Gents,
Here's something I received at work earlier today. Being a lover of the
English language and especially its colloquialisms, I found this very
enjoyable and hope some of you may also. I'd be interested in hearing
---From our U. K. brethren as to their opinions of the accuracy of these
items.
Cheers,
Steve G.
Life in the 1500s: (or "The Good Old Days")
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in
May
and were still smelling relatively good by June. However, they were
starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide their
body
odor.
Baths equaled a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had
the
privilege of the nice clean water, then all the sons and other 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
pets...dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, 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. So, they found if they made beds with big posts
and
hung a sheet over the top, it addressed that problem. Hence those
beautiful
4 poster beds with canopies.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt,
hence
the saying "dirt poor". The wealthy had slate floors which 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 the door was opened, it would all start slipping outside. A
piece of wood was placed at the entry way, hence a "thresh hold".
The cooking was done in the kitchen in a big kettle hanging over the
fire.
Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They mostly
ate
vegetables and didn't 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 in there for
a
month. Hence the rhyme: "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas
porridge in the pot nine days old."
Sometimes they could obtain pork and would feel really special when this
happened. When company came over, they would bring out some bacon and
hang it
to show it off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could really "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. This happened most often
with
tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes... for 400 years.
Most people didn't have pewter plates, but had trenchers - a piece of
wood
with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Trenchers were never washed,
and a
lot of times worms got into the wood. After eating off wormy trenchers,
they
would sometimes 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 the "upper
crust".
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would
sometimes
knock them out for a couple of days. Sometimes they would be taken for
dead
and would be prepared 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 running out of places to bury
people. So, they would dig up coffins, remove the bones, and re-use the
grave. In reopening these coffins, many were found to have scratch
marks on
the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So
they
began the practice of tying string to the wrist of the body, leading it
through the coffin and up through the ground, attaching it to a bell.
Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night to listen for
the
bell. Hence on the "graveyard shift" they would know that someone was
"saved
by the bell" or he was a "dead ringer".
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