Nurseries at Battersea, Fulham, etc. 177 



it, for there are many which our climate 

 does not suit. Other sorts have since been 

 introduced, including a bush marrow and a 

 small prickly kind, which used to be grown 

 at Sion House, Isleworth ; but the finer and 

 more delicate species, like some descriptions 

 of American fruit, more especially that which 

 grows in the subtropical parts, are scarcely 

 known. 



At the end of the last century no fewer 

 than one hundred and forty acres of land 

 at Bethnal Green were held by market 

 gardeners. 



Battersea, as well as Fulham and Old 

 Brompton, was a favourite resort of the 

 calling. Lysons, writing in 1792, when the 

 aspect of this and other suburban neighbour- 

 hoods had been scarcely altered, says : 



" About three hundred acres of land in the parish 

 of Battersea are occupied by the market gardeners, of 

 whom there are about twenty who rent from five to 

 six to near sixty acres each. . . . The soil of the 

 ground occupied by the gardeners is sandy, and re- 

 quires a great deal of rain. The vegetables which 

 they raise are, in general, very fine ; their cabbages 

 and asparagus, particularly, have acquired celebrity. 



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