[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
IS well known as a most excellent fish, whose flesh is firm, delicate and of a pleasing flavour. They grow to the length of eighteen inches, and even more in some of our seas. They are often found of that bigness and superiority in Torbay, from whence they are sent to market at Exeter and several other towns in Devonshire and the adjacent counties. They are also found in the Mediterranean and several other seas, and, when in season, are in great requisition for the most luxuriant tables. The upper part of the body is brown, the under part white, one of the pectoral fins is tipped with black, the sides are yellow and the tail rounded at its extremity. It is said that the small Soles caught in the northern seas are of a much superior taste than the large ones which the southern and western coasts afford.
A musician of fame having travelled, in his harmonical tour, not unlike Dr. Burney, as far as Marseilles, found there this fish so delicate, so much to his taste, that he died of an indigestion after eating too much of it; his friends erected a tomb to his memory, and a wag among them gave the following epitaph,
which being read according to the French gamut and pronounciation, gives these words, “La sole l’a mis la.” The Sole placed him there. It is certain that, taken in two great a quantity, or when out of season, this fish is not one of the wholesomest.