in Commerce, a very thin, slight, transparent kind of stuff, woven sometimes of silk, and sometimes only of thread. To warp the silk for making gauze, a peculiar kind of mill is used, upon which the silk is wound. This mill is a wooden machine, about six feet high, having an axis placed perpendicularly in the middle, with six large wings, on which the silk is wound from off the bobbins by the axis turning round. When all the silk is on the mill, another instrument is used to wind it off again upon two beams; and this being done, the silk is passed through as many little beads as there are threads of silk, and thus rolled upon another beam to supply the loom. The gauze loom is much like that of the common weavers, though it has several appendages peculiar to itself.

GAVEL, in Law, tribute, toll, custom, or yearly revenue; of which we had in old time several kinds.

GAVEL-KIND, a tenure or custom belonging to lands in the county of Kent. The word is said by Lambard to be compounded of three Saxon words, gyffe, ead, hyn, or canadus cognatione proxinis data. Verstegan calls it gavelkind, or give all kind, that is, to each child his part; and Taylor, in his history of gavelkind, derives it from the British word, that is, a hold or tenure, and cenned, generatio or familia; and so gavel cenned might signify tenura generationis. It is universally known what struggles the Kentish men made to preserve their ancient liberties, and with how much success those struggles were attended. And as it is principally here that we meet with the custom of gavelkind, though it was and is to be found in some other parts of the kingdom, we may fairly conclude that this was a part of these liberties; agreeably to Mr Selden's opinion, that gavelkind, before the Norman conquest, was the general custom of the realm. The principal and distinguishing properties of this kind of tenure are these: 1. The tenant is of age sufficient to alienate his estate by indenture, at the age of fifteen. 2. The estate does not escheat in case of an attainder and execution for felony; their maxim being, "the father to the bough, the son to the plough." In most places, he had the power of devising lands by will, before the statute for that purpose was made. 4. The lands descend, not to the oldest, youngest, or any one son only, but to all the sons together; which was indeed Beggar's Opera, the success of which was not only unprecedented, but almost incredible. It had an uninterrupted run in London of sixty-three nights in the first season, and was renewed in the ensuing one with equal approbation. It spread into all the great towns of England; it was played in many places to the thirtieth and fortieth, and at Bath and Bristol to the fiftieth time; it made its progress into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, in which last country it was acted for twenty-four successive nights; and it was even performed at the island of Minorca. Nor was the fame of this opera confined to the reading and representation alone, for the card-table and drawing-room shared with the theatre and closet in this respect; the ladies carried about the favourite songs of the piece engraved upon their fans; and screens and other pieces of furniture were decorated with designs from it. In short, the satire of this production was so striking, so apparent, and so perfectly adapted to the taste of all degrees of people, that it overthrew the Italian opera, that dagon of the nobility and gentry, which had so long seduced them to idolatry, and which Dennis by the labours and exertions of a whole life, and many other writers by the force of reason and reflection, had in vain endeavoured to drive from the throne of public taste. The profits of this piece were so very great, both to the author and the manager Mr Rich, that it gave rise to a quibble, which became frequent in the mouths of many, namely, that it had made Rich gay, and Gay rich. It has been asserted, indeed, that the author's own emoluments from it were not less than L2000. This success induced Mr Gay to write a second part, which he entitled Polly. But the disgust subsisting between him and the court, together with the misrepresentations made of him as having been the author of some disaffected libels and seditious pamphlets, occasioned a prohibition and suppression of it to be sent from the lord chamberlain, at the very time when everything was in readiness for the rehearsal of the piece. A very considerable sum, however, accrued to the author from the publication of it afterwards in quarto. Mr Gay wrote several other pieces in the dramatic line, and many valuable compositions in verse. Amongst the latter, his Trivia, or the art of Walking the Streets of London, though his first poetical attempt, is far from being the least considerable, and is what recommended him to the esteem and friendship of Mr Pope. But as, among his dramatic works, his Beggar's Opera did at first, and perhaps ever will, stand as an unrivalled masterpiece, so, among his poetical works, his Fables hold the same degree of estimation; the latter having been almost as universally read as the former was represented, and both equally admired. Mr Gay's disposition was sweet and affable, his temper generous, and his conversation agreeable and entertaining. But he had one foible, too frequently incident to men of literary abilities, and which subjected him at times to inconveniences which otherwise he might have avoided, namely, an excess of indolence, without any knowledge of economy. Hence, although his emoluments were, at some periods of his life, very considerable, he was at others greatly straitened in his circumstances; nor could he prevail on himself to follow the advice of his friend Dean Swift, whom we find in many of his letters endeavouring to persuade him to purchase an annuity as a reserve for the exigencies of old age. Mr Gay chose rather to throw himself on patronage, than secure to himself an independent competency by the means pointed out to him; and hence, after having undergone many vicissitudes of fortune, and being for some time chiefly supported by the liberality of the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, he died at their house in Burlington Gardens, in December 1732. He was interred in Westminster Abbey, and a monument erected to his memory, at the expense of his noble benefactors, with an inscription expressive of their regards and his own deserts, and an epitaph in verse by Mr Pope.