Folklore
Here are some facts about the 1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . …… . Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. 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 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 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 floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: 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 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.
The cooking pot would be kept hot all day and food put in it as available. If a favoured visitor arrived they may be offered some food and they would take ‘pot luck; as to what they would eat.
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 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 the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would Sometimes knock the imbibers 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.
When the Church started running out of places to bury people, 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 realised they had been burying people alive… So 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.
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & Sold to the tannery…….if you had to do this to survive you were “Piss Poor”
But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot……they “didn’t have a pot to piss in” & were the lowest of the low. 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.
Later in history, people still would collect urine for sale to a collector who came around regularly. This urine was used in the production of early plastics such as Formica, which is a type of urea plastic. This continued until chemists developed synthetic urea.
At the tannery people used to have to tread on the skins in the urine in their bare feet all day to get the grease from the hides. People who did this were called fullers, the origin of the surname.
Bees
A swarm of bees in May,
Is worth a load of hay.
A swarm of bees in June,
Is worth a silver spoon.
A swarm of bees in July,
Isn’t worth a fly.
TYPES OF FIREWOOD
Historically the knowledge of timbers for fires was well known and a number of well known rhymes describe the virtues of various species when used as a fuel.
Beechwood fire burns bright and clear, If the logs are kept a year.
Store your beech for Christmastide, With New Year holly cut beside.
Chestnut only good, they say, If for years ‘tis stored away.
Birch and firewood burn too fast, Blaze too bright and do not last.
Flames from larch will shoot up high, Dangerously the sparks will fly,
But ash wood green and ash wood brown, Are fit for a queen with a golden crown.
Oaken logs, if dry and old, Keep away the winter cold.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke, Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Elmwood burns like a churchyard mould, E’en the very flames are cold.
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread, So it is in Ireland said.
Applewood will scent the room,
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom.
But ash wood wet and ash wood dry a king may warm his slippers by
As the days lengthen the cold strengthens…. typical saying around the time of Blackthorn Winter