Freeman's Life of Kir by. 3537 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Life of the Rev. William Kirby* 



We scarcely know a more inviting subject than the Life of Kirby — 

 a man whose quiet unpretending character, and great knowledge of 

 Natural History, obtained from all fellow-labourers the most unbound- 

 ed respect and love. It required a master's hand to trace the likeness 

 of such a character on the printed page, so that all who once knew 

 him might exclaim " How like ! " Whether Mr. Freeman has done 

 this ; whether he has succeeded in representing this truly christian 

 naturalist with perfect accuracy ; whether he has not brought forward 

 slender polemical powers in too prominent relief; whether family pe- 

 digree has not been too elaborately worked out ; we leave others to 

 decide : for ourselves, we regret to learn that our Kirby, the natural- 

 ises Kirby, was ever a hot controversialist ; and we care not one straw 

 that his mother was nineteenth cousin to a peer, and of the purest 

 blood of the Medewes ; neither do we see anything at all deplorable 

 in the fact that Kirby himself should have married a pretty little Me- 

 thodist, whose parents, although " none are so chained and fettered 

 in the operation of their mind n as the sect to which they belonged, 

 freely allowed their daughter " to follow her own inclination in consi- 

 dering herself a member of the Church of England." To what does 

 all this amount, but that the little village beauty was glad enough to 

 give up methodism, or any other ism, so that she could catch a nice 

 young parson, of prepossessing countenance, of comfortable means, 

 and of unblemished reputation ? Pretty Sally Ripper proved a good 

 and true wife to William Kirby, although we cannot find that Mr. 

 Freeman has traced back her pedigree to the peerage. There is how- 

 ever one point which speaks volumes in favour of the naturalist : Mr. 

 and Mrs. Ripper, the dissenters, the ex-grocers, the parents of Sarah 

 Kirby, u spent the evening of their days in the quiet repose of Barham 

 parsonage." But our business here is with Kirby as an entomolo- 

 gist, the character in which he is best known to the readers of the 

 * Zoologist.' 



We have already, in a brief memoir of Mr. Kirby, explained how 

 his attention was first turned to Entomology ; we now repeat it in his 

 own words : — 



* ' Life of the Rev. William Kirby, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c., Rector of Barham.' 

 By John Freeman, M.A., Rural Dean, Rector of Ash wicken, Norfolk. London: 

 Longmans 1852. 



x. 2g 



