High Price of Vegetables. 1 1 7 



we have out of Flanders and St. Omers be all the 

 Spanish seed which we know of. My Lady Clarendon 

 (when living) was wont to furnish me with seed that 

 produced me prodigious crops." 



The radish, as well as the onion, had been 

 known in the eleventh century. Worlidge 

 says: " Radishes in the more Southern 

 Countries are a delicate meat, especially if 

 sown in brackish lands, or watered with 

 brackish waters, and therefore were they in 

 such esteem with the Egyptians." He goes 

 through the various known kinds, including 

 the horse-radish, which was then already in 

 vogue as a sauce. 



An entry in the Privy Purse Expenses of 

 Henry VII., under May 24th ; 1496, seems 

 to point to the payment of a reward and a 

 very handsome one for a dish of green 

 peas very early indeed in the season. They 

 must have been reared in a very sheltered 

 spot, or with artificial warmth. The amount 

 given to the donor was 3^. 4^/.=^i of our 

 money. The item runs thus : " To a man 

 for a present of pescoddes $s. ^d" This 

 could scarcely have been for seed, as it was 



