If Mr. Russell's supposition be correct, it will be a white feather in the cap of Napier Street to be nominally associated with a hero w h o fills a distinguished niche in English history. W h e n the time came for proclaiming the streets, the members of the Melbourne Corporation accepted a grand opportunity of gaining a nominal, though very empty, immortality, for w e find no less than eight of the old mayors placated by themselves in this way, viz., Condell, Moor, Palmer, Hodgson, Nicholson, Bell, Greeves, and Smith. Just below M o o r Street is a block, bounded by Brunswick, Greeves, Young, arid St. David Streets, and this is " the lost Square of Fitzroy," whose queer story is told in the chapter on the "Melbourne Corporation," and which Mr. John M ' M a h o n , the mayor for 1880-1881 (and the most indefatigable mayor Fitzroy has ever had), has taken m u c h trouble to find. Reilly and Johnston Streets were called after the names of two aldermen. Young Street after one of the first councillors for the Ward. A private property-owner, of very Orange proclivities, took an early opportunity of dedicating two adjoining streets—one to King William, and the other to his beloved Hanover ; and a very distinguished and respectable citizen n o w in England—William Westgarth—is perpetuated in another. Brunswick Street, at an early date, blossomed forth into a kind of quasi-aristocratic region, for it contained a few neat cottages, which were tenanted by some of the then elite. T h e house now ornamented with the prominent scroll of " Blakemount House," and whose iron gate is emblazoned with a thick brass plate inscribed with the legend "J. R. M'Inerney, Physician and Surgeon," was the residence of Major St. John, one of our first police magistrates, of w h o m strange stories, recounted in another chapter, used to be told. T h e late Mr. Justice Williams, when he started in professional life amongst us, set up in a cottage, still standing, nearly opposite the last mentioned, until recently occupied by another physician, Dr. Browning. This is the spot rendered memorable by the confession m a d e in Mr. Hartley Williams' maiden electioneering speech, some years ago, at St. Kilda, that Fitzroy can claim the high honour of being his birth-place. Mr. H . Williams is n o w a Judge on the same Bench where his father sat before him, so that one judge tenanted this house, and another judge entered the world there. T h e once well-known Mr. J. D. Pinnock was also one of the fashionable "swells" that abided here. H e had arrived from Sydney with the appointment of Deputy-Registrar of the Supreme Court, an office held by him until Port Phillip was separated. Near the corner of Nicholson and Palmer Streets (then unnamed), two remarkable stone twin-houses--one the facsimile of the other—were erected for Messrs. Watson and Wight, mercantile partners, and for several years were occupied by them ; but on the arrival of the first Sisterhood of N u n s from Ireland, in 1857, this place was considered a suitable spot for the founding of a nunnery. T h e "twins" were purchased, passed along to other guardians, and, after various processes of extension, alteration, and improvement, are almost unrecognisable in the comfortable, well-looking, well-ordered, Convent of Mercy of to-day. O n the subject of "nomenclature," Mr. Russell further wrote at length, t h u s : — " F e w streets in Fitzroy, Collingwood, and R i c h m o n d — t h e true old suburban ground— have obtained their designation from public colonial men, Nicholson, Smith (John Thomas, no doubt, for it was not m y father-in-law), stepped in in lieu of plain Government roads, their predecessors. Condell slipped in when a n a m e was wanted; Kerr dethroned Argyle (if I mistake not, in suburban 83, sold 23rd October, '49, by the Bank of Australia). A s similarly at Richmond, Coppin transplanted Elizabeth. Again strange cases occur when the original name is misunderstood. Thus Fraser, as n o w pasted up, takes the place of Euphrasia Street at Richmond. Large proprietors, as Otter and Docker, naturally retain a street in their o w n name. But, in general, the streets were named when the land was cut up ; and it is amusing to look back to this process. For instance, suburban 49, in Victoria Parade, 25 acres, Crown to T h o m a s Walker, passes to Smyth and Baxter; and 8th May, 1849, they subdivided it, and forthwith appear Brunswick and Gertrude Streets; the latter, probably, a family name ; whilst the half chain road, east of Brunswick Street not having been considered worthy of mention, years after is suddenly seized for, or by, the well-known David Y o u n * Next on the east on suburban 50 comes our friend Napier, and then George Street Suburban ti again on the east presents us with Gore Street. T h e C r o w n purchaser was T h o m a s Gore. It was claimed bv John Gore, 29th July, '42 by advertisement ; sold 8th M a y , 1850, by Captain Cole, the n a m e Gore sticking well to it from first to last. W e then (still on the east) come to the Walmer Estate, upwards of 70 acres, Crown to Sandeman and to Donaldson, which subsequently passed to M'Kil op the first
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THE CHRONICLES OF EARLY MELBOURNE.
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