Notes and Queries, Number 16, February 16, 1850. Various
or Noah's, and wondering at the strange shape and fashion of it: 'But, Mr. Cotton,' says she, 'are you sure it is a shoe?'"
Now, from the following passage in Manso's Sparta, it would seem that a similar question might be put on the present occasion: Are you sure that it was broth? Speaking of the pheiditia, Manso says:—
"Each person at table had as much barley-bread as he could eat; swine's-flesh, or some other meat, to eat with it, with which the famous black-sauce2 (whose composition, without any loss to culinary art, is evidently a mystery for us) was given round, and to close the meal, olives, figs, and cheese."
In a note he continues:—
"Some imagined that the receipt of its composition was to be found in Plutarch (De Tuendâ Sanitate, t. vi. p. 487.), but apparently it was only imagination. That ζωμος signified not broth, as it has been usually translated, but sauce, is apparent from the connection in which Athenæus used the word. To judge from Hesychius, it appears to have borne the name βαφα among the Spartans. How little it pleased the Sicilian Dionysius is well known from Plutarch (Inst. Lacon. t. v. 880.) and from others."
Sir Walter Trevelyan's question is soon answered, for I presume the celebrity of Spartan Black Broth is chiefly owing to the anecdote of Dionysius related by Plutarch, in his very popular and amusing Laconic Apophthegms, which Stobæus and Cicero evidently followed; this, and what is to be gathered from Athenæus and Julius Pollux, with a few words in Hesychius and the Etymologicon Magnum, is the whole amount of our information. Writers since the revival of letters have mostly copied each other, from Coelius Rhodiginus down to Gesner, who derives his conjecture from Turnebus, whose notion is derived from Julius Pollux,—and so we move in a circle. We sadly want a Greek Apicius, and then we might resolve the knotty question. I fear we must give up the notion of cuttle-fish stewed in their own ink, though some former travellers have not spoken so favourable of this Greek dish. Apicius, De Arte Coquinariâ, among his fish-sauces has three Alexandrian receipts, one of which will give some notion of the incongruous materials admissible in the Greek kitchen of later times:—
"JUS ALEXANDRINUM IN PISCE ASSO.
"Piper, cepam siccam, ligusticum, cuminum, orignum, apii semen, pruna damascena enucleata; passum, liquamen, defrutum, oleum, et coques."
This question Vexata it seems had not escaped the notice of German antiquaries. In Boettiger's Kleine Shriften, vol. iii., Sillig has printed for the first time a Dissertation, in answer to a question which might have graced your pages: "Wherewith did the Ancients spoon" [their food]? Which opens thus:—
"Though about the composition and preparation of Spartan Black Sauce we may have only so many doubts, yet still it remains certain that it was a jus—boiled flesh prepared with pig's blood, salt, and vinegar, a brodo; and, when it was to a certain degree thickened by boiling, though not like a Polenta or other dough-like mass (maza offa), eaten with the fingers. Here, then, arises a gastronomic question, of importance in archæology; what table furniture or implements did the Spartans make use of to carry this sauce to their months? A spoon, or some substitute for a spoon, must have been at hand in order to be able to enjoy this Schwarzsauer."
It is certain at least that spoons and forks were unknown to the Spartans, and some have conjectured that a shell, and even an egg-shell, may have served the purpose. Those who are desirous of knowing more about the Table-Supellectile of the ancients, may consult Casaubon's Notes on Athenæus, iv. 13. p. 241.; "Barufaldo de Armis Convivialibus," in Sallengre's Thesaurus, iii. 741.: or Boettiger's Dissertation above referred to. How little ground the passage in Plutarch, De Sanitate Tuendâ, afforded for the composition will appear from the passage, which I subjoin, having found some difficulty in referring to it:
Οι Λακωνες υξος και 'αλας δοντες τω μαγειρω, τα λοιπα κελευουσω εν τω ιερειω ζητειν.
This only expresses the simplicity of Spartan cookery in general.
To revert to the original question propounded, however, I think we must come to the conclusion that coffee formed no part of the μελας ζωμος.
A HINT TO INTENDING EDITORS
Allow me to suggest, as an addition to the sphere of usefulness of the "NOTES AND QUERIES," that persons preparing new editions of old writers should give an early intimation of the work on which they are engaged to the public, through your paper. Very many miscellaneous readers are in the habit of making notes in the margins of their books, without any intention of using them themselves for publication, and would be glad to give the benefit of them to any body to whom they would be welcome; but as matters are now arranged, one has no opportunity of hearing of an intended new edition until it is advertised as being in the press, when it is probably too late to send notes or suggestions; and one is also deterred from communicating with the editor from doubts whether he will not think it an intrusion: doubts which any editor who did wish for communications might dispel by making such an announcement as I have suggested.
Lincoln's Inn.
NOTES UPON CUNNINGHAM'S HAND-BOOK OF LONDON
St. Giles's Pound.—The exact site of this Pound, which occupied a space of thirty feet, was the broad space where St. Giles's High Street, Tottenham Court Road, and Oxford Street meet. The vicinity of this spot was proverbial for its profligacy; thus in an old song:—
"At Newgate steps Jack Chance was found,
And bred up near St. Giles's Pound."
Dudley Court, St. Giles's.—This spot was once the residence of Alice Duchess of Dudley, in the reign of Charles the Second; and afterwards of the celebrated Lord Wharton. The mansion and gardens were of considerable extent.
St. Giles's Hospital.—The celebrated Dr. Andrew Boorde rented for many years the Master's house. He is mentioned as its occupant in the deed of transfer between Lord Lisle to Sir Wymonde Carewe, dated in the last year of Henry the Eighth's reign.
Gray's Inn Lane.—Anciently called Portpoole. See the commission granted to the Master of the Hospital of St. Giles's, &c. to levy tolls upon all cattle, merchandize, &c., dated 1346, in Rymer's Foedera.
Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn.—Lord Herbert of Cherbury was one of the first inhabitants of this street, residing at the south side, near the east corner of Wild (or more properly Weld) Street, where he died in 1648. The house is still standing, and is one of fifteen built in the third year of James the First. Powlet and Conway houses, also still standing, are among the said number. The celebrated Dr. Mead (D. 1754) resided in this street.
Turnstile Lane, Holborn.—Richard Pendrell, the preserver of Charles the Second, resided here in 1668. It is supposed that Pendrell, after the Restoration, followed the king to town, and settled in the parish of St. Giles, as being near the court. Certain it is that one of Pendrell's name occurs in 1702 as overseer, which leads to the conclusion that Richard's descendants continued in the same locality for many years. A great-granddaughter of this Richard was living in 1818 in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden. Richard Pendrell died in 1674, and had a monument erected to his memory on the south-east side of the old church of St. Giles. The raising of the churchyard, subsequently, had so far buried the monument as to render it necessary to form a new one to preserve the memory of this celebrated man. The black marble slab of the old tomb at present forms the base of the new one.
Mrs. Cornelly's is stated, in vol. ii. p. 753., to be "the corner of Sutton Street," Soho Square, "now D'Almaines's." Mrs. Cornelly's was at the corner of Sutton Street, but has long been pulled down: the Catholic chapel in Sutton Street was Mrs. Cornelly's concert, ball, and masquerade-room; and the arched entrance below the chapel, and now a wheelwright's,
Manso's word is