347 
Sad Besult of Sneering. 
Enumerating the commodities of Newfoundland, one 
of Purchas’s pilgrims writes : — 
“As touching the kindes of fish beside cod, there are herring, 
salmons, thornebacke, plase, or rather wee should call them flounders, 
dog-fish, and another most excellent of taste called of us a cat.” 
The flounder and the plaice had their odd-shaped 
mouths bestowed upon them, according to Nashe ( Lenten 
Stuffe , Harl. Misc., vol. yi. p. 170), for sneering at the 
elevation of the herring to the sovereignty of the finny 
tribes:— 
“ None wonne the day in this but the herring; whom al their 
clamorous suffrages saluted with Vive le Roy , f God save the King, God 
save the King; ’ save only the playse and the butte, that made wry 
mouthes at him, and, for their mocking, have wry mouthes ever since ; 
and the herring ever since wears a coronet on his head, in token that 
hee is, as he is.” 
The dab, mentioned by Drayton, was distinguished 
from the flounder chiefly by the roughness of its skin. 
The Holibut, or Halybut, was a fish taken in the 
northern seas, chiefly valuable for its large Hol - b t 
size. On grand occasions this fish was cooked 
whole, and set up as an ornamental dish. As specimens 
have been occasionally taken weighing three hundred 
pounds, it must have formed a striking feature at a 
banquet. 
“ Turbuts, which some call the Sea-pheasant,” Muffett informs us 
(p. 172), “were in old times accounted so good and 
delicate that this proverb grew upon them, Nihil ad Turbot. 
rhombum; that is to say, what is all this in comparison 
of a turbutt. Yerily, whilst they be young (at which time they are 
called butts), their flesh is moist, tender, white, and pleasant.” 
“ Soles, or Tongue Fishes, are counted the partridges 
of the sea, and the fittest meat of all other 
for sick folks ” {Muffett, p. 168). 
Sole. 
