I can't imagine watercress substituting for meat. Food.com says that in Victoria times children took watercress sandwiches to school in place of meat ones. The article thought it was cheerful food packed with vitamins. Watercress can be foraged easily so would have been handy. It is better known as a staple of high teas where dainty little sandwiches sit side by side with dainty little desserts.
Watercress is celebrated in a yearly festival with a watercress soup champion, and there's a Watercress Alliance. This, of course, is a British-based interest and organization.
What got my interest is that sitting on the high tea stand beside the watercress delights would be egg salad sandwiches.
It seems a far different sort of sandwich and dish. Egg was a substitute for meat in North America in the Depression - an affordable, accessible ingredient. I would think these were egg sandwiches and leave out the mayonnaise as those who were doing the substitution likely didn't have all that oil available to make the mayonnaise.
Egg mixtures seem to have a far distant origin They originate in Roman times and exist in all cultures with many variations in the various cuisines.
Egg mixtures in bread would seem to me to follow from the Earl of Sandwich times (1762). They are known to exist in the 1800s and show up in cook books in the later 1800s.
And what else would be on the high tea stand? We haven't even considered the other sandwiches - smoked salmon for sure and then others like chicken and ham. So I went looking for what is on Victoria's Empress Hotel's high tea stand. They have moved on to new combinations in their current menu:
smoked salmon ham and cheese coronation chicken salad sandwich english cucumber
This seems like a meagre assortment and not a sprig of watercress on the menu. I seem to remember watercress long ago when I was then so I went searching into the Lightroom database pictures and found one from a visit in 2006. These were on the sideboard ready to be served. Are the bottom sandwiches watercress? What I notice is there's a lot of dessert on the tray, don't you think?
Following that picture is a Butchart Garden image from more recent times.
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