Note 464 — A BOOK FOR A RAINY DAY (continued 4)
Reading edition
The Battersea market-gardeners were famous. A rhyme of 1802 says—
“Gardeners in shoals from Battersea shall run, To raise their kindlier hot-beds in the sun.”
The first asparagus raised in England is said to have come from Battersea; and such was the extent of the market-gardens, that large numbers of Welshwomen tramped thither every spring for employment in the summer months.