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For Victorian Britons, George
Bradshaw was a household name.

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At a time when railways were new,
Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them

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to take to the tracks.

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I'm using a Bradshaw's guide to
understand how trains transformed

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Britain - its landscape,
its industries, society

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and leisure time.

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As I crisscross the country
150 years later, it helps me

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to discover the Britain of today.

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I'm now concluding a journey that
began in West Wales

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and will end in East Anglia.

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Today I want to learn about how the
Victorians pioneered moving images,

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the forerunners to cinema
and television,

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and how a Cambridge graduate
developed the most original theory

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since the creation.

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This week I have travelled from east
to west across Bradshaw's Britain.

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I began in Pembrokeshire
and moved across South Wales to

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Herefordshire
and on to the Cotswolds.

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I passed through Oxford,
the city of dreaming spires,

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and traversed Bedfordshire.

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And I will finish at another
academic citadel.

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On this leg of my journey, my first
stop will be Oakham from where

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I'll head east to handsome Stamford
then on south to Peterborough

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before ending my journey at the
great university city of Cambridge.

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Today I get to grips with
a Victorian melodrama...

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It's a story about a signalman who
gets the opportunity

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to either save his son or
crash a train.

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HE GASPS

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..hear ghoulish hospital tales...

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Something like an amputation would

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have taken round about 2-3 minutes,
have to work extremely fast.

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..and learn about the student
days of Charles Darwin.

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These are the actual
beetles that he gave him

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so much pleasure and so much
obsession

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when he was an undergraduate.

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This is absolutely stunning!

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My first stop will be
Oakham in Rutland.

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Bradshaw's draws my attention to
the Shire Hall which "stands

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"within the ruined walls of the old
castle founded by the Ferrers

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"family soon after the conquest.

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"Over the gates are
several gilded horseshoes

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"with the names of noblemen by whom
they had been given.

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"It had been quite an immemorial
custom to ask every peer

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"who visits the town for one
or else to pay a fine."

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All this talk of horses and gifts
has me quite intrigued.

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Oakham is a market town dating
back to Anglo Saxon times.

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At its heart lies a 16th-century
butter cross

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where butter was traded
and clergymen preached.

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Not far from the town is
a traditional blacksmith's,

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which now produces ornamental
and architectural ironwork.

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It is not often called upon to
produce a gilded horseshoe

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but it retains the skill to do so.

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I'm meeting the owner, John Spence.

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Hello, John. Very good to see you.
Likewise.

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Bradshaw's Guide tells me
about these horseshoes at Shire Hall

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and I understand you know
a bit about them.

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Yes, I've made a few
horseshoes in my time there.

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By the way, how long has your family
business been going, then?

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We've been going as a business
since 1896. I'm 5th generation

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continuous father to son,
father to son.

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And how many horseshoes have you
personally made for the castle?

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Four horseshoes.
And who were they for?

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Well, there was Prince Charles,

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Princess Alexandra, and the last one,

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the Duchess of Cornwall,
we've just done recently.

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John's company made its first
horseshoe for the Shire Hall

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in 1981 in a manner recognisable
to blacksmiths down the ages.

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My horseshoe today has been cut
out with a laser.

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But that's where the hi-tech stops.

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The letters have been welded on
and will be decorated by hand.

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John that is absolutely lovely.
"Great Railway Journeys 2014"

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and a fantastic locomotive.
Is this finished?

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Yes, well,
the letters need painting black.

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Well, you've gone to so much
trouble,

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would you mind if I just give you
a hand

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by painting a couple of
these letters?

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Have you got any pointers for me,
what should I be doing here?

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Don't get too much paint on your
brush.

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And I say, they're quite intricate,
and they're quite small as well.

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Quite fiddly.

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Let's hope my paintwork
will pass muster

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at Oakham Castle's Shire Hall,

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one of England's finest examples

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of late 12th-century domestic
architecture.

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Mr Leader of Rutland County Council.

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Though I am not a peer, sir,
but the most humble commoner

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I have the honour to present
a horseshoe to Oakham Castle.

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Thank you so much.

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Normally, it's a member of nobility
we would receive this from,

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but today we're very happy
to receive it

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from a member of nobility
of the media!

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Thank you very much indeed.

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This is the most
extraordinary building.

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Tell me, how did this tradition
of the horseshoes begin?

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It seems to date right back from
when the hall was built

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by the Norman barons only 100 years
after the Norman conquest,

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and they were the barons who
were in charge of shoeing all the

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horses of William the Conqueror's
army. They had this tradition

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that if somebody passed across their
lands and wouldn't pay their tolls,

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they could take a horseshoe off of
them, so they couldn't get through.

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So, it seems to have grown up
from this into this incredible

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tradition that we've got here.

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The very oldest one that we have
is 1470 one from Edward IV

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given during the Wars Of The Roses,
an incredible amount of time ago.

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And in the middle here,

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clearly Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II.

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Queen Victoria here?

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She is indeed, there's a matching
pair of two horseshoes

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on the left, Queen Victoria's mother

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and on the right was Queen Victoria
herself

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when she was still
Princess Alexandrina Victoria.

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The hall is very sparsely furnished,
but what are these benches for?

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This is the oldest serving courtroom
in the country dating back to 1229.

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It is still used.
It is used every other year,

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we have a visit from a judge...

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What, regular trials?
Regular trial.

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I can imagine that some severe
justice has been dispensed here

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over the centuries.

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Now look, I feel very embarrassed
about this

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cos I didn't know there was such
distinguished company

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and I brought my humble horseshoe.

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What will you do with it? Have you
got a basement you can put it in?

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Certainly not! But we do have a spot
over there,

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which is in a prominent
position beneath

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the Duke of Wellington which we
thought would be appropriate for you.

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I am overwhelmed. Thank you.

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A distinguished spot
among illustrious company.

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An honour indeed.

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My journey takes me eastwards
towards Stamford in Lincolnshire.

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"Stamford," says my Bradshaw's,

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"is pleasantly situated on the banks
of the Welland River.

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"It is remarkably picturesque."

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So much so that it has often been
used as a location for film-making

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and I want to understand
how the Victorians

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whetted our appetite for the movies.

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I shall begin around the
"many handsome public edifices

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"among which we may mention the
theatre and the assembly rooms."

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Stamford today is a prosperous
market town

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and a magnet for tourists who come
to appreciate its medieval inns

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and handsome Georgian stone
buildings.

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'Jill Collinge is to be my guide.'

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There are lots of places that were
pretty in Victorian times,

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but not so very much today.

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Why does Stamford remain
so beautiful?

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It's because of the railways.

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The Great Northern Railway should
have been coming through the town.

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There was opposition
from the local lord of the manor,

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the Marquess of Exeter,
who was very opposed to change.

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Earl Fitzwilliam in Peterborough
really encouraged the Great Northern

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to go to Peterborough,
which of course it did.

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This caused great trouble amongst
the businessmen

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of the day in Stamford,
but nevertheless

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because of these building
restrictions,

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Stamford avoided any ravages
of Industrial Revolution.

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So, today you see very much an
18th and early-Victorian town.

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And for that very reason,
it has been chosen again and again

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as a location for filming.

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George Eliot's novel Middlemarch
was filmed by the BBC here

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about 18 or so years ago
and it was a wonderful backdrop

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for the film to take place, very
little had to be changed in the town.

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And Pride And Prejudice, the most
recent filming has been done here

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on two main streets that are used
often for the filming.

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It was a beautiful backdrop.

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That was the 1790s that
that was being filmed in.

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So we're very lucky.

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I'm heading for what were,
in the 18th century,

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the assembly rooms
on St George's Square

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and also home to one of England's
earliest provincial theatres.

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Today, it's an arts centre.

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Richard Rigby knows all about
a very early form of cinema,

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which was enormously popular in
Bradshaw's day - the magic lantern.

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I quite like to dress extrovertly,
but what are you dressed as?

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I dress as a showman. I am a magic
lanternist and we all...

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we all put on a bit of a show.

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I love the hat particularly.
Do you mind if wear your spare?

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Oh, I'd be delighted. It will go very
well with your jacket.

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Right, I'm ready for the show.

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So magic lanternists, what,
they would go from town to town

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giving performances, would they?

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Yes, they were known as
'galante' men.

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They go all over Europe and

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they would project onto
any whitewashed wall

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or just a sheet of muslin.

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Of course, it had to be dark

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because all they had
as an illuminant would be a candle.

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What's the earliest slide you have
got? Ah! That's this one here.

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It's a panorama -
Christmas dinner in the big house.

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That is slid through the lantern,
hence the word 'slide'.

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Ha! And that goes right back to
1640, 1650, that sort of time.

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What other sorts of moving
image did they develop?

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We've got Mr Pickwick here.

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See if you can get him
to skip for me.

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MICHAEL LAUGHS

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Isn't that lovely. Marvellous.

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Magic lantern performances became
hugely popular entertainment,

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and played an important part
in educating Victorian society.

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They were used to tell Bible stories
and by the Temperance movement

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as well as to demonstrate
scientific principles.

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Remember, these were more
important than books

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because most people couldn't read,
but they could understand a picture.

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Richard has offered to put
on a magic lantern show for me today

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in the old theatre, opened
first in 1768 and reopened in 1978.

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We have set up a little
Victorian melodrama.

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It's a story about signalman who has
the most dreadful dilemma.

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He gets the opportunity to either
save his son or crash a train.

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00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:05,240
HE GASPS
Would you like to do the reading

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00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:08,040
and I will operate the lantern?
I would love to. Excellent.

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00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:12,680
"I have been in the box from
a youngster,

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"and I've never felt the strain
of the lives

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"which my right hand
held in every passing train.

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00:13:19,760 --> 00:13:22,560
"That day, the missus went shopping,

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"took the train to the city.

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"So she settled to leave me Johnny.

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00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:29,520
"The boy would be safe with me.

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"It was rare, hard work at Christmas
with trains from ere and yon.

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00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:40,920
"With a start, I thought of Johnny
and I saw the boy was gone.

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00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:45,920
"'Twas 100 lives or Johnny's.

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"Oh, heaven, what should I do?

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"On the wind came the words,
'Your duty!

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"'To that you must always be true.'"

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"She had seen him just as the engine
of the Limited closed my view

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"and she leapt on the line
and saved him

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00:14:03,680 --> 00:14:06,400
"just as the train dashed through.

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Happy ending.

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Fantastic Victorian melodrama
brought to life on the big screen.

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After a good night's sleep,
I'm heading back to the station.

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00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:30,960
I've heard that there's a bookshop

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00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:34,640
that could be of particular
interest to me and I can't resist.

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00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:40,960
Do you deal in antique books about
trains as well as modern books?

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00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:44,640
Yes, yes, we do. That's how
the business started.

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00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:49,000
I wonder if there are any old
copies of Bradshaw's here.

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00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:50,720
Aha!

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00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:57,040
Bradshaw Timetable for November 1896.

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00:14:57,040 --> 00:14:58,880
I would think a timetable for 1896

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is somewhat limited in its
usefulness!

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00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:05,720
Well, it's not useful for today,
but it is a historical document.

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00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:09,200
It shows the passenger services
as they were at that time.

237
00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:12,440
Well, let me give you back that
very precious Bradshaw

238
00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:15,760
as I continue my journey with mine.

239
00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:17,720
Great pleasure to see you. Goodbye.

240
00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:30,600
From Stamford my train will take me
out of Lincolnshire,

241
00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:33,840
south east to Cambridgeshire
and the city of Peterborough.

242
00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:40,840
Bradshaw's is not exactly
enticing about Peterborough.

243
00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:44,640
"The country is flat
and uninteresting in winter.

244
00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:47,560
"It has but one church
beside the cathedral,

245
00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:50,840
"which is the only object of
interest."

246
00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:53,240
But more relevantly it tells me that
Peterborough is on

247
00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:58,120
the Great Northern Line where three
or four other lines strike off.

248
00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:01,000
At this important junction, I think
it might be the right place

249
00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:05,360
to think about the conditions
of Victorian railway workers

250
00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:07,560
and in particular what
happened to them

251
00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:11,320
when they were injured during the
course of their dangerous work.

252
00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:16,360
With the opening of the line to
Peterborough by the London

253
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:22,400
and Birmingham Railway in 1845,
the cathedral city began to expand.

254
00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:25,360
The Great Northern Line
arrived five years later

255
00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:29,640
and transformed it from a market
town to an industrial centre.

256
00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:32,760
The area became Britain's leading
producer of bricks,

257
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:35,920
clay being plentiful in the area.

258
00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:40,040
Despite Bradshaw's reservations,
I think the city rather grand

259
00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:43,040
with an abundance of stately
buildings.

260
00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:45,520
I'm on my way to one now.

261
00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:48,400
Opened in the centre
of town in 1857,

262
00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:52,560
the Peterborough Infirmary was
the city's first hospital.

263
00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:55,280
Today the building houses
the city's museum,

264
00:16:55,280 --> 00:16:58,160
but evidence of its former
use has been preserved.

265
00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:01,600
I have come to meet
Stuart Orme to find out more.

266
00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:05,680
Stuart, this lovely building doesn't
feel like an infirmary.

267
00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:08,800
It has the feel of an elegant
town house.

268
00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:10,360
Well, it was an elegant town house,

269
00:17:10,360 --> 00:17:13,000
of course, before being the first
hospital in Peterborough.

270
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:15,040
And you'll have come in through
the front door,

271
00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:18,000
that was the main entrance
for emergency patients

272
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:20,600
and also for men coming into
the hospital.

273
00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:23,320
The back door, which is down here
at the bottom of the staircase,

274
00:17:23,320 --> 00:17:25,280
which is now the entrance
to our art gallery,

275
00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:28,360
that was the women's entrance.
So, Victorian values, of course,

276
00:17:28,360 --> 00:17:30,400
men and women having separate
entrances.

277
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:33,040
So, of course, there's no naughty
touching going on

278
00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:34,680
as patients inside the building.

279
00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:37,960
From the outset,
the main users of the hospital

280
00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:40,560
were railwaymen injured at work.

281
00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:43,160
So vulnerable were
they to accidents that they

282
00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:47,040
and their families began an early
form of health insurance.

283
00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:50,760
They paid a penny a week
into a medical fund.

284
00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:54,200
The injuries suffered by railway
workers toiling amid heavy

285
00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:58,680
machinery all too often resulted
in peremptory amputations.

286
00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:02,120
Upstairs, the hospital's original
operating theatre

287
00:18:02,120 --> 00:18:04,360
has been preserved.

288
00:18:04,360 --> 00:18:08,960
Ah! Absolutely macabre and creepy!

289
00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:13,280
'It's chilling to imagine
conditions for patients here.'

290
00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:15,440
Well, of course, this was far
more sophisticated

291
00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:18,400
than your railwaymen in the 1850s
would have been used to.

292
00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:22,160
This is actually dating to the 1890s
and the beginnings of modern surgery.

293
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:26,160
Back in 1850s, you would have been
treated in the patient waiting room

294
00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:28,600
downstairs, so you imagine
sort of people sitting there

295
00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:31,720
waiting to see their doctors, the
curtain pulled across the room and

296
00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:34,600
somebody brought in for an amputation
on the other side of curtain,

297
00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:36,600
which wouldn't have been a pleasant
prospect

298
00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:38,880
for either of the people concerned,
I would suspect.

299
00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:42,640
And certainly railway workers
working on dirty yards,

300
00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,080
a significant problem is going
to be of infection,

301
00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:48,440
so therefore the only solution you've
really got is to actually amputate

302
00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:50,960
the limb altogether.
And the operations themselves

303
00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:52,720
would have been very crude.

304
00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:56,600
So with a surgical knife like this
being used to sever your way

305
00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:59,600
through the flesh, so you could get
down to the layers bone underneath.

306
00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:02,520
Generally speaking, something
like an amputation would have

307
00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:04,320
taken around about 2-3 minutes.

308
00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:08,080
Have to work extremely fast
and extremely precise because you're

309
00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,920
quite literally worried about your
patient either dying of shock

310
00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:12,960
or bleeding to death
on the operating table

311
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:14,960
because of course, they're conscious.

312
00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:18,600
So once you've got through the flesh,

313
00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:22,400
then you move on to removing
the bone underneath.

314
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:26,280
You've left behind a flap of skin
which you can fold over

315
00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:29,600
and hopefully create a pad
for the wound.

316
00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:34,200
During Queen Victoria's reign,
medicine passed many milestones

317
00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:37,360
as research
and experimentation advanced.

318
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:42,080
One of earliest developments
was the use of anaesthetics

319
00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:45,800
as a result of which you get the use
of these sorts of things.

320
00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:48,560
Place over the nose and mouth
of the patient

321
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:51,640
and then you can put a few drops
of chloroform on to the outside

322
00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:54,600
and they're out for the count.
Meaning that you can do much more

323
00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:57,400
sophisticated, invasive surgery
and don't have to worry about

324
00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:00,600
the patient immediately expiring
from shock.

325
00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:05,360
But the biggest concern in medical
practice was the risk of infection.

326
00:20:05,360 --> 00:20:10,240
During the 1860s, Dr Joseph Lister
began to use carbolic acid

327
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:12,520
to disinfect operating theatres.

328
00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:17,480
So what he does is he arranges within
his surgical procedures

329
00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:21,640
that there is a sort of dilute spray,
5% carbolic, sprayed from something

330
00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:24,040
that's like a brass garden sprayer.

331
00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:27,560
That spray all over the room
literally saturating patients,

332
00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:30,080
the nurses, the doctors,
everything in carbolic,

333
00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:31,640
but at least it kills the germs.

334
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:34,880
By end of the 19th century, there's
a realisation you can go one stage

335
00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:38,520
further - rather than just killing
the germs, you can try and eradicate

336
00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:40,880
them and make sure they're not there
in the first place.

337
00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:44,000
Hence now we've got nice white clean
surfaces with the walls

338
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:48,440
in here, white, clean floor. It makes
it easier to keep the place clean

339
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:51,360
and make sure there are no germs
in here in first place.

340
00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:53,720
How big a change does it make, then?

341
00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:57,680
Back in 1830s, you probably
stood at best 50-50 chance

342
00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:02,600
of surviving an operation. By the
1890s, it's about a 2.5% death rate.

343
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:06,560
So, it's basically a dramatic
shift in half a century.

344
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:09,800
So, the Victorians preside over the
most enormous advance in surgery?

345
00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:12,640
Absolutely. It's one of those
quantum leap periods

346
00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:16,720
of technology, if you like, in terms
of surgery and surgical technique

347
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,760
and of course, importantly
the survival rates thereafter.

348
00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:26,600
It seems that the Victorians
established the principles

349
00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:29,080
of theatre practice as we know it
today.

350
00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:36,720
'The final leg of my journey
takes me

351
00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:39,920
'southeast to my undergraduate
stomping ground.'

352
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:44,720
"The University of Cambridge,"
says Bradshaw's,

353
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,120
"is second to no other
in Europe in any single

354
00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:53,520
"department of literature,
and in mathematics has no rivals."

355
00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:56,520
I'm on my way to Christ's College,
which Bradshaw's tells me

356
00:21:56,520 --> 00:22:02,800
was founded in 1442 and has two
courts, one rebuilt by Inigo Jones.

357
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:07,280
The purpose of the university is
to teach its students to think.

358
00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:10,560
I'm going to Christ's in pursuit
of one who thought back to

359
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:13,720
first principles to the very
origins of life.

360
00:22:19,360 --> 00:22:22,760
Cambridge is a small and
architecturally beautiful city,

361
00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:26,120
which grew up as an inland
port on the River Cam.

362
00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:32,960
The mix of colleges, churches,
bridges and gardens have made it

363
00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:35,440
an attractive and popular
place to visit.

364
00:22:40,120 --> 00:22:45,120
Founded in 1209, the university
today has 31 colleges.

365
00:22:45,120 --> 00:22:49,200
Charles Darwin
came to Christ's College in 1828.

366
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:53,320
I want to learn about the author
of On The Origin Of Species.

367
00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:01,400
Most of us know Charles Darwin
from the photograph of him

368
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:04,560
as an older man with a big,
bushy beard.

369
00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:08,440
But the Charles Darwin who had rooms
at Christ's looked like this,

370
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:12,440
and the intellect that developed
the theory of evolution

371
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:13,800
was nurtured here.

372
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:22,520
I'm heading to the handsome library,
which holds over 80,000 books

373
00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:26,680
and manuscripts and serves students,
fellows, researchers and staff.

374
00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:32,320
'I believe it also hold records
of Darwin's of student days.'

375
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:35,360
Amelie, hello. Hello.

376
00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:38,400
'College librarian Amelie Roper
has agreed to show me

377
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:39,840
'some items of interest.'

378
00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:45,360
So here we have letters documenting
his great passion

379
00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:46,920
for beetle collecting.

380
00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:51,240
So here we have a letter
to his cousin Fox.

381
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:53,920
So you can see it begins, "My dear
Fox," and then he's saying,

382
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:58,280
"I'm dying by inches from not having
anyone to talk to about insects."

383
00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:00,600
HE LAUGHS
That's marvellous.

384
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:02,200
It's lovely, isn't it?

385
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,000
Now, change of handwriting here,
is this someone different?

386
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:06,880
No, this is still Darwin,

387
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:11,440
but this is some 30 years later.
So, this is 1858 now.

388
00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,880
And this actually records the time
when his son William

389
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:19,440
started at Christ's
and this is a very evocative letter.

390
00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:22,520
"I was in old court,
middle staircase

391
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,000
"on right-hand going into court

392
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:29,640
"up one flight, right-hand door
and capital rooms they were."

393
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:35,440
I'm keen to see
these 'capital' rooms

394
00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:38,280
and have arranged to meet
there the Curator of Insects,

395
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:42,440
Dr William Foster,
of the University Museum of Zoology.

396
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:43,880
OK, so here we are. Thank you.

397
00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:51,560
Charles Darwin's undergraduate
rooms are beautifully preserved.

398
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,560
Darwin studied for a Bachelor
of Arts degree at Christ's

399
00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:00,200
and his interest in natural
sciences began as a hobby.

400
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:03,840
Rumour had it that initially he was
not a particularly conscientious

401
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:08,040
student, enjoying the finer things
of life like hunting and dining.

402
00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:12,880
Where does the story begin, William?

403
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,600
Well, the story begins with Darwin
being at Cambridge.

404
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:19,840
And as you've already heard, his big
passion was collecting beetles.

405
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:22,680
I mean, nothing else that he did at
Cambridge excited him so much.

406
00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:26,000
So, these are the actual beetles
that gave him so much pleasure

407
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,600
and so much obsession when he was
an undergraduate.

408
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:31,760
This is absolutely stunning
to see so many...

409
00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:34,560
Well, hundreds of them in there.
It was very fashionable for

410
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:39,680
biologists in that period to collect
things in a kind of competitive way.

411
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:43,400
Beetles are good. Lots of species,
easy to preserve,

412
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:46,280
and people were collecting them.

413
00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:50,880
In 1831,
Darwin set sail aboard HMS Beagle.

414
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,480
During the two-year voyage around
the world, he collected

415
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:58,240
thousands of specimens -
among them, Galapagos finches.

416
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:00,760
Darwin noticed that the
songbirds on the different

417
00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:05,160
islands in the Galapagos, while
similar, showed variations in size,

418
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:08,360
beaks and claws from island
to island.

419
00:26:08,360 --> 00:26:10,840
He would later conclude that,
because the islands

420
00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:13,560
are isolated from each other
and from the mainland,

421
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:16,840
the finches on each island had
adapted to local conditions

422
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:18,200
over time.

423
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:21,880
I think importance of Beagle finches
to Darwin's ideas of evolution has

424
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:27,120
been hugely exaggerated. Really? He
himself was a little bit unsure about

425
00:26:27,120 --> 00:26:30,640
the identifications of what island
they came from, so he didn't want to

426
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:33,800
erect any kind of false hypotheses
on the basis of the finches.

427
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:36,400
It was more that his theory
helped explain the finches

428
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,320
than his finches helped
explain his theory.

429
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:43,320
'After his Beagle voyage,
Darwin spent eight years studying

430
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:44,560
'marine invertebrates.'

431
00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:50,720
From 1846 to 1854 he worked
on barnacles, the Cirrepedia.

432
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,800
By really studying one group,
he began to realise

433
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:57,840
that the boundaries between species
was not as immutable and absolute

434
00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,320
as everybody had thought at the time.

435
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:04,480
This work on the variation
in a species helped him to formulate

436
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:08,560
his theory of evolution,
incorporated in the famous book

437
00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:11,640
that changed the world's view
of life.

438
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,920
I am rather in awe of this object
here.

439
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:18,360
This is the first edition of
On The Origin Of Species, 1859.

440
00:27:18,360 --> 00:27:22,680
All things considered, what is
the significance of this book?

441
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:27,600
I think this book is the most
important book ever written.

442
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:29,600
After this, nothing was
the ever same again.

443
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:33,320
Human beings were no longer, could no
longer consider themselves special,

444
00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:34,840
at the centre of the universe.

445
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:38,400
We are one species amongst millions,
evolved from them,

446
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:41,640
and things will evolve from us.
Everything changed after this.

447
00:27:47,120 --> 00:27:51,000
My journey that
began in West Wales ends here.

448
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:52,960
As we know from our own age,

449
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:56,640
progress in communications
is revolutionary.

450
00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,080
In the 19th century, it was
the spread of the railways

451
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:04,240
and other developments such as in
photography as I saw in Swansea.

452
00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:07,360
But nothing
is as powerful as an idea.

453
00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:11,280
At a time when religions
of the Bible were universal,

454
00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:15,000
the theory of a graduate of this
college, Charles Darwin,

455
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,120
shook Bradshaw's world to its roots.

456
00:28:18,120 --> 00:28:22,520
The scholarship of the Victorians
is their most important legacy.