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Ch.14: River Pearls, British & Foreign

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234                                Pearls.
possession of the Pearls, so coveted by the luxurious ladies of ancient Rome. It appears, however, that the Roman conquerors after ransacking our rivers, were rather disappointed with the Pearls which they obtained, and condemned them not only as being small but especially as lacking lustre.
Pliny, as rendered by old Dr. Holland in the phraseology of the seventeenth century, refers to the British Pearls in these terms:—"In Brittaine it is certaine that some do grow ; but they bee small, dim of colour, and nothing orient. For Julius Caesar (late Emperour of famous memorie) doth not dissimule, that the cuirace or brest-plate which hee dedicated to Venus Mother within her Temple, was made of English Pearles."
Mr. L. E. Adams in a recent conchological work, reminds us that Tacitus refers to a theory current in his time, to the effect that the dull reddish colour of our Pearls was due to their being collected from cast-up shells instead of being gathered from living shells from the bottom of the sea ; but he adds with characteristic dry humour that the fault probably lay in the Pearls themselves, as otherwise his avaricious countrymen would have been sure to discover the best method of obtaining them. It thus appears that some at least of the
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