58 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLTJSKS. 



and these malformations were ingeniously utilized by 

 the fanciful taste of the Cinque Cento period.* No 

 doubt many of my readers will remember the specimens 

 exhibited in the loan collection at the South Kensing- 

 ton Museum. One was a Cinque Cento pendant in the 

 form of a siren; the head, neck, and arms of white enamel, 

 the body made of a very large " pearl barroque," and a 

 fish's tail enamelled, and set with rubies. It belonged to 

 Colonel Guthrie, and is of fine Italian work of the six- 

 teenth century. Another, in the possession of Messrs. 

 Farrer, was a gold pendant jewel in the form of a ship 

 with three masts, a large pearl barroque forming the 

 hull, etc. The wedding dress of Anne of Cleves was 

 " a gown of rich cloth of gold, embroidered with great 

 flowers of large orient pearls." The unfortunate Mary, 

 Queen of Scots, possessed pearls which were considered 

 the finest in Europe, and these were purchased in a most 

 iniquitous manner by Queen Elizabeth from the Earl of 

 Moray, for a third part of their value. Miss Strickland 

 states (in her ' Lives of the Queens of Scotland/ pages 

 82 and 83, vol. vi.) that if anything further than the 

 letters of Drury and Throckmorton be required to prove 

 the confederacy between the English Government and 

 the Earl of Moray, it will only be necessary to expose 

 the disgraceful fact of the traffic for Queen Mary's costly 

 parure of pearls, her own personal property, which she 

 had brought from France. A few davs before she ef- 

 fected her escape from Lochleven Castle, the Regent 

 sent these with a choice selection of her jewels, very 

 secretly, to London, by his trusty agent, Sir Nicholas 

 Elphinstone, who undertook to negotiate their sale with 

 the assistance of Throckmorton. Queen Elizabeth had 

 * ' Precious Stones, Gems,' etc., by Kev. C. W. King, p. 232. 



