Life in the 1500s

[Mungler]

LIFE IN THE 1500'S

 

The next time you are washing your hands and complain that 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, if they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. 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, with no wood boarding underneath the thick layer of straw. It was the only place for smaller 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 rooms underneath, either. This was a real problem in the bedrooms where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. So, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. Side curtains kept out the draughts. That's how four-poster beds came into existence.

 

The floor was compacted dirt. Only the wealthy had anything. Hence the saying, 'dirt poor'. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread straw or thresh on the 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.

 

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 afford pork. They would hang up their pork to smoke it and to show it off. In towns it was a sign of wealth that a man could bring home the bacon. When visitors called, they would cut off a little to share with guests. All sit around and chew the fat.

 

People 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 and eventually 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. Servants got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

 

The wealthy drank out of silver cups, the less poor used pewter cups to drink ale or spirits. Drinking sessions would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. If found senseless in the road, they could be taken for dead and 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 to 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 reopened, 1 out of 25 of these coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside of the lid and it was realized that 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..

 

Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

[Catamong]

Mungler,

 

You obviously remember it well..!! Nostalgia isn't what it used to be,

 

Cat

[henry d]

LIFE IN THE 1500'S

 

.... so they spread straw or thresh on the 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.

 

 

According to Jack Hargreaves the "Threshold" was indeed a board across the front door but it was there to stop the grain that was threshed in the hallway from falling out of the house. It was threshed inside as there would be less losses than threshing it outside.

 

He also gave a meaning to "cock-up", aparently when making hay it takes 4-5 days to dry after cutting so the farmers watched the weather to give them the best opportunity to dry the all important fodder for their animals. It did however go wrong and if it started to rain they would have to pile it up into small stacks, as the rain leaches the goodness from the hay, and the outer leaves would be worthless but could protect the inner core.These stacks were called "cocks" hence ......"We cocked it up!"

[Conygree]

Some of the old disused farm houses on the estate have dirt floors with now rat tunnels, but the pig styes have 'mullioned windows'. and water and electric is only now being installed, even the owners house is spring fed, " don't disturb, the water in Gylies bank old chap - clouds the drinking water".

 

When my dad was in Italy WW2 a farmer proudly showed him his wife and bambinos all in one big bed with chickens along the bottom rail - some facing one way and others crapping on the bed - it was normal.

 

When I worked for the local farmer/butcher he used to slaughter cattle with a pole-axe at the back of his village house in WW2, I asked if he had any complaints, " no lad they all came around with bowls for a bit of offal". it was not really that long ago. He also told me how to kill a pig and get it into through the village - no details here.

[Zapp]

Dont forget "taking someone down a peg"..

 

This originates from old drinking games where beer or ale mugs had pegs inside to mark a regulation drinking match swig.

 

ZB

[Highlander]

Huh and we think life is hard today!