The principal public building, unconnected with the go vernment establish in cuts, is the town hall, which has been very recently erected. It is a fine specimen of the Doric order, and does great credit to the judgment and taste of the architect. The parish church is situated at Stoke, at an inconvenient distance from the town. Within the walls are St. Aubyn's and St. John's chapels, for the members of the church of England, and several places of worship for the dissenters. Of these may be named three Inde pendent Calvinistic chapels, two Baptists, two Methodist chapels, and one for the Moravians.
Of the charitable institutions may be mentioned, with particular approbation, the Public Dispensary ; the public schools for poor boys and girls; several Sunday schools among the dissenters, who display a laudable activity in training the lower orders to habits of virtue and industry. The members of the Lying-in Society, the Female Bene volent Society, the Dorcas Society, the Association for the indigent and Distressed, and the Religious Tract So ciety, are particularly active in alleviating the miseries of humanity, and in attending personally to the many wants of the poor. A savings bank, on a very extensive scale, is also established.
The military establishments at this place are very con siderable. A cordon of barracks is continued in an al most uninterrupted series, from the northern side of the town to the southern, sufficient to contain 3000 men. The government house on Mount Wise, is a considerable edi fice, and is the usual residence of the lieutenant-governor, who is at the same time commander-in-chief of the west ern district. The whole is defended by extensive fortifi cations.
The principal object of interest in the town is the dock yard. This extensive and important establishment com menced in the reign of William Ill., and from that pe riod to the present has been in a progressive state of improvement. It lies on the eastern border of Ilamoaze, and is bounded by it on the western and southern sides. On the north and east it is separated from the town by a lofty wall. Its area amounts to more than seventy acres.
The immense docks are the first objects that attract the attention of the visitor. The new north dock is the only one at present without a roof. Its length is 240 feet, its
breadth 85, and depth 29 feet. It remains uncovered, in consequence of its being necessary, occasionally, to take ships into it with their masts standing. This clock is the largest in the kingdom. The double dock is also an ob ject of interest, and is so called from the two docks being constructed, one within the other, in a straight line. The inner dock is provided with gates, and is so entirely un connected with the outer, that ships may be taken in or out of the latter without interrupting the operations in the former. Four docks are covered with immense roofs, having numerous windows in them.
The jettees also are well worthy of attention. They are immense platforms projecting from the harbour wall, supported upon piles driven deep into the mud. By these expedients, the largest ships are brought within floating distance of the yard, and enabled to receive or discharge their stores and ballast without the interposition of boats.
The building ground is a particularly interesting part of the yard. It is divided into three slips, covered with immense roofs. They are constructed on what is called the balanced system in carpentry, and exhibit some of the finest examples of construction in that useful art, perhaps in the world. They were first recommended by Mr. Per ing, the inventor of the excellent patent anchor, now ge nerally adopted in the navy. These immense structures not only afford shelter and protection to the workmen from the incleMency of the weather, but contribute also to the preservation of the ships. At the present moment, the London, a ship of an immense size, has all her frame to gether; and when her interior is viewed from one of the extremes, the great assemblage of timbers presents an imposing spectacle. Such an example will not be lost on the cultivator of perspective. The Lancaster, a sixty gun frigate, embracing the latest improvements of Sir Robert Seppings, is on another slip. This ship has a round stern, and now joins beauty of external form to the essen tial attributes of strength. Near these slips are various workshops, plank houses, store cabins, boiling kilns, and a long line of saw-pits, to afford a convenient and ready supply of all the materials for building.