QUALITIES AND VIRTUES OF FISH. 83 



amateur (Cithari sciens) with an exceedingly rich compost 

 of cheese and oil, which makes them, he says, exquisite 

 'aVi fo aKoXaorot.' Epicharmus produces soles among 

 the dishes served at Hebe's nuptials ; and Archestratus, 

 in his poem, Hedypathy, f Good cheer/ considers that they 

 can hardly be served too elaborately ; though it is not 

 likely the ancients ever hit upon the most dainty and 

 complex of recipes, the French sole, e en matelotte nor- 

 mande* the bare recollection of the taste of which lingers, 

 we must say, after years' desuetude, agreeably on our palate 

 still; that the larger specimens were sometimes served 

 plain boiled, in preference to any other more elaborate 

 mode of cooking, is highly probable, since a doughty 

 Greek authority pronounces that, for an easy digestion, 

 there is no way of serving fish so good as au naturel. 

 Though these fish were generally in high repute, yet their 

 reputation varied with the species, and with the locality 

 from which they came; even in our own island, how 

 different in respect to quality are soles fetched from 

 different districts. When Galen, Xenocrates, and Diphilus 

 speak disparagingly of soles, we must suppose them 

 either to have been sadly warped by some caprice of fashion, 

 or else very unfortunate in their supplies ; and it was no 

 doubt a feeling of the injustice of such a censure passed 

 on his favourite food, which extorted the complaint from 

 a Greek connoisseur, e everything is censured in turn, and 

 now they tell me, but I will never believe it, that there 

 is imperfection even in a sole ! ' J 



