THE CITY OF MELBOURNE. 



461 



spacious sacristies for the archbishop, the clergy and the acolytes form part of the 



general plan. The church is built of the basalt or bluestone which forms the bed-rock 



of the neighbourhood, the white freestone from Sydney and Hobart being employed for 



the doors, windows, inner arches and decorative work externally and internally, as well 



as for the groining of the 



aisles; but the main roofs 



are of timber. A liberal 



use of flying buttresses, 



pinnacles and turrets con- 

 tributes materially to the 



architectural richness of 



the edifice ; and the three 



large windows with their 



foliated tracery, in the 



north and south transepts 



and the west front, are 



also conducive to a like 



result ; the last-named 

 window being filled in 

 with stained glass of re- 

 markable beauty. The 

 central tower will strike 

 the critical observer as 

 deficient in altitude, but 

 it seems that to remedy 

 this defect would have 

 left the architect but two 

 alternatives either to 

 forego the erection of a 

 spire, as in York Minster, 

 or to impose a crushing 

 weight upon the support- 

 ing piers, as was clone in 

 the case of Salisbury 

 Cathedral, with the result of a deflection from the perpendicular. Internally the pre- 

 vailing characteristic of St. Patrick's Cathedral is a massive simplicity, produced by the 

 height and dimensions of the clustered columns sustaining the arches of the nave. 



Most of the Government Offices are grouped in this neighbourhood, and proceeding 

 along Gisborne Street the visitor reaches the Treasury, the facade of which faces the 

 eastern extremity of Collins Street. Its depth is so shallow in proportion to the frontage, 

 that viewed in perspective the building bears too close a resemblance to an architec- 

 tural screen. The principal front is divided into three members by a recessed basement, 

 over which is an arcade of five coffered arches, resting on coupled columns and rising 

 to the cornice. On each side of this central portion of the fa9ade is a projecting 



THE FITZROY GARDENS. 



