A perfect place....

I have been on a pilgrimage today and it was something I have wanted to do for a very long time. It is half term, and I decided to take my family with me to share an experience I hoped they too, would find very special. We went to Downs House in Kent. Now owned by English Heritage but formally the home of Charles and Emma Darwin. ( www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/home-of-charles-darwin-down-house/ ) I was impressed at how "Darwinian" the whole place felt and it was wonderful that you were free to touch and explore. For me it was a humbling experience to walk around their home. To be able to look at some of Darwin's books and notes, to see the gardens and glasshouse where he did so much detailed and careful study, was all truly wonderful stuff. I walked under the trees that he had planted, over the lawn where his family had played and sat in a wicker chair on his veranda where once, he too, had done exactly the same. I got a real sense of this great man. My boys had a wonderful time too. They enjoyed the displays and most poignantly, upstairs in what is thought to have been Darwin's bedroom and the place where he died, they had an interactive room specifically for children, to help break down the key ideas in his work. Given Darwin's non-conformist approach to his Victorian family life I felt he would have greatly approved and found it a fitting epilogue. If I had to choose just one memory of today though, it would have to be the laying five flint stones on the corner of the Sandwalk and each of us taking a turn to kick one to the side as we completed a lap. To walk where Darwin once did, to tread in his footsteps where he wrestled with his ideas and to watch our children run ahead, as he must have done occasionally with his own, was my moment. I have a huge respect for Charles Darwin, for what he achieved for science and for his dedication to study. He is one of my legends and our visit today did not disappoint. I recommend a trip to Kent.......

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Downs house

Darwin's thinking path, the Sandwalk.

 The kitchen garden with the greenhouse and Darwin's laboratory built in brick behind it. Beyond that is the orchard where he did his 'weed garden' experiments.