THE CITY OF MELBOURNE. 



479 



and at each angle of the building is a pavilion enriched with coupled colums and sur- 

 mounted by a curved mansard roof. These pavilions are united with the central tow.-r 

 in the principal fagade by means of an arcade, and the general effect of the whole 

 elevation is decidedly rich. Inside is a fine hall, one hundred and twenty feet by fifty, 

 capable of accommodating seventeen hundred persons, while the balconies above can seat 

 three hundred and fifty more. Most of the public business of this suburb is centralized 

 in its Town Hall, which contains the Post and Telegraph Offices, a free library, the Court 

 House and Lock-up, the Municipal Offices, the Police-barracks, the Mechanics' Institute, a 



THE COLLEGE OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, KEW. 



public reading-room, a large lecture-room and other apartments. It faces Hoddle Street, 

 following which, in a northerly direction, the visitor reaches Johnston Street, which runs 

 at right angles to it. Traversing this thoroughfare towards its outlet over the bridge 

 which receives its name, access is gained to Studley Park, a sylvan eminence containing 

 about three hundred acres, exhibiting all the characteristics of the primitive bush, as 

 the indigenous vegetation has been left almost untouched. With the exception of two 

 relatively small reserves known as the Edinburgh and Darling Gardens, this is the only 

 public park in the immediate vicinity of Collingwood, and the elevation of its position 

 gives it the command of an extensive prospect to the westward, southward and north- 

 ward, the view being bounded in the last-named direction by the Plenty Ranges and 

 Mount Macedon. Just after sunset, when the after-glow, be it crimson, or orange, or 

 amber, is lingering in the west, the outlook in that quarter is very fine, for the dark 

 silhouettes of the domes and towers and cupolas of the numerous public buildings which 

 crown the ridge of the Eastern Hill stand out in sharp relief against the lustrous sky ; 

 and when the brief twilight fades, thousands of lights begin to sparkle in the valley 



