CHARLES DARWIN’S HOME

Hokitika Guardian, 7 August 1929, Page 1

CHARLES DARWIN’S HOME

A NATIONAL MEMORIAL. 7 LONDON, June 13. Down House, the home of Charles Darwin, which was declared open this week as a national memorial to the scientist, is associated with the most famous of Darwin’s theoretical works. At the British Association meeting in 1927, Sir Arthur Keith, then president, appealed for the preservation of the building. The appeal evoked an immediate reply from Mr George Buckston Browne, the surgeon, in the acquisition of the house from Professor Charles Galton Darwin, Darwin’s grandson, and its presentation to the ' British Association with an endownment, as a gift to the nation with free access to tlie public. The house, situated near Beckenham, Kent, lies about 15 miles south-east of London. In it Darwin wrote: “The Origin of Species” (1859), ‘‘'The Descent of Man” (1871), and his other speculative works, in which he developed his theories regarding the ancestry of man. The house has been restored as far as possible to its original state, and furnished with the cooperation of the Darwin family, with relics of its scientific owner. In this restoration, British and American Darwinians have joined. Proposals are now afoot to make Down House, a centre of scientific research, and to utilise the demesne of 23 acres for field biological experiments. 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. In tlie autobiographical chapter Darwin's motives for moving into the country are briefly given. He speaks of tlie attendance at scientific societies and ordinary social duties as suiting his health so badly, “that we are resolved to live in the country, which we botTi preferred, and have never repented of.” Down House was bought by Darwin for about £2200, .and tlie family moved in on September 14, 1842.