There is an old Hotel/Pub in Marble Arch, London,
Which used to have a gallows adjacent to it.
Prisoners were taken to the gallows, (after a fair trial of course) to be hung.
The horse drawn dray, carting the prisoner, was accompanied by an
armed guard, who would stop the dray outside the pub and ask the
prisoner if he would like
''ONE LAST DRINK''.
If he said YES, it was referred to as
"ONE FOR THE ROAD"
If he declined, that prisoner was
"ON THE WAGON"
So, there you go.
More bleeding history.
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.
Here are some facts about the 1500's:
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 s 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...
(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
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,
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 talking and
''Chew the fat''.
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''.
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 re-use the grave...
When reopening these 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 would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse,
thread 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''
And
that's the truth.
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