NEW CHURCH.
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in preference to St. John's ; and this circumstance gives rise to the statement of some authors, that Parham was once the capital of the island. It is another of those strangely straggling places whose streets are in many parts bordered with dagger (aloe vulgaris) instead of houses ; but still it is far superior to Bridgetown, for some of its edifices boast of covered galleries, or balconies, flights of stone steps, and many other decorations. The parish church of St. Peter's, the second of the name, is an old dismal looking building, whose outward appearance is enough to give the observer a fit of that fashionable complaint, dyspepsia. It was erected in 1754, and affords 300 sittings. St. Peter's has a chapel-of-ease, the private property of the Rev. Nat. Gilbert, a descendant of the " founder of Methodism" in Antigua, who was speaker of the house of assembly in 1764. From some strange freak, or else from dire necessity, Parham churchyard is situated at about two miles distance from the church and town. It was formerly surrounded by a brick wall, but that is all falling to ruin. A more desolate-looking burying-ground I never saw—not a tree or flower near it; the very birds in their aerial wanderings seem to shun the spot. At a short distance from St. Peter's is fast rising into existence what will prove, when finished, a very neat and pretty church. It is an irregular octagonal—that is, the sides are not of equal dimensions. It is built of the same kind of stone as St. Philip's ; but has a better effect, from the blocks being cut of larger size. The base of the tower is constructed from the interior ; but in its present unfinished state, (1842) with all its multiplicity of scaffolding and frame work, it is impossible to say what will be the effect ; except, as I have before remarked, it will no doubt make a pretty appearance when completed. The architect is an Englishman, and the head mason (a black man) appears to be wellversed in the mysteries of his trade, to judge from the excellent smoothness in the joints of the walls, and from a