When filled in, it would, indeed, be dry and sandy,--the sandy soil of Greenwich extends, in some places, to a depth of fifty feet.

Accordingly, the city bought the land from the Herrings and made a Potter's Field.

Eight years later, by the bye, they bought Colonel Smith's tract too, to add to the field.

The entire plot was ninety lots,--eight lots to an acre,--and comprised nearly the entire site of the present square.

The extreme western part, a strip extending east of Macdougal Street to the Brook, a scant thirty feet,--was bought from the Warren heirs.
Minetta Lane, which was close by, had a few aristocratic country residents by that time, and everyone was quite outraged by the notion of having a paupers' graveyard so near.