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 loose
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.
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 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 trenchers -- a
piece of wood with the middle cooped 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 re-use 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."
