232 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 90., Sept. 19. '57. 



Sisters appeared in 1793. Some of the above, 

 and some others, not printed, were adaptations, 

 but they attest a certain literary industry : and 

 when it is remembered that he was also enjjaged 

 on the Gray's Inn Journal, the T'est, and the 

 Auditor ; that he wrote many able essays, trans- 

 lated various English poems into Latin, rendered 

 Tacitus and Sallust into English, wrote the Life 

 of Garrich, and performed the duties of a Com- 

 missioner in Bankruptcy, we may fairly concede 

 to him the merit of not having been an idle man. 

 Whether he died the pensionary of the govern- 

 ment, or of a private individual, and that indi- 

 vidual a lady at Bath, is a point on which his 

 biographers are not agreed. The lives of both 

 men have yet to be written : that of Burgoyne 

 would be of very great interest. J. Dorajn. 



SCALLOP SHELLS. 



(2"3 S. iv. 150. 197.) 



The pilgrims who visited the tomb of S. James 

 at Compostella, in Galicia, considered themselves 

 under an obligation to bring away with them, and 

 to wear on their m antler, one or more shells of 

 the order pecten, generally the scallop, which has 

 hence been called the coquille de S. Jacques. 



Originally the shell, which might be from the 

 shores of either the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, 

 was deemed an evidence that the pilgrimage had 

 been performed. Beyond this, there does not 

 appear to have been any tradition which specially 

 connected the scallop with the shrine at Compos- 

 tella. The same shell, indeed, was sometimes 

 worn by pilgrims who visited other shrines, though 

 the practice probably began with those of San- 

 tiago. Another pectinated shell, the cockle, was 

 often substituted ; both cockle and scallop being 

 frequently worn, no longer on the mantle, but in 

 front of the hat. 



As a further extension of the practice, the shell 

 came at length to be worn not only by returning, 

 but by intending pilgrims. The object probably 

 was to insure protection and hospitality on the 

 pilgrimage ; it may be, to excite a certain degree 

 of interest and pious sympathy before setting out. 



But the extension went farther still. The scal- 

 lop became the badge of more than one mediaeval 

 order. The order instituted by S. Louis bore 

 the title du navire et des coquilles. The chevaliers 

 of S. Michael wore a golden collar of scallops, 

 and were called chevaliers de la coquille. In this 

 manner, from being worn as a purely religious 

 emblem by pilgrims, the scallop, as a badge of 

 knighthood, acquired a character half religious, 

 half military. But still the idea of pilgrimage 

 appears so far as this to have been kept in view, 

 that the scallop, borne by the chevalier or knight, 

 proclaimed him pledged and prepared, as a cham- 



pion of Christendom, to go wherever duty called 

 or his superior commanded. 



These remarks are offered in reply to your cor- 

 respondent's Query. But it may here be per- 

 mitted to add a suggestion, that we still have 

 amongst us traces of the pilgrim's scallop. In the 

 more modern cockade, also worn on the hat, whe- 

 ther the emblem be viewed as indicating military 

 or civil service, we may read traces of the pil- 

 grim's cockle or coquille. The attendants of the 

 great and powerful would naturally assume a 

 badge which indicated their readiness to go at 

 once where ordered, and so also would the soldier. 



Thus the cockade is but a modification of the 

 pilgrim's scallop. The French cockades, up to 

 the period of the first revolution, when they were 

 altered, bore traces of this origin in their pecti- 

 nated form; they were "plissees du centre a la 

 circonference." And we may still remark some 

 lingering traces of the same idea amongst our- 

 selves ; especially in cases where the cockade 

 worn by gentlemen's servants is not simply a 

 rosette plissee, but a rosette surmounted by a fan, 

 the fan being an evident memorial of the coquille 

 or scallop. One small specimen of the pecten is 

 still known on the southern coasts of England by 

 the familiar name of the fan- shell. 



French writers are disposed to trace the cocarde 

 to a tuft of ribands or feathers worn by Hun- 

 garian soldiers, to which, however, it bears not 

 the slightest resemblance ; and, in conformity to 

 this view, they would derive the word from coq. 

 Surely, however, cocarde, like coquille, is rather to 

 be derived from coque, a shell. Thomas Boys. 



Southey, in a note (10.) to his Pilgrim of Com- 

 postella, has collected what may interest H. J. 

 BucKTON on this subject. He has shown that 

 Fuller was in error, and Gwillim ignorant, as to 

 the origin of the scallop as an emblem. Fosbrooke 

 (Brit. Mon., 423.) says, " The escallops, being de- 

 nomina'ted by ancient authors the shells of Gales 

 or Galicia, plainly apply to this pilgrimage in par- 

 ticular." Southey has narrated, from the Ahales 

 de Galicia (i. 95, 96.), the origin of the miracle 

 which initiated this emblem, and which, besides 

 the usual historical authorities of Portugal, is 

 vouched for by the several Popes Alexander III., 

 Gregory IX., and Clement V., in Bulls issued for 

 the purpose to the Archbishop of Compostella, 

 who, by virtue of his office, may excommunicate 

 those who sell these shells to pilgrims anywhere 

 except in the city of Santiago (St. James). Dr. 

 Clarke admits his ignorance of the origin of the 

 badge. The scene of the alleged miracle was 

 the seashore of a village called Bouzas in Por- 

 tugal. In the ancient Fathers of the church 

 there is, I believe, no mention of any such em- 

 blem. St. Jerome, in reference to Kevelations 

 iv. 7., thinks the evangelist Matthew is represented 



