[Regia-NA] RE: [Fwd: [MR] Nonsense!!]

[Nicholson, Andrew]

A well-known site in British Archaeology circles - 100% pure tosh, =
creating
spurious ancestries for obscure sayings. The 'scratch marks' inside =
coffins
is a well-known 'urban legend' with no confirmatory evidence from any =
of the
medieval graves which have been properly investigated. As for New World
tomatoes in 15th century Britain....! The rest is equally c**p.

Gu=F0rum =20

> -----Original Message-----
> From: rmhowe [mailto:MMagnusM@bellsouth.net]
> Sent: 18 June 2002 15:33
> To: *Allan McVie / Regia - Scotland / Group Leader / Norar=20
> 5/01; *Regia
> - Kim Siddorn 10/01; *Gudrum / Andrew Nicholson (Regia) Scotland
> Subject: [Fwd: [MR] Nonsense!!]
>=20
>=20
> There is/was actually a website with this stuff called 15th C=20
> Research.
> Dunno if you've seen it or not. It might be a bit advanced. ;)
> The current version, at least five years old is on my Kingdom's list.
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> Magnus
>=20
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [MR] Nonsense!!
> Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 18:45:36 -0400
> From: "Kenneth G. Samson - Delmarva Arts" <samsonkg@dmv.com>
> To: Merry Rose <atlantia@atlantia.sca.org>
>=20
> This was sent to me today - I don't believe ANY of it. Any=20
> documentation
> on
> this nonsense?
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> Ken Samson
> =
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> 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:
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> 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=20
> 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."
>=20
> 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=20
> 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."
>=20
> There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.=20
> This posed
> a
> real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings=20
> could really
> mess up your nice clean bed.  Hence, a bed with big posts. =20
> And a sheet
> hung over the top afforded some protection.  That's how=20
> canopy beds came
> into existence.
>=20
> The floor was dirt.  Only the wealthy had something other than dirt,
> hence
> the saying: "dirt poor."
>=20
> The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the=20
> 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=20
> wood
> was placed in the entranceway--hence, a "threshold."
>=20
> 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=20
> added things
> to the pot.  They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much=20
> meat.  They
> would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot=20
> 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=20
> rhyme: "Peas
> hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
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> Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
> When
> visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show=20
> off. It was a
> sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon."  They=20
> would cut
> off a little to share with guests and would all sit around=20
> and "chew the
> fat."
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> Those with money had plates made of pewter.  Food with a 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. Most people did not have
> pewter
> plates, but had trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle scooped =
out
> like a bowl.  Often trenchers were made from stale bread which was so
> old
> and hard that they could be used for quite some time.  Trenchers were
> never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into the=20
> wood and old
> bread.
> After eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one would get "trench =
mouth."
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> Bread was divided according to status.  Workers got the burnt=20
> 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 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.=20
> 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."
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> 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=20
> 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=20
> they would
> tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the=20
> coffin and
> up
> through the ground and tie it to a bell.  Someone would have=20
> to sit out
> in
> the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for=20
> the bell;
> thus, someone could be "saved by the bell," or was considered a "dead
> ringer."
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> And that's the truth...and whoever said that History was boring?!
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> =
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> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
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