Huxley, who had not earned the nickname ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’ for nothing, verbally eviscerated Wilberforce, replying unflustered: ‘If . . . the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means & influence & yet who employs these faculties & that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.’
