Life in the 1500's

[JolyStNicholas]

>> > LIFE IN THE 1500's
>> >
>> > The next time you are washing your hands
>> and complain because the water
>> > temperature isn't just how you like it, think
>> about how things used to be.
>> > Here are some facts about the1500s:
>> >
>> > These are interesting...
>> >
>> > 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. 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 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
>> > 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 floor to
>> > help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they
>> added 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.
>> >
>> > (Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
>> >
>> > 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 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 onto the food,
>> causing lead poisoning
>> > 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
>> whisky. The combination would
>> > sometimes knock the imbibers 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 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...Now, whoever said
>> History was boring ! ! !
>> >
>> > Educate someone. Share these facts with a
>> friend

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I remember when this first made the e-mail rounds and I got it about ten times in my inbox. Cute, but unfortunately most of the "historical facts" listed are not true.

[JolyStNicholas]

That I did not know, how do you verify such statements?

[macwilkin]

http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp

[Heming]

How do you verify that they are true?

It's quite well known that the vikings bathed once a week or more, that's 750-1100 AD. Many sources tell of the rituals of bathing, and the day of the bath was called bath-day, in norse laugar-dag (lauga= to bathe). That evolved to the modern "laurdag" or "lørdag" still used today as the only name for Saturday.

The custom of carrying flowers on your wedding day probably has more to do with decoration than scent - how many flowers do you know that would overpower say one week of body odour? Let alone a month?

The phrase "dead ringer" is by some linguists explained thus: The word "dead" can, among other things, mean "accurate" or "total". Think "dead tired" or "dead on target". "Ring" is used a lot to mean "thought" or "connotation". So a "dead ringer" gives you connotations of another person that are very realistic.

It's very interesting to dig up the likely and probable explanations for such phrases and phenomena, but the chain mails that pop up, however cute and funny, are usually only cute and funny.

Oh, and the coffin rots many years before the corpse. I know this from my experience as an ex-gravedigger...

[Tartan Shortbread Jock]

Like alot of folk on this forum, I often look forward to
the humour of jolyStNicholas, great stuff keep it up.
My kind wishes.

[cessna152towser]

[Dardanelles]

Great post, i like this fun stuff.
Cheers, Danny.

[beloitpiper]

Room and board came from the inns. People paid for their room (obviously), and were served their meal on a wood (or sometimes stale bread) plate or board called a trencher.

[bikeolounger]

I remember when this first made the e-mail rounds and I got it about ten times in my inbox. Cute, but unfortunately most of the "historical facts" listed are not true.

Yeah, they have the ring of being apocryphal, don't they?