184 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



the possession of the Queen, made of staves of turbo- 

 shell mounted on a stem and foot of silver gilt. He 

 also adds that the polished, but unmounted turbo, has 

 been employed as a festive cup in Wales, to a com- 

 paratively late period.* 



We read also of a watch set in " mother-of-pearle, 

 with three pendantes of gold, garnished with sparkes 

 of rubies, and an opall in everie of them, and three 

 small pearles pendent," which Lord Russell presented 

 to Queen Elizabeth ; and Margaret, Countess of Derby, 

 presented her with another, as a New Year's gift. " It 

 was a white bear of gold and inother-of-perle holding 

 a ragged staffe (the ' Leicester' device) standing upon 

 a tonne of golde, whearin is a clocke, the same tonne- 

 staffe garnished with dyamondes and rubies."-)- The 

 Cathedral at Panama has two towers, with short steeples 

 on them painted white, and these steeples are said by 

 Mr. Elwes to be faced with the large pearl-oyster 

 shells ; but they do not look well.f 



Glass is seldom seen in Manilla for glazing windows, 

 but the shells of the Chinese oyster (Placuna placenta) 

 are used instead ; and in certain parts of Amoy, the 

 municipal lamps are made in the shape of a granite 

 shaft, surrounded by a wooden box glazed with shells. 

 The shells are well washed, and scrubbed, and then cut 

 into squares, and slid into grooves cut to receive them 

 in the frame of the lamp. || 



The scabbard of the sword of the Emperor Napoleon 

 I., which he wore when First Consul, is of gold and 



* ' Journal of Archaeological Association,' vol. xiv. pp. 344, 345. 

 t ' Curiosities of Clocks and Watches/ &c., by Edward J. Wood. 

 * W.S.W., or a voyage in that direction to the West Indies.' 

 Collingwood's ' Naturalist's Rumbles,' p. 294. 

 || ' Flight of the Lapwing.' 



