Ɛpsilon

From John Storer to William Boyd Dawkins   [before 3 October 1875]1

[you] ⁠⟨⁠a⁠⟩⁠re a scientific naturalist, I an unscientific observer; & whatever advantages I may possess, they came solely from having spent many years in studying cattle as they are, & in noting small peculiarities of breed.

I mentioned in my last that Mr. Darwin had I believed accepted too readily Culley’s statements with regard to the continuous inter-breeding of the Chillingham cattle.—2 Stronger still is the case with regard to Clarissa, bred by Robt. Colling;— See “Anls. & Plants”— Vol. II l.17. page 118.—3 In the 1st. Vol. of the Herd Book she was entered as having six descents from Favourite (252).— But in the same Vol. her son “Grandison” was separately entered with four descents only. It wa⁠⟨⁠s⁠⟩⁠ a palpable mistake, though often since quoted, & impossible too;— for Favourite was born in 1793 or 4, & ceased to get calves in 1806 or 7.— In all subsequent editions the mistake has been corrected.—4

At the time the first vol. of the Herd Book was published (& his acct. of his cattle had been badly kept) Mr. Robt. Colling was dead,—5 so that I more than doubt the correctness of the four crosses;—no names of the dams are given, as they ought to be, & I consider the number of crosses was put down at haphazard. It is also said—“she bred valuable offspring”;—she certainly bred two bulls,—but one heifer only, & in the next generation her progeny became extinct.— I thought Mr. Darwin ought to know how badly authenticated this case, so often quoted, is—

Believe me | Yrs. very faithfully, | John Storer

Professor W. Boyd Dawkins—

incomplete

CD annotations

1.1 ⁠⟨⁠a⁠⟩⁠re … breed. 1.3] crossed pencil
2.3 Stronger … Colling;—] scored red crayon
2.3 Clarissa] underl red crayon
3.2 so that … be, 3.3] scored red crayon
3.5 she certainly … extinct.— 3.6] scored red crayon
1
The date is established by the content of the letter, some of which was referred to by CD in the second edition of Variation (see n. 4, below), and by CD’s entry in his diary stating that he finished correcting the second edition of Variation on 3 October 1875 (see CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
2
George Culley was, according to Storer, the earliest historian of the Chillingham wild cattle (Storer [1879], pp. 144–5). CD had cited Culley’s claim about long-continued interbreeding of half-wild cattle in Variation 2: 119, and kept the reference in Variation 2d ed. 2: 97.
3
In Variation 2: 118, CD had described the pedigree of Robert Colling’s shorthorn cow Clarissa, noting that ‘she yielded valuable offspring’.
4
George Coates published the General short-horned herd-book in 1822 (G. Coates 1822); subsequently, the series continued as Coates’s herd book, and a revised version covering cows from the first three volumes was published (G. Coates 1847). For a comparison of the entries on Clarissa, see G. Coates 1822, p. 235, and G. Coates 1847, p. 144. For the pedigree of Clarissa’s calf, Grandison (279), see G. Coates 1822, p. 60. CD gave Storer’s information on the pedigree of Clarissa in Variation 2d ed. 2: 96 n. 5.
5
Colling died in 1820 (ODNB).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13845,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13845