Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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In Darwin's house
Charles Darwin on the porch of Down House, Kent
Over the weekend I visited Down House in Kent, the home of Charles Darwin, which is a English Heritage site and open to the public.
This large country house retains all the fascinating character of a 19th century home where Darwin and his wife Emma brought up 10 children and he worked on his theory of natural selection and evolution. He spent his days in a well ordered schedule of working in his study, walking his gravel 'thinking path' and playing with his family. An earlier 'gap year' that turned into a 5 year tour of the world with 18 months at sea, started him on a train of thought and experimenting that lasted twenty years before the publication of his radical book 'On the Origin of Species' in 1859. His study room has all the character and interesting paraphernalia of a 19th century scientist with old leather-bound books, bones, skulls and microscopes.
His book 'On the Origin of Species' introduced his concept of natural selection and how humans descended from the ape over millions of years. Interestingly, the 19th century morals and attitude, that even insisted on table legs being covered by table cloths for the sake of modesty, found his theory hard to accept. One lady apparently said 'Have you heard about Darwin's shocking book where he says we have descended from apes? Let's hope it's not true. And if it is, let's hope they don't tell anybody!'
I enjoyed walking around his house on only two feet, being reminded of our prehistoric ape connections. The experience brought to mind and related to the nature of my own work in the Alexander Technique, where I help people free themselves of posture habits and improve balance and natural poise...on two feet. It was a grand day out.
As it happens, I mentioned to my first client this morning that I'd been to Charles Darwin's house at the weekend and she quickly responded by saying that a good friend of hers is a direct descendant of Darwin and has the same surname. Sometimes the world feels very small...
Darwin's study at Down House.
