Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Infirmaries, hospitals for invalids, field lazarettos. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
15/22 page 467
![and completed by illiam III. But far larger and more magnificent is the hospital for seamen at Greenwich, which w-n-^rSt SU^ested ^ Queen Mary, the consort of King William. 1 he building, determined on in the year 1694 was begun in 1695, and from time to time enlarged and beau- tified As France was the first country in Europe that maintained a standing army of national troops, it had there- having been wounded in the civil wars in defence of the royal cause. This afccuted the benevolent heart of Eleanor; she con- sidered that (besides the hardships of their being exposed to beggary by wounds received m defence of their country) it seemed to be the most monstrous ingratitude in the government to suffer those to perish who had stood up in their defence. 1 “ Warm with these reflections and the overflow of pity, she hurried to tte king, and represented the misery in which she had found an old ser- vant entreated that he might suffer some scheme to be proposed to him towards supporting those unfortunate sons of valour, whose old age ^ ounds, or infirmities, rendered them unfit for service; so that they might ftem °sery o“w!nt rCP‘nmS aS“inSt fortune’ and be °PPress«d ™th ,it“ tieed°S °f ‘hat period states' ^ somewhat more probabi- ht}, That when the garrison was withdrawn from Tangiers, there was em a considerable number of aged and decrepid persons. It rnnflpr! i rre proposed to buUd an hospital for them; and the king being applied to for a piece of ground for the site, he offered the spot on which king James s College stood; but recollecting himself, ‘ Odso,’ says he ‘’t is rue I have already given that land to Nell, here.’ She. who was one of the most generous and benevolent of human beings, immediately said ZT’ r„ St°h C5larles*?1then 1 wm ret“™ to you ag“S purl ' ,and tPe ]l0SPital was accordingly erected. The king however built a house for Eleanor m Pall Mall.” 6 It is however very probable, according to Mr. Evelyn’s Memoirs that y,re/' With Sir, Stephen, FoX- who for yea™ had been P ■ - tne foices, and ceitainly had better opportunities of hp coming acquainted with the wants and’distresses of theP aged and worn! . teteians, great numbers of whom bad been thrown on the charity of the country at this period. The building was erected under the fnne? intendence of Sir C. Wren and -Pi^rinno t. n • ipci- cnn dllu cost *1^0,000. It usually contains about xss&srare a uum,jer °f out-d°01' pensi°Ls> London 1 H°Spital for S“” at Greenwich, was laid on du’ne 3, &££%£?£ III ea-s *01 ^i 'cai (d ill.e foundation an act was passed, 7 and 8 William lonriS/to be y Wl!,eh Sixpence a montl1 of the of all seamen b™ longing to the royal navy is appropriated to the benefits of the institutiol 2 h 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22319578_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
