I don’t know if any of this is true, but it is interesting to read...
Interesting article...
Some expressions were derived from the following experiences:
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 hanged.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
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot and t hen once a day it was taken and 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" and 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 England in 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 odor.
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.
Hence: a thresh hold. (Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
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 and death. This happened most often with tomatoes.
So for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky.
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''.
