[MR] Fw: Interesting facts from the 1500s

[M Simpson]

I saw this and thought it would be some interesting trivia for us Scadians



> >Next time you feel the need to complain about how life is treating you
and
> >forget to count your blessings, 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 to 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
> >entryway-- 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 "uppercrust."
> >
> >Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would
> >sometimes 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 running out of places to bury
> >people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to
> >"bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out
> >of 25 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 (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell;
> >thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead
> >ringer".
>
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