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Archived: Spring Article: Life in 1900

 

I have no idea if there's any truth to the following "history lesson"
someone sent to me (author unknown). However, it does have a reference
(albeit British) to a previous thread on this site which speculated on
why most marriages occurred in spring or early summer. There's also
interesting attempts to provide historical basis for several popular
bromides. Who knows?

Jack Thueson
Stillwater, MN USA
***********************

A wonderful, humorous history lesson

Life in the 1500's

When Anne Hathaway married William Shakespeare, she was 26 years old.
This is very unusual for the time, as most people married at age 11 or 12 years. Life was different in many other ways in the 1500's.

Here are some examples:

Ann Hathaway's home was a 3-bedroom house with a kitchen and a small
parlor, which was seldom used except for company. There
was no bathroom. Mother and Father shared a bedroom. Before she was
married, Anne had a queen size bed, but she did not sleep
alone. She had two other sisters and they shared the bed with six
servant girls. They did not sleep lengthwise on the bed, as we do
nowadays, but would lie crosswise.  However, at least they had a bed. The other bedroom was shared by six brothers and about a dozen workers. Since they did not have beds, the men wrapped up in their blankets and slept on the floor. The combined body heat served to keep everyone warm.

People in the 1500's were smaller than the modern Americans or Britons.
The men averaged about 5'4" and the women were generally
about 4'8". Most people in the 1500's got married in June. This was
because they took their yearly bath in the spring, when the weather
began to warm enough that being wet and naked was not a health hazard.
In most cases, people still smelled fresh in June when the sun
would come out steadily and the days were long. However, if the
bld
develop noticeable body order, so it was not uncommon for the young
women to carry a bouquet or sweet smelling flowers as a kind of
mobile deodorant. The annual spring ablution took place in a big tub
fill with hot weather. The man of the house would get the privilege
of the nice clean water. Then all the sons would follow then the women,
and finally the children. Babies came last. By then the water
was pretty thick. When mothers would caution, "Don't throw the baby out
with the bath water," it was because the water was so thick,
someone could actually be lost in it!

Houses in the 1500's frequently had thatched roofs. Thatch was thick
straw, pile high, with no substantial support, only widely spaced
rafters. The thatch was a good place for small animals to sleep, such
as the dogs and cats, which were commonly kept as mousers and
ratters. Sometimes, they would be joined by mice, rats and insects.
When it rained, the thatch would grow heavy with the weight of the
water and the "residents," and often the animals would fall through the
thatch into the room below. This why people would say, "It is raining cats and dogs." Since there was nothing tostop them from falling through the thatch, people became inventive about ways to keep the house clean, especially the bedrooms, which were typically located on the upper floor. Dead insects and animal dropping were a particular problem, until someone (perhaps one of Martha Stewart's ancestors) made a bed with the high posts at each corner. The women would then hang a sheet over the top to catch the bdroppings from the thatched roof. That was the original idea behind our
beautiful modern four-poster beds with canopies.

Middle class and wealthy people had houses with floors of slate of hard
wood. But, many houses in the 1500's had dirt floors. This is
where we get the saying, "dirt poor". Dirt floors posed a particular problem in winter because they would become so slippery, but people found ways to deal with this dilemma. They would spread straw and fine twigs on the floor to help them keep their footing. It was similar to the roofing material
which they called thatch, but when they spread it on the floor, people
called it "thresh" As people would come and go throughout the
winter, it was easy to track the thresh outside. So to prevent this,
people put a piece of wood at the entry. This was called a "thresh
hold."

Some houses had fireplaces for warmth in the parlor or master bedroom
but all houses had a fireplace in the kitchen, which was used
both for warmth and for cooking. "There was always a kettle that hung
over fire and every day the people would add things to the pot.
Mostly, they ate vegetables since cows were prized for their milk and
hens for their eggs. People would eat their stew for dinner, and
then leave the leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and start over
again the next day. Sometimes the stew would have food
in it that was over a week old! Thus the rhyme: peas porridge hot, peas
porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.
Sometimes a family would buy a piece of pork. This was always a special
occasion, such as a holiday or a party. When the visitors
arrived, they would see the rack in the parlor where the hosts would hang the bacon to
show it off. It was a real sign of prosperity that a man "could bring
home the bacon". Toward the end of the party, the hosts would cut
off few pieces to share with guests, and then people would sit around
and "chew the fat".

Poor people in their 1500's didn't have plates; they had "trenchers" A
trencher was a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a
bowl. The people seldom washed their trenchers and because of this,
worms would often get into the wood. This would cause many
health problem and was poor people often had "trench mouth'. Working
class people generally had plates that were made of pewter.
Food that had high acid content would cause lead to leak into it,
causing other health problems. This was one reason only wealthy
people with ceramic plates ate the "New World" delicacy, the tomato. It
would take almost four hundred years before average folk
would incorporate this versatile fruit into their diets!

Innkeepers in the 1500's usually provided a bed and a simple meal, which
always included some bread. However, the bread was
divided according to status. The workers at the inn would get the burn
bottom of the loaf, the innkeeper family would get the middle and
paying guests would get the top, or the "upper crust"

People in the 1500's used lead cups from which they would drink their
ale or whiskey. The combination of lead and strong alcohol in
large quantities would often render them unconscious for a couple of
days! Some in such a heavy sleep could be mistaken for dead. Of
course, the family would begin to make burial preparations. But, people
began to realize that if they took their time about burying their
loved ones, sometimes they woke up! So, the family would lay the
deceased out on the kitchen table for a couple of days, gather around and eat and drink, and wait to see if the dead would wake up. That is where the custom of hold a "wake" came from.

Since England is so old and small, burial plots became scarce around the large towns and cities. So they start re-using graves and coffins which were made of wood. Wood was more valued as a source of fuel than a burial box. However, when the coffins were opened, it was discovered that many had scratch marks on the inside. It was then the people realized they were still burying some people alive! This led to a second custom. They would tie a string to the buried one's wrist and lead it through the coffin and up through the ground, then tie it to a bell. Someone would volunteer to sit in the graveyard all night to listen for the bell. That is how the saying "graveyard shift" came about. If the bell would ring he was know as a "dead ringer," who was "saved by the bell."