money was voted for the erection of the building, the
purchase of land, and the ordering of furniture from England. The work
was actually commenced within three months of the Governor's arrival,
the foundation-stone was laid by Lady Ord a month later, and the
building was made ready for the reception of H.R.H. the Duke of
Edinburgh in October, 1869.

The whole of the brick work, exterior plastering, and most of the
flooring and interior work were effected by convict labour; but it
became necessary, towards the last, to employ free labour, to assist in
the flooring, which was executed with battens from the steam sawmills at
Johore, and also in the coffering of the ceilings in the drawing-room
and some plastering in the rear block. The whole of the bricks used were
made by the convicts, and much of the lime and cement was of their
manufacture.

The edifice stands upon a hill in the eastern suburb of the town, about
a mile and a quarter from the cathedral, and is surrounded by nearly 100
acres of ground, which has been tastefully laid out, and planted with
rare plants under successive Superintendents of the Government Botanical
Gardens. The building commands an extensive view of the harbour and
surrounding country, and from the tower the distant islands and mainland
of Johore are distinctly visible. It is supplied with water from the
town water supply,[12] by the use of a hydraulic ram. It was first
lighted with gas, but now by the electric light throughout the whole
building.

[Footnote 12: Also a work which we initiated and brought to
completion on designs approved by the late Sir Robert
Rawlinson, K.C.B.]

[Illustration: GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE, APPROACHING COMPLETION.

_Plate XVIII._]

The house is built somewhat in the shape of a cross. Ascending a flight
of broad steps from the wide portico, you enter a spacious entrance hall
floored with beautiful white marble from Java, having in your direct
front a handsome stone staircase leading up through an arcade to a
half-pace, from which it returns right and left to the lobby above,
which is of the same dimensions as the entrance hall. Off this lobby, on
the eastern wing, is the library, and beyond, the principal bed and
dressing-rooms, and an open verandah over the portico (since regrettably
built in). In the western wing is a double drawing-room, with disengaged
pillars between; and below, off the entrance hall, on the east side, is
the ball-room,