Life in the 1500s

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Life in the 1500s


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."

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 "threshold."

They cooked in the kitchen 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 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 scooped out like a bowl.  Trencher 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, 
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."


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