THE CITY OF MELDOURXI-. 



45' 



Plenty of variety has been obtained in the lines by means of a projecting portico, 

 a double arcade with Doric columns on the basement and Ionic above, and by the 

 prominence given to the two wings ; and the parapets have been treated so as to 

 conduce to the same result. Internally the building is a labyrinth of echoing corridors 

 and bewildering passages, staircases, rotundas and vestibules ; so that it has been found 

 necessary to erect a finger-post at each of the numerous four-course ways for the guid- 

 ance of strangers who might otherwise wander about the maze for hours in distressing 

 perplexity of mind. The outer shell of the edifice encloses a quadrangle one hundred 



THE 



and thirty-six feet wide ; in the centre is a tower-like structure, circular in form, but 

 throwing out four semi-octagonal and equidistant chambers, which serve as the receptacles 

 of the Supreme Court Library. 



The intervening space is domed, with a gallery running round it, having niches in 

 the wall to receive the busts of distinguished ornaments of the Bench. Those of Chief 

 Justice Sir William Stawell and the late Sir Redmond Barry are already in situ. 

 Outside this dome is the drum of a larger one, rising to the height of a hundred feet 

 from the ground, and supported by a circular colonnade sufficiently detached from the 

 drum to admit of the introduction of an open gallery accessible from below. 



The dome itself is somewhat depressed, so that at a distance it bears a certain 

 resemblance to a magnified dish-cover. From its summit the spectator commands a view 

 of the whole city and of all its suburbs, excepting those portions of Collingwood and 

 Richmond which are concealed from sight by the Eastern Hill. Looking in that direc- 

 tion he sees the upward curve of the three great arteries of traffic from east to west, 

 namely, Lonsdale, Bourke and Collins Streets, most of the ecclesiastical, and nearly all 



