as
been increased by extending the honour to descendants of George I., II.,
and III., and also to distinguished foreigners; it is the highest order
of knighthood, and is designated K.G.; the insignia of the order
includes surcoat, mantle, star, &c., but the knights are chiefly
distinguished by a garter of blue velvet worn on the left leg below the
knee, and bearing the inscription in gold letters _Honi soit qui mal y
pense_, "Evil be to him that evil thinks"; election to the order lies
with the sovereign.

GARTH, SIR SAMUEL, a distinguished physician, born in co. Durham;
had an extensive practice; author of a mock-heroic poem entitled "The
Dispensary" (1661-1718).

GASCOIGNE, SIR WILLIAM, English judge, born at Gawthorpe, Yorkshire;
during Richard II.'s reign he practised in the law courts, and in 1397
became king's serjeant; three years later he was raised to the Lord
Chief-Justiceship; his single-eyed devotion to justice was strikingly
exemplified in his refusal to pass sentence of death on Archbishop
Scrope; the story of his committing Prince Henry to prison, immortalised
by Shakespeare, is unauthenticated (1350-1419).

GASCONY, an ancient province of SW. France, lying between the
Atlantic, the Pyrenees, and the Garonne; it included several of the
present departments; the province was of Basque origin, but ultimately
became united with Aquitaine, and was added to the territory of the
French crown in 1453; the Gascons still retain their traditional
characteristics; they are of dark complexion and small in stature,
vivacious and boastful, but have a high reputation for integrity.

GASKELL, MRS., _nee_ STEVENSON, novelist and biographer, born at
Cheyne Row, Chelsea; authoress of "Mary Barton," "Ruth," "Silvia's
Lovers," &c., and the "Life of Charlotte Bronte," her friend (1810-1865).

GASSENDI, PIERRE, a French mathematician and philosopher, born in
Provence; declared against scholastic methods out of deference to the
empirical; controverted the metaphysics of Descartes; became the head of
a school opposed to him; adopted the philosophy of Epicurus and
contributed to the science of astronomy, and was the friend of Kepler,
Galileo, and Hobbes; was a great admirer of Bayle, the head of his
school, a school of Pyrrhonists, tending to materialism (1592-1655).

GASSNER, JOHANN JOSEPH, a noted "exorcist," born at Bludenz, in the
Tyrol; while a Catholic priest at Kloesterle he gained a wide celebrity by
prof