What a shame that the weather could not be better but that didn't stop me from driving around the M25 to Down House, the family home of Charles Darwin. I have visited the house before about a year ago but this time Mum was really keen to visit. It's an amazing place and so well laid out.
This time we also visited the gardens despite the rain and met a fascinating chap who works in the Natural History museum in New York. He had brought a genuine travel microscope from 1822 which was exactly the same model and made by the same manufacturers as the one that Darwin used during his 5-year voyage on the Beagle.
Despite its age, it still magnifies very clearly and it was amazing to think that we were able to look at objects (a dusty dead woodlouse!) in the same way that Darwin did.
