pended in her temple at Rome. Solinus affirms that the fact of the pearls being British was attested by an inscription on the shield, which agrees very well with Pliny's expression, that Cæesar wished it to be so understood. The oldest Latin writer, we believe, who mentions the British pearls is Pomponius Mela, who asserts that some of the seas of Britain generate pearls and gems. They are also mentioned in the second century by Aelian in his History of Animals, and by Origen in his Commentary on St. Matthew, who, although he describes them as somewhat cloudy, affirms that they were esteemed next in value to those of India. They were, he says, of a gold colour. Some account of the British pearls is also given in the fourth century by Marcellinus, who describes them, however, as greatly inferior to those of Persia. In the same age the poet Ausonius mentions those of Caledonia under the poetical figure of the white shell-berries.[1] But the British pearls have also been well known in modern times. Bede notices them as a product of the British seas and rivers in the eighth century. There is a chapter upon those found in Scotland, in the description of that country prefixed to Hector Boece's History, in which the writer gives an account of the manner of catching the fish in his time (the beginning of the sixteenth century). It is very different from that which Tacitus has noticed, as will appear from the passage, which is thus given in Harrison's English translation:—"They are so sensible and quick of hearing, that, although you, standing on the brae or bank above them, do speak never so softly, or throw never so small a stone into the water, yet they will descry you, and
- ↑ Ausonius, in Mosella. His expression is, "Albentes concharum germiua baccas;" literally, the white berries, the buds of shells. This appears to be the origin of the verse "Gignit et insignes antiqua Britannia baccas," quoted by Camden, and by other writers after him, from Marbodaeus, a Frenchman of the eleventh century, who wrote a Latin poem entitled "De Gemmarum Lapidumque preciosorum formis, natura, et viribus." Of course a writer of that age can be no authority in this case.
