Life in the 1500's

[Chris Wilson]

Life in the 1500's

 

 

 

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water

temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here

are some facts about the 1500s:

 

These are interesting...

 

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. 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-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It

was the only place for 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 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 mess up your nice

clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top 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 (straw) on 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."

 

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

 

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 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 high acid content caused

some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning 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. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf,

the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust."

 

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes

knock the imbibers 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 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 reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25

coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized 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 that History was boring? ! ! !

[SupraStar 3000]

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 reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25

coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized 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 that History was boring? ! ! !

 

 

thats just great!!!! ! I've already had cheese tonight.

Looks like I'll be havin nightmares

[MONKEYmark]

great to read all that.

 

saved it to email people lol

[SupraHuman]

nice informative read.

[geoffvalenti]

And I thought you were going to post about something you'd bought with 1500 bhp

[markrzs]

Thanks for the read Chris, learnt alot this evening

 

Mastermind next week !

Specialist subject : '' Life in the 1500's ''

[Homer]

I thought it was going to be about the 1500cc turbo F1 engines

 

Seen it before but an interesting read none the less. Wonder how much is fact though?

[Jake]

The "saved by the bell" one is to do with boxing, isn't it?

[Sharpie]

Dogs on the roof ?

[carl0s]

The "saved by the bell" one is to do with boxing, isn't it?

 

nah, it's gotta be end of class at school!

[RedM]

Y'know Chris, that post accurately describes life in some of the towns arounds here. Still!

[Nick]

I'll be impressing people in the pub tonight

[Dragonball]

I was going to say - sounds like Forest of Dean today!

[JohnA]

Very nice.

I didn't know the 'threshold' and the 'bouquet' stories, always something new to learn, eh?

[jim_supra]

Wow, some interesting stuff there!

[lust2luv]

Funny, but I'm not sure many of them are actually true. This one certainly isn't:

 

Life in the 1500's

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 reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25

coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized 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 that History was boring? ! ! !

 

Found this on the net:

 

Complete balderdash!. In factories that work around the clock, employees report for work at 8 a.m. for the “regular” or “day” shift; at 4 p.m. for the “swing” or “night” shift; and at midnight for the “graveyard” shift, lasting until 8 a.m. According to Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner’s Dictionary of American Slang, the name “graveyard shift” refers to “the ghostlike hour of employment” -- and nothing more.

 

Now the plot deepens, and our subject turns grave: ”Dead ringers” actually originated at the race track. To take advantage of the long odds against an inferior horse’s winning a race, unscrupulous gamblers would substitute a horse of superior ability and similar appearance. Nowadays, “dead ringer” means any close look-alike.

 

Why “ringer”? Probably because “ringer” was once a slang term for a counterfeiter who represented brass rings for gold ones at county fairs. And “dead” here means “absolute, exact,” as in “dead heat” and “you’re dead right.”

 

Should I even dignify the above explanation of “saved by the bell” with a logical explanation. Oh well, here ‘tis, and it’s just what you thought in the first place. “Saved by the bell” is nothing more than the obvious -- a reference to the bell signaling the end of a round of boxing. No matter what condition a fighter is in during a boxing contest, even if he is being counted out, he is saved by the bell and gains a reprieve once that bell rings.

 

Ah well, the original post is definitely more imaginative.