0:00:25 > 0:00:27Nestled in the heart of the Fens
0:00:27 > 0:00:30is the pretty village of Swaffham Bulbeck.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32It was the home of Reverend Leonard Jenyns,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37a man who left an extremely precious gift for us today.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39He was born right here at Bottisham Hall.
0:00:41 > 0:00:42You could be forgiven for not knowing
0:00:42 > 0:00:43who Leonard Jenyns is,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46because his work has been almost totally eclipsed
0:00:46 > 0:00:49by a good friend of his - Charles Darwin,
0:00:49 > 0:00:50a man we've all heard of.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54One man has almost been completely forgotten by history,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56and the other one is a household name,
0:00:56 > 0:00:57and I'm here to find out why.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03Dr Richard Preece knows everything there is to know
0:01:03 > 0:01:05about Jenyns and Darwin,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08and I'm told it's got something to do with catching beetles.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11- Hi there. You must be Richard. - I am. You must be James.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14- I understand we're going bug hunting. I've got my net.- Indeed.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16Shall we go? Just round the corner.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20Two proper super-geeks of their generation,
0:01:20 > 0:01:22they did great science, they were great friends.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24- Yes.- Yet we know one really well,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26and I've never even heard of the other.
0:01:26 > 0:01:27How did that happen?
0:01:27 > 0:01:32Well, Jenyns was offered the opportunity to go on the Beagle,
0:01:32 > 0:01:34this voyage around the world,
0:01:34 > 0:01:36collecting specimens and so on.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40He considered this for a day
0:01:40 > 0:01:43and decided that his calling in Swaffham Bulbeck
0:01:43 > 0:01:45was the higher calling.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48But he did recommend Darwin, who was the younger man,
0:01:48 > 0:01:52nine years younger, and the rest is history, as they say.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54So where do beetles come in to this story?
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Well, both Jenyns and Darwin were avid beetle collectors,
0:01:57 > 0:01:58particularly Darwin.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00Where did he collect these beetles?
0:02:00 > 0:02:03He collected some of them right here, as well as in the Fens,
0:02:03 > 0:02:04but we can go and have a look.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09OK, this looks a good place for beetles.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12- Shall we give it a go? - Yeah - rotting wood, good sign.
0:02:12 > 0:02:13Yeah.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17I'll turn it, you see if you can catch them.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19- Oh, look - what's that? - There we are, look.
0:02:19 > 0:02:20That is a beetle.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22OK, there we are.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24They say don't work with children and animals,
0:02:24 > 0:02:26and this one appears on cue - it's amazing!
0:02:26 > 0:02:29Darwin could have been right here, looking at the same things.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31He's, like, my hero, and here, 150 years later,
0:02:31 > 0:02:32I'm doing the same thing.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38So, in 1831, Darwin set off on an ambitious voyage
0:02:38 > 0:02:41around the globe, and his findings would revolutionise
0:02:41 > 0:02:43our understanding of life on Earth.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45But back home in Cambridge,
0:02:45 > 0:02:47Jenyns set himself a remarkable task -
0:02:47 > 0:02:52making an encyclopaedic record of our own flora and fauna.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55He was a full-time vicar, and devoted to his flock,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58but he spent every moment of his spare time
0:02:58 > 0:03:01combing the local landscape, recording the different species
0:03:01 > 0:03:05and documenting their habits in his legendary notebook.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11- So here's the infamous book. - Indeed - this is it.
0:03:12 > 0:03:18So this is essentially an inventory of all the animals that were known
0:03:18 > 0:03:20in Cambridgeshire in the second quarter of the 19th century.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22So you have a snapshot in effect
0:03:22 > 0:03:24of what the ecosystem looked like at the time.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26Almost a Noah's Ark in written form.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28I think the extraordinary thing is his handwriting - look at this.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31It almost looks like it's been printed
0:03:31 > 0:03:32in some kind of handwriting font,
0:03:32 > 0:03:34and it just shows what a methodical mind
0:03:34 > 0:03:36this guy must have had.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39He records all sorts of animals in these notebooks
0:03:39 > 0:03:41that are today extremely rare.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44For example, what are we talking about?
0:03:44 > 0:03:47One example is this fish called the burbot,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50which he says here is "common in the Cam
0:03:50 > 0:03:53"and in the navigable cuts communicating with that river."
0:03:53 > 0:03:58So this is one of the last burbot ever collected in this country.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01It still lives on the Continent, but in Britain
0:04:01 > 0:04:04it became extinct in about 1970,
0:04:04 > 0:04:06- and that's the last one. - That's amazing.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09Jenyns has left us vital information
0:04:09 > 0:04:12to understand how the nature around us has changed.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17By comparing the species he saw over 100 years ago
0:04:17 > 0:04:19with what we can or can't find now,
0:04:19 > 0:04:24we get vital clues as to how things like climate change and agriculture
0:04:24 > 0:04:27transform the natural world we know and love.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34I think you need to be a really special kind of person
0:04:34 > 0:04:36to not only be that excited about nature,
0:04:36 > 0:04:40but also that's dedicated to this almost creepy level
0:04:40 > 0:04:42of methodical detail of which he noted it down
0:04:42 > 0:04:45in this 19th-century version of a spreadsheet.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48But it's that detail and it's that dedication
0:04:48 > 0:04:50that means that information is so useful
0:04:50 > 0:04:52and so valuable to us today.