Notes
1] In a letter to Lady Holland in 1839, Smith gives the recipe for this salad. It follows the poem except that at the close Smith instructs her, "Mix the Salad thoroughly just before it is used" (The Letters of Sydney Smith, Vol. II, ed. Nowell C. Smith [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953]: 684).
condiment: "Anything of pronounced flavour used to season or give relish to food, or to stimulate the appetite" (OED), but here a dish in and of itself.
3] seive: sieve.
5] atoms: small chopped-up pieces. Smith's receipe for Lady Holland specifies "1/2 a Tea Spoon of onion chopped very fine."
7] mordant: `biting,' that is, hot to the taste.
11] Lucca: olive oil named after a northern city and province of Italy.
14] soupçon: the smallest amount, a mere "suspicion" or trace.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: The Letters of Sydney Smith, Vol. II, ed. Nowell C. Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953): 684. PR 5458 A4 1953 Robarts Library. This copy is reprinted "from an early MS. copy made for S.'s friend Dr. Chambers ... kindly lent me [Nowell Smith] by his descendant, Miss Irene Chambers" (p. 684).
Publication date note: Widely circulated in manuscript form.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2002
Recent editing: 1:2002/11/16
Composition date:
1839
Form: couplets