History...
Some useless but true facts about England in the 1500's
a.. 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 odor.
b.. 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."
c.. 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 rats, and 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."
d.. 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.
e.. 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 - the
straw left over after threshing grain - on the floor to help keep their
footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more and more thresh
until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. To
prevent this, a piece of wood was placed in the entranceway hence, a
"thresh hold."
f.. 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."
g.. 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."
h.. Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid
content caused some of the lead to leach 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.
i.. Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers - a
piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers
were made from stale pays and bread which was so old and hard that they
could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a
lot of times worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After
eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."
j.. Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt
bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top,
the "upper crust."
k.. 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."
l.. England is old and small and they 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, one
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."
And that's the truth.
Who said that History was boring?
Some useless but true facts about England in the 1500's
a.. 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 odor.
b.. 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."
c.. 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 rats, and 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."
d.. 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.
e.. 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 - the
straw left over after threshing grain - on the floor to help keep their
footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more and more thresh
until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. To
prevent this, a piece of wood was placed in the entranceway hence, a
"thresh hold."
f.. 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."
g.. 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."
h.. Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid
content caused some of the lead to leach 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.
i.. Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers - a
piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers
were made from stale pays and bread which was so old and hard that they
could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a
lot of times worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After
eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."
j.. Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt
bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top,
the "upper crust."
k.. 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."
l.. England is old and small and they 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, one
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."
And that's the truth.
Who said that History was boring?
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