GREENWICH, (Kent) 5 cm. 6 mm. from London, has been the birth place and seat of several of our monarchs. Q. Mary and Q.
Eliz. were born here, and K. Edw. VI. died here. Their palace was first erected by Humphry D. of Glocester, who named it
Placentia, and began the tower on the top of the steep hill in the park, which was finished by Hen. VII. but afterwards
demolished, and a royal observatory erected in its place by K. Cha. II. furnished with mathematical instruments for
astronomical observations, and a deep dry well for observing the stars in the daytime. The palace was inlarged by Hen.
VII. but compleated by Hen. VIII. This being afterwards much neglected, K. Ch. II. who had enlarged the park, walled it
about, and planted it, pulled it down, and began another, of which he lived to see the first wing magnificently finished.
But K. Will. III. granted it, with 9 acres of ground thereto bel. to be converted into a royal hos. for old and disabled
seamen, the widows and children of those who lost their lives in the service, and for the encouragement of navigation. The
wing, which cost K. Cha. 36,000 l. is now the first wing of the hos. towards London; and such progress is made in the
second wing, and the other parts of this sumptuous edifice, that there is scarce such a foundation and fabric in the whole
world. Its noble hall was finely painted by the late Sir James Thornhill. At the upper end, in an alcove, are the late
Pss. Sophia, K. Geo. I. the Q. dowager of Prussia, our late Q. Caroline, his present Majesty, the Pr. of Wales, the Duke,
and their 5 Royal Sisters. On the cieling, over that alcove, are the late Q. Anne and Pr. George of Denmark: On the
cieling of the hall are K. William III. and Q. Mary; and there is a fine statue of K. Geo. II. on a pedestal, in the area
fronting its noble terrace by the Thames. In the year 1705 was the first admission of 100 disabled seamen into this hos.
which is now augmented to 900 men and 90 boys. To every hundred pensioners 6 nurses are allowed, who are to be seamens
widows at 10 l. a year, and 2 s. a week more to those who attend in the infirmary. The pensioners, besides their commons,
are allowed 1 s. a week to spend, and the common warrant-officers 1 s. 6 d. The several benefactions to this noble
charity, which appear in tables hung up at the entrance of the hall, amount to 58,209 l. And in the year 1732, the late E.
of Derwentwater's forfeited estate, amounting to near 6000 l. a year, was given to it by Pt. Its p. Ch. lately rebuilt, as
one of the 50 new ones, is a very handsome structure; and here are 2 ch. scs. There is also a handsome college, at the end
of the T. fronting the Thames, for the maintenance of 20 decayed old house-keepers, 12 out of Greenwich, and 8 who are to
be presented alternately from Snottisham and Castle-Rising in Norfolk, or else from Bungay in Suffolk. This is called the
D. of Norfolk's Coll. but was founded and well endowed, in 1613, by James Howard D. of Norfolk's brother, Henry E. of
Northampton (on whom K. James I. bestowed the old palace) by the name of Trinity-Hos. and by him committed to the care of
the Mercers company in London. The pensioners, besides victuals and drink, are allowed 18 d. a week for necessaries, with
a gown every year, linen once in 2 years, and hats once in 4 years. Mr. Lambard, author of the perambulation of Kent, also
built a hos. here in 1560, called Q. Eliz's. Coll. (in which are 20 poor) said to be the first hos. of the kind built by
an English protestant. The T. contains 1350 houses; and a Mt. on W. and S. was erected here in 1737, the direction of
which is in the governors of the royal hos. to which the profits arising from it were to be appropriated. This T. first
gave title of peerage in the R. of Q. Anne, who created the late D. of Argyle, brother to the present, an English peer,
with the titles of D. and E. of Greenwich. The manor bel. formerly to St. Peter's-Abbey at Ghent in Flanders, and
afterwards to the Carthusian priory at Shene in Surry, till Hen. VIII. annexed it to the crown. That which is properly the
palace here is but small, and converted into apartments for the governor of the royal hos. and the ranger of Greenwich-
Park, which is well stock'd with deer, and has a noble and most delightful prospect of the city of London, and of the
Thames. This is the chief harbour for the K's. yatchts.