For 40 years Charles Darwin lived at Down House, in Kent, England. It was here that Darwin developed his theory of evolution and wrote books such as Origins of the Species and the Descent of Man.
But this was no ivory tower. During those 40 years he raised a large, devoted family; carried out his experiments with the enthusiastic involvement of his children; and entertained his guests.
The Darwin home
Charles Darwin married his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood, after returning from his five year voyage on the Beagle in 1839, and they moved to Down House in 1842 where they stayed until Charles's death in 1882 (the house is in the village of Downe, spelt with an extra e).
Charles wished to move to the countryside to avoid the city and social engagements because of poor health. He had a nervous disorder, possibly as a result of infection on his voyage, which brought on shivers and vomiting worsened by stress. (p79, The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, by Francis Darwin, 1887). His poor health was to bedevil him for the rest of his life.
Charles said about the place: "It is a good, very ugly house with 18 acres" (p321, F Darwin). The couple renovated the house and raised a large family of 10 children (three dying in infancy). Both sides of the family were wealthy and Emma and Charles shared the same grandfather: Josiah Wedgwood of pottery fame. This allowed Charles the time to pursue his scientific and writing interests.
In his autobiographical notes, Charles wrote: "I have had ample leisure from not having to earn my own bread." (p107, F Darwin).
English Heritage has restored Down House and the gardens to how they would have been in the 1870s, using some of the original furniture, and turning the upstairs into a museum.
Down House play
The two main family rooms were the Dining and Drawing Rooms. The Dining Room is big enough to sit Darwin's large family and his frequent guests. The main meal was luncheon at 1pm everyday, served by servants in livery using tableware from the Wedgwood factory. The table and some of the chairs are original. The handed-down furniture and tableware gives the room the air of being Regency (early 19th century) rather than Victorian. The room also has portraits of members of both families such as Josiah Wedgwood and Charles's grandfather Erasmus Darwin.
The Drawing Room also has pictures: marriage portraits of Charles and Emma, and family members such as Josiah Wedgwood. The family used this room mainly in the evening with Emma playing the piano and Charles playing backgammon, reading or dozing in front of the fire. The room is filled with books, toys and other musical instruments.
Down House work
Two ground floor rooms were Charles's domain: the Study and Billiards Room.
In the Study hang portraits of two of Charles's closest friends, Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker. The room has chairs, a table plus scientific tools such as a microscope, vials of chemicals and Darwin's books and notebooks. There is also a private toilet and bathroom.
Darwin spent about six hours a day in his study, reading,and replying to his correspondence: he wrote more than 14,000 letters during his lifetime. In this room he worked on his book drafts, observations, and experiments plus met with his guests to discuss his theories.
He would go for a walk three times a day to think over a problem or to exercise. If he was suffering from writer's block he would go to the Billiards room, where he enjoyed playing a game with his butler. The room is fitted out with a period table and cues plus comic portraits of Charles's defenders such as Thomas Huxley and his detractors such as the Bishop of Oxford.
Gardens of experiment
The house has lawns, flowerbeds and a large Victorian vegetable garden necessary to feed the family and guests. There are also more experimental parts of the gardens such as the weed bed, orchard and greenhouse. In these areas, Darwin carried out experiments into pollination, seed growth and grafting of plants, often enlisting the help of his children,
At the back of the grounds is the Sandwalk, a lane where Darwin often walked in the morning and afternoon, especially when he was thinking about a particularly difficult problem. It has now been restored to how it would have looked in Darwin's time.
He also kept pigeons in order to study how differences emerged within species, and keenly studied the insects, birds and other wildlife found in the grounds of the house.
He was not only a superb theoretical scientist but a practical one as well, testing his ideas and devising experiments to prove their validity (p99-103, F Darwin).
Museum
The upstairs museum has exhibits from Charles's voyage with the Beagle such as stuffed animals, his compass, notes, drawings of wildlife and cultural items from where he made landfall.
It also traces the intellectual ferment of the times: economic theories of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, biologists such as Linnaeus and Lamarck and Charles's great friend Charles Lyell whose work on geology influenced his own work on natural selection.
Letters, exhibits and displays are used to construct the development of the theory of natural selection. It includes a letter from Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist working in Malaysia who wrote to Darwin in 1858 describing his own similar views on natural selection. It was this that forced Charles to publish his book.
Family life
It would be wrong to assume that Charles neglected his family in pursuit of his ideas. On the contrary, he took time away from his studies to play with his children, involved them in his studies and even observed them for his theories. For example his work on the development of the human emotions benefited from the seeing the growth of his own children (p95, F Darwin).
The death of his daughter Annie has been seen as a catalyst in the development of his theory, for he now saw nature not as an arena of harmony but one of struggle for survival (for example, see the documentary Darwin's Struggle: The Evolution Of The Origin Of Species),.
The house is peppered with photographs of Darwin, Emma and their children, relaxing or playing together.
A visit to Down House brings home to us today the intellectual endeavor of Darwin in working out his theories and how his scientific work bore fruit in close relationship with his family.
References
- The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin (his son), John Murray publishing, 1887.
- English Heritage has a website for Down House, in Downe, Kent, with visiting details and attractions.
- The Complete Works of Darwin Online has all of his works, letters, manuscripts and biographies.
- A BBC documentary calledDarwin's Struggle: The Evolution Of The Origin Of Species, about the intellectual struggle that went into the Origin of the Species during his time at Down House.
- The BBC also had a recent series on Darwin including Darwin and the Tree of Life narrated by David Attenborough. Both programmes are often repeated.
Keith Sellick - Independent media professional with more than 20 years experience working in print and online
