Here are
some facts from the 1500's
SO! YOU THINK HISTORY IS BORING THEN!
Here are
some facts from the 1500's
Most people got married in June, because they
took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However,
they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the
body odour.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the
privilege of the nice clean water, next all the other sons and men, next the
women and finally the children; last of all the babies. By then the water was so
dirty you could actually lose someone in it; hence the saying, Don't throw the
baby out with the bath water.
Houses had thatched roofs (thick straw) piled high, with no wood beneath. It was
the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small
animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and
sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof; hence the saying It's
raining cats and dogs.
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real
problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up a
bed. A bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some
protection; hence canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt, and only the wealthy had something other than dirt; hence
the saying dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in
the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep
their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when
you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was
placed in the entryway; hence a threshold.
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung
over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate
mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner,
leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next
day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while;
hence the rhyme, peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot
nine days old."
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When
visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of
wealth that a man could bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to
share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused
some of the lead to leak onto the food causing lead poisoning and death. This
happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes
were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf,
the family got the middle, and guests got the top or the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes
knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take
them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen
table for a couple of days, and the family would gather around and eat and drink
and wait and see if they would wake up; hence the custom of holding a wake.
England is old and small, and the local folks started running out of places to
bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a
bone-house and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25
coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside, and they realized they
had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the
wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin, up through the ground, and tie
it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night the
graveyard shift to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be saved by the bell
or was considered a dead ringer.
And that's the real truth...
(Whoever said that History was boring?!)