GAZETTE

A periodical paper, published at short intervals, containing articles of general intelligence. Both on the Continent and in England such sheets were generally termed Mercuries in the first times of their invention, and appeared only occasionally; the earliest among ourselves were published during the general apprehension from the presence of the Spanish armada; but some doubt has been lately thrown on the authenticity of the specimens preserved in the British Museum. The first gazette produced in France (under that title) was in 1631: the first in England in 1665, when the court resided at Oxford on account of the plague of London. From that period the Gazette has regularly appeared twice a week, containing such notifications as are either published by the court or the government, or such as are authoritatively required by law in private transactions. The name Gazette is said to be derived from Gazzeta, a small Venetian coin, being the price that was paid for one of the flying sheets of commercial and military information (notizie scritte), which were first published by that republic in 1563. See New.spaper. G AZETTEER, is applied in England to a work containing a brief account of all or any of the countries of the world, arranged in alphabetical order. To this cla belong Brookes's General Gazetteer, and similar works. GAZONS, in Fortification, are the turfs, or pieces of earth covered with gra , with which the faces of works raised of earth are lined in order to keep tliem up and preserve their form. [s. 501]