Let me Educate you

[bazzer]

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.
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 and then 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 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.


(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 and 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 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, 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.

Now, whoever said history was boring ! ! !
Feel Free to add

[Allochtony]

After the dissolution of the Order of the Temple, the pope ordered that it's property should be given to the Order of the Hospital, except in the Iberian Peninsula where new military orders were established. But many former Templar properties passed into private hands and never reached the Hospitallers. For example, in England Temple Denney in Cambridgeshire, which had been where the old and sick English brothers lived, passed into the hands of Mary of Valence, countess of Pembroke, who converted it into a nunnery. (where much pleasure was to be had! Quote/unquote!)

The Hospitallers repaired and extended many of the Templars' properties.
After the dissolution of the monasteries in Britain and Ireland in the 16th century, these properties were sold. Some fell into disrepair and others were converted for secular use. In France, religious buildings were damaged or destroyed in the Frence Revolution, while in Germany property suffered in the religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. In Hungary, the Balkans, Cyprus and Greece Christian property was destroyed or neglected under Ottoman government. As a result, much has disappeared, and where buildings survive they may be very different from those that belonged to the Templars.

Much of the former Templar property in the Middle East has been destroyed or seriously damaged by the ravages of time, enemy action or natural disasters. Some castles, such as 'Atlit, are still important military sites. The site of Safed castle is now a park. The castle of Baghras has been seriously damaged by earthquakes. The Templars' castle at Vadum Iacob, north of Galilee, is in the course of excavation. Most of the Templars' former headquarters at Acre is now under sea, because the sea level has risen since the 13th century.

Many former Templar sites survive in Europe. Some are being sympathetically restored. The former Templar and Hospitaller sites in Larzac area of central southern France are being restored and developed as tourist centres as part of a development scheme for this area. The "Conservatoire Larzac Templier et Hospitalier", based at Millau, organizes a programme of regular events and is producing a series of publications. In England, the massive Templar barns at Cressing in Essex have been restored and there is a small visitor centre. The 'New Temple" Church off Fleet Street, London, is now the chapel of the Temple Inns of Court. The priest in charge of the Temple Church is still called 'the master of the Temple', as he has been since the Middle Ages. The church is open for visitors on certain days during the terms of the Inns of Court.

Many Templar churches survive in Britain, France, Germany, Poland and Italy, with castles and churches in the Iberian Peninsula, the Czech Republic and Croatia. Many of these churches are still in use for Christian worship and anyone who visit, should remember this and treat these buildings with respect.

[elftone1]

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