RECORD: Anon. 1868. [Review of Variation]. Natural inheritance. Leicester Chronicle (27 October): 2. 

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 10.2022. RN1


[page] 2

Natural inheritance.— In reading Mr. Darwin's most valuable and interesting work, "The Variation of Plants and Animals, " &c., the following circumstance recurred to my memory. One day, many years ago, the late Mr. T. Crofton Croker showed me the portrait in an old book, concealing the title-page, and asked me did I know anyone whom it was like? "To be sure I do," said I, "it is the very image of John Herrick." The book was the Poems of Robert Herrick, and printed in the middle of seventeenth century; and John Herrick was a gentleman living in the county of Cork, whom we both knew. He always asserted that he was of the same family as the poet; and as the latter had, I believe, no children, he could not be his descendent, and so the likeness must have come from a more remote ancestor. As far as I know, none of J. Herrick's family had the same cast of countenance. I think I have read somewhere that, in the present century, a lady descended from the Wicliff family bore a striking resemblance to the reformer.—

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Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

File last updated 10 November, 2022