Some true facts about england

stillajwexelder

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 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 dogs, 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 really
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 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 in the entranceway. Hence the saying a "thresh hold."

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 the 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 and
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 "upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. 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 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 thought 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."

blondie

Very interesting, stilla. Especially about the bell.

finnrot

exelder---That was a very interesting read. Thank You.

-fin

Country_Woman

thanks, that was enlightening.

Undecided

When I was a kid we took a bath every Saturday in a tub. And some people think they have it bad today.

Ken P.

Sirona

True facts instead of false facts ?

Interesting. Although I can't see how they'd run out of places to bury people.... England isn't THAT small! LOL

Sirona

eyeslice

Its not changed - its still like that were in live!

Eyeslice

stillajwexelder

True facts instead of false facts ?

Sorry for the poor English grammar and the use of the tautological expression

Abaddon

Fun post but a few inaccuarcies (said Abaddon donning his etymology cap).

Dead ringer actually refers to a secretly substituted horse (one that looks the same as a horse previously run under the same name, but that is faster).

As with many faux-etymologies, it takes two unrelated truths and makes bollocks out of it. There was a fashion for coffins with holes/bells etc., but it was very short lived and practised by very few people.

Likewise the given explaination for wake is entirely fanciful. Wake in the context of a vigil is from Old English 'wæccan', 'to watch'.

Upper crust is spot on;

"Then take a lofe in your lufe hande and pare ye lofe rounde aboute; then cut the over cruste to youre soverayne, and cut the nether cruste, and voyde the parynge, and touch the lofe no more after it is so served."
Boke of Keruinge" (late XV)

"Furst pare the quarters of the lofe rounde alle about / Than kutt the upper cruste to your soverayne and to him alow't."
XVI rhyme

Tomatoes being cosidered poisonous is another bit of rubbish;

http://historymedren.about.com/library/weekly/aa042202j.htm

So is the etymology for chewing the fat;

http://historymedren.about.com/library/weekly/aa042202i.htm

Threshold is bang-on.

The other three I need to look up but am out of time.

(added)

Someone's done the work for me;

Canopy beds, rubbish;

http://historymedren.about.com/library/weekly/aa042202f.htm

Cats and dogs, seems unlikely;

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20010830

Just 'cause it's on the internet doesn't mean it's so!

BrendaCloutier

Thanx Stilla, interesting info

The wedding flowers were called Nosegays because you stuck your nose in them.

The rhyme Ring Around the Rosie, Pocket full of Posies, Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down
was related to the black plague, there was a ring around a rose colored welt with the plague. Because of the smell of decaying and burning flesh, people wore sprays of flowers on their lapels or breast pockets to stick their noses in to avoide the smell. Ashes, Ashes, refers to the rain of human ash as the bodies were burned. We all fall down, refering to people falling in the streets dead.

Burial at sea. The dead man was sewn up in his hammock as a burial shroud. The last stitch was put through his nose, the pain waking him if he were actually still alive.

Good Night, Sleep Tight, don't let the Bed Bugs Bite!

Beds were strung with rope. These occasionally had to be retightened for comfort, hense the Sleep Tight. Mattresses were made of straw and often ended up with vermin like fleas and lice, usual from those sleeping in them. If you had bed bugs, you had old straw, and it was time to replace.

Hugs

Bren

Some true facts about england

Share this