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  • From: EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: Homestead List <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] Life in the 1500's
  • Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:51:18 -0400

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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