(1973)
p56. One of New South Wales’ most attractive country houses and gardens was Alexander Macleay’s ‘Brownlow Hill’ in Camden’s Cow Pastures, and here the natural setting was appreciated and retained as much as possible by the owner. It was described by James Backhouse in A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies in 1836:
In clearing the land about the tasteful, genteel, cottage, and garden at Brownlowe Hill, more care has been taken not to destroy its beauty, by cutting down the trees indiscriminately, than is usual in these Colonies; where trees, being the encumbrance of the land, are generally cut away unsparingly… they have a Garden, producing Oranges, Apples, Loquats, Pears, Plums, Cherries, Figs, Mulberries, Medlars, Raspberries, Strawberries, and Gooseberries, and where Roses are in great profusion.
p111 Not far from Macarthur’s magnificent old homestead, ‘Camden Park’, which is lovingly preserved today be a descendant of the family, is Alexander Macleay’s country residence, ‘Brownlow Hill’, one of Australia’s most historically interesting houses and gardens. The delightful early colonial swelling is surrounded by a large, tangled old garden of self-sown trees and shrubs, and it is one of the few gardens whose pattern has not changed over the century and a half it has been in existence. At the entrance a low stone wall edges a large pond decorated with old classic urns, and from the wide terrace curved stone steps lead down to a wilderness of black stemmed bamboos, hundreds of olive trees which have seeded, tall pines, giant-sized Grevilleas and a variety of rare and exotic plants. On the lawn is a sundial marked ‘George McLeay 1836’. The sandstone known as ‘wainamatta’ from a local quarry is of a particularly hard variety, and the steps remain in perfect condition after 140 years. The early colonial cottage with its pretty roof-line sweeping down from the ridge-pole in true Australian style, and wide stone-flagged verandas with their simple, slim, wooden posts, overlooks a magnificent view of the green Cow Pastures, where the elms and hawthorns look strangely soft and English in the landscape.
