G A I 
ft much excelled, did not require that he (lioyld go out 
of his own country for the objects of his ftiidy ; they were 
every where about him ; he found them in the flreets, 
and in tlie fields; and from the models tints accidentally 
thrown in his way, he leledted with great judgment fuch 
as fuited hispurpofe. As hisfiudies were directed to the 
living world principally, he did not pay a general atten¬ 
tion to the works of the various mailers, though they are 
aiw'ays of great life, even when the character of our fub. 
jedt requires us to depart from fome of their principles. 
It cannot be denied that the department of the art which 
he profelfed, may exill witli great effedt without them; 
that in fuch fubjedls, and in the manner that belongs to 
them, they are fupplied, and more than fupplied, by na¬ 
tural fagacity, and a minute obfervation of particular na¬ 
ture. If Gainfborough did not look at nature with a po¬ 
et’s eye, it muft be acknowledged that he faw lier with 
the eye of a painter ; and gavea faithful, if not a poetical,. 
reprefentation of what he had before him. 
Though he did not much attend to the works of the 
great hillorical painters of former ages, yet he was well 
aware, that the language of the art, the art of imitation, 
mull be learned foinewhere ; and as he knew that he 
could not learn it in an equal degree from his contempora. 
ries, he very judicioufly applied himfelf to the Fiemifh 
fchool, who are undoubtedly the greateft mailers of one 
necelTary branch of art; and he did not need to go out of 
his own country for examples of that fchool: from that 
he learnt the harmony of colouring; the management and 
difpofition of light and lhadow, and every means which 
the mailers of it pradfifed to ornament and give fplendor 
to their works. And to fatisfy himfelf, as well as others; 
how well he knew the mechanifin and artifice whicli they 
employed to bring out that tone of colour, which we fo 
much admire in their works, he occafionally made copies 
from Rubens, Teiriers, and Vandyck, which it would be 
no dilgrace to the molt accurate connoilTeur to miftake, 
at the firlf fight, for the works of thole mailers. What 
he thus learned, he applied to the originals of nature, 
which he faw with his own eyes ; and imitated, not in the 
manner of thofe maflers, but in his own. 
Wliether he mod excelled in portraits, landfcapes, or 
fancy pidlures, it is difficult to determine: whetlier his 
portraits were moll admirable for exafl truth of refem- 
blance, or his landfcapes for the portrait-like reprefenta¬ 
tion of nature, Inch as we fee in the works of Rubens, 
Ryfdale, and others of thofe fchools. In his fancy pic¬ 
tures, when he had fixed on his objeft of imitation, whe¬ 
ther it was the mean and vulgar form of a wood-cutter, 
or a child of an interelling charadfer, as lie did not at¬ 
tempt to raife the one, fo neither did he lofe any of the 
natural grace and elegance of the other; fuch a grace and 
fuch an elegance, as are more frequently found in cottages 
than in courts. This excellence was his own, the refiilt 
of his particular obfervation and tafte ; for fhis he was 
certainly not indebted to the Flemifli fchool; nor indeed 
to any fchool ; for his grace was not academical or an¬ 
tique, but feledfedfiy liirnfelf from the great fchool of na¬ 
ture; and there are yet a thoufand modes of grace, which 
are neither theirs nor his, but lie open in the multiplied 
feenes and figures of life, to be brought out by Ikilful 
and faithful obfervers. 
Few Englilh pidhireshave attained a higher value than 
fome of thofe produced by Gainfborough. He never at¬ 
tempted hifforical painting of the higher kind, confeious 
that his education had not qualified him to excel in it. 
Corredlnefs and precifion were no parts of his excellence, 
nor had he learning enough for the circumftance and cof- 
tume of hiftory or allegory. Facility and ffrength of ex. 
ecution were qualities which Gainfborough polfeired in 
an uncommon degree; but he often facrificed too much 
to them. While in the vigour of his powers and the 
height of his reputation, he was attacked with a tumour 
in the neck, of the confequences of v/hicli he died in Au- 
guft 1788, at tlie age of fixty-onc, He was buried io 
GAL in 
Kew church-yard, whither Iiis remains were attended by 
the firff artifts, and other refpeftable friends. 
_ The Gainiboroiighs were a family of genius. The 
elder brother, at Sudbury, was a proficient in the arts ; 
and a brother, who was a dillenving-miniffer at Henley, 
upon.Thames, w as one of the nioff ingenious mechanics 
of his time, as well as a man of lingular benevolence and 
fimplicity. 
’GAINST,See Against: 
Tremble, ye nations! who, fectire before, 
Laugh’d at thofe arms, that 'gainft ourfelves we bore. 
Dry den. 
7 b GAINSTA'ND, v.a. To withffand: to oppofe; 
to refift. A proper word, but not in ufe.—Love proved 
himfelf valiant, that durff: with the fvvord of reverent, 
duty gninjland the force of fo ntany enraged deffres. Sid'. 
To GAINSTRI'VE, v. n. To refift: 
Whofe bodies chaff, whenever in his powre 
He may them catch, unable to gainjlrive. 
He with liis ffiameful luff doth firff deflowre, 
And afterwards t^heinfelves doth cruelly devoure. Spenf. 
GAIR'ISH, adj. [geppian, to drefs fine. Sax.] Gau¬ 
dy; fftovvy ; fplendid; fine.—Three or four will outrage 
in apparel, hugehofe, inonffrous hats, &niigairijk colours. 
Afdiam. 
There in clofe covert by fome brook,. 
Where noprofaner eye may look, 
Hide me from day’s gairijh eye. Milton. 
Extravagantlygay ; flighty,—Fame and glory'tranfport a 
man out of himfelf: it makes the mind loofe andgazV^;, 
fcatters the fnirits, and leaves a kind of dilfolution upon 
all the facultres. South. 
GAIR'ISHNESSjy. Finery;flauntinggaudiners, Fliglity 
or extravagant joy.—Let your hope be without vanity, 
or gairijhnefs of fpirit, but fober, grave, and filent. Taylor, 
GAIR'SA, one of the fmaller Orkney illands, about 
half a league north-eaff from Pomona ifiand. 
GAIS'SERN, a town of Germany, in the duchy of 
Stiria : twelve miles eaff of Rottenmanns. 
GAIT,/, Dut.] Away ttis. Gang your gaff ; 
Good youth, addrefs thy gait unto her; 
Be not denied accefs, ffand at her door, Skake/pearcc 
March ; walk: 
Thou art fo lean, and meagre waxen late, 
That fcarce thy legs uphold thy feeble gait. Hubbard. 
The manner and air of walking.—Great Juno comes; I 
know her by her^azb. Shakefpeare. 
Leviathans 
Wallowing, unwieldy, enormous in their ja/;. Milton. 
GA'LA, f. [from cala, or caloat, Arabic; a robe of ho¬ 
nour.] A royal banquet; a difplay of chivalry ; a grand 
feffival, attended with fumptuous drefs and pageantry. 
GA'LA WATER, a river of Scotland, which runs 
into the Tweed, about two miles above Maicrofs, in Rox- 
burgfhire. 
GA'LAAD, or Galead. See Gilead, 
GALAC'TIA,/! in botany. See Clitoria. 
GALACTIRRHCE'A, J. [yiX''\xyJt^^oice, from . 
milk, and ^su, to flow.] The medical term for an excefs 
or overflowing of the milk in women. 
G AL AG'TITES,/ A precious ftone as white as milk, 
a kind of white clay. 
GALACTOPH'AGI, /. In antiquity, perfons who 
lived,wholly on milk, without the ufe of any other food. 
The words are compounded of yaAaxli®-, milk, and tpa/sir, 
to eat. Certain nations in Scythia Afiatica, as the Getie, 
Nomades, See. are famous, in ancient hiftory, in quality 
of galaSlophagi, or milk-eaters. Homer makes their eloge, 
Iliad, lib. iii. Ptolemy, in his geography, places the 
Gala^tophagi 
