DARWIN AND THE ROMANS

Well last weekend was a mixture of history and more history. We started off with a visit to the house where Charles Darwin lived for most of his life and where he wrote his thesis on the origins of species. Darwin was fortunate to have been born into a wealthy family - his Grandfather was Joseph Wedgwood of pottery fame, and it was almost by coincidence that he embarked upon his career in exploration. He had started and dropped out of a medical degree and had developed a taste for shooting,hunting and gambling when his tutor mentioned to him that the "Beagle" was looking for a young man interested in exploration. He accepted with alacrity even though his father felt that the project "was not in his interests" and it took intervention by his Grandfather for permission to be given.

It changed his life of course. The research that he carried out on the South American coast and later in the Galapagos Islands led him to a lifetime of thinking and analysis leading to his theories of evolution. He married his cousin and had 10 children and lived a happy life here at Down House. The property, which is now acquired by English Heritage is an excellent museum of his life's work. In particular, the opposition from the Church which greeted his thesis is well documented and some remarkable exhibits of his painstaking research are shown.

An excellent Pub lunch in the village of Downe was made more interesting by the fact that we were very close to Biggin Hill which, during WW2 was the fighter station from which the Battle of Britain was fought. The Pub's decor reflected the aircraft and airmen of that period.We then went on to Lullingstone (which took a bit of finding) and saw this remarkable site of Roman occupation. The original villa dates from the 1st century AD - which makes it pretty bloody old, and it's preservation is a tribute to the regard in which this country's history is regarded. Housed in a large shed structure, the original outline of the villa is quite clear and shows the extraordinary sophistication of those early Roman ocupiers. The bathing facilities were particularly well defined with a series of chambers progressing from warming room to hot room all heated from a boiler room. This was a couple of thousand years ago mate!! The centrepiece is of course the mosaic flooring pictured above. This tiled floor in the main room of the villa lay undisturbed for centuries even though it was originally detected in the 16th century and again ,late in the 19th century when a fencepost hole was driven through the tiling with no realisation of the find!! The fence post hole can be clearly seen in the mosaic . Of interest is the swastika symbol! Heil Caesar.