River Pearls ; British and Foreign. 239 



with the virtues and use thereof, by D. B. Gent." 

 This worthy gentleman devotes a section to the 

 subject of Pearls, or as he calls them Margarites, 

 and gives some information on the subject of 

 British Pearls well worth quotation : — 



*' I have seen," says the writer, " very fair 

 Margarites taken out of a shell-fish called a horse- 

 mussel, and on the inside of the said shell remains 

 the true Mother-of-Pearl. I knew an honourable 

 lady, which by the employing three or four men 

 to catch these fish out of the waters, took with a 

 little charge so many ripe Oriental Margarites, as 

 made a very rich double necklace. Also I knew 

 one Mr. Primas Davis (a very ingenious gentleman) 

 who by making use of some vacant hours in taking 

 up these shells, in a short time got so many 

 Margarites of an even size and good colour, as 

 made him a choice hat-band. The shells of these 

 fish are on the outside very black, and not so 

 great as other horse-mussels. I have seen some in 

 Buckinghamshire, and other countries, and they are 

 so plentiful in some parts of the river Clun (which 

 cometh out of Montgomeryshire, through some part 

 of Shropshire) that they do more than cover the 

 bottome of that river, and were it not for the 

 deepnesse of the water, there would be no difficulty 

 in taking of them. I have some few of the said 



