THE CITY OF MELBOURNE. 



483 



Quitting the Park by way of Swan Street, .and following it up in a westerly direc- 

 tion, the visitor passes through the suburb of Burnley, which had no existence ten 

 years ago, and turning down Cremorne Street, reaches the site of the once famous 

 gardens which bore that name, and were created by Mr. James Kllis, the founder of 

 the still more famous place of popular entertainment similarly denominated in Chelsea. 

 They afterwards passed into the hands of Mr. George Coppin, who is understood to 

 have expended forty thousand pounds in the erection of a 

 theatre, the construction and stocking of a menagerie, the 

 formation of an artificial lake, a maze, a dancing pavilion, 

 fountains, grottoes, bowling-alleys, and in the execution of 

 other improvements ; but the experiment was not a success- 

 ful one, and in 1864 the grounds, containing fourteen acres, 

 were occupied in part as a private lunatic asylum and in 

 part as nursery gardens. Quite recently they were purchased 

 by a syndicate and cut up into building allotments. At 

 the earlier period spoken of, small steamers used to convey 

 passengers from Melbourne to Richmond and Cremorne; but 

 the River has been so contami- 

 nated by the sewage it receives 

 during a circuitous course of 

 twelve miles, that boating upon 

 its surface is attended with 

 danger to the health of those 

 who engage in it. 



One of the largest railway 

 stations outside Melbourne has 

 been erected at a high level in 

 Swan Street, Richmond, invol- 

 ving an outlay of nearly one 

 hundred thousand pounds, and 

 the traffic on the three double 

 lines is so great that the trains average one a minute, from early morning until midnight. 



The main thoroughfare, the Bridge Road, is reached through Lennox Street, and 

 following it in an easterly direction for some distance, the Town Hall, which contains 

 a free library and the customary municipal offices, comes into view. It is in the 

 Lombardo-Gothic style, with a slender campanile, surmounted by a spire rising from the 

 centre, a balustradecl parapet, and a mansard roof crowning each of the wings, which 

 are arcaded on the ground-floor. 



The expansion of the suburbs is well marked in the. district separated from Rich- 

 mond by the River, South Yarra was always a favourite place of residence with well-to- 

 do citizens, and the detached residences with which it was dotted were surrounded by 

 spacious gardens and open fields. But the latter have disappeared, and are nearly all 

 built over. From the foot of the hill at which Toorak may be said to commence, the 

 road winds through a district chiefly occupied by gentlemen's houses standing in the 



THE PRAHRAN TOWN 1IAI.I.. 



