THE CITY OF MELBOURNE. 



481 



Kew Asylum, erected at a cost of nearly two hundred thousand pounds sterling, and 

 covering twenty-one acres of ground. With its two lofty and massive towers and 

 extended wings, it is a conspicuous object for miles around. It stands in the midst of 

 a park of four hundred and sixty acres, and was originally intended for the reception of 

 six hundred patients ; but the growth of insanity in Victoria is unfortunately so rapid 

 that the institution is usually over-crowded. It contains a library of six hundred volumes, 

 and every effort is used to amuse and employ the inmates so as to facilitate their 

 restoration to reason where this is practicable. There are carpenters', shoe-makers' and 

 blacksmiths' shops for those who have been accustomed to occupations of this kind ; a 

 farm and garden for husbandmen, a cricket ground, a bowling-green and other places of 

 out-of-door recreation ; and a ball and concert room in which periodical entertainments 



CHRIST CHURCH, SOUTH YARRA. 



take place. In the spacious quadrangles are exercise grounds and shelter-sheds 

 Asylum is surrounded by shrubberies and flower gardens covering an area of twenty-t 

 acres, irrespective of forty-six under cultivation, the total area of the park in which 

 stands being three hundred and ninety-six acres. 



