Guildford
a town and county-seat of Surrey, England, in a break of the chalk ridge of the North Downs, on the navigable Wey, 30 miles S. W. of London. Its houses are still rich in quaint gables, projecting fronts, and long latticed windows. The square Norman keep of its royal castle is 70 feet high with walls 10 feet thick; on St. Catherine's Hill is a ruined chapel (1313); Abbot Hospital, founded in 1619 by Archbishop Abbot for 12 brethren and 8 sisters, is a picturesque red brick pile; and other buildings are the churches of St. Nicholas, St. Mary, and the Holy Trinity, the guildhall (1687), county hall (1862), county hospital (1868), and grammar school (1509- 1550). Guildford is famous for its grain market, the "Surrey wheats" being celebrated. It was bequeathed in 901 by Alfred the Great to his nephew Ethel wald, and in 1036 was the scene of the decimation by King Harold's men of the Norman followers of Alfred the Atheling, a crime that led up to the Norman conquest of England. The Dauphin Louis took the castle in 1216; and in 1685 Monmouth was temporarily confined in Abbot Hospital. Pop. about 23,000.
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Guilford College
a coeducational institution in Guilford, N. C.; founded in 1837 under the auspices of the Society of Friends, reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors, 15; students, 177; president, Raymond Binford.
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Guilford Court-House
a village in Guilford co., N. C.; about 5 miles from Greensboro; noted for a battle fought between the Americans under General Greene and the British under Lord Cornwallis, on March 15, 1781. The Americans numbered about 4,400 and the British 2,400. Both armies lost heavily, and the engagement was indecisive.
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Guillaume de Carpentras
An astrologer who made for King René of Sicily, and for the Duke of Milan, astrological spheres, from which horoscopes were drawn. He made for Charles VIII. of France one which cost twelve hundred crowns. This sphere contained many utilities, and was so contrived that all the movements of the planets, at any hour of the day and night, were to be found there.
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Guillaume de Paris
He is said by the demonologists to have made speaking statues, like those made by Roger Bacon- Gurney a thing which could only be done by diabolical agency.
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Guillemot
gil'le-mot, a web-footed bird closely related to the loon or else to the extinct auk. It nests on the ledges of rocky cliffs along both shores of the North Atlantic, laying a single white, pear-shaped egg, about three inches in length. The bird is said to carry its young on its back from the cliff to the water. Prodigious numbers nest together on these rocks. Until lately, at least, they were so unaccustomed to danger from man that they allowed themselves to be taken by hand; hence the term, "foolish guillemot." The wings are very small, yet the bird flies reasonably well. The legs are placed well back like those of a loon, which, indeed, the guillemot resembles more than any other bird with which inland Americans are at all familiar. It is an expert diver and lives on a fish diet. See Auk ; Loon
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Guinea
an English gold coin. Its name arises from the fact that it was coined first from gold obtained in Guinea. It is equivalent to twenty-one shillings, and corresponds closely to our five dollar gold piece. It was first coined in 1663, in the reign of Charles II, whose profile appeared on one face of it. Directly beneath the head of the king is a miniature figure of an elephant. The coinage was discontinued in 1817, but the guinea is still used in accounts. The term is rather poetic. Burns says: The rank is but the guinea's stamp A man's a man for a' that. Tennyson also uses the term: But the jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that Honour feels. See Coin
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Guinea
gin'e, a region of West Africa bordering on the Gulf of Guinea. It extends along the coast for 3,500 miles. It is divided into a number of regions, as the Ivory Coast, the Slave Coast, and the Gold Coast. It is now held by several European nations. The Niger is the chief river. The heat is intense. Rainfall is abundant. Vegetation is rank. Wild animals attain their full size and number. A large number of the slaves of the United States were stolen from this region. See Niger
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Guinefort
A strange story has been left on record by Father Etienne Bourbon, a Dominican, who died in 1262. He relates that while he was preaching in the diocese of Lyons, many women came to him confessing that they had taken their children to St. Guinefort. Curious to know what sort of saint it might be whose cult called for confession, Father Bourbon enquired into the matter, and found that Guinefort was a dog! It was, in fact, that dog which had given rise to the well-known fable of the dog and the serpent, wherein a dog is killed under the unjust suspicion that it has slain a child, which in reality it has saved from the attack of a serpent. This dog-martyr it was to whose "shrine" the women brought their children. A similar story is told of a dog named Ganelon, whose tomb was in Auvergne, in the neighbourhood of a fountain. The adventure took place during the reign of Louis le Debonnaire. Two or three centuries later it was found that the waters of the fountain possessed medicinal virtues, but cures were attributed to the unknown occupant of the tomb-that is, until a certain bishop found among the archives of the Château the anecdote of Ganelon.
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Guinegate
a village of Hainault, Belgium; the scene of two French defeats. On Aug. 17, 1479, they were beaten by Maximilian I. of Austria; and on Aug. 16, 1513, by Henry VIII. and the Emperor Maximilian. This battle was called the Battle of the Spurs, the French knights having made more use of their spurs than of their swords.
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Guines
formerly GUISNES, a small town in France, 8 miles S. of Calais; the scene of "the Field of the Cloth of Gold."
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