Description
Author Janet Few
Our seventeenth century ancestors may be people that we can identify, or they may be lurking, nameless, waiting to be discovered. In either case they existed, therefore we owe it to them to find out more about their way of life. This book sets out to provide an all-important context for these ancestors, ancestors whose detailed biographies probably elude us.
Dr Janet Few has made good use of contemporary documents to put together an overview of life in the time of the Stuarts, concentrating on the lives of the ‘ordinary’ folk, rather than the aristocracy. Here you can discover what those Jacobean ancestors would have worn, what they would have eaten and how they would have lived. There is a chapter on medical practices and one on the medicinal use of herbs, complete with handy ‘cures’. Next time you are suffering from plague or a pain in the head you will know where to turn.
Other sections cover gardens, crime and punishment, witchcraft, leisure and festivals. The book is fully indexed and lavishly illustrated with photographs and contemporary engravings. There are also extracts from seventeenth century books offering recipes and household hints. Throughout the book are explanations of phrases such as ‘humble pie’ or ‘sleep tight’. You can learn who was straight laced and why, how to roast a calf’s head and how to bleach linen. Having read this book, it is possible to appreciate the mental and physical demands of the housewife’s role. What also comes across is how hardworking and versatile our Jacobean ancestors had to be.
