chro- 

 nicle concerning the infurrection of the people under Rich- 

 ard II., in Latin elegiac verfe : the third, or " Lover's Con- 

 feffions," relates to the morals and metaphylics of love. 

 This is tlie only one that has been printed, and it was among 

 theearliell products of the Engiilh prefs, by Caxton in 1483. 

 It feems, fays Mr. Warton, to have been his object to crowd 

 all his erudition into this elaborate performance. The mofl 

 interelling part of the work is a variety of llories adduced as 

 moral examples, and taken from authors moll in vogue, an- 

 cient and modern. The language is perlpicuous, and the ver- 

 lilieation frequently harmonious. Biog. Brit. Warton. 



CJowKii, in Geogrnphy, a diltrict of Wales, in the fouth' 

 we Item extremity of Glamorgan fhire, below the town of 

 Swanfea, and boundcnl by the Irith fea and the Brillol 

 channel. 



GowEH, Cape, a cape on the E. coaft of China, lying in 

 the track from the fouthward to the gulf of Pekin. A reef 

 of rocks runs out from a neck of land near this cape, which 

 appeared to have a compaft harbour. Tlie entrance to it 

 was between the cape and the reef iilil mentioned. When 

 the perfons concerned in the embalfy to China pafTed this 

 cape, a conhderiible number of vefi'els wei'e dcfcried in the., 

 harbour, and a pretty large town behind it. N. lat. 36'' 

 57'. E. long. 122'^ 15'. 



Gowi'.i;'.s IJItmd, a fmall, flat, low ifland, in the Pacific 

 ocean, fo called by captain Carteret, who pafl'cd it in Au- 

 gnit 1767 ; he found no anchorage, and could only obtain a 

 few cocoa-nuts in exchange for nails ; the inhabitants rc- 

 fembled thofe of Egmont ifle. S. Lit. 7 56. 

 158° 56'. 



Gower's Harbour, a bay on the S. W. coaft of New 

 Ireland ; 5 miles N. of cape St. George. M. Bougain- 

 ville calls this " Prafslin Bay,' and by Dampier it is 

 called " St. George's bay.' S. lat. 4 50'. E. long. 

 150 ■ 48'. 



GOWGAT, a town of Hindooftan ; 12 miles W. of 

 Agra. 



GOWGATCHY, a town of Bengal; 12 miles N. of 

 Calcutta. 



GOWN, Robe, a long upper garment, worn by law- 

 yers, divines, and other graduates, who are hence called 

 gtntlemin of ihe goivn, iir goti'ii-nun. 



'Jlie gown is an ample fort of garment, worn over the 



ordinary 



E. long. 



i 



