[Sca-cooks] mysterious query

[Gretchen Beck]

--On Tuesday, January 23, 2007 11:14 PM -0500 Devra at aol.com wrote:

> Dear Folks, sorry. I was trying to forward a query from Ruth Berman about
>  the age or historicity or earliest date of the word 'parliament' as a
> sweet, and   managed to loose the original message from her, as well as
> send you an empty   forward. *sigh* She was talking about the word
> showing up in the novel  'Lorna  Doone' and also in Conan Doyle.
> Something about  a kid buying  'parliament  and dumps' for his friends.
> (And now I've lost the printed copy too.  just  not my day.)
>     Devra

Hi Devra,

According to the OED:

 8. Short for parliament cake, sense 9. Now rare (in later use hist.).

1812 H. SMITH & J. SMITH Rejected Addr. 52 Crisp parliament with lollypops, 
And fingers of the Lady.

Don't know if that's actually the earliest reference, but at least it sets 
a minimum...
toodles, margaret