Day 11, Wednesday, July 16 - Touring Charles Darwin's and Winston Churchill's homes.

Today, we traveled to Down House, Charles Darwin’s home.  Charles Darwin was a great biologist and was among the first people to come-up with the theory of how populations change through evolution. We arrived at Down House around 11:00 in the morning. Once we were inside the house, we went upstairs to look at the exhibits on Darwin’s life, family, and studies. These exhibits were very interesting to look at and we were able to learn a great deal about Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle, his formulation of the idea of natural selection and his publication on the Origin of Species. There were a couple of original rooms downstairs, such as Darwin’s study, the family dining room and his pool table room. After we finished looking through the house and all of the exhibits, we went outside for a guided tour of the gardens. Our tour guide was one of the house gardeners. She did a great job explaining Darwin’s experiments on plants, such as his study of orchids and carnivorous plants.  We ate lunch in a field close by the house after the garden tour.  

            The next stop on our day trip was Chartwell, Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s former home. This house sat on an incredible piece of land that had a breathtaking view overlooking the valley. Once again there were rooms that were set-up in a manner as when the Churchills resided, so that we could get an understanding of how they lived. Once we were through looking at the house and the various exhibits, we sat out on the property enjoying the view for a while. Then we went to his studio to look at his pieces of art. Here I learned that Churchill was an amazing artist and he was very talented. Then we enjoyed a cup of ice cream before walking around the grounds. We ended up at Churchill’s heated pool, where he would swim for leisure even in the winter. After we were finished enjoying all the sights that Chartwell had to offer, we started the trip back to Oxford. We ran into some heavy traffic on the M-25 around London, which set us back a little bit. Eventually we reached our dinner destination, which was a small take out “Fish and Chips” place. Once we finished dinner, we made it back to the college with a bit of free time before on-dorm and bedtime. 
Charles Borden

Outside Charles Darwin's home.

Down House.

A reenactment of one of Darwin's experiment on seedling survival.

Mr. Reid enjoying Darwin's experimental gardens and greenhouse.

Flowering plants used in pollination experiments.

William, Alex & Talfourd in Darwin's greenhouse.

Venus Fly Trap - Darwin made extensive observations on carnivorous plants.

Picnicking in meadow across the road from Darwin's house. 

Chartwell - home to Sir Winston & Lady Churchill.

Enjoying the view at Chartwell.

Walking down to Churchill's art studio.

Ice cream break on yet another sunny and hot English day.

With Lady and Sir Winston Churchill.

Blog author enjoying beautiful grounds at Chartwell.

Long drive on the M-25 (London belt-way).

Enjoying freshly prepared dinner of "take-away" "fish & chips".