A Private Coach to Down House

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This morning, after a class meeting, we took a private coach to Down House, the home of Charles Darwin. We arrived right when they opened at 10am, and the people working at the museum were kind enough to let us bump our tour time up from 11. An enthusiastic volunteer took us through the main level of the home, where Darwin lived with his wife, Emma, who was an accomplished pianist and really ran the household, and their ten children. The guide showed us the family dining room, their drawing room, Darwin's old study, and Darwin's billiards room. There were many family portraits on the wall, but also those of other scientists, including his friends Charles Lyell and Joseph Dalton Hooker. We stopped by the staircase and learned that was occasionally converted to a slide for the children (the slide portion was upstairs in the museum). We also saw a storage closet filled with the family belongings like crochet sets, and those artifacts helped us imagine Darwin as a father.

After we toured the downstairs portion of the house, we went upstairs. That part of the home is a museum. I'd just read a version of The Origin of Species that included many pages of Darwin's journals from his voyage on the Beagle and other letters and notes he wrote, and a lot of that information was in the museum. So, little of it was new to me, but it was nice to walk around and see some of the items first hand. After about 20 minutes, we joined back with the tour guide, and he took us for a walk through the gardens. Outside was an apple orchard, and there were garden plots that weren't much to look at right now (since it's January). We walked to a conservatory, and we were told a bit about the work Darwin was doing before his death. Apparently, he was interested in plants and their ability to move toward light. He was working with climbing plants and insectivore plants. Then we moved out to the sand walk. Darwin would walk his sand walk twice a day to get some exercise. On a rainy day like today, the sandy walkway was full of puddles, but we also could see a beautiful mist on the horizon. It was beautiful, and, if we weren't crunched for time, I could have spent the afternoon exploring the paths. As it was, we had to hurry a bit. We went back to Down House and had just a few minutes to use the restroom or make purchases at the souvenir shop. I also swung by their cafe and picked up a slice of a Victoria Sandwich to try on the ride back to the hotel, and it was quite good!

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Photos

Charles Darwin's Home
Down House

Climbing Plants and Insectivore Plants
In Darwin's Greenhouse

View from the Sand Walk
At Down House