Got up at 6.45. I only seem to go into refreshing sleep towards the end of the night and when I should be getting up. Clear blue skies but the weather forecast says not for long. Blood Pressure 109/63 Pulse 80 We went to Darwins House. Its called Down House. And its in Downe. He dropped the e when he moved to the house. We took the tube to Charing Cross and then the Southern Line to Orphington. Then the bus to Down House. Its well out in the country. Bus goes along very narrow roads. Even two cars cannot pass. One has to stop to let the other pass. Fortunately we never came across a car so we did not see what happens when a bus meets car. Darwin picked the house because it was so far out in the country (both he and his wife felt it was on the edge of the world) yet in reality it was only 20 miles from London. When we got to Orphington we had 10 minutes or so time to wait for the bus so we decided we would have a little walk. Half way through the walk the bus came -fast. We had to do 200 metres in double quick time. We did run all the way. Nothing like it to tone up the heart. As it was the bus driver backed into a bus station and had his lunch. We did not have to run. He kept to the timetable. I didnt think I would have so much trouble running 200 metres. Darwin came from a wealthy family and his wife was wealthy also. They shared the same Grandfather - Joshua Wedgewood. They added to the house with each succeeding child. They were a happy family but Mrs Darwin had grave doubts about her husbands beliefs. She remained a devout Christian. He did his Beagle Tour before he got married. He paid for it himself. Or his father paid for it. His father was initially skeptical about his son going off on this expensive folly but he said he would finance him if he (Darwin) could get one other respectable man to talk to him (the father) and convince him the trip was worthwhile then he would give his approval. Darwin got his uncle to vouch for him. This wasn't hard. The trip wasn't a frivolous desire on Darwin's part. He already had a reputation as a respected amateur botanist. There were many who would have vouched for him but his Uncle was family and his father couldn't ignore him. Its just that his father had originally wanted him to study medicine and when Darwin dropped out of this his father wanted him to go into the church. He came to Australia on his Beagle Voyage. He went to the top of Mount Wellington. How did he do it without riding in a car? I couldn't. The house is full of good stuff. Its really fantastic. Darwin puts everything in perspective and makes it understandable. He simplified matters. There are lots of notebooks. Paraphernalia. Photo's. Extracts showing Family life. Account books. Household expense books. Details of experiments. The layout of the house has been recreated from photographs. All of the furniture is authentic. This is the room where Darwin wrote the Origin of the Species. This is the very desk and the very pen. There is a reproduction of his cabin on the Beagle where he collated all his specimens. And where two others also slept. Three slung hammocks that were tied to one side during the day. He was an interesting character. He didnt have to work yet he was industrious. He worked hard. He wasn't a healthy man as well. He had some unknown illness for all his adult life. He kept copious notes about it. He treated it by having cold showers after walking 4 miles every morning. There has been much speculation about what it was - its thought that he was bitten by a bug in the tropics and had a disease called Quags Disease. Or some name similar. He certainly had a passion for collating information and finding a pattern. He collected lists. He kept notes and later on wrote them up at length. He studied odd things to the nth degree. He drew conclusions. For instance on barnacles. For instance on worms. He made thousands of experiments on things that grew naturally in the garden. For instance - how do plants reproduce. Do they select their sexual partners? Well Yes. By encouraging the right type of insect to collect pollen. He studied everything. Do bees deliberately construct their hives in a certain way. Well yes. Change the circumstances and the bees will change their hives. He even weighed every visitor when they came to the house buts its not known if he drew any conclusions from the records he so carefully kept. You can read the names and weights in the weight book. Before Darwin the prevailing thought was that the earth and all its creatures were created by God. After him no one thought this way. We had a bit of a hitch getting back to Orphington. We were told the bus came every 10 minutes. It was in fact every one and a half hours. We spent over an hour in the village of Downe. Two pubs. One church. About 50 or 100 hundred houses. Hard to say. Some pretty swank. Some quite small and attached - some triple attached. I spent the time reading the Times and studying the locals. Quite a wealthy place judging by the cars in the streets. I figure that everyone who lives in the Village must have to have an income of over 50000 pounds just to exist. Maybe slightly less than that but you would need a fair amount of cash to live here. Woman opposite the bus stop had a handy man doing various things - moving flower boxes - re arranging stones in her front porch - chatting all the time. There were two men doing restoration work on the church but they packed up and moved on after a short while. Their truck was expensive so they must charge a lot for their work. Three people having a committee meeting in one of the Pubs. The sun was shining as I sat and read. It was not unpleasant waiting for the bus. As it turned out the bus was broken down and they had to send a replacement and that is why we had to wait for so long. Did not get home until 7.30. Watched a show about The Romans on TV by Mary Beard. When this woman first appeared on TV a critic wrote that they should not let such ugly women on TV. Look at her clothes - they are horrible - where did she get her fashion sense? Look at her hair - its long and grey - why doesn't she cut and dye it? He actually said this. Really nasty stuff that you cannot reply to. I think she's fantastic. We should have more people like her on TV. Blood Pressure 129/69 Pulse 69
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