Oil for salads is mentioned in the Paston Letters, in 1466, in which
year Sir John Paston writes to his mother, that he has sent her "ii.
potts off oyl for salady's, whyche oyl was goode a myght be when he
delyv'yd yt, and schuld be goode at the reseyving yff itt was not
mishandled nor miscarryd." This indicates that vegetables for the table
were then cultivated in England, although the common opinion is, that
most of our fruit and garden productions were destroyed during the civil
wars between the houses of York and Lancaster. A good salad, however,
had become so scarce some years afterwards, that Katharine, the queen of
Henry VIII., is said, on a particular occasion, to have sent to the
continent to procure one.