Subject: Life in the 1500's          

                                                                  courtesy of google images.com


A home usually did not have a lot of chairs and beds, so a wooden board was used for sleeping at night, and, on trestles, as a dining table during the day.  



So one could offer "Room and Board", to guests called "Boarders", to earn a few extra farthings. Thus, you had a "Boarding House".



The owner would sit at the head of the table in the only chair -- boarders were on rude benches, hence the owner was the "Chairman of the Board".



The owner would watch that diners kept their hands in sight during meals, so they could not use weapons concealed beneath the table.  Thus the meal was "Open and Above Board"



Few people owned dishes or utensils, so each diner would be given a piece of flat bread called a trencher, which served as a plate.  Those hungry men who also ate the trencher were called "Trenchermen".



Single women kept their hair tightly pinned up in public, until they were married.  Some single women "let their hair down", these were called "loose women".



The few beds had no springs.  Instead, they had ropes stretched tightly across a frame, on which was placed a straw mattress.  These ropes tended to stretch with use, making for an uncomfortable sagging bed.  So one would re-tighten the ropes to "Sleep Tight".

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I'll bet you didn't know these tidbits


They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all  pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the  tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor".  But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't  even afford to buy a pot...........they "didn't have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest of the low 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:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June..  However, since they were starting to smell .  ..  .  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  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 entrance-way.  Hence, " 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: 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  the "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"...

And that's the truth...Now, whoever said History was boring ! !  !

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