Some interesting information on our ancestors ways of life.
Jenny
List Mom
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susie" <OnlyHisForever(a)webtv.net>
To: <TINDALL-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 10:14 PM
Subject: [TINDALL] FACTS ABOUT THE 1500'S
I got these in email today and thought you all would like them. Gee,
I
am glad I didn't live in this time period! LOL!!! I bet some of these
are reasons they caught so many diseases and died! They are
interesting. Hope you enjoy this! :o)
Susie
List Admin.
==============================================
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.
==============================================
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
dogs, cats and other small animals (mice rats, and 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
really 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 on the floor
to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more
thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping
outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entry way--hence, a "thresh
hold."
==============================================
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 the 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 a high acid
content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead
poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the
next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous. Most people
did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a piece of wood with the
middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers were made from stale
paysan bread which was so old and hard that they could use them for
quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms
and mold got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy moldy
trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."
==============================================
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 whiskey. The combination would some
times knock them 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 they started out running out of places to
bury the people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones
to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one
out of 2 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they
realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought 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 ("midnight shift") to listen for the
bell, thus someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a
"dead ringer."
==================================
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