This is really interesting (and TRUE!!)
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 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
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. I
wonder if
this is where we get the saying "Good night and don't let the bed
bugs
bite"........LOL
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 kithen 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. Trenchers 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, 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 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 gaveyard 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."
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.
All Content © HiddenMysteries - TGS (1998-2005)
HiddenMysteries.com Internet Store ~ HiddenMysteries Information Central
Texas National Press ~ TGS Publishers Dealers Site
All Rights Reserved
Please send bug reports to the Information .