 The sixteenth century may have been an exciting time in history, but it certainly wasn't a pleasant place to live for ordinary people like us. Here's what it was like to live in the 1500's. Cleanliness: Most people got married in June, because they'd just had their yearly bath in May. But they still didn't smell great. Baths consisted of a big tub of water, which the man of the household got to use first. Next the sons and other men had their baths (in the same water); finally, the women and then the children and babies got to use the tub. By then, the water was so dirty, you could probably lose someone in it ... hence perhaps the saying 'don't throw out the baby with the bathwater'. Brides may have begun carrying bouquets of flowers to disguise their body odour. Royal persons wore puffy-sleeved shirts in order to hide perfumed handkerchiefs, which they frequently brought to their noses to disguise the body odours of those around them. The discovery that disease was caused by microorganisms that could be killed by frequent washing was an idea that was still a long way in the future. No-one washed much, which meant that skin was often dark and dirty. Moreover, only the rich could afford to eat well. As a result, the essence of beauty in the female in Western society was considered to be a woman who had very white skin, and was plump. This implied wealth and the luxury of cleanliness. England is a small country, and in the 1500's, it was often difficult to find space for graveyards. If a town ran out of places to bury people, it would start to dig up old graves and send the bones to a 'bone house', so that the grave could be reused. When opening coffins, graveyard workers often found scratch marks in the lids of the coffins, suggesting that many people were buried alive. A custom began where the 'corpse' would have a string tied to its wrist, leading up to the surface where it was attached to a bell. Graveyards sometimes hired workers to sit in the graveyard at night (the 'graveyard shift'), listening for bells. Supposedly, someone could have been 'saved by the bell'; if not, they were a 'dead ringer'. Housing: Houses had low thatched roofs. These were just bundles of old straw. The straw roof was a convenient and warm place for insects, mice, and even family pets to burrow into. But the roof got slippery and saggy when it rained, allowing all sorts of creatures to fall onto the floor below, or the street outside. Could this be the origin of the expression 'It's raining cats and dogs'? The floor was dirt. This gave real meaning to the expression 'dirt poor'. Only the wealthy could afford something better, which was often slate. But slate gets slippery when it's wet, especially in winter, so a layer of straw (thresh) was placed on the floor. As the thresh got dirty, more and more layers of straw were added throughout the wet season. The straw, or thresh, was held in place at the doorway by a piece of wood , called a 'thresh hold' ... from which we get the term for a doorway, 'threshold'. Beds were made from straw, which of course is a home for insects of all kinds, particularly fleas, lice, and tics. These beds weren't very nice. The original meaning of the word 'lousy' is 'full of lice' (lice is the plural form of louse). As a result, everyone had lice and fleas. Rats also were common, and diseases spread from the rats to humans, through the lice and fleas. Moreover, any sort of minor injury where the skin got broken often led to death due to infection. This helps explain why life expectancy was only about 30 to 40 years. Food: Cooking was done in a big pot hung over the fireplace. Each morning the fire was lit. Things were added to the pot every day. This constantly simmering stew (mostly vegetables) was the family dinner, with the leftovers remaining in the pot to cool overnight. You may be familiar with the rhyme 'peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot, nine days old'. It often was. When meat could be obtained, it was quite often pork, and this was a special occasion. This may be where the expression 'bringing home the bacon' comes from. Bacon fat in particular was a delicacy, often eaten raw, and offered to guests over conversation as a treat. Hence the expression 'to chew the fat'. Wealthy families had plates made from pewter, which often had a high lead content. Foods with a high acid content would cause some of this lead to leach into the food, causing poisoning and often death. This happened often with tomatoes, so for many hundreds of years, tomatoes were considered poisonous. Most families, however, ate from bowls made from carved-out wood, or sometimes carved-out stale bread. These carved bowls were called 'trenchers', and were never washed. As a result, they often became moldy and worm-infested. If you ate from trenchers, you were a worker with a good appetite, and were called a 'trencherman'; and because of the condition of the bowls, you often got 'trench mouth'. A loaf of bread was divided up according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom crust, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or 'upper crust', which was the softest. |