SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



127 



DARWIN AT SHREWSBURY. 

 By John T. Carringtox. 



'TPHE history of the Darwin Statue at Shrews- 

 bury is rather a long story, and not 

 altogether creditable to the town which was 

 honoured by his birth. The narrowness of some 

 of its townsmen, and we may say their ignorance 

 of Darwin's great work, was sufficient for a con- 

 siderable time to crush the proposals to place 

 within the borough a public memorial to his 

 memory. Letters and articles appeared in the 

 local newspapers 

 advocating the 

 project, but the 

 influence of those 

 who knew that 

 '• Darwin said 

 we were all de- 

 scended from 

 apes " was too 

 strong. 



It was not until 

 January, 1894. 

 that a public 

 meeting was 

 called to discuss 

 the subject, 

 which led to a 

 second meeting 

 being held in the 

 following May, 

 when the leading 

 lay and clerical 

 inhabitants gave 

 their supp 

 committee was 

 then formed to 

 obtain subscrip- 

 and several 

 large sums were 

 promised, 

 real heart seemed 

 to be in the 

 for it dragged 

 along for a couple 

 of years until 



January. 1896, when no more than /' 

 been raised. Such sum was quite I to 



pay for any statue suitable to ihc memory of so 

 great a citizen 



It was then that th< 'ural 



Society, mindful of 

 *>. came ■ 



■ 

 ated to r. 



1 



Photo, by] 



thing on the part of that patriotic committee was 

 to commission a native of Shrewsbury, Mr. Horace 

 Montford, the well-known London sculptor, to 

 execute the work. He is, as all artists know, the 

 Curator of the Sculpture Schools of the Royal 

 Academy. 



Mr. Montford has been highly successful in his 

 portrait of the eminent philosopher. Several 

 persons of consequence who knew Mr. Darwin in life 



assisted with 

 suggestions as to 

 pose and features, 

 not the least 

 among these 

 being Darwin's 

 own son, Pro- 

 fessor Francis 

 Darwin, and 

 other members of 

 the family. The 

 result has been 

 most gratifying, 

 and will per- 

 petuate the like- 

 ness of one of 

 the greatest men 

 the world has 

 produced. 



The general 

 plan of the statue 

 is the representa- 

 tion of its subject 

 as he appeared 

 in the privacy of 

 his study at the 

 picturesque little 

 village of Down, 

 among the Kent- 

 ish hills. The 

 face shows the 

 powerful intel- 

 lect it masked, 

 the features are 

 admirably drawn 

 wiih the pression of gentleness and 



marked in the original. Surrounded 

 books and papers in orderly confusion, hi 

 sits in a massive < I 1 bellished I >v ornamental 

 -,: ing I 1 I iti itudii 1 < In one 



tide an I her sid < I"' 1 



v.iih a bee carryin of fercilizii thi 



flower'. he back of the chali 1 filled 



ii' v, to remind our 

 alisl 



W'auiiton, Shrewsbury. 

 The Darwin Statue: at Shrbwi 



