2-914-102 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Spanish Vessel arriving with Christmas Fruit, 1854. Sailing ship on the Thames, bringing produce for the London markets. '...The melons come from Spain, Portugal, and Holland. Spain is known to abound in melons...The largest foreign-fruit trade, however, by far, is that in oranges. We shall perhaps astonish our readers when we tell them that upwards of 60,000,000 are imported for the use of London alone, accompanied by not less than 15,000,000 lemons. Any time between December and May the orange clippers from the Azores and Lisbon maybe seen unloading their cargoes in the neighbourhood of the great stores in Pudding and Botolph Lanes. There are 240 of these fast sailing vessels engaged in the entire trade, and of this fleet seventy at least are employed in supplying the windows of the fruiterers and the apple-stalls of London'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.