Talk:Alexander Berry
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This page seems to be more about Coolangatta Estate, so I'm transfering most it there.
I have completly rewritten the article as the original was totaly incomprehensible. Hopefully I have done the original article justice in the rewrite.
However there is a LOT of room for improvement if anyone fancies having a go ... !
Below is some stuff I have not used yet.
ledgerbob 13:49, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)
Crow’s Nest - meaning a barrel or cylindrical box fitted to the crosiers of the maintop mast of a sailing ship for the lookout man - was the name given by Alexander Berry’s business partner Edward Wollstonecraft to his first modest cottage which he had built in a commanding position on the present site of St Leonard’s Presbyterian church overlooking Sydney Harbour on the North Shore and the 500 acres of land granted by Governor Macquarie of New South Wales to Edward in 1806.
Emeritus Professor Michael Alexander is the sixth and present incumbent of the Berry Chair of English Literature in the University. He referred to a visit he had made to the town of Berry in the Shoalhaven area and to the fact that 1997 would see the centenary of the founding of the Berry Chair paid for, in part, out of the huge legacy of £100,000.00 sterling willed by Alexander Berry just before his death in
"The magnitude of his achievements in relation to his age and time have been allowed to slip away quietly into the collective historical memory."
I'm not sure this sentence, though very pretty and poetic, is strictly necessary in this history. I didn't remove it, maybe someone else has an opinion?
"Through Alexander Berry's will to his brother David the probate value of the Estate he created was £1,252,975 sterling; an enormous sum [even] by today's standards. (Probably equivalent to £66,407,675.00 in today's 2003 values or in Australian dollars $166,020,000)."
The "probably" part raises the question about whether it is necessary. Also, "today" is no longer 2003. I think the parenthetical statement could easily be removed without any loss of meaning. Is there any point in showing people an estimate of today's value? That can be figured out elsewhere, and eliminates the problem of the value constantly going out of date.
Brianporter 21:09, 6 April 2006 (UTC)