GWILT, GEORGE, architect, was well known as an antiquary, and for his restoration of the choir and tower, and the Lady Chapel, of St. Mary Overy's church, in the parish of St. Saviour's, Southwark. George and Joseph Gwilt [Gwtur, Jossen], were the sons of George Gwilt, an architect, resident In the pariah, who was surveyor for the county of Surrey, and who erected, other buildings, Horse monger Lane Gaol and Newington Sessions House. He died on the 9th of December 1S07. George Gwilt, the elder of the sons, was born on the 8th of February 1775. He was sent to a school at Hammer smith, but was indebted for his general education mainly to his own exertions. His professional knowledge was acquired in the office of his father, whom he succeeded in practice. Prior to this however, Gwilt junior had commenced his own professional course with the about the year 1801, of the warehouses of the West India Docks. He eoon a marked taste for objects of antiquarian art, of which he at length got together, at his house in Union Street, an important collection, many of the remains found in St. Saviour's. In 1815 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Anti quaries. In March and June of that year two valuable communi cations by him, on the remains of Winchester Palace, Southwark, appeared in the 'Gentleman's and he contributed occasionally at other times to the same journal. In 1818 he was engaged upon the restoration of the steeple of Bow Church, a work which required much professional skill, and which he performed with strict regard to the preservation of Wren's The peristyle of columns and the obelisk had to be removed and rebuilt, and the whole was completed on the 11th of July 1820, when the copper vane (in the form of a dragon), feet ten inches long, was fixed. Very soon afterwards, the foundations of the same church found defective, some important works for their maintenance were carried out under GwiIt'a supervision ; and daring these works the interesting Norman remains of the original building were identified, and were described by him to the Society of in June 1828, in a paper under the title of ' Observations on the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow chiefly to its Original Structure,' and which paper was afterwards published, with six plates, in the Vetusta Monumenta,' voL 5. The restoration of tho choir and tower of St. Mary Overy's church was commenced about the year 1822, and was completed in about two years, with fidelity and practical AU In 1824 Gwilt visited Italy, and we find little to say of him till the year 1832, when the Lady Chapel of the church last mentioned being rescued from destruction, he under took the direction of the restoration without remuneration, and completed it in 1833, with the skill which he had exhibited in the other part of the church. George Gwilt lived to the advanced of eighty-one, occupied in his favourite pursuits till within a few days before his death. He had however Buffered long from a painful com
plaint, and the loss of his wife, who died a few weeks before him, was severely felt. Ile died on the 27th of June 1856, and was buried in the family vault, next the choir of St. Mary Overy's Church. Charles Edwin, the second of his three sons, has contributed to the (voL xxv.) an Account of the remains of part of the Prior ofLewes'a house In Carter Lane, St. Olive's, one of the twelve minor Hebrew prophets. We -Li have no particulars the place and time of his but it appears probable that he prophesied in the beginning of the of Jehoiakim (n.e. 609). It is evident from the prophecy that Jerusalem had not yet been taken by the Chaldmans, but that Judma had been overrun by their armies. We learn from 2 Kings, xxiv. 1, that the Chaldmans under Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiakim tributary to them at the beginning of his ; but Jerusalem was not taken till the of his successor Jehoitichin. Clement of Alexandria (' Strom.; L 142) places Ilabakkuk in the of Zedekiah, which agrees with the account in the apocryphal story of Bel and tho Dragon, according to which Habakkuk lived in the time of the Babylonish captivity.
The prophecy of llabakknk may be divided into two parts. The first is in the form of a dialogue between God and the prophet: the prophet by the desolate condition of Jerusalem (i. God is then introduced foretelling the destruction of the Jewish state by the Chaldteane (i. the prophet replies by a hope that the Jews may not be entirely destroyed, and that the Chaldmans may be punished, since they are as wicked as the Jews (1. 12-17 ; ii. 1); God assures the prophet that the captivity of the Jews will only last for an appointed time, and that the Chaldreins would be punished on account of their (ii. 2-20). The second part is a prayer, or psalm, in which the prophet recounts the wonderful works God had on behalf of his people in past times, and prays unto Him to preserve the Jews in their captivity, and "in wrath to remember mercy" (c.
The prophecy of Habakkuk is written in an style, and contains many beautiful The third chapter is considered by Bishop Lowth as one of the finest specimens we possess of the Hebrew ode.
The canonical authority of the book has never been disputed. It is quoted in the New Testament: compare Ilab. ii. 4 with Rom. L 17, Gal. lii. 11, Hebr. x. 38; and Hab. i. 5 with Acts xiii. 40, 41. Many divines consider the passage ii. 2.4 to be a prophecy to the Messiah, implying also the deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus; but till the scheme of secondary prophecies (that is, of making the same prophecy fulfilled by-two distinct and different events) is better established, we must withhold our assent to au:h an hypothesis.