Don’t forget to keep those photos coming in; the tank is only half full.
Today we have unusual subjects: architecture, Darwin and gravesites. First, some photos by reader Tom Hennessy:
This time of year it can be difficult to find good subjects for photograph, but I am fortunate to be a member of the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden here in Richmond, VA. Starting at Thanksgiving and continuing until mid January they have the gardens beautifully decorated with lights. I spent a couple evenings there this past week photographing as the sky darkened. I am attaching a few of my favorite shots. The main attraction is the conservatory which houses wonderful orchids and succulents, and in the summer houses a butterfly exhibit.
And a set by reader and wildlife biologist Mark Otten:
While in the UK this past May, I had the opportunity to visit Down House and Downe Village. While I took plenty of photos of the house and the famous sandwalk, I thought your readers might enjoy something a little different.
Downe Bank Nature Preserve encompasses the area that Darwin called “Orchis Bank”. Orchis Bank is thought to be the inspiration for the “entangled bank” in the last paragraph of On the Origin of Species. “It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank . . .” Downe Bank Nature Preserve is about 700 meters east of Down House.
While Charles Darwin is buried in Westminster Cathedral, his wife Emma and several of their children are buried in the churchyard of St. Mary the Virgin Church in Downe Village. Emma’s grave is under the horizontal pink granite capstone at the back of the churchyard next to the fence and just in front of the blue car. Darwin’s brother Erasmus is buried in the same grave.
Close up of Emma Darwin’s grave. Anyone who has read a Darwin biography knows what an amazing woman she was. [JAC: Charles, of course, is buried in Westminster Abbey, though you have to look hard to find his stone, which is on th floor near the entrance. Also, I can’t find Emma’s name on the stone below!]
Darwin constructed a greenhouse behind the residence to house tropical and subtropical plants. One of the plants he kept was the insectivorous common sundew (Drosera rotundifolia). Sundew leaves exude sugar-laden mucilage to attract insects, which are then trapped. Sundews often grow in nutrient-poor habitats and use consumed insects to supplement their nitrogen requirement.
Professor Ceiling Cat recommends a visit to Down House (accessible from London by car) if you’re in that part of England. It’s a wonderful village, not at all touristy, and the house itself is simply splendid. It’s been restored, at least on the first floor, to the appearance it had in Darwin’s day, with much of the original furniture. In Darwin’s study you can still see his chair and the board he placed across the arms to write. That’s where he wrote The Origin. There’s also a folding screen behind which is a chamber pot where Darwin vomited during one of his many bouts of illness. Upstairs you can see his hat, his walking stick, and other possessions. As lagniappe, there’s a good real-ale pub in the village, where you can hoist a few in honor of The Great Man and his Big Idea.
I do hope to get to Down House one day.
I visited Down House this past summer on a family trip to the UK. It was wonderful, very well worth a visit. (My cousin lives a stone’s throw away on the other side of the M25 in Westerham.)
We walked the Sandwalk, which to me was one of the best parts. Walking where CD ruminated!
I also enjoyed the greenhouses, where they had a lot of carniverous plants and a bee hive where the sides were plexiglass and you could watch the bees at work.
If you are in that neighborhood, I can also highly recommend a nearby village of Eynsford, which has a beautiful river walk along the Darent River. Really charming:
http://www.berettaconsulting.com/barbarossa/England2015/pics1/IMGP8533.jpg
And they still have a ford!
http://www.berettaconsulting.com/barbarossa/England2015/pics1/IMGP8538.jpg
… carnivorous plants …
… And two more very nice scenes to enjoy, thanks.
Holy shit! Blue skies and bright sunshine? I’ve been to England many times (in the ’70s) and don’t recall ever seeing either of those things.
Hmmm . . . , well. There was that one heatwave where it reached 80 degrees F for 10 days straight. There must have been some sunshine during that.
Is the Ford Prefect? It looks pretty good!
I imagine it’s hard to get a good shot of the Darwin grave stone without a stepladder to improve your perspective. I took the pic from this post along with another one taken from the other end and did some perspective correction on them. Link: http://1drv.ms/1NAqDR3
Here’s the inscription as near as I can make out. Interesting that Wikipedia lists Emma’s death as October 7, but the stone pretty clearly lists it as October 2:
IN MEMORY OF
ERASMUS ALVEY DARWIN
ELDEST SON OF
ROBERT WARING DARWIN M.D.
BORN 29TH DECEMBER 1804
AT SHREWSBURY
DIED 26TH AUGUST 1881
IN LONDON.
AND OF HIS BROTHER
CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN,
WHO LIVED FOR FORTY YEARS AT
DOWN HOUSE, IN THIS PARISH.
BORN AT SHREWSBURY
12TH FEBRUARY 1809.
DIED AT DOWN 19TH APRIL 1882.
HIS BIDY LIES BURIED
IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
AND OF
EMMA,
WIFE OF CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN
DAUGHTER OF JOSIA WEDGWOOD
OF ??? HALL STAFFORDSHIRE
BORN MAY 2ND 1808
DIED AT DOWN OCTOBER 2ND 1890
Maer Hall – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maer_Hall
You can walk to Downe from Orpington if you are of stout heart. When I did it a few years ago I found a dead fox 🙁 …
Thanks for doing that!
It would be “Etruria Hall”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruria_Hall
Wonderful! (I was getting an eye-ache from squinting, and could make out only Erasmus, Robert and Charles.)
By tele-eyeball, I’d say that it looks a lot like Kemnay granite, from a few mile NW of sub-tropical Aberdeen. (Unfortunately, a lot of granites look somewhat like that.)
If I find myself in that part of the world, I’ll try to make time for a closer look. (Now where was it in that direction that SWMBO mentioned a few days ago … somewhere on the wrong side of the Great Wen.)
Wonderful pictures. The botanical garden scenes are terrific, and the remind me that I need to plan my visit to the local butterfly houses opening this Spring.
Visited the Darwin home is on my bucket list, along with the Galapagos. My heart would be thundering in my chest if ever I get to stroll along the sandwalk.
Wish I had the time when in Richmond to see those gardens. Spent time at the Confederate White House and museum.
This post is a new encouragement to visit the U.K.. The Darwin House would be a thrill.
My wife and I made the pilgrimage to Down House in August last year. We took the train from Waterloo (East) station to Orpington and then the R8 bus to Downe. The driver dropped us off directly in front of the house. Afterwards we took the short walk into the village and caught the bus back to Orpington. Highlight of the day: A few moments alone in his office just imagining.
I used to live at Knockholt, about 4 miles from Downe, and paid a number of visits to Down House (and even more to the George & Dragon). It is a lovely village and there are indeed lots of excellent walks in the area. Down House itself has an almost tangible feel of history.
For WW2 buffs, just down the road is Biggin Hill, home of the famous Battle of Britain airfield. It’s now a commercial airport and only the chapel is open to the public, although the (replica) Spitfire and Hurricane Gate Guardians are a fine sight.
Must go to Biggin Hill next time I’m in the UK. There is so much to see in just England, and just southern England, let alone the rest of the UK.
We did make our best effort to study as many real ale pubs as possible! I was in beer Heaven for a few weeks! 🙂
If you find yourself in London ‘twe*t’ me & I will buy you a warm ale! 😉
Glad to help out if you require any further tuition during your next visit! If you were based in Westerham last time, you must have made the acquaintance of the Westerham brewery and its sublime range of products: http://westerhambrewery.co.uk/
I well remember RAF Biggin Hill from the 1960s when it was home to the RAF Officer & Aircrew Selection Centre. Also the Battle of Britain Air Show open days and being part of the support crew for a Vulcan B2 from RAF Finningley for the air show fly past.
Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill and Hever Castle home to the unfortunate Anne Bolyne is not far from Biggin Hill and are worth the extra miles if you are ever in this area of England.
[Files useful information.]
And if anyone is in the West Midlands and want to visit some of the places associated with Charles just shout… Montford Church; The Mpount, Shrewsbury;Gt Malvern Priory ….
Hey, just a quick “Hello” to Tom Hennessy. I live in Richmond, VA and go to the gardens regularly, although we did miss this years lights. Very nice time lapse pics of the conservatory.
Keith Sacra
Hello Keith. I get there regularly to take photos of the flowers, mostly macro shots. The lights were very nice this year. I wish they did that year round, but I would not want to see the electricity bill.
The Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh did a very nice “son et lumiere” on mights around Bonfire Night last year, and it was well received so I suspect they’ll do it again.
Sorry 2 years ago – I was on the wrong continent last year.
The botanical garden night shots are just gorgeous.
I second that.
And I third it! They’re wonderful! 🙂
There is a bus 146 to Downe (sic) travelling through some attractive outer Kent villages, for those who don’t want to play chicken on London’s roads. It can be picked up at Bromley South station which is easily accessed from Victoria.
Downe (sic) itself has a couple of good pubs with a church opposite. The village is basically a dormitory for high earning London workers. Down House itself is a short walk. Look up opening times before you go.
Pilgrimage is a strange word for people to use but the man gave us so much we need to know about our wonderful selves. (See his bust in pride of place in Nat. Hist. Mus. in S Ken.)
Unless they’ve moved it since I was there last, it’s just outside the original “Earth Galleries” (top-right when you’re about to enter). Because, of course, Darwin mainly self-identified as a geologist.