Historian, was born at Putney of an ancient Kentish family. His father was Edward G., and his mother Judith Porten. He was the only one of a family of seven who survived infancy, and was himself a delicate child with a precocious love of study. After receiving his early education at home he was sent to Westminster School, and when 15 was entered at Magdalen College, Oxford, where, according to his own account, he spent 14 months idly and unprofitably. Oxford was then at its lowest ebb, and earnest study or effort of any kind had little encouragement. G., however, appears to have maintained his wide reading in some degree, and his study of Bossuet and other ...