GATEWAY. the passage or opening in which a gate or large door is hung, This may be either an open way with side pillars or a covered way vaulted or roofed over. The gateway being a most important point in all fortified places, is usually protected by various devices. It is flanked by towers with-loopholes, from which assailants may be attacked, and is frequently overhung by a machicolated battlement, from which missiles of every description were poured upon the besiegers. City gates, and gates of large castles, have in all ages been the subjects of great care in construction; and when from some cause, such as the cessation of constant fighting, or a change in the mode of warfare, gateways have lost their importance in a military point of view, they have maintained their position as important architectural works, and where no longer use ful, have become ornamental. In very ancient times, we, read of the "gate" as the most prominent part of a city, where proclamations were made, and where the kings administered justice. The Greek and Roman gates were frequently of great magnifi cence. The propylaea at Athens is a beautiful example, and the triumphal arches of the, Romans are the ornamental offspring of their city gates. Most oT the towns in this cou'htry have lost their walls and city gates; but a few, such as York and Chester, still retain them, and give us an idea of the buildings which formerly existed, but which now remain only in the name of the streets where they once stood. Our castles ,retain
more of their ancient gateways, and from these we may imagine the frowning aspect every town presented during the middle ages. Abbeys, colleges, and every class of buildings were shut in and defended by similar barriers; many of these still exist in Oxford andCambridge, and the abbey gates of Canterbury and Bury St. Edmund's are well-known specimens of monastic gateways. The feeling of personal freedom, which is so strong in this country, must no doubt have tended greatly to hasten the demolition of these marks of feudalistri; but' oil the continent, where every man has to present a passport at the gate of the city before entering it, we still find these barriers kept-up.
GATE (in Heb. It one of the five chief cities. of the Philistines, was situated on the frontiers of Judah, and was in consequence a place of much importance in the wars between the Philistines and the Israelites. formed, in fact, the key of both countries, and was strongly fortified. The famous Goliath, whose gigantic height and swaggering air so frightened the troops of king Saul, and who was slain by the stripling David with pebbles from the brook, was a native of this place. Jerome describes it in his time as a "very large village." The site of ancient Gath is probably the little eminence, about 200 ft. high, now known as Tell-es-Stlfret, at the foot of what were once called the mountains of Judah.