A DARWIN MEMORIAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 23 July 1929, Page 3

A DARWIN MEMORIAL

Down House, near Orpington, in Kent, where Charles Darwin lived daring the- last 40 years of his life, and where Ins greatest works were written, was opened to the publicly recently. The ceremony was arranged by the British Association, into whose custody the house was recently presented by Mr Bucksto-n Browne, as a national memorial to the great naturalist. The effdrts of Mr Browne and the generosity of various donors have restored the house to almost the same appearance as it presented when Darwin Jived there. The old study is so complete that a visitor might be excused for thinking that its former user has just left it for his accustomed stroll along the "thinking path - ' in ;be. garden. Darwin's watch is ticking on the mantelpiece, amid a litter of oddments. Beside the windowis his favourite chair, across the arms of which is flung the humble baize-cov-ered board on which "The Origin of Species" was written. His silk handkerchief, draped across the back of the' chair, illustrates one of the best-known habits of Darwin, who refused to carry a handkerchief in his pocket. "Darwin rpiite unwittingly made these few acres of Kentish upland an international possession," said Sir Arthur Keith, declaring the house open. "He taught the world from Down. Down House is not n national heritage, but a common heritage for truth seekers of all countries find all centuries."