]ii DOWN HOUSE. 



through the Action of Worms. No single home in the world can show 

 such a record. Truly from Down Charles Darwin shook the world and 

 gave human thought an impress which will endure for all time. Down 

 is a priceless heirloom not only for England but for the civilised world. 

 One of the greatest men of all time lived there. 



As to the character of Down House, much is to be learned from the 

 account which Sir Francis Darwin has given in his father's biography : — 



' On September 14, 1842, my father left London with his family and 

 settled at Down. In the autobiographical chapter his motives for moving 

 into the country are briefly given. He speaks of the attendance at 

 scientific societies and ordinary social duties as suiting his health so 

 " badly that we resolved to live in the country, which we both preferred 

 and have never repented of." 



' The choice of Down was rather the result of despair than of actual 

 preference ; my father and mother were weary of house-hunting, and the 

 attractive points about the place thus seemed to them to counterbalance 

 its somewhat more obvious faults. It had at least one desideratum — 

 namely, quietness. Indeed, it would have been difiicult to find a more 

 retired place so near to London. ... It is a place where newcomers are 

 seldom seen, and the names occurring far back in the old church registers 

 are still known in the village. 



' The house stands a quarter of a mile from the village, and is built, 

 like so many houses of the last century, as near as possible to the road — a 

 narrow lane winding away to the Westerham high road. In 1842 it was 

 dull and unattractive enough ; a square brick building of three storeys, 

 covered with shabby whitewash and hanging tiles. The garden had 

 none of the shrubberies or walls that now give shelter ; it was overlooked 

 from the lane, and was open, bleak, and desolate. 



' The house was made to look neater by being covered with stucco, 

 but the chief improvement effected was the building of a large bow of 

 three storeys. This bow became covered with a tangle of creepers, and 

 pleasantly varied the south side of the house. The drawing-room, with 

 its verandah opening into the garden, as well as the study in which my 

 father worked during the later years of his life, were added at subsequent 

 dates. 



' Eighteen acres of land were sold with the house, of which twelve acres 

 on the south side of the house form a pleasant field, scattered with fair- 

 sized oaks and ashes. From this field a strip was cut off and converted 

 into a kitchen garden, in which the experimental plot of ground was 

 situated, and where the greenhouses were ultimately put up.' 



To fill in some further details of this picture of Down we may also draw 

 upon the description given by Mrs. Litchfield, in the life of her mother, 

 Mrs. Darwin — {Emma Darwin, privately printed 1904). 



' For some time there had been a growing wish on the part of my 

 parents to live in the country. Their health made London undesirable 

 in many ways, and they both preferred the freedom and quiet of a country 

 life. They decided to buy a country house, but out of prudence resolved 

 upon not going beyond a moderate price, and as they also wished to be 

 near London, there was a weary search before they found anything at all 

 suitable. In her little diary, under July 22, 1842, I find the entry " went 



