PERIWINKLES WHELKS. 17 



to Periwinkles was very general over the country. 

 I may be pardoned for observing that it seems to me 

 rather an absurd prejudice. Everybody knows that 

 hundreds of boat-loads of the L. littorea are sold 

 during the year at Billingsgate, and that thousands 

 of people make an honest livelihood by retailing them 

 through the streets of the metropolis. To London 

 children the cry of "Wink ! wink ! Pennywink' !" is 

 especially musical ; and whenever the welcome sound 

 is heard, a rush is made to mamma for pins and a 

 penny, to make a purchase. 



The taste for these little univalves is by no means 

 of modern date, nor was it at all times confined to 

 the poor. Pliny has left on record the name of a 

 certain epicurean, Lupinus Fulvius, who formed pre- 

 serves for his Periwinkles ; and even went the length, 

 with the view of making them larger and more 

 tender, of inventing a special diet for them. This 

 was a mixture of boiled wine, spelt meal, and other 

 rich substances. It is further said, that so important 

 did these animals become in a gastronomic point of 

 view, and such was the care bestowed upon their 

 breeding, that the shell of a single individual would 

 contain a as much as eighty quadrantes," or about 

 eighteen quarts, imperial measurement, according to 

 classical commentators. How greatly has the modern 

 species degenerated ! This falling off need not, how- 

 ever, be a cause of regret, if the same unhappy effects 

 were to attend the consumption of these animals in 

 our time as was visible among the Romans. The 

 B 



