Life in the slow lane
THE least celebrated British global champion is probably the terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc Sammy. Bred in Grantham by amateur trainer Maria Welby, this prime example of Cornu aspersum, carrying the number 36, triumphed in the 25th annual World Snail Racing Championship that was held last July on the cricket field at Congham in Norfolk, beating the 12 fellow finalists remaining after 202 other entrants had been eliminated (‘Ready, steady, slow!’, August 15, 2018). On a damp cloth atop a table, Sammy covered the 13in course in 2mins 38secs, swift enough for the day, but well short of the internationally accepted snail’s pace of 0.029mph.
However, set aside the English taste for eccentricity. Snails have been the subject of mystique and respect in distant times and their multifarious forms have attracted intense biological investigation throughout the scientific era. For early Christians, snails symbolised the sin of laziness. Yet, in the Renaissance era, as no one could imagine how snails could reproduce, theya snail making its way from Gabriel to Mary—and Carlo Crivelli’s altarpieces.
