Fw: VERY interesting

Margaret Lee mlee303 at YAHOO.COM
Thu Aug 3 09:34:21 UTC 2000


Some of this sounds like information given by the tour
guide at the birthplace of Shakespeare's mother when I
visited there last summer.


--- storkrn <storkrn at EMAIL.MSN.COM> wrote:
> This is in wide circulation on the net with no
> attribution or other
> identifying data.
>
> Subject: VERY interesting
>
>
> > Life in the 1500s:
> >
> > Most people got married in June because they took
> > their yearly bath in May and were still smelling
> pretty good by
> > June.  However, they were starting to smell, so
> brides carried
> > a bouquet of flowers to hide the b.o.
> > 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 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
> loose 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 big 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 you opened the door, it
> would all start
> > slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed at
> the entry way,
> > hence a "thresh hold."
> >
> > 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 cold, peas porridge in the pot nine
> days old.
> >
> > 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 sharewith 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.
> Trencher were never washed
> >
> > and a lot of times worms got into the wood. After
> eating off wormy
> > trenchers, they 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 the
> > "upper crust."
> >
> > 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 their bones
> > to a house and reuse 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 astring 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."
> >


=====
Margaret G. Lee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor - English and Linguistics
& University Editor
Department of English
Hampton University, Hampton, VA 23668
Office:(757)727-5769; FAX:(757)727-5421; Home:(757)851-5773
e-mail:  mlee303 at yahoo.com   or   margaret.lee at hamptonu.edu

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Kick off your party with Yahoo! Invites.
http://invites.yahoo.com/



More information about the Ads-l mailing list