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:
“Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“I rather think the cinema will die. Look at the energy being exerted to revive it—yesterday it was color, today three dimensions. I don’t give it forty years more. Witness the decline of conversation. Only the Irish have remained incomparable conversationalists, maybe because technical progress has passed them by.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1984)
“The decline of a culture
Mourned by scholars who dream of the ghosts of Greek boys.”
—Stephen Spender (1909–1995)