DOWN HOUSE. xlix 



ought to be a national possession. Do you know of any means by which 

 this can be brought about ? ' On the eve of the Leeds Meeting of the 

 British Association on August 31, 1927, the Council of the Association 

 considered this matter and empowered the then President (Sir Arthur 

 Keith) to make a public appeal at the close of his presidential address to 

 the assembled Association. An urgent S.O.S. was sent out with the happy 

 result which all now know. It was with as much surprise as satisfaction 

 that Sir Arthur Keith learned that the man who answered the call was a 

 Fellow of his own College. Indeed, he knew Mr. Buckston Browne as a 

 generous benefactor to that College and to the Harveian Society, but was 

 unaware of his love for Darwin and for Down. It was later that he 

 learned that Darwin's friend Huxley had long ago exerted an abiding 

 influence on the donor of Down. 



Darwin's Association with Down House. 



Darwin was born at Shrewsbury, February 12, 1809. Down House 

 was purchased for him by his father, Dr. Darwin, and he took up his 

 residence there on September 14, 1842. Darwin was then in his thirty- 

 fourth year ; three years previoiisly he had married his cousin, Emma 

 Wedgewood. His two eldest children, William and Anne, were born in 

 London ; the third, Mary, was born and died just after arrival at Down. 

 Then followed in 1843 Henrietta, who became Mrs. Litchfield ; in 1845 

 George, who became Sir George Darwin, F.R.S., and whose son, Prof. 

 Charles Darwin, F.R.S., succeeded to the ownership of Down and is the 

 fifth of a succession of father and son who have been elected Fellows of 

 the Royal Society — an unique record ; in 1847 Elizabeth was born ; in 

 the following year Francis, who became Sir Francis Darwin, F.R.S. — a 

 distinguished botanist and president of the British Association. His son, 

 Bernard Darwin, is known to all as an exponent as well as an authority 

 on golf. Leonard followed in 1850 — Major Leonard Darwin, scientist, 

 philanthropist and the founder and still active supporter of the Eugenics 

 Society. Then came Horace, now Sir Horace Darwin, F.R.S. , happily 

 still alive. And last number 10, Charles "Waring Darwin, who died in 

 childhood. Down was thus the home of a large and happy family, 

 perhaps the most gifted family ever born in England. There the great 

 naturalist died on April 19, 1882, in his seventy-fourth year. He worked 

 continuously at Down for almost forty years. 



In that period he made his first draft of the Origin of Species (1842), he 

 wrote his researches on the Zoology of the Beagle, on Coral Reefs, and 

 prepared a new edition of a Naturalist's Voyage. Before he settled down 

 to work at Barnacles, to which he gave seven years (1847-54), he 

 prepared his papers on Volcanic Islands and on the Geology of South 

 America. Preparations for the Origin of Species, which did not receive 

 its final form until 1858-59, went on continuously from 1842 onwards. 

 Then followed his inquiries into Fertilisations of Orchids (1862), Variations 

 of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868), Descent of Man (1871), 

 the Expression of the Emotions (1872), Movements and Habits of Climbing 

 Plants (1875) ; Insectivorous Plants appeared in the same year ; Cross 

 and Self Fertilisation in 1876, and his last work of all, one which was 

 begun Boon after he settled at Down, The Formation of Vegetable Mould 

 1928 d 



