| May 29, 2008 @ 11:17 AM |
Life in the 1500's- Trivia
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raykl
Posts: 566
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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 entrance way. 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 ! ! !
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| May 29, 2008 @ 11:18 AM |
Life in the 1500's- Trivia |
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pamdemonium
Posts: 17,347
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Love this! 
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| May 29, 2008 @ 12:14 PM |
Life in the 1500's- Trivia
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Loreli
Posts: 25,399
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1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive That's SCARY! 
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| May 29, 2008 @ 12:31 PM |
Life in the 1500's- Trivia |
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Kenn159
Posts: 4,402
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Great post, very interesting.
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| May 29, 2008 @ 12:32 PM |
Life in the 1500's- Trivia
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Kenn159
Posts: 4,402
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Great post, very interesting.
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| May 29, 2008 @ 2:17 PM |
Life in the 1500's- Trivia |
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SaintBacon
Posts: 2,130
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Mrs. Bacon still chews the fat!  
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| May 29, 2008 @ 2:48 PM |
Life in the 1500's- Trivia
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redhairNfreckles
Posts: 4,693
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Cool beans! Got any more?
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| May 29, 2008 @ 3:20 PM |
Life in the 1500's- Trivia |
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Heaveninawildflower
Posts: 18,606
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OK, not all from the 1500's (I love those too btw)
In the 18th century when many men wore wigs, the most important men wore the biggest wigs. Hence today important people are called big wigs.
THE BITER BEING BITTEN
Has nothing to do with animals. In the 17th century a biter was a con man. 'Talk about the biter being bitten' was originally a phrase about a con man being beaten at his own game.
Anchor cable was wrapped around posts called bitts. The last piece of cable was called the bitter end. If you let out the cable to the bitter end there was nothing else you could do, you had reached the end of your resources.
The old word cop meant grab or capture so in the 19th century policemen were called coppers because they grabbed or caught criminals.
Originally this saying was devil to pay and no hot pitch. In a sailing ship a devil was the seam between planks. This had to be made waterproof. Fibres from old ropes were first hammered into the seam and then pitch (a tar-like substance) was poured (or paid) onto it. If you had the devil to pay and no hot pitch you were in trouble.
Any farm animal that had outlived its usefulness such as a hen that no longer laid eggs would literally go to pot. It was cooked and eaten.
(And on that note I'm getting out of here)
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| May 29, 2008 @ 3:55 PM |
Life in the 1500's- Trivia
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meanjolene
Posts: 480
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And a case of the big crook eating the little one, a saying we have.
Good, Heaven.
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| May 30, 2008 @ 10:44 AM |
Life in the 1500's- Trivia |
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redhairNfreckles
Posts: 4,693
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Those were great too, Heaven.
I remember in a land and time far, far, away.....my x wanted re-stock our freezer with the non-laying hens. Only trouble with that was they were almost 10 years old when they stopped laying so I said "No, you ain't!" to his plan, figured they'd be too tough to eat anyway. Besides, I liked the little critters...
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