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Down House Source: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/ daysout/properties/home-of-charles-darwin-down-house/ |
After two months of living in London, I have discovered how hard it is to find a quiet place to think in this city. Sounds of traffic, sirens, and hundreds of voices create the cacophony of the streets; four (or more) people in a small flat, listening to the radio, playing video games, and running the washer that shakes so much it could wake the dead makes the indoors almost as loud and stiflingly crowded. For that reason, I find any escape into a quieter neighborhood a blessed relief. I suspect I feel the same way as Charles Darwin did when he moved to Down House.
The first thing I noticed getting off the bus in Downe was how quiet it was. In about an hour's time, we had escaped the bustle of the city and entered a small village with a few pubs, a church, and not much else, at least not where the bus dropped us off. The ten minute walk along a meandering road past fields, hedges, and trees brought us to Down House. The beautifully manicured lawn and the quiet interrupted by few cars immediately indicated to me what visitors to Darwin's home would have seen walking up the path to the front of the house. The ivy sprawling up the house gave the building the feel of the quintessential old English home and walking into the preserved first floor was an impactful moment. Chills ran down my spine when I placed my hand on the bannister that Darwin would have touched every day.
As I walked through the exhibition on the top floor of the house and learned more about Darwin's interactions with his family, I recognized how much the location of the house would have impacted the family dynamics. The large amount of land would have allowed the children to play side by side with their father observing earthworms or fungi, while Emma could maintain her garden exactly as she wanted to, with a little bit of disorder. All rooms of the home showed evidence both of Darwin's work, but also of the children's presence, suggesting that Darwin didn't try to draw distinct lines between his work life and his family life. The relations between the Darwins and their servants also seemed more familial than I would have expected from the time period; I nearly laughed out loud when I heard that Darwin would play billiards with his butler. Overall, it seemed like a harmonious house that gave Darwin room for his work, but didn't let his work take over his life.
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Anne Darwin Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Anne_Darwin |
Learning about how attentive Darwin was to his daughter, Anne, during her battle with scarlet fever, I also noticed how the house's position away from the city would allow Darwin to focus on his family when he needed to. Having the financial freedom to not work, unlike so many of his fellow scientists, Darwin could focus on his children when he needed to. Away from the city and the societal expectations that men didn't attend to their children, Darwin could be the father he wanted to be, without conforming to the typical view of the father as being largely absent from their children's lives. For those reasons, he could nurse Anne himself, but for those reasons, he also ardently felt her loss, remarking, "We have lost the joy of the household, and the solace of our old age.... Oh that she could now know how deeply, how tenderly we do still and shall ever love her dear joyous face." It is very obvious that family meant a great deal to Darwin and I believe that living at Down House, away from the city, helped foster the loving relationship he had with his children.
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Charles Darwin with his eldest son, William Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Charles_Darwin |
The gardens around Down House also show how much Darwin's children loved and respected him. The audio tour informed visitors of all of the things his children did for him when his health was failing to allow him to continue his work. Learning that the children built the laboratory attached to the greenhouse so Darwin would have a place to sit while he worked, I understood how much they loved him and respected his need to do work even as his health failed. Leaving the laboratory, I could imagine Darwin walking to his 'thinking path' supported by one of his daughters or his sons. I saw then that while Down House was vitally important for giving Darwin the quiet place away from the city where he had room to grow his plants, observe his orchids, study his barnacles, and breed his pigeons, it had the lasting importance of growing and building the Darwin family, whose presence still hangs warmly over the house. The half-finished game of backgammon in the sitting room, the open book in Darwin's study, and the specimen on his billiard table all made it feel like a home that Charles Darwin could walk back into at any moment, ready to make a new discovery.
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