56(5 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES, 



Jeffrey, a British couchologist, says: "If the oyster is the king of molhisks, this has a just claim 

 to the rank and title of prince." In the fish markets of the north of France it is called "grand- 

 palerine, n or " palourde." In the south of England it shares with another species the name of 

 "frill," and in the north that of "clam." Barbet speaks of it as the "ducal-mantle pecten," and 

 says it served the Romans and Greeks as food, and when dressed with pepper and cummin seed, 

 became a medicine. It is this species which is believed to have been designated as the Kleis of 

 Xenocrates and Galen. This species (P. maximus), Jeffrey says, was formerly "plentiful in Lul- 

 worth Bay, on the Dorset coast; but now they are rarely found alive. I was told that the breed 

 had been exterminated there by an epicurean officer of the coast guard. The late Major Martin 

 would permit any conchologist to dredge as much as he pleased in the bays of the Counemara 

 coast, provided he only took useless shells, * * * but all the big clams (P. maximus) were 

 reserved for the table at Ballynahinch castle." The high reputation of this species causes it to be 

 much sought after, and it "is a constant visitant of the London markets. Scalloped with bread- 

 crumbs in its own shell, or fried with a little butter and pepper, it forms a very delicious morsel." 

 The deeper shell was formerly employed in scalloping oysters, whence the name of this form of 

 cooking them. 



The scallop shell appears very frequently in literature. It is often used in heraldry to indicate 

 that the bearer has made long voyages by sea. It has been the badge of several orders of knight- 

 hood, and still figures in many coats of arms. This half-chivalrous, half-saintly significance in 

 heraldry was usually in memory of the Crusades, and marked those who had been attached to 

 those medieval expeditions, or had been on a holy pilgrimage, either to the shrine of St. James the 

 Great of Compostella, in Spain (whence its name "St. James shell"), or to the Holy Laud. 

 Both amounted to the same thing, since the knights and monks of the Crusades in the ninth and 

 tenth centuries adopted St. James as their saint of saints, and, converting the fisherman of Gen- 

 uesaret into a Spanish warrior, assigned him the scollop shell for his "cognizance."* 



Sir Walter Scott, in his poem "Marmiou," refers to this badge, or emblem, as follows: 



Here is a holy Palmer come, 



From Salem first and last from Rome ; 



One that hath kissed the blessed tomb, 



And visited each holy shrine, 



In Araby and Palestine. 



In Siriai's wilderness he saw 

 The Mount where Israel heard the law, 

 'Mid thunder-dint and flashing leven, 

 And shadows, mists, and darkness, given. 

 He shows St. James's cockle-shell 

 Of fair Montserrat, too, can tell. 



[STANZA xxiil. 



The summoned Palmer came in place. 

 His sable cowl o'erhung his face; 

 In his black mantle was he clad, 

 With Peter's keys, in cloth of red, 

 On his broad shoulders wrought ; 

 The scallop shell his cap did deck. 



[STANZA xxvii. 



And in " The Pilgrimage," written by Sir Walter Raleigh, he says: 



Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, 

 My staff of faith to walk upon ; 



My scrip of joy, immortal diet; 

 My bottle of salvation. 



*Moule's "Heraldry of Fish." 



