Darwin, his theory and Down House Written by Pam Preedy. In the little village of Downe^ lived one of the greatest scientists, Charles Darwin, who wrote ‘On the Origin of Species’ published in 1859. He was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin and he proposed different aspects of what later would become evolutionary theory or ‘survival of the fittest’. Born in 1809, Darwin lived in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. from a young age he was fascinated by nature, reading books on the subject and exploring the fields and woodlands around his home and…