G RE 
The diftance fi'om the Miffiffippi to the Illinois acrofs 
the country, is leflened or increafed, according tp the 
■windings of the former river ; the fmalleft diftance-is at 
Cape au Gres, and there it is between four -and five 
miles. The . lands in this intermediate fpace between 
the above two rivers are rich, almoft beyond parallel, 
covered with large oaks, walnu’t, .&c. and not a ftone 
to be feen, except upon the tides of the river. 
GRESH'AM (fir Thomas)., an eminent and patriotic 
merchant of the city of London ; the younger fon of fir 
Richard Greiham, alfo a merchant, and lord-mayor of 
London, who was defcended from a good family in Nor¬ 
folk. Thomas was born at London in 1519, and re¬ 
ceived an academical education at Gonvile-hall, in 
Cambridge; but being defigned to follow the commer¬ 
cial bufinefs of the family, he was bound apprentice to 
his uncle fir John Gretham, and was admitted into the 
mercers’ company in 1543. He foon after married, and 
during his father’s life purfued his mercantile employ¬ 
ments with great diligence. He was difappointed in 
his expectation of becoming his father’s fiieceftor in the 
agency of the king’s monpy-aft’airs at Antwerp ; but the 
perfon who had obtained the preference having, by 
mifinanagepient, brought them into a bad, condition, 
Gretham was fent over in 1552, by the regency in the 
minority of Edward VI. in order to retrieve them. He 
fo ably conducted this bufinefs,-that in about two years 
he paid off the whole of a loan bearing enormous inte- 
reft, add raifed the king’s credit to the.moft refpeCtable 
rank. At the accefiion of Elizabeth lie was for a time 
deprived of his office, but it was reftored to him, and 
he held it, together with that of queen’s-merchant, as 
long as he lived. He alfo received from lier'the honour 
of knighthood. He was of great _ufe in the pecuniary 
negociations of that reign-, and was likewife a fpirited 
promoter of the infant manufactures of the kingdom, 
thofe of fmall wares in particular being eftabliffied prin¬ 
cipally througli his means. The property he inherited, 
with that of his own acquifition, made him the richeft 
fubjeCt in the metropolis, and he difplayed his wealth 
in the molt liberal manner. Having loll his. only fon in 
1564, he diverted his grief by public undertakings. 
The defign of providing the merchants of London with 
a burfe or exchange, in imitation of that of Antwerp, 
was firft entertained by his father. Sir Thomas brought 
it to effeCt; for, the city having agreed to purchale a 
piece of ground fit for that purpofe, he began the erec¬ 
tion at his own expence in 1566, and brought it to com¬ 
pletion within three years. This edifice was reckoned 
equal in every refpeCt to its model at Antwerp. It con¬ 
fided of covered walks below and Ihops above, which 
laft brought in a confiderable • rent to the undertaker. 
Queen Elizabeth, attended by a train of nobility, en¬ 
tered in proceffion into the city in January 1570, and, 
after dining at fir Thomas’s Ifoufe in Biffiopfgate-ftreet, 
paid a vilit to the new fabric, the ffiops of which were 
decked out with all the richeft commodities of the me¬ 
tropolis. She then folemnly proclaimed it the Royal 
Exchange , which name its fucceftor fince the fire of Lon¬ 
don has borne to the prefent day. Greffiam is ftill juftly 
looked upon as the founder ; and his creft, the grafs- 
hopper, with his ftatue, are feen in the modern building. 
When the troubles in the Low-countries interrupted 
the accuftomed loans to the crown from Antwerp, fir 
Thomas advifed the minifter, Cecil, to apply to the 
merchants of his own country; and though the com¬ 
pany of merchant-adventurers at firft refufed the re- 
quefted loan, yet his influence, together with a letter 
in a fomewhat menacing ftyle from the privy-council, 
induced feveral of the moneyed men to join in a fmall 
pne, which may be coniidered as the commencement of 
the .vaft advances fince- made to the crown from the 
fame body. ^ 
The literary education Greffiam had received proba¬ 
bly impreHed him with a notion of the value of learning 
G R E ]» 
different from that commonly entertained by men of 
bufinefs; and it appeared to him worthy of his patrio¬ 
tic fpirit to bellow part of his wealth in founding a col¬ 
lege for the fciences in his native city. The univerfity 
of Cambridge, -with lei's. liberality. than, it is to be 
hoped, now prevails in that feminary, endeavoured to 
dilfuade him from thus eftabliftiing a rival inftitution ; 
but his determination was fixed. He devifed by will 
his houfe in Biffiopfgate-ftreet for the purpofe of being, 
converted into habitations and leCture-rooms for feven 
profelfors or leCturers on the feven liberal fciences, who 
were each to receive a fal.ary out of the revenues of the 
Royal Exchange. With refpefit to the founder, it is 
an undoubted proof of his uff'eCtion to learning and 
mental improvement, a due degree of which it may be 
prefitmed he did not think injurious to the mercantile 
character. From the Hiftory of Grefliam Profelfors, by 
Mr. Ward, it appears that many eminent men have 
been of the number, though they now hold the office 
chiefly as a finecure. The places are continued, with 
a double falaryj as a compenfation for the lofs of the 
apartments by the converfion of Greffiam-college into 
the modern general Excife-officc. The lectures are 
now (if at all) given in the Royal Exchange. 
The favourite villa of fir Thomas was at Ofteriy. 
park, near Brentford, upon which he expended a great 
turn; at the lame time not forgetting to confult profit 
as well as pleafure ; in which view, among his edifices 
were corn, oil, and paper, mills, upon the ftream of the 
Brent. In the polfeffion of general refpeCt.and efteem, 
he died fuddenly in November, 1579, at the age of fixty„ 
GRES'HOLM, a fmall illand ol Denmark, in the 
Scaggerack : four miles north-eaft from the illand of 
Leflbe. 
GRESS, f. [geHle, old Fr.] Straps of leather tied 
about the-legs of hawks, by which they are held on the 
lift. Otherwife called Jess r 
Spar ye ne’er fo high, 
I have the grejfes that will pull you down. 
Marlow's Edward II. 
GRESjSEN, a town of Samogitia: twenty miles 
north-north-eaft of Mednik. 
GRES'SET (John Baptift Louis), an elegant French 
poet, born at Amiens in 1709. He entered at the age 
of fixteen among the Jefuits ; and front that retreat fur- 
prifed the public by the production of fome poems, 
which poffefled all the eafe and delicate pleafantry that 
could have been expeCted in a man of the world. Thefe 
were his Ver-Vert, a charming tale; and his pleating 
epiftles of La Chartreufe, Les Ombres , Epitre au Fere Bou- 
geant, and others. The reputation they obtained wa3 
the caufe of his quitting the fociety in his twenty-fixth _ 
year, and fixing in the metropolis. He then tried his 
powers in dramatic compofition, and wrote the tragedy 
of' Edouard, which had little fuccefs. His Sidnei , a 
comedy of the grave and romantic kind, was better re¬ 
ceived ; but it was his Meckant, reprefented in 1747, 
which raifed him to the firft rank of writers in this clals. 
Its fuccefs was prodigious, and it has ever been regarded 
as a mafterpiece in that fpecies of comedy which paints 
manners with truth and force, without being highly co¬ 
mic. Greflet was admitted into the French Academy 
in 1748. In 1775, he had the honour, as director of the 
academy, to compliment Louis XVI. and his queen, 
on their acceffion tp the throne. His difeourfe upon 
this occafion, which was printed, was a fevere fatire on 
the vices and follies of the metropolis. He received 
from the court letters of nobility and the order of St. 
Michael, and was appointed hiiloriographer of the or¬ 
der of St. Lazore. He did not long lurvive his - ho¬ 
nours, dying in J une 1777, in confequence of an abfeefs 
in his breaft. 
GRES'TEN, a town of Germany, in the archduchy 
of Auftria : nine miles north-eaft of Bavarian Waldhofen. 
GRETE 3 
