1105

We had been trying to buy a house all the summer & had been disappointed at losing a chance of buying a very pretty place "The Hermitage near Woking — so that we had become impatient, & fixed upon a place which had no great charms — a common place looking square house of 3 storeys standing on rather a nice lawn with complete exposure to the S W in a flat field with some good ashes & beeches on it. A row of good limes trees very near the house on the N. side & a fine mulberry on the S. were the only pleasant features. The lane ran close by the house & we lowered it as much as 2ft & employed the earth in making an embankment at the back of the lime trees so as to shut off the N. & E. winds, & also a mound to the S. W. — wh. was planted w. flexes laurels — all the shrubs grew very fast on this made soil, & now the place is more snug & sheltered than most — At the edge of the table land on which the village and house stand are steep valleys crowned at the top with old hedges & hedgerows very disorderly & picturesque & with enormous clusters of Clematis & blackberries and a great var. of yews, service, &c – Under one of these was a flat terrace which made a very pretty walk for pacing & where I used to sit while Charles took several turns — The green valley was crowned on the opposite side with a wood, & also a similar shaw —

The pathway towards Holwood Park was a favorite walk — part of it along the top of a very abrupt hill the shaw full of rather good beeches, & down which ran a shady lane where we always heard nightingales in the right season — They never came near the house or on the flat table lane, except sometimes at the end of the "sand walk" a narrow strip of wood which we planted at the edge of our field, & which with its irregular hedge & some good oaks, turned out in time a very pleasant addition to the place — on one side shady, & on the other w. the pleasant view across the wide field over looking the valley —

The fields to the East of the house were pleasant & led to a steep wood called Hangrove — very full of primroses, & at the foot of it a steep grassy bank which we called Orchis bank as there were always many Orchises to be found there. It was a great event which only happened twice — that of finding a bird's nest Orchis in the wood.

Cudham church stands at the top of a very steep hill & makes a striking object from this side of the valley —

A rough shed or summer house was built at the end of the Sand walk, & there our old Scotch nurse used to sit by the hour knitting while children played about — George building an elaborate fort of the red clay which he got out of a pit close by — & all of them running round the steep bank & coming home very red w. the clay — C. & I often walking round & joining them to see what was going on —

My chief impression of the first year is that we enjoyed the intense quiet, as we knew no one, & that we were dismayed at the want of shelter & great windiness of the place — In the following spring we sat in fine weather on the lawn & watched the front wall of the drawing room being pulled down, to make a bow to that room & the 2 sets of rooms above — We have enlarged the house at 4 different times, each time protesting it should be the last —

Holwood Park, in the neighbouring parish of Keston, was home during much of the period when the Darwins were at Down to the Whig politician and Lord Chancellor, Baron Cranworth; according to Emma, Charles enjoyed light-heartedly flirting with Lady Cranworth.

The 'orchis bank ' was of great use to Darwin when, in 1861, he became intrigued by the 'various contrivances by which ... orchids are fertilised by insects' : he published an important book on the subject the following year. Jon Topham.