cockleshells

• “Bloody Mary was renowned for torturing Protestants, and "silver bells" was a nickname for the thumbscrews, while "cockleshells" were believed to be instruments of torture attached to the genitals.”

  The Guardian: Notes and queries: What two quite contrary Marys had in common; British Isles – the view from the Channel; Why do baddies always have two henchmen?

• “Both queens' husbands supposedly cheated on them, and "cockleshells" may refer to this.”

  The Guardian: Notes and queries: What two quite contrary Marys had in common; British Isles – the view from the Channel; Why do baddies always have two henchmen?

• “They lie in parallel lines along the beach, laid down by the retreat of successive tides, a jumble of bleached razorshells, ottershells and cockleshells with the occasional rarer find hidden among them.”

  The Guardian: Country diary: Eriskay

• “Keen on the silver bells and cockleshells ... a 17th-century Dutch portrait of Queen Mary I of England, aka 'Bloody Mary'.”

  The Guardian: Notes and queries: What two quite contrary Marys had in common; British Isles – the view from the Channel; Why do baddies always have two henchmen?

• “The nursery rhyme includes references to several Catholic symbols: the silver bells were the bells rung during mass; cockleshells were worn on the hats of pilgrims on their way to visit holy shrines; and pretty maids all in a row were nuns at prayer.”

  The Guardian: Notes and queries: What two quite contrary Marys had in common; British Isles – the view from the Channel; Why do baddies always have two henchmen?

• “How did nine little boats (veritable cockleshells, even at 60 feet) splashing across the Seven Seas become such a spectacular draw?”

  Newsweek: Taste The Salt, Feel The Wind

• “Indeed, instances have been known of concretions in the bladder so shaped as closely to resemble cockleshells.”

  The History of Animals

• “With silver bells, and cockleshells, And pretty maids all in a row.”

  "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary"

• “Even the green hands knew that one day their lives could depend on the condition of these fragile cockleshells.”

  Excerpt: In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

• “And my heart wasn't in my mouth so much, " Claire Byrne said, 'thinking of all that could go wrong with those cockleshells.”

  First Fall

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