Chapter Gulistan to Gutter Lane of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Guns To blow great guns. To be very boisterous and windy. Noisy and boisterous as the reports of great guns.
   To run away from their own guns. To eat their own words; desert what is laid down as a principle. The allusion is obvious.

"The Government could not, of course, run away from their guns." - Nineteenth Century, Feb., 1893, p. 193.

Gunga [pronounce Gun-jah ]. The goddess of the Ganges. Bishop Heber calls the river by this name.

Gunner Kissing the gunner's daughter. Being flogged on board ship. At one time boys in the Royal Navy who were to be flogged were first tied to the breech of a cannon.

Gunpowder Plot The project of a few Roman Catholics to destroy James I. with the Lords and Commons assembled in the Houses of Parliament, on the 5th of November, 1605. It was to be done by means of gunpowder when the king went in person to open Parliament. Robert Catesby originated the plot, and Guy Fawkes undertook to fire the gunpowder. (See Dynamite Saturday.)

Gunter's Chain for land surveying, is so named from Edmund Gunter, its inventor (1581-1626). It is sixty-six feet long, and divided into one hundred links. As ten square chains make an acre, it follows that an acre contains 100,000 square links.
   According to Gunter. According to measurement by Gunter's chain.

Günther King of Burgundy and brother of Kriemhild. He resolved to wed Brunhild, the martial queen of Issland, who had made a vow that none should win her who could not surpass her in three trials of skill and strength. The first was hurling a spear, the second throwing a stone, and the third was jumping. The spear could scarcely be lifted by three men. The queen hurled it towards Günther, when Siegfried, in his invisible cloak, reversed it, hurled it back again, and the queen was knocked down. The stone took twelve brawny champions to carry, but Brunhild lifted it on high, flung it twelve fathoms, and jumped beyond it. Again the unseen Siegfried came to his friend's rescue, flung the stone still farther, and, as he leaped, bore Günther with him. The queen, overmastered, exclaimed to her subjects, "I am no more your mistress; you are Günther's liegemen now" (Lied, vii.). After the marriage the masculine maid behaved so obstreperously that Günther had again to avail himself of his friend's aid. Siegfried entered the chamber in his cloud-cloak, and wrestled with the bride till all her strength was gone; then he drew a ring from her finger, and took away her girdle. After which he left her, and she became a submissive wife. Günther, with unpardonable ingratitude, was privy to the murder of his friend and brother-in-law, and was himself slain in the dungeon of Etzel's palace by his sister Kriemhild. In history this Burgundian king is called Güntacher. (The Nibelungen-Lied.)

Gurgoils (See Gargouille .)

Gurme (2 syl.). The Celtic Cerberus. While the world lasts it is fastened at the mouth of a vast cave; but at the end of the world it will be let loose, when it will attack Tyr, the war-god, and kill him.

Gurney Light (See Bude .)

Guthlac (St.), of Crowland, Lincolnshire, is represented in Christian art as a hermit punishing demons with a scourge, or consoled by angels while demons torment him.

Guthrum Silver of Guthrum, or silver of Guthrum's Lane. Fine silver was at one time so called, because the chief gold and silver smiths of London resided there in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The hall of the Goldsmiths' Company is still in the same locality. (Riley: Munimenta Gildhallæ.)

Guttapercha The juice of the percha-tree (Isonandra percha) of the family called Sapotacæ. The percha trees grow to a great height, and abound in all the Malacca Islands. The juice is obtained by cutting the bark. Gutta-percha was brought over by Dr. William Montgomerie in 1843, but articles made of this resin were known in Europe some time before. (Latin, gutta, a drop.)