Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen ElizabethReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen Elizabeth
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Town people had more wealth than country people. Most townspeople
slept in nightgowns and nightcaps in beds with mattresses,
blankets, linen sheets, and pillows. Beds were made every
morning. Bathing was by sponging hot water from a basin over the
body, sometimes with herbs in it, rinsing with a splash of warm
water, and drying off with a towel. Tubs just for baths came into
use. There were drapery-rugs hung around beds, hand-held mirrors
of glass, and salt cellars. The first meal of the day was
breakfast, which broke the fast lasting the night. Meals were
often prepared according to recipes from cook books which
involved several preparation procedures using flour, eggs, sugar,
cheese, and grated bread, rather than just simple seasoning.
Menus were put together with foods that tasted well together and
served on plates in several courses. Table manners included not
making sounds when eating, not playing with one's spoon or
knife, not placing one's elbows on the table, keeping one's mouth
clean with a napkin, and not being boisterous. There were
courtesies such as saying "Good Morning" when meeting someone
and not pointing one's finger at another person. King Richard II
invented the handkerchief for sneezing and blowing one's nose.
There were books on etiquette.
New burgesses were recruited locally, usually from within a 20
mile radius of town. Most of the freemen of the larger boroughs,
like Canterbury and London, came from smaller boroughs. An
incoming burgess was required to buy his right to trade either
by way of a seven year apprenticeship or by payment of an entry
fee. To qualify, he needed both a skill and social
respectability.
Towns started acquiring from the King the right to vacant sites
and other waste places, which previously was the lord's right.
The perpetuality of towns was recognized by statutes of 1391,
which compared town-held property to church-held property. The
right of London to pass ordinances was confirmed by charter. Some
towns had a town clerk, who was chief of full-time salaried
officers. There was a guildhall to maintain, a weigh-house,
prison, and other public buildings, municipal water supplies,
wharves, cranes, quays, wash-houses, and public lavatories.
After the experience of the black death, some sanitary measures
were taken. The notorious offenders in matters of public hygiene
in the towns, such as the butchers, the fishmongers, and the
leather tanners were assigned specific localities where their
trades would do least harm. The smiths and potters were excluded
from the more densely populated areas because they were fire
risks. In the town of Salisbury, there was Butcher Row, Ox Row,
Fish Row, Ironmongers' Row, Wheelwrights' Row, Smiths' Row, Pot
Row, Silver Street, Cheese Market, and Wool Market.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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