THE FIRST GREAT PASTORALIST 39 



years he steadfastly combined the pursuit of farming 

 with his military functions and his public duties. By 

 March, 1791, as we learn from a letter of his wife, dis- 

 couraged by the comparative failure of his neighbours 

 and the Government, he had not yet embarked on the pur- 

 suits he was afterwards to carry on so vigorously. He 

 soon became emulous of their success. Two years later 

 he was granted by Lieutenant-Governor Grose 100 acres 

 at Parramatta, and there he carved out what he called, 

 after his admirable wife, Elizabeth Farm — a name 

 which the place, no longer rural, still bears. Grose did 

 still more for him. Finding the direct supervision of all 

 the settlements impracticable, he appointed McArthur, 

 still a lieutenant, his deputy at Parramatta, and at the 

 same time created for him the office of Inspector of 

 Works. A salary for the position was refused by the 

 Home Government, but it sanctioned additional grants 

 of land to him, with extra convict servants. Both were 

 doubtless conceded, and McArthur may have made 

 fresh acquisitions by purchase. In August, 1794, he 

 informed his brother that he owned as much as 250 

 acres at Parramatta, of which 100 were under culti- 

 vation, including 20 acres of " the very finest wheat," 

 while 80 acres were about to be sown with maize and 

 planted with potatoes ; he had reaped the extraordinary 

 yield of 50 bushels of wheat to the acre, and had 

 1,800 bushels in his granaries. He was evidently a 

 successful farmer — perhaps the first highly successful 

 farmer in the Colony, for Johnson's and Marsden's 

 successes were not of earlier date. For the first time, 

 and quite naturally, an optimist tinge gilds the views 

 of the settlers. McArthur lauds the Colony, lately 

 so spurned ! and exults in his own success. It went on 

 increasing. Six years later (in September, 1800— 

 the very year in which Richard Johnson Avent Home 

 with a fortune made in pastoral and agricultural pur- 

 suits) McArthur was the fortunate owner of 50 cattle, 

 10 horses, and COO sheep ; and he valued his estate at 

 £4,000. 



