Letter 0821

De la Pryme has come into possession of two adder’s beads, exactly as described by a ‘learned and ingenious’ Welshman who believed they formerly belonged to Druids. De la Pryme has come to believe that they are glass beads formed to wind thread on. He ponders from whence the beads came. De la Pryme was an antiquary, who established extensive correspondence with other antiquaries such as Nathaniel Johnston, Thomas Gale, Ralph Thoresby, and Sloane. In 1702, on Sloanes proposal, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society (C. E. A. Cheesman, Pryme, Abraham (16711704), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22852, accessed 25 June 2013]).