Mermaid's Purse, the popular name of the egg-case of the skate (or of some other cartilaginous fish), which is often cast up empty on the shore.—Mermaid's Gloves is a very common British sponge, Chalina oculata.
Mermaid's Purse
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 7: Maltebrun to Pearson, p. 144
Source scan(s): p. 0153