Sandwiches, sausage rolls, Scotch eggs, crisps and strawberries laid out on a blanket – a picnic is a staple of the British summer. For the truly devoted, the moment the weather starts to warm up, dinner becomes an endless rotation of “picky bits”.
Far from a modern pleasure, picnics can be traced back to medieval times, when nobility and royalty enjoyed open-air feasts during extravagant hunting expeditions. It was the French Revolution, however, that helped bring the picnic to Britain. As French aristocrats fled to London, they brought their “pique-nique” custom with them, and the trend exploded in popularity during the Victorian era.
