Malfoyish
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Here are some interesting facts about the 1500's!
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 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 mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and
sheeting hung over the top afforded some protections. 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 wets, so they spread thresh
(straw)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 "threshold."
(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, "Pease
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 into 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, the 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
place 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."
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 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 mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and
sheeting hung over the top afforded some protections. 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 wets, so they spread thresh
(straw)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 "threshold."
(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, "Pease
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 into 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, the 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
place 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."
