THE CITY OF MELBOURNE. 



429 



and it is worthy of record that the last sermon preached inside its walls was delivered 

 by the Dean of Melbourne, who had also occupied its pulpit on the day it was 

 opened, thirty-three 

 years previously. 



Not very far from 

 the adjacent Vicarage, 

 proceeding eastwards, 

 some relics of old 

 Melbourne occupy a 

 portion of the north- 

 ern frontage ta Flin- 

 ders Street. These 

 are composed of a 

 weather-board cottage 

 with a zinc roof, an 

 adjoining tenement 

 still covered with 

 shingle, and a store, 

 the upper storey and 

 arched roof of which 

 are built of corrugated 

 iron. In the "golden 

 days " of Melbourne 

 this block of buildings 

 yielded a rental of 

 something like two 

 thousand pounds per 

 annum. Degraves's 

 Bonded Store belongs 

 to the same epoch, 

 but it is more solidly 

 constructed. 



Diverging for a 



few moments from his easterly course, and turning into Swanston Street towards the 

 Town Hall, the visitor may arrest his steps at the corner of Flinders Lane, 

 where a somewhat remarkable architectural vista opens out before him as he looks 

 towards the west. Were it not for the newness of the buildings and the traffic which 

 chokes the busy thoroughfare, he might imagine it to be one of those narrow streets 

 lined with the severely simple and solid palaces and mansions of old and noble families 

 to be met with in many of the cities of Central Italy. The buildings here are mostly 

 soft-goods warehouses filled with countless bales of textile fabrics from the looms of 

 Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland ; bur in massiveness and 

 magnitude they bear a striking resemblance to the dwelling-places of the turbulent 

 patricians of the Middle Ages, who built themselves residences combining strength and 



FLINDERS LANE. 



