Day Sixty-five Sulgrave Manor Day

It’s Thursday afternoon which means our countdown is one and one half days to home. While we’re eager to board Saturday’s plane, we’re not wasting our last minutes. On Wednesday, 2 Papa met with Dr. Paul Fiddes for a tutoring session concerning 2 Papa’s book project. Dr. Fiddes, a British Baptist theologian, is a remarkable man. He is Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Oxford and was formerly Principal (President) of Regent's Park College. Being the former principal gives him the honor of having his portrait hang in the dining hall in a prominent position. Looking at the very austere portrait would lead you to think he is not someone with whom a normal person could hold a conversation. But then, he walks into the college, with a tiny bicycle helmet still attached to his head and you think, okay he’s just a normal person himself. As my dad used to say, “He puts his pants on just like we do--one leg at a time.” That was Dad’s way of saying that, in the end, we’re all equal. 2 Papa had a great discussion with him on suffering and Dr. Fiddes was able to give him some insight into scripture he had never considered. 2 Papa considers this the highlight of his trip.
The rest of the blog is very historical, so here’s my warning. Stop now, if history is not your thing or you’re out of time.
We couldn’t leave without one more tour, so today we went to Sulgrave Manor, the family home of George Washington’s ancestors. George, himself, never traveled to England at all, and had it not been for a fateful sinking of a boat, he might never have ended up as our first President. It seems his great-great-grandfather, John, was heavily involved in trade with the newly established colony called Virginia. On one of his journeys to trade English goods for tobacco his boat sank leaving him stranded in Virginia. As luck, or fate, would have it, the ship sank near a plantation owned by a very wealthy man who happened to have an available daughter named Anne Pope. Although the boat was eventually repaired, John knew a good deal when he saw one and married Anne, receiving a wedding gift of 700 acres on Maddox Creek. The rest is now American history since in three more generations George Washington was born.
Our visit today to Sulgrave Manor was so fascinating. The focus on the tour during this time of the year is to take visitors back to its very beginning, the Tudor years of the 1500s during Christmas. We visited the grand room which was used for entertaining the men of the time and the master bedroom which hosted the women and, then the very competent, but rustic, large Tudor kitchen. The original owner, Lawrence Washington, and his wife had eleven children all of which lived to adulthood. This was very rare at a time when only one in ten children lived to adulthood. The house was quite large, but not because of the eleven children, who would have lived in just a few rooms or possibly one room. Everything was large and beautiful just for show. The class system was well in effect during this time and if you had it, you flaunted it. Even a dinner would be set with the better food at the end of the table where the most prestigious people sat. Our guide said the Tudors were very aware of their status and knew exactly where to sit at the table. The expression “Upper Crust” comes from the fact that the bread was generally burned on the bottom so the most prominent would be allowed to eat the unburned upper crust. The bread would then be slice from the top down, leaving the burned bottom slice for the servants. An average person ate eight or nine loaves of bread a day.
We learned so much today that I couldn’t possible say it all, so I’m going to just bullet some of interesting facts.
• Christmas trees were not used yet, but they hung a wreath in the grand room and hid gifts in it. Other decorations were fresh evergreens and fruit.
• Martha Washington suggested to Betsy Ross that her husband’s family be represented in the new American flag by using symbols from their family coat of arms. Hence our flag features the famous stars and stripes. But the stars were really the spurs from the militia horsemen and the stripes were the French blood that was shed during the French and England war.
• Christmas during this time was celebrated with twelve days of merriment and drinking. Poor people would likely not even know it was Christmas as they had no calendars, but would celebrate somewhere around this time. Of course, they had nothing so they would go caroling in hopes that wealthier people would share their bounty.
• No one ate root vegetables, like potatoes, as they were considered dirty from being under the dirt and they were too close to the devil for their comfort.
• Which is odd about the dirty part as the people of this time never washed their clothes. They did wash their undergarments, but their outer garments were of fabrics that were not washable. Hence, the napkin. Napkins were draped over their shoulders and covered their clothes to protect them.
• Meal courses were called “removes” as each course is removed before the other is put in place. Henry VIII is said to commonly have 25 removes at his meals and is credited with being the first person to eat turkey. The average number of removes for a wealthy family was seven. Food was also a status symbol.
• Until the 15th century, the cooks for large homes were men who worked naked because of the heat. Obviously, women were not allowed in the kitchen—thank goodness!
• In Tudor days no one had a fork and visitors were required to bring their own knife to the table. Food was cut up first, and then eaten with fingers. Oddly, manners were very important and this was the manner of the day.
• The poor could not afford sugar, which we now know was probably good. Queen Elizabeth loved sugar and had plenty. So much so she had rotted teeth as a result. Women of the time wanted to look like her and blackened their own to copy her.
Okay, this is extremely long. If you read it all, I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about our English ancestors. Since I’m a combination of American Indian and English and 2 Papa’s ancestors are also from Britain is all very interesting to us. Better go!! Have a great day.
“Celebrate God. Sing together—everyone! All you honest hearts, raise the roof!” Psalm 32:11
Hugs, 2 Mama