G 1 L 
^atione Ordinh Eccliftaflici, containing a lamentation over 
tlie niiferies of his countrymen, and fevere reproofs of 
the corruption and profligacy of manners in witich all 
ranks were fliarers, and of which he draws a melancholy 
pidfure. Archbifliop Uflier refers this epiftle to the year 
564; but Cave, on the authority of Ralph de Dicetus, 
Polydore Virgil, Bale, &c. gives it the date which we 
have adopted. Tliis curious lemain of Britifh ecclefiafti- 
cal antiquities was fiifl: printed by Polydore Virgil, in 
1525, 8 VO. from an imperfeft and corrupt copy ; which 
edition was followed in the eighth volume of the Biblioth. 
Patr. It was afterwards publiflted in 1568, by John Jof- 
leline, from another manufeript not much more corre£l 
than the former. The lateft and belt edition of it was 
publiflied by the learned Dr. Thomas Gale, from a more 
ancient and perfeft manufeript tlian either of the pre¬ 
ceding, in 1691, in the firft volume of his Hijloria Britan- 
Tticce, Saxonica, &c. Gildas alfo wrote feveral Letters, 
of which there are.numerous fragments in an old collec¬ 
tion of Canons, preferved among the manuferipts in the 
Cotton library. Other pieces which have been ascribed 
to him by Bale, Pitts, &c. are confidered by the bed 
judges to be either clearly fuppofititious, or the pro- 
du6tions of other authors. In the latter number is the 
Hijioria de Gejih Britonum, which was written by Nennius. 
With refpeiu to the time of Gildas’s death there is allb 
much difference among writers, I'ome Hating it to have 
taken place at the abbey of Glaftonbury, in the year 570 ; 
while according to otliers, he died at the abbey of Ban- 
gor, in 590. 
There was another Gildas, whom Bale calls the 
fourth of that name, who was of Irilh extraction, but 
born in Wales, where he embraced the monaftic life, and 
flourilhed in 820 and the following years. lie wrote a 
Kalendar of the Saints, which is to be found among the 
manuferipts of the Cotton library, the preface of which 
is inferted by archbifliop Uflier in his Eptjl^Hibernic. p.55. 
Leland alfo makes mention of another Gi ldas, who was 
a poet, and who is faid to liave drawn up the prophecies 
ot Merlin in Latin verfe, and to have compoled a num¬ 
ber of epigrams, which Giraldus Caiiibrenlis pronounced 
to be not inelegant. 
GIL'DEHAUSZ, a town of Germany, in the circle 
of Weftphalia, and county of Bentheim : three miles 
foilth-weft of Bentheim. 
GIL'DER, y. One who lays gold on the furface of 
any other body.— Gilders ufe to have a piece of gold in 
•their mouth, to draw the fpirits of the quickfllver. 
Bacon. —A coin, from one Ihilling and fixpence to two 
ftiillings : 
I am bound 
To Perfia, and want gilders for my voyage. Shakefpeare. 
GILD'ING,y'. The art of laying gold on any furface 
by way of ornament ; for as mankind could not liave 
every thing that they wilhed for of gold, they were con¬ 
tented with covering over, or incrufting, many articles 
with this precious metal. For that purpole the gold 
was hammered into plates, with which various articles of 
furniture, and even the walls of apartments, were in early 
ages covered. It was this excefs of vanity that incurred 
the cenfure of the philofopher : “When we cover our 
hoiifes with gold,” fays Seneca, “what elfe do we do 
than rejoice in deception ? for we know that coarfe wood 
is concealed under th.ut gold.” It was perhaps in imi¬ 
tation of this ancient luxury, that the rajah of Ghergong 
was induced to line his palace with plates of poliflied 
brafs. See the article Ghergong. 
At firft the plates of gold adapted to this ufe were 
thick, fo that gilding in this manner was very expenfive ; 
but in procefs of time the expence was m.uch lelfcned, 
in proportion as the art was difeovered of making thefe 
gold plates thinner. Articles, however, ornamented in 
this manner were fiill coftly, becaufe the valuable metal 
was always liable to be lo.ft or purloined. Yellow golden 
VOL.VUI. No.526. 
GIL 5f).5 
fize, and bronze, were then tried; but thefe did not fully 
produce the required effedf, as they wanted that fplen- 
dour peculiar to the precious metal, and appeared lan¬ 
guid and dull. It was not till modern times that artifts 
thought of overlaying with filver, or fome cheaper white 
metal, thofe things v/hich they wiflied fliould have the 
appearance of gold, and then covering them over witii 
a yellow tranfparent varnifli, in order to give to the 
white metal the colour of gold, and to that colour the 
Iplendour of metal. This ingenious procefs, which is 
employed all over Europe in gilding wooden frames, 
coaches, and various articles, and which was formerly 
ufed in the preparation of the fplendid leather tapeftry, 
w'as invented towards the end of the fixteenth century. 
Anderfon, in his “ Origin of Commerce,” fays, that it 
was introduced into England by one Evelyn, in 1633 ; 
and quotes, in fupport of this afl'ertion, The pyefent 
Slate of England, printed in 1683. This invention, how¬ 
ever, does not belong to the Englifli, but to the Italians, 
and properly to the Sicilians. Antonino Cento, an artift 
of Palermo, found out the gold varnifli now’ in ufe, and 
in 1680 publiflied an account of tlie method of preparing 
it, which is as follow s : “ Take gum lac, and having 
freed it from its impurities, put it into a fmall linen 
bag, and wafli it, in pure water, till the water no longer 
becomes red ; then take it from the bag and fuffer it to 
dry. When it is perfedfly dry, pound it very fine; be¬ 
caufe the finer it is pounded it will diffolve the more 
readily. Then take four parts of fpirit of wine, and one 
of the gum, reduced, as before directed, to an impalpa¬ 
ble powder, fo that for every four pounds of fpirit you 
may have one of gum : mix thefe together, and, having 
put them into an alembic, graduate the fire fo that the 
gum may diflblve in the fpirit. When diflblved, ftrain 
the w’hole through a ftrong piece of linen cloth ; throw 
away what remains in the cloth, as of no ufe, and pre- 
ferve the liquor in a glafs bottle clofely corked. This 
is the gold varnifli employed for gilding any kind of 
wood.” 
For the purpofe of gilding metals, the artizan either 
covers the metal diredlly with a leaf of gold, or he forms 
an amalgam of gold and quickfllver, with which he rubs 
the metal, and afterwards volatilizes the quickfllver by 
means of heat. This has been ufually called water-gild¬ 
ing-, a term probably at firft confined to fuch procelles 
only as demand the ufe of a folution of gold in aqua 
regia, now called nitro-muriatic acid. The fuccefs of this 
operation depends in a great meafure on the attention 
that is paid to render perfedfly clean the furface of tlie 
metal which is to be united to the gold, becaufe then 
the junction is more perfetff. Silver, copper, brafs, and 
pinchbeck, may be gilded with eafe by either of the two 
above-mentioned methods; but fteel and iron oppofe 
many obftacles, and cannot be gilded in a permanent 
manner by any of the proceffes hitherto difeovered. The 
reafon is, that the furface of fteel and iron cannot be 
kept perfedlly clean during the operation. In this pro¬ 
cefs, therefore, it is necelfary to begin with heating the 
iron or fteel upon which it is propofed to apply the 
gold. This circumftance requires particular attention 
on the part of the artift ; for if he does not heat it 
enough, he runs the rilk of not obtaining a fufticient 
power of adhefion ; and if he heats it too much, he is 
liable to fubjeCt the metal to the commencement of 
oxydation, befides incurring the danger of deftroying 
the temper of lharp fteel inftruments, asfwords, daggers, 
&c. that are to be heated. 
Gilding with the Amalgam and Nitrat of Mercury .—The 
difficulty of the operation, and the danger of its failure, 
are augmented, if it is intended to gild iron or fteel by 
means of tJie amalgam ; for as the metal has no affinity 
with the mercury, an intermediate matter is required to 
difpofe its furface to receive it. For this purpofe the 
parts that are to be gilded are wetted with a folution 
of mercury in nitrous acid, which nrordant is denom-i- 
7 FI nated 
