STEWART-L Archives

Archiver > STEWART > 1999-08 > 0934046353


From: "Mark A Alvarado" <>
Subject: FW: Phrases from the 1500s that we use today.
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1999 12:19:13 -0500


I know it has nothing to do with surnames, but I thought all you geneology
folks might get a kick out of this. I'm not sure where they got their
facts though. It was forwarded to me from a friend. Enjoy!
~Patty~

>
> Interesting historical info about Life in the 1500s, rather
> disgusting .....
>
>
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 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 four-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
> it would all start slipping outside when the door opened. A piece
> of
> wood was placed at the entry way--hence a "thresh hold."
>
> 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 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 share with 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 a trencher--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, eat and drink, 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 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 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."
>
> Regarding burying people alive. Most of this occured with men that
> had
> gotten so drunk off of ale that they would pass out for days.
> Thinking
> they were dead (no stethescopes etc. back then I guess), they would
> bury them. The phrase, "mind your P's and Q's" came from this.
> Meaning
> mind your pints and quarts.
>
>
> --------- End forwarded message ----------
>
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