58 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
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 days 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, Grems,’ etc., by Rev. C. W. King, p, 232. 
