DOWN HOUSE. 



The following important announcement was made' to the General Com- 

 mittee of the Association, meeting in Glasgow on September 5. regarding 

 Darwin's home, Down House, in the County of Kent. Mr. George 

 Buckston Browne, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England 

 and of the Society of Antiquaries, London, having acquired the property 

 from Prof. Charles Galton Darwin, F.R.S., grandson of the naturalist, 

 has transferred its possession to the British Association under the most 

 liberal conditions and with an endowment amply sufl&cient for its 

 niaintainance and preservation for all time. 



At present Down House serves as a private school. When the tenant's 



lease falls in or is acquired, the donor desires that the property be regarded 



as a gift to the nation and opened to visitors every day of the week between 



the hours of 10 and 6, without charge. He also desires that the Association 



should use Down House and grounds for the benefit of science. The donor 



has also suggested that certain of the rooms — particularly the old ' study,' 



in which the Origin of Species was written — should be furnished, as near 



as may be possible, as they were when Darwin lived in them. The donor 



has already taken steps to secure this end and has obtained the willing 



co-operation and greatest assistance from various members of the Darwin 



family. Indeed, without the generous co-operation of the Darwin family 



the transfer of ownership could not have been effected. The late Mrs. 



Litchfield, the third daughter of Charles Darwin, bequeathed for Down 



House her father's study chair and letter-weighing machine. Thanks also 



to the generosity of other members and friends of the Darwin family — 



Major Leonard Darwin, Prof. Charles G. Darwin, Mrs. Perrero, and Mrs. 



Berkeley Hill, together with acquisitions made by himself, Mr. Buckston 



Browne has already got together the nucleus of a Darwin collection for 



Down. He has commissioned the Hon. John Collier to paint replicas of 



his well-known portraits of Darwin and of Huxley to be hung at Down 



House ; these commissions are already completed. It is hoped that the 



shelves of the old study may be filled with all editions of Darwin's works, 



and that Down House may become a repository of Darwiniana where 



students will have an opportunity of consulting all original documents 



concerning Darwin and his writings. Such an end can be attained only if 



the British Association succeeds in enlisting the sympathetic co-operation 



of all who may be the fortunate owners of articles which were in the 



possession of Darwin or were associated with his life. 



The Donor. 



Mr. George Buckston Browne was born in Manchester in 1850. the only 

 son of a well-known medical man — Dr. Henry Browne, physician to the 

 Manchester Royal Infirmary and Lecturer on Medicine to the Manchester 

 Medical School. Dr. Henry Browne represented the fourth generation of 

 a medical dynasty where son had succeeded father, the founder of the 

 family having been Dr. Theophilus Browne of Derby who was townsman 



1 By Prof. Sir Arthur Keith, F.R.S. 



