The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

EEXT. 208
rises in Caesar's Well near Keston, flows past the old market town of Bromley,
drives the mill-wheels of Lewis/mm, and separates Deptford from Greenwich.
Crreeiucich is celebrated for its Hospital, consisting of four blocks of buildings erected
from designs by Sir Christopher "Wren. The invalided sailors for whom this great
work was erected know it no longer, they being paid a pension instead of being
lodged and boarded, and their place is now occupied by the Eoyal Naval College
and a Xaval Museum. The old refectory, or hall, a magnificent apartment of
noble proportions, is used as a gallery of pictui-es illustrating England's naval
glories. On a verdant hill which rises in the centre of Greenwich Park, laid
out by Le Notre, there stands an unpretending building. This is the Royal
Observatory, rendered famous by the labours of Flamsteed, Halley, Bradley, and
Maskelyne, who have found a worthy successor in the present Astronomer-Eoyal.
This Observatory is fitted out with the most costly instruments. The initial meridian
almost universally accepted by mariners throughout the world passes through the
equatorial cupola forming its roof. Strange to relate, the exact difference in
longitude between Greenwich and Paris is not yet known. It probably amounts
to 2" 20' 15",* but authorities differ to the extent of 400 feet.
To Greenwich succeeds Woohcich, which owes its growth to its great Arsenal,
its barracks. Military Academy, and other establishments. The Arsenal covers
a very large area, and is a great repository and storehouse, no less than a manu-
factory, of guns, carriages, and warlike materials of every kind, not infrequently
employing 10,000 workpeople. The dockyard was closed in 1869, and is now used
for stores. North Woolwich is on the left bank of the river. Shooter's Hill, to
the south of Woolwich Common, is famous for its views of London and the valley of
the Thames. Charlton, B/ack/ieaf/i, and Lee are populous places between Woolwich
and Greenwich, with numerous villa residences. Chislehurst, a few miles to the
south, beautifully situated on a broad common surrounded by lofty trees, contains
Camden House, once the residence of the antiquary after whom it is named.
Napoleon III. retired to this house, and died there an exile.
Descending the Thames below Woolwich, we pass village after village along the
Kentish shore, whilst the flat shore of Essex is but thinly peopled. Immediately
below Plumstead Marshes, on which some factories have been established, we
arrive at the pretty village of Erith, close to the river bank, with extensive
ballast pits and iron works in its rear. Bartford, a flourishing place, where paper-
making and the manufacture of gunpowder are extensively carried on, lies on
the river Daren t, a short distance above its outfall into the Thames. Other paper-
mills are to be met with at St. Mary's Cray, on the Cray, which joins the
Darent at Dartford. We next pass Greenhithe, near which, at the Swine's Camp,
(now Swanscombe), the men of Kent, led on by Stigand and Egheltig, ofi"ered such
stout resistance to William the Conqueror. Northfleet, with its chalk quarries,
comes next, and then we reach Graraend, a shipping port of some importance,
situated at the foot of gentle hills. The fisheries furnish the chief employment of
the seafaring population, and most of the shrimps consumed in London are sent
* Hilgard, "United States Coast Surrey, Report for 1874."