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From: DorothyL
Date: 08-25-2005, 03:26 PM (1 of 7)
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I don't know if this is accurate but Jan might since she, like England, is old and small. I thought it was amusing. 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 the 1500s: 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 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 we?) 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 "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 that History was boring ! ! ! __________________________________________________ |
User: DorothyL
Member since: 12-09-2002 Total posts: 3883 |
From: SummersEchos
Date: 08-25-2005, 05:16 PM (2 of 7)
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Interesting to say the least. Glad I can take a shower any time I want too. I would think it is about true, and how we got some of those great sayings.
Summer
FREE FALLIN |
User: SummersEchos
Member since: 09-29-2004 Total posts: 884 |
From: Bama
Date: 08-25-2005, 07:09 PM (3 of 7)
Very interesting. 
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User: Bama
Member since: 03-21-2000 Total posts: 2116 
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From: JJJGilbert
Date: 08-26-2005, 01:40 PM (4 of 7)
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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. __________________________________________________ EWWwwWWW Could you imagin!!   Yucky!! I am still in shock!!
Jessica
****************************** Kenmore 385.19365990 |
User: JJJGilbert
Member since: 08-28-2004 Total posts: 18 |
From: Carmela
Date: 08-27-2005, 09:23 AM (5 of 7)
I read this before Thank the Lord we live NOW What will they write about us in say 300 years ????? I take a bubble bath in the morning AND at night Being retired I have the time to baby myself ............... For years I was lucky to take a quick shower with 5 kids all living at home My kids lived home till college THEN back home till they got married BAHHHHHHHHHH 
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User: Carmela
Member since: 10-21-2001 Total posts: 38 |
From: auzzi
Date: 08-30-2005, 06:13 AM (6 of 7)
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This pops up all over the Internet as "historical fact" but is actually a hoax... Life in the 1500's...An interesting hoax: * Most medieval people washed themselves on a regular basis. Soap was in widespread use throughout Europe since the ninth century. * The most popular months for weddings were January, November and October after Harvest when the fresh food especially the meat was available. Summer weddings [June] took advantage of good weather and the availability of fresh flowers. * Before the use of flowers in the bridal bouquet, women carried aromatic bunches of garlic, herbs, and grains to drive evil spirits away as they walked down the aisle. Over time, these were replaced with flowers, symbolizing fertility and everlasting love. == * Most didn't a bathtub. Most used cloths, soap, and a bucket of water. * Those who could afford a real bathtub could also afford servants to fill and replenish it, and did not have to share bathwater. * Children and babies were bathed in basins that needed a small amount of water that could easily be heated over the fire. * "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water" is German in origin [fifteenth century] == * Thatched roofs were carefully and tightly woven that didn't disintergrate and is very good at keeping out the weather. Like most roofs of any material, small rodents, insects and birds could take up residence. Nothing larger would fit. * The most favoured origin of the phrase "raining cats and dogs" is mythological. Cats were thought to have influence over storms and that dogs were symbols of storms. A violent storm was caused by cats (bringing the rain) and dogs (the wind). == * Originally, the lord and his family slept in the Great Hall. The lords and ladies had their bed to themselves, but their attendants shared the room for convenience and security. For warmth [draughty castles] and privacy, the bed was curtained. * People living/sleeping under a thatch roof may have suffered from falling dead insects and rat/bird droppings. They did not have canopy beds. * Wealthier people didn't need to use bed-canopies to keep out things that dropped from the roof. They had wood, clay and stone for roofing. == "dirt poor." is US in origin and dates to 1937 - from the "dust bowl", extreme poverty and unclean conditions of the Depression. == * In castles, the ground floor might be beaten earth, stone or plaster, but upper stories had wooden floors. * Straw, and aromatic herbs, provided warmth, cushioning and fresh smell/insect repellants. Floors were swept clean and strewn with fresh straw on a regular basis. * The word "thresh" is a verb, not a noun. [Threshold (OE therscwold) is a place to step.] == * Peasants had only one room where they cooked, ate, worked and slept - no kitchen. * All food ingredients went into the cooking pot. Leftovers would be used in the next day's fare as not to waste food. They were aware of the dangers of food-poisioning. * "peas porridge hot" rhyme came from the 18th century. == * Meat was scarce for peasants. Smoked and cured ham [bacon] is edible far longer than any other type of meat and it was no status symbol. Fresh meat was special for peasants. * "bringing home the bacon" and "chewing the fat" originated in 19th-century North America. == * Lead poisoning is slow and would not have been associated with any one particular food. * Food was served on wooden plates, pewter tableware, silver-plate, gold-plate and even trencher bread. * The Tomato plant did not appeared until the early 16th century. They were a purely decorative plant because they looked like belladonna and deadly nightshade and no-one wanted to use its fruit. == * Everyone had access to bread [not "modern bread"]. * Peasant bread was usually coarse and brown. * Bread for nobles were white and made of fine white flour. * According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the phrase "upper crust" dates to the year 1836. == * Drinking vessels were made of pewter, horn, ceramic, gold, silver, glass, wood and "wine-skins.". * The water was not necessarily good to drink, so everyone drank ale [even children] * Most people could tell the difference between dead and drunk. * Inebriated persons were not laid "on the kitchen table" to wait to see if they woke up. Most people had neither kitchens nor permanent tables. * Lead poisoning was a slow, cumulative process and not fast-acting. * The custom of holding a "wake" goes back to Ancient Celtic Britain to protect the recently-deceased's body from evil spirits before interment or cremation. Christianity added prayer to the vigil. The family and friends would gather to bid farewell by sharing food and drink. == * All Christians were buried in the consecrated grounds of Church yards. Cemeteries within a town were limited by housing surrounding the churches. After time, the ground had to be re-used {modern predicament, also], not because England was "old and small" * There were no "bone houses" in England, but there were "charnel houses." These stored bones, usually uncovered in the course of digging new graves. These were re-buried. [took up less space than a newly deceased. * Throughout history there has been the occasional case of someone getting buried alive, but by no means was this as frequent as the hoax would have you believe. * According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the phrase "graveyard shift" dates to the early 20th century. It may have its source in the night shift on nautical vessels, which was called "graveyard watch" for its quiet loneliness. * "Saved by the bell" originates from the sport of boxing. * A "ringer" is slang for an imposter. A "dead ringer" is someone who is extremely close in appearance to another. == And if that's the truth... think about how the future is going to explain their past [our present] ! ! ! |
User: auzzi
Member since: 10-28-2003 Total posts: 56 |
From: Magot
Date: 09-01-2005, 03:20 PM (7 of 7)
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Auzzi - you are a gem - some of those I knew but not all - thatch is incredibly waterproof and substantial - your major problem would be rats, birds and squirrels and they weren't neccesarily considered a problem. My friends say that they have to renew their thatch every 15 years or so - you use wheat straw which is really hard to come by these days in the correct length as most people grow modern short strawed varieties. Ever wondered why all those people in Breugal paintings seemed to be dwarfed by the wheat - it is because they were! If your straw were just piled on the roof it would fall off, even the iron age saxons pinned their straw to the roof - thatch is almost woven on. There are many receipes for strewing herbs (the ones you place on the floor to sop up the muck and then clean out - Lady's Bedstraw and Meadowsweet are 2 that I know - when fresh they would be quite fragrant. My medievilist in laws are a bit thin on washing by modern standards but perfumes and ungents were often worn by Elizabethans. However they have verified the Upper crust titbit - as pies were cooked on the base of the oven, along with all the muck, old pastry etc the lower crust was fed to the servants and the upper crust to the family. Pottage (bean porridge and anything else handy) is Yummy! Neither tomato nor potato plants would have a hard time passing FDA standards for edible food nowadays because of the high concentration of alkaloids found in them. The are both in the Solenacae family which includes Belladonna and the Nightshade family. I object to being called old and small  England is like me - Fab! love and kisses, Jan
Guts-R-Us Cells a Speciality DNA to order. |
User: Magot
Member since: 12-22-2002 Total posts: 3626 
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