The river Thames, steadily gathering force after sweeping through London
past the docks, and receiving upon its capacious bosom the vast commerce
of all the world, encircles the Isle of Dogs (where Henry VIII. kept his
hounds) below the city, and at the southern extremity of the reach we
come to Greenwich. Here go many holiday-parties to the famous inns,
where they get the Greenwich fish-dinners and can look back at the great
city they have left. Here the ministry at the close of the session has
its annual whitebait dinner. Greenwich was the Roman Grenovicum and the
Saxon Green Town. Here encamped the Danes when they overran England in
the eleventh century, and their fleet was anchored in the Thames. It
became a royal residence in Edward I.'s time, and Henry IV. dated his
will at the manor of Greenwich. In 1437, Greenwich Castle was built
within a park, and its tower is now used for the Observatory. Humphrey,
Duke of Gloucester, then held Greenwich, and was the regent of England
during Henry VI.'s minority. He was assassinated by rivals in 1447, and
the manor reverted to the Crown. The palace was enlarged and
embellished, and Henry VIII. was born there in 1491. He greatly improved
the palace, and made it his favorite residence, Queen Elizabeth being
born there in 1533. King Edward VI. died at Greenwich in 1553, and
Elizabeth, enlarging the palace, kept a regular court there. It was her
favorite summer home, and the chronicler of the time, writing of a visit
to the place, says, in describing the ceremonial of Elizabeth's court,
that the presence-chamber was hung with rich tapestry, and the floor,
after the then fashion, was covered with rushes. At the door stood a
gentleman in velvet with a gold chain, who introduced persons of
distinction who came to wait upon the queen. A large number of high
officials waited for the queen to appear on her way to chapel.
Ultimately she came out, attended by a gorgeous escort. She is described
as sixty-five years old, very majestic, with an oblong face, fair but
wrinkled, small black, pleasant eyes, nose a little hooked, narrow lips,
and black teeth (caused by eating too much sugar). She wore false red
hair, and had a small crown on her head and rich pearl drops in her
ears, with a necklace of fine jewels falling upon her uncovered bosom.
Her air was stately, and her manner of speech mild and obliging. She
wore a white silk dress bordered with large pearls, and over it was a
black silk mantle embroidered with silver thread. Her long train was
borne by a marchioness. She spoke graciously to those whom she passed,
occasionally giving her right hand to a favored one to kiss. Whenever
she turned her face in going along everybody fell on their knees. The
ladies of the court following her were mostly dressed in white.
Reaching the ante-chapel, petitions were presented her, she receiving
them graciously, which caused cries of "Long live Queen Elizabeth!" She
answered, "I thank you, my good people," and then went into the service.
[Illustration: GREENWICH HOSPITAL, FROM THE RIVER.]
King James I. put a new front in the palace, and his queen laid the
foundation of the "House of Delight," which is now the central building
of the Naval Asylum. King Charles I. resided much at Greenwich, and
finished the "House of Delight," which was the most magnificently
furnished mansion then in England. King Charles II., finding the palace
decayed, for it had fallen into neglect during the Civil Wars, had it
taken down, and began the erection of a new palace, built of freestone.
In the time of William and Mary it became the Royal Naval Asylum, the
magnificent group of buildings now there being extensions of Charles
II.'s palace, while behind rises the Observatory, and beyond is the
foliage of the park. The asylum was opened in 1705, and consists of
quadrangular buildings enclosing a square. In the south-western building
is the Painted Hall, adorned with portraits of British naval heroes and
pictures of naval victories. The asylum supports about two thousand
seven hundred in-pensioners and six thousand out-pensioners, while it
has a school with eight hundred scholars. By a recent change the
in-pensioners are permitted to reside where they please, and it has
lately been converted into a medical hospital for wounded seamen. Its
income is about $750,000 yearly. The Greenwich Observatory, besides
being the centre whence longitude is reckoned, is also charged with the
regulation of time throughout the kingdom.
[Illustration: LONDON, FROM GREENWICH PARK.]
The Thames, which at London Bridge is eight hundred feet wide, becomes
one thousand feet wide at Greenwich, and then it pursues its crooked
course between uninteresting shores past Woolwich dockyard, where it is
a quarter of a mile wide, and on to Gravesend, where the width is half a
mile; then it broadens into an estuary which is eighteen miles wide at
the mouth. Almost the only thing that relieves the dull prospect along
the lower Thames is Shooter's Hill, behind Woolwich, which rises four
hundred and twelve feet. Gravesend, twenty-six miles below London Bridge
by the river, is the outer boundary of the port of London, and is the
head-quarters of the Royal Thames Yacht Club. Its long piers are the
first landing-place of foreign vessels. Gravesend is the head-quarters
for shrimps, its fishermen taking them in vast numbers and London
consuming a prodigious quantity. This fishing and custom-house town, for
it is a combination of both, has its streets filled with "tea-and
shrimp-houses."