Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/19

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us. iv. JULY 1,1911.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


13


ing of the Proven gal la d'amelo. In the Southern language of France L. amygdala simply became amelo, in Northern Langue- doc amello ; this (with mute final) passed into French as amelle, a word now lost, its place being taken by amande, a curious phonetic instance of transformation by stages. Popular French still retains the / changed to r, in the last syllable of amandre, as in Sp. almendra, whence, indirectly perhaps, our word with the intrusive Arabic I silent and without the r.

Bernard de Gordon, from a translation (1580) of whose ' De Conservatione Vitse ' Littre took the quotation, lived in the thirteenth century ; he was a Montpellier physician, from the town of Gourdoun north of Cahors, whence also was the archer Bertrand de Gourdoun, who shot Richard I. The translation was probably made by another Southern physician who, like Rabelais, wrote in French provenzalmente. EDWARD NICHOLSON. Paris.

" SCHICKSAL UND EIGENE SCHTJLD " (11 S.

iii. 407). In Goethe's ' Annalen oder Tag- und Jahreshefte von 1749-1822 ' the follow- ing passage occurs under 1794 :

" Ein wundersamer, dtirch verwickelte Schick- sale nicht ohne seine Schuld verarmter Mann . . . . "

This no doubt refers to J. F. Krafft, the poet's anonymous protege (see Lewes' s 'Life of Goethe,' Book IV. chap. vii.). Krafft, however, had died in 1785. The ' Annalen ' were composed during the years 1819-26, and published in 1830. I must leave it to others to explain the difficulties of* chronology ; but if the clue furnished by the passage quoted above is followed, Carlyle's original source may, perhaps, be discovered. Biedermann's ' Goethes Tag- und Jahreshefte ' should be consulted.

HEINRICH MUTSCHMANN. University College, Nottingham.

"SOUCHY" (11 S. iii. 449). The word " souchy " is properly part of the term " water souchy," which is the name for a manner of cooking fish. Most cookery books give flounders as the fish, but one or two of those which I have, e.g., * The Cook's Oracle,' 6th ed., 1823 (anonymous, but by William Kitchener, M.D.), p. 195, suggest flounders, whitings, gudgeons, or eels.

Kitchener's receipt is :

" These must be quite fresh, and very nicely cleaned ; for what they are boiled in is the sauce for them. Wash, gut, and trim your Pish, cut them into handsome pieces, and put them into a stewpan


with just as much water as will cover them, with some parsley, or parsley roots sliced, an onion minced fine, and a little pepper and salt: (to this some Cooks add some scraped Horseradish and a Bay leaf ;) skim it carefully when it boils ; when your fish is done enough (which will be in a few minutes), send it up in a deep dish, lined with bread sippets, and some slices of bread and butter on a plate.

Then follows an "Observation" about what some cooks do in elaboration. Cutting " into handsome pieces " would mean "cut, e.g., a flounder across into two or three pieces."

Of course the receipts vary, as does the spelling of the name. Mrs. Glasse in her ' Art of Cookery,' a new edition, 1803, p. 159, gives " Water- Sokey "; and in modern books one finds " water souchy, souche, souchet."

I do not think that " souchy "can have any connexion with any old French word meaning " brine, pickle," seeing that in no receipt that I have referred to (i.e., some eight or nine) have I found any mention of brine or pickle, that I have not found any mention of the receipt in any French cookery book, and that it appears to be a Flemish or Dutch method.

George Augustus Sala in his ' Thorough Good Cook,' 1895, p. 170, has :

" Flounders Water-Souchet (or Zootje"), a Dutch dainty, for which we are indebted to William III."

Col. A. Kenny-Herbert in his ' Common- sense Cookery,' revised edition, 1905, p. 146, writes :

" W attrzootje (sometimes called * watersoucTiy '). This dish is not a souche, or a souchy, but a irater- zode, a water zoo, or zootje. It belongs to Flemish, not to French cookery."

Concerning the word see 10 S. ix. 150, 178, 193, 338, s.v. " Water-suchy."

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

MISTRESS KATHERINE ASHLEY (OR AST- LEY) (11 S. iii. 447). According to the ' D.N.B.,' ii. 206, John Astley's first wife was Catherine, daughter of Sir Philip Cham- pernowne of Devonshire, by whom he had no issue. His second wife was Margaret, daughter of Thomas, Lord Grey, by whom he had a son, afterwards Sir John Astley, and three daughters. A. R. BAYLEY.

JUDGE JEFFREYS AND THE TEMPLE CHURCH ORGAN (11 S. iii. 427, 452, 476). My friend MR. JUSTICE UDAL will find full and authentic details on this matter in Mr. Inderwick's introduction to the third volume of the ' Calendar of Inner Temple Records,' pp. xlv et seq., published in 1901. Recently a distinguished visitor, on being told the