Thursday, April 2, 2020

“The Handkerchief”

Magnus Eisengrim is describing the wonders of dining on the Canadian Pacific Railway: “‘fresh fish, tremendous meat, real fruit — don’t you remember what their baked apples were like? With thick cream!’” And there were sauces, “‘real sauces, made by the chef-exquisite!’”


Robertson Davies, World of Wonders (1975).

I suspect that Davies might have been happy to leave “the Handkerchief” a small unexplained mystery in a novel full of mystery. Perhaps an editor insisted that the novelist have someone laboriously point out the joke. If so, I am grateful, because I’m not sure I would have figured it out. See also Vladimir Nabokov’s motuweth frisas.

Garton’s is brown sauce — namely, HP Sauce. Some history:

The original recipe for HP Sauce was invented and developed by Frederick Gibson Garton, a grocer from Nottingham. He registered the name H.P. Sauce in 1895. Garton called the sauce HP because he had heard that a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament had begun serving it.
Here’s an advertising poster. And a song. Don’t miss the song.

And here’s a page with links to three undated CPR dining-car menus. Sure enough, baked apple with cream on each menu.

This passage is the last I’m posting from The Deptford Trilogy, a work I’d describe as a cross between Charles Dickens and Steven Millhauser. I give it all the stars.

Related reading
All OCA Robertson Davies posts (Pinboard)

comments: 6

shallnot said...

Interesting..I’ve never known HP as Garton’s. My family was a great consumer of HP Sauce back in the early ‘70s and I was fascinated by the exoticness of the label. Perhaps it was still called Garton’s in Ontario?

Snot-rag on the other hand was a very familiar jocular reference to handkerchiefs.

Steven

Michael Leddy said...

I guess at some point the name disappeared from the label. It’s there on the advertising poster.

I never knew HP, but the old super-ornate Lea & Perrins bottle held the same fascination for me when I was a kid. I think I probably even first liked Worcestershire sauce just because of the label.

I thought it might have been going overboard, but I just added a link to the post: Marty Feldman singing the French text from the bottle. Enjoy.

shallnot said...

Lea & Perrin’s, HP, McIlhenny Tabasco, and Colman’s Mustard. Four classic labels—probably all “updated” to today...

Michael Leddy said...

I remember reading about the uproar when R.J. Reynolds tried modernizing the Camel pack in the 1950s. They had to bring back the original.

Elaine said...

The library had a fundraiser book sale before the Big Lockdown...and I got a copy of the Deptford Trilogy. I blame you.

Michael Leddy said...

You’re in for a treat.