A home for Darwin and family
Down House
Five years after returning from the Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin made his home at Down House to escape from the smoke and dirt of London. There, surrounded by his family with eight children, he continued his scientific research and wrote his book On the Origin of Species.
The house
Darwin worked in his study every morning and again for an hour or so in the afternoon, sitting in a high-back chair writing on a cloth covered borad resting on its arms. At a time when there were as many as five postal deliveries a day he could exchange ideas and information with a large number of correspondents much as we use e-mail today.
The grounds
Darwin took a walk every day in his garden making a circuit of a bank of woodland on his sand walk. It was studies of plant species in the grassy meadows beyond his grounds that helped Darwin to gain the insights that led him to appreciate the extraordinary extent of variation in the natural world and its importance for evolution. His thinking foreshadowed modern studies of biodiversity.
In his greenhouse Darwin studied the pollination of orchids, the growth of climbing plants and the way that carnivorous plant digest insects.
In the brick hut that was his laboratory, Darwin investigated the behaviour of worms involving his family in a study of whether or not worms are sensitive to music and other sounds.
Darwin's son Horace set up the wormstone in the lawn to find out how fast it would sink due the the large quantities of earth continually brought to the surface as wormcasts.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 20 January 2007
