[Homestead] Life in the 1500's

EarthNSky erthnsky at bellsouth.net
Tue Aug 21 09:51:18 EDT 2007


Got this in an email forward.  Don't know how true, but likely so, I think.

  Subject:  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:


  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 whiskey. 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!!!

-- 
Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm   Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the 
ocean's depths, MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.





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