GARDEN l'EAS. 



241 



years 1403-1538, after which date such entries disappear. There 

 arc sixty-one entries of Pottage or Porridge Peas, probably 

 Garden and Grey Peas. During this period the price was 5s. lid. 

 to 16s. per quarter. At Wormlington, in 1599, Hastings Peas were 

 sold at 16s. per quarter. Better kinds of White, Pottage, or Sand- 

 wich Peas appear to have been sold at Winchester in 1601 at 32s. 

 to 34s. per quarter, and in 1697 Boiling Peas of inferior quality 

 sold at the same time and place at 24s. per quarter. There 

 are other entries of Peas in the Manciple Book, and they 

 formed part of the Fellows' diet when they sat at the Common 

 Table. 



" In 1617, at Theydon Gernon, an entry of three quarts of 

 Setting Peas 4cZ. At Mendharu, in 1626, twenty-seven bushels 

 of Peas cost Is. 4cZ. per bushel. In 1654, at Mount Holl, among 

 other sorts, a half peck of Sandwich Peas sold for 2s. In 1698, 

 in London, a half peck of Hotspur Peas realised 4s. In 1702, 

 also in London, four quarts of Egg Peas were sold at Id. ; four 

 quarts Dutch Admiral were sold at 6d. ; and four pints of Dwarf 

 Peas were sold at 6cZ." 



The foregoing is interesting as affording some information 

 as to the varieties of Peas in cultivation in early days. 



The "Treasury of Botany" says that "before the intro- 

 duction of the Potato into England Peas were largely eaten by 

 the working classes, and a food so rich in nitrogen was doubtless 

 the cause of the superior muscular development among the 

 peasantry of the last century. So important was this crop held 

 to be that in the letting of a farm the proportion of ' Siddan ' 

 land (i.e. Pea land) was always taken into consideration." 



The following interesting information is from Rhind's 

 "History of the Vegetable Kingdom " : — 



" At the close of the thirteenth century the English forces 

 were detained so long at the siege of a castle in Lothian that, 

 having exhausted all their provisions, they contrived as a resource 

 to subsist on the Peas and Beans cultivated in the surrounding 

 fields," which shows they were an important field crop, and 

 would lead to a belief that the Pea was then one of the staple 

 articles for human food. In the privy purse accounts of 

 Henry VIII. there is an entry to the effect : — " Paid to a man in 

 rewarde for bringing Peas cods to the King's Grace, iiifs. viiic?." 

 (£1 lis. Sd.). 



