Some Facts About 1500s
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.
Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when
getting married.
* * * * * *
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot
water.
The man of the house had the privilege of the
nice clean water,
then all the other sons and men, then 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
underneath.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
your nice clean
bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung
over the top
afforded some protection.
That's how canopy beds came into existence.
* * * * * *
The floor was dirt. 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
entranceway.
Hence the saying a "thresh hold."
* * * * * *
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
high acid content caused some of the lead to
leach on to
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 "upper crust."
* * * * * *
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky.The
combination would sometimes knock them out for
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 and 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."
* * * * * *
Now , whoever said that History was boring ! ! !
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