Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/45

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16
SKETCHES IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

and more important shops, or rather "stores," of the chief traders of the town. The colonial church, which I have already mentioned, is well placed at the point where the main street branches off into two roads at a considerable angle to one another. On the point of ground between these two diverging streets, and facing the very centre of the main street as it leads from the shore, stands the church, surrounded by a large churchyard. Although the situation of the building is so good, it cannot lay claim to much beauty either externally or within; it is of fair size, and sufficiently commodious in its arrangement, but that is all that can be said for it. The Roman Catholics possess a much prettier and more, ecclesiastical-looking place of worship, and their convent and clergy-house also are neat and cheerful-looking buildings.

The huge convict prison, situated on the brow of the hill which overlooks the harbour at the distance of, perhaps, half a mile, may compare favourably with most of our English jails, both as to the character and solidity of the architecture and the excellence of the interior arrangements. In the immediate vicinity of the "Establishment" stand the residences of the various officials, looking much like a terrace of semi-detached villas in the suburbs of London. A chapel also, quite distinct from the colonial church which I have described, is connected with the prison, and is served by a chaplain specially appointed to the charge by the authorities at home. From the hill upon which all these buildings stand the eye ranges over a large extent of very varied and diversified scenery. In the immediate foreground lie the banks of the estuary,