Fascinating History

Shortly after tobacco was first introduced in Europe, it was thought to be beneficial to your health. It was thought to cure a number of ailments and even take away bad breath, although a smoker's wife at the time told her husband: "It makes your breath stink like the piss of a fox!" In England, smoking tobacco really cought on and by 1577 it was even being grown here. Tobacco leaves were smoked in clay pipes and by the late 1590s one could purchase pre-filled disposable ones suitable for one use only, much like we would get a disposable camera today. The used pipes were then habitually thrown away, many into the Thames river, where nowadays, enthusiasts of uncovering items from the past find them in abundance, immersed in the thick mud left behind by the tide. A rather disgusting description of the smoking habits of the time gives us the picture: "...they draw the smoke into their mouths which they puff out again through their nostrils like smoke, along with it plen...

Athenais de Montespan was the mistress of Louis XIV. She was extremely clever, beautiful and well educated (which was something of a rarety in her time). Through her role as mistress, she managed to acquire more power than the Queen, therefore being refered to sometimes by historians as the true Queen of France. Athenais came from an aristocratic family. At a young age she was engaged to a young man whom she was very fond of, an unusual circumstance for those times when arranged marriages were the norm. Unfortunately this man died just before they were to be married. Athenais then had the misfortune of being married off to the Marquis de Montespan, who was always having affairs and managed to get himself into enormous debt. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, but with a focused, ambitious mind and very good looks, she maintained an air of modesty and virtuousness beyond reproach, while she set out to be the King's mistress. Luckily she was already lady in waiting to the King's curr...

Nowadays it is fashionable and desirable to have a tan and people go to extreme lengths to acquire one, baking for hours under the sun or even paying interesting sums of money to be "microwaved" in a tanning pod. However, this passion for tanning was not always so. Indeed, up to the first quarter of the 20th century, tanned skin for a woman, was a considered ugly and not "the done thing". The ideal was to have a white complexion and women went to great extremes in order to achieve this look. From Medieval times until the middle of the 19th century, white lead called ceruse , was used. The best ceruse was imported from Venice (considered best because it produced the whitest effect). It came in paste form and in order to be applied on the face women would mix it with water or egg-white. They would then apply it with the aid of a damp cloth. Of course, mixing it with egg-white produced the very unfortunate effect of the cracking of the makeup when a woman smiled, so we...

Public lavatories did exist in ancient Rome, but they were nothing like what we have today. For one thing, I am using the term 'public' in its most literal sense because there was no such thing as privacy. There were no cubicles to separate those making use of the facilities. The procedure was conducted in full public view. Moreover, it was considered perfectly normal for people to meet there, defecate and discuss the news and gossip of the day - discoursing from both orifices. Despite this openness the surroundings were extremely well decorated - who knows, perhaps in order to inspire the users. The lavatory seats were made of marble, around them there was a continuous flow of water, while above them one could often see niches with little statues of gods, heroes, etc. Sometimes there was even a fountain in the room. However, even at the imperial palace, where one would expect to find privacy in these situations, the lavatories had three seats, side by side.

Women in the Restoration period did not have an enviable legal status. At the age of seven a girl was considered old-enough to be betrothed, while at twelve it was legal for her to be married. Until the "happy" day of her marriage, a girl was almost quite literally owned by her father. If he should have happened to die at some point while she was unmarried, the next head of the family would take her on, (typically the oldest son or the uncle). Of course, marriage did not give her any more independence as she was then the "property" of her husband and legally her status had changed from feme sole to feme covert , while he was called her "baron" . A feme covert was thus not allowed to enter into any contracts or even make a will, without the permission of her husband. The law of the time specified: "That which the husband has is his own" and "that which the wife has is the husband's" . (How convenient all this was for the hus...

"London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down..." Have you ever wondered what the story is behind this well known nursery rhyme? Well, it may not be what you think. Thoughts of London Bridge usually bring to mind Rennie's bridge, the London Bridge of the mid 1800s, which was sold to an American, dismantled and sent overseas bit by bit and put back together again. You would be justified for bringing to mind this bridge, with it's unusual history, but the one I am talking about has a much grander history. The construction of Old London Bridge started in the year 1176. It took 33 years to build and was operational from 1209. It consisted of twenty arches and had on it buildings of 3 to 6 floors high, at various times. Yes, people actually lived on this bridge. There were houses, shops and stalls of all kinds - at one time 138 shops were counted on it. On the Southwalk-end side of the bridge the heads and quarters of traitors were prominently displayed on top...

In 16th century London sex outside marriage was widespread. Young men of well to do families were sent off to Italy to receive their "education" and bring back a variety of pornographic books. One of the most famous ones is one by the poet Aretino, who wrote a series of pornographic sonnets. To stimulate further the reader's imagination, the book was illustrated showing various sexual positions. There were plenty of English books with advice on the subject, such as Turner's Herbal , which contained many tips on the use of certain herbs for the purposes of evoking the lustful urges of man and woman. Talking of artichokes he says, "...this herb provoketh lust in women so it abateththe same in men" , while saffron boiled in wine , except for repelling moths "keeps a man from drunkenness, but also encourageth into procreation of life" and leeks and onions were also said to stimulate the sexual appetite. Shakespeare's plays are filled with cryptic ...