Fortyfold is the oldest culinary British variety still available. It dates from around 1800 and was described as an "old type" in Victorian literature. It is thought to have come from the North West of England and had some publicity as being the original potato used in Lancashire hotpot and lobscouse, the Liverpool equivalent. The variety is a tall, vigorous late maincrop with huge yields of round tubers of all sizes splashed with mauve. They have a high food value with an interesting good nutty flavour, unlike anything today. I thrill to think that this was a variety known to Nelson's sailors and Wellington's troops.