THE TOWNS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



229 



large development. Singleton is a prosperous and contented colonial town, putting on the 

 airs and aspect of importance only when the annual agricultural display is made in the 

 really fine pavilion of the local show-ground, at which time excellent stock is to be seen in 

 the adjoining stalls and yards. The next town is Muswellbrook, remarkable for its beautiful 



MAIN STREET, SINGLETON. 



church, built by a 

 wealthy local family at 

 a cost of eleven thou- 

 sand pounds, from the 

 designs of Sir Gilbert 

 Scott. Muswellbrook 



is the centre of an agricultural and pastoral district, but the character of the country 

 is principally fitted for tillage. Though situated in the valley of the Hunter, it is fairly 

 elevated, being nearly five hundred feet above the sea-level. The population of the 



town is somewhat over a thousand, and that of the entire district nearly four thousand ; 





 the chief local industries are the growing of wheat, maize and tobacco, and the cultivation 



of the vine. Of its public buildings, besides its fine church, the Hospital and the 

 School of Arts are the most noteworthy. 



From this point branches off the road to the' north-west, through an important 

 district, and one which was early settled in consequence . of its convenient access to the 

 sea. The road lies through the towns of Denman, \Vybong, Merriwa, Cassilis, Denison 

 Town and Cobborah, and there is no other route from the coast by which the main 

 range is so easily crossed. Denman is situated on the Hunter River, three miles from 

 its junction with the Goulburn. It lies in an agricultural and pastoral district ; the flood- 

 deposits of rich soil being bounded by ranges of sandstone hills. Standing on the main 

 road to Sydney, it forms a watering-station for travelling stock. \Yybong, the next town 

 in order, is a little to the north-west of Denman, and is really but a small and unim- 

 portant village. More to the northward is the agricultural centre of Kayuga. while to 



