History of saffron Gâtinais, Normandy, Périgord, Poitou, Provence, and Quercy. Its mysterious decline started during the 18th century, possibly due to pandemic fungal diseases destroying bulbs and crops, to particularly cold winters, and to competing market from the Mediterranean countries. In England, cultivation "persisted" only in the light, well-drained, and chalk-based soils of the north Essex countryside. The Essex town of Saffron Walden got its name as a saffron growing and trading centre; its name was originally Cheppinge Walden, and the culinary name change was effected to punctuate the importance of the crop to the townsfolk; the town's arms still feature blooms from
Have with You to Saffron-Walden unanswered. Saffron Walden was Harvey's birthplace and he seems to have withdrawn there to live sometime in 1593. The epistle dedicatory is to Richard Lichfield, a barber-surgeon of Cambridge noted for his ability to make humorous, mock-academic orations. Nashe, who clearly knows something of Lichfield but may not have known him personally, at first addresses him in hyperbolic terms of exaggerated respect. The language chosen for the dedication is probably in imitation of a verbose and comically pedantic style sometimes used by Lichfield, and certain other barber-surgeons at Cambridge, for entertainment. Throughout the epistle Nashe seems to be appealing to