Elias Priddey was a pioneering fishmonger. He is believed to have been the first fish vendor in England to have placed a small piece of parsley next to the fish on display in his shop and as a result sales increased tenfold – nowadays it is very rare to see any fish displayed without an adjacent piece of parsley.
He became a wealthy man and invested his money in wasps. He wanted to train wasps to make jam in much the same way as bees make honey. His diaries tell a sorry tale of failure and painful stinging as the wasps proved unwilling or unable to produce any kind of preserve other than a thin marmite-like substance.
