Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/293

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GREENWEED. 357 GREER. in New York and Massachusetts, where it has become established. Us branches, leaves, and flowers— iiarticularly the Uowers — yield a fine yellow dye, chielly used for wool; its flowers mixed with woad yield a fine green dye. For- merly it was in great esteem as a dyestutT. but other substances have now almost entirely sup- planted it. The leaves and seeds were also for- merly used in medicine: the former as a diuretic, the latter as a mild ])ur!;ative. Hairy green- weed {Genista pilosa). abundant in some parts of Europe, is cultivated, particularly upon light and sandy soils in France, as food for sheep, which are very fond of it. It is a slender, branched, tortuous, and procumbent plant, with small pale-yellow flowers. Some of the species are used to keep sand from drifting and others for covering rocky and otherwise bare places. See Broom. GREEN'WELL, Dora (1821-82). An Eng- lish writer of religious poetry and prose. She was bom and spent her youth in Durham, but lived latterly in ijondon, where her mature poetry was published: Carmiiia Cnicis (1809): t<ongs of Salvation (1873) ; TJie Soul's Legend (1873) ; and Camera Obscura (1876). Her essays and other prose works, such as The Paiienee of Hope, The Covenant of Life and Peace, evidence her exalted religious convictions. GREENWICH, grln'ij or gren'ij. A metro- politan borough of London, England, in Kent, a former town on the right bank of the Thames, five miles southeast of Saint Paul's Cathedral ( Jlap : England. Go). It is noted for the Greenwich Hospital (q.v. ), and Royal Naval Col- lege (q.v.). and for the Greenwich Royal Observa- tory, established in 167.5, from the meridian of which British astronomers and geographers, and to a great e.xtent those of other nations, calculate their longitude, and whence 'Greenwich time' is telegraphed twice daily to all parts of the United Kingdom. The observatory crowns a hill 180 feet high, in Greenwich Park, a favorite Sunday and holiday resort of Londoners. Greenwich was a royal residence from the thirteenth to the sev- enteenth century, and wa.s the birthplace of Henry VIII., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. The borough has extensive engineering establish- ments, iron steamship-building yards, rope-works, and factories. Population, in 'l891. 166.223: in 1901, 185,149. Consult Richardson, Qreemekh, Its Histori/, Anti{juities, Improvements (Green- wich. 1834), GREENWICH. A borough in a town of the same name. Fairfield County, Conn., 28 miles northeast of New York City: on Long Island Sound and on the New York. New Haven and Hartford Railroad (Map: Connecticut. A 5). It is a handsome village, popular as a summer re- sort and as a residential suburb of New Y'ork City. Population, in 1900. 2420; of tovn. 12.172. Greenwich was first settled in 1640 by Captain Daniel Patrick. It was part of the Dutch prov- ince of New York from 1642 until 16.50. when, by the agreement of a Dutch and English com- mission, it became part nf Connecticut, and was selected as one of the points to mark the bound- ary. On February 25. 1770, a troop of 1200 English and Tories under Governor Tryon marched against the place, which was defended by General Putnam with about 100 militia. The latter were soon forced to retreat. On December 4, 1781, a small body of militia defeated a much larger body of Tories at Greenwich. Consult: History of Fairfield County, Connedicul (Phil- adelphia. 18H1). and Mead, .1 History of the Toirn of Criiniriih (New York, 1857). GREENWICH HOSPITAL. An institution fcu" naval pensioners, founded by William III. in memory of his Queen. The buildings were suf- ficiently completed by 1705 (at a cost of £50,000) to admit 100 disabled seamen. By July 1. 1708, 350 had been admitted. The income derived from bequests, the original royal grant, and from contributions made under coercion by sail- ors, amounted to £12.000 a year, half of which was expended in maintaining the charity, and the other half in completing the buildings. In the reign of George II. the forfeited estates of the Earl of Derwentwater were granted to the hos- pital, and produced an additional income of about £6000 a year. The compulsory contribution of 6d. a month by every seaman, whether of the naval or merchant sen'ice, was in 1834 remitted, an annual grant of £20,000 from the consolidated fund being substituted. The income from all sources by 1865 had reached £150,000 a year, out of which were maintained 1600 pensioners, and the necessary executive and medical officers, nurses, and servants. Many widows of sailors were employed as nurses or servants. In 1865 the institution ceased to exist as an asylum for aged sailors, while its funds were eon- verted into out-pensions, providing for a larger numlier than were maintained in the hospital. The liuildings. after lying vacant during tlie fol- lowing five years, became a royal naval college. All olUcers in the combatant branch of the ser'ice, on reacliing the rank of midshipmen, as well as a number of engineers, were obliged to take a course of study in this college. At the present time attached to the hospital, and consolidated with it, is a school for the gratuitous education of one thousand sons of sea- men, under the superintendence of the conunis- sioners of the hospital. The education given is such as to fit the recipients for either the navy or the merchant service. The tenn of study is from three to four years. In the "great hall' there are several pictures of memorable naval battles, and of the nation's heroes who took part in them, while chief among the cherished exhibits is the coat Nelson wore at Tr.afalgar. GREENWOOD, Grace. See Lippincott, Sara .Tank (C'larke). GREENWOOD LAKE. A picturesque sheet of water, partly in Orange County, N. Y'.. and partly in Passaic County, N. .J., 49 miles north- west of .lersey City, with which it has direct rail- way communication. The lake is ten miles long with a maximum width of one mile; it has several good hotels on its shores, and is a favorite resi- dential place and summer resort on account of its boating, angling, and bathing facilities, GREER, David HrMMKr.r. (1844—), An American clergyman of the Episcopalian Church. He was born in Wheeling. Va. (now West Vir- ginia ) .was educated at Washington College. Penn- sylvania, and the Protestant Episcopal Seminary. Gamliier. Ohio, and was rector successively at Covington. Ky.. in Providence. R. I. (1871-88), and of Saint Bartholomew's. New York. In 1897 he was elected Bishop Coadjutor of Rhode Island, but declined the office. His published works in-