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)
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?
ReplyDeleteSnot-rag on the other hand was a very familiar jocular reference to handkerchiefs.
Steven
I guess at some point the name disappeared from the label. It’s there on the advertising poster.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
Lea & Perrin’s, HP, McIlhenny Tabasco, and Colman’s Mustard. Four classic labels—probably all “updated” to today...
ReplyDeleteI remember reading about the uproar when R.J. Reynolds tried modernizing the Camel pack in the 1950s. They had to bring back the original.
ReplyDeleteThe library had a fundraiser book sale before the Big Lockdown...and I got a copy of the Deptford Trilogy. I blame you.
ReplyDeleteYou’re in for a treat.
ReplyDelete