Life in the 1500's and the Origin of Words and Phrases:
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Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May,
and were still smelling pretty good by June, although they were starting to
smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the BO.
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Baths were 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".
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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,"
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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
hang a sheet over the top, it addressed that problem. Hence those beautiful
big 4 poster beds with canopies.
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The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence
the saying "dirt poor". The wealthy had slate floors which in the winter
they would get slippery 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 at the entry way, hence a "threshold".
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They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that always hung 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 old, peas porridge
in the pot nine days old."
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Sometimes they could obtain pork and would feel really special when that
happened. When company came over, they would bring out some bacon and hang
it to show it off. It was a sign of wealth and 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."
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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 get "trench mouth."
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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".
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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" and the origin of "making enough noise to wake the dead".
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England is old and so small that they started running out of places to bury
people. So they would dig up coffins and re-use the grave. In 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 their wrist and 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 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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