Decline
By the late 1820s, this small, solid 3-roomed brick cottage was transformed into a smart country house, surrounded by 'pleasure grounds', orchards and almost 1,000 acres (4 km²) of semi-cleared lands. Elizabeth Farm remained in Macarthur family ownership for another six decades. Following Elizabeth’s death in 1850, the homestead garden grew wild, while paddocks, fields and fences were neglected. Tenants, forever complaining, occupied cottages on the estate under various arrangements. Finally, debts and complications in winding up the 40 year lease of a woollen mill led to the sale of Elizabeth Farm in 1881. From 1904 to 1968, Elizabeth Farm, on less than 5 acres (20,000 m2), was owned by the Swanns - a large, progressive and well known local family of Quakers, whose appreciation of the old farmhouse led to its preservation. The property was acquired by the State Government in 1979 and, after several years of restoration, was transferred to the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales in 1983. The Macarthur’s early cottage has survived intact, enveloped within later extensions, making it Australia’s oldest European dwelling. The current museum was launched in 1984. '
Read more about this topic: Elizabeth Farm, History
Famous quotes containing the word decline:
“Reckoned physiologically, everything ugly weakens and afflicts man. It recalls decay, danger, impotence; he actually suffers a loss of energy in its presence. The effect of the ugly can be measured with a dynamometer. Whenever man feels in any way depressed, he senses the proximity of something “ugly.” His feeling of power, his will to power, his courage, his pride—they decline with the ugly, they increase with the beautiful.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Considered physiologically, everything ugly weakens and saddens man. It reminds him of decay, danger, impotence; it actually reduces his strength. The effect of ugliness can be measured with a dynamometer. Whenever anyone feels depressed, he senses the proximity of something “ugly.” His feeling of power, his will to power, his courage, his pride—they decline with ugliness, they rise with beauty.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“We have our little theory on all human and divine things. Poetry, the workings of genius itself, which, in all times, with one or another meaning, has been called Inspiration, and held to be mysterious and inscrutable, is no longer without its scientific exposition. The building of the lofty rhyme is like any other masonry or bricklaying: we have theories of its rise, height, decline and fall—which latter, it would seem, is now near, among all people.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)