[Sca-cooks] ELIZABETHAN KITCHEN

[ED Reese]

--
Okay, I'll phrase this as a question, instead of a sweeping generality, as
I am oft prone to do! :-)

Would the fact (if it IS a fact) that children/teens were servants in the
kitchen have affected the height of the tables?

Esther

At 04:08 PM 4/23/2003 -0400, you wrote:


> >
> > From: "Leah A. Montgomery" <mog_bane at hotmail.com>
> > Date: 2003/04/22 Tue PM 10:57:47 EDT
> > To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> > Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] ELIZABETHAN KITCHEN
> >
> >    I don't have any concrete evidence myself, but I do know that people
> have
> > grown considerably just in the past 70 yrs or so. I remember talking to my
> > mom a few years ago about all the people that wore larger size shoes, ie:
> > 12-13-14 etc. She didn't think that this was possible and that they had
> > changed shoe sizes. I asked her to name for me every single one of the
> > people that she knew that was 6 foot or over when she was my age. She
> > immediately rattled off one name and said that she would always
> remember him
> > cause he was so much taller than every one else. He was only 6'1". Of
> > course, I then rattled off about a dozen names, all of them over 6'1". How
> > many people today are over 7 feet tall that would have had severe physical
> > problems 20-25 years ago that don't have anything wrong with them?
> >    I know that there are resources and studies out there that show just how
> > much we have grown and height ratios compared to people of all time
> periods,
> > I just can't find any right now.
> >
> >
> >
> > Leah A. Montgomery
>
>
>     A quick perusal on the web well help in this matter, but what is more
> important is when to when, and what are you calling large height
> differences.  This is a common question where I work and at many other
> Historic sites as well.
>
>    Height varies with time and place, it is NOT a general evolutionary
> increase.  There is a documented increase of average height for Americans
> over the last 50 years by about an inch and one half, but the average
> height of an American soldier fighting in the American Revolution was
> only and inch different from the average height of the American Soldier
> fighting in Korea.  That being said, through much of the 19th century the
> Average height declined though I do not have specific figures.  As far as
> people over 6 feet tall, apparently your mom would consider Colonial
> people to be guiants as I can name  three famous Virginia's of the period
> that were all taller than me.  Give me time for research and I could
> probably name a dozen.  (I am 6'2").
>
>     As far as architecture, that is a tricky subject, as far more than
> comfort is considered when building, and our preceptions of comfort have
> changed.
>
>     At work we do have several doors that are to short for me, we have
> several far taller than I need (people must have changed height as they
> walked through town).  Ceiling height here in the homes that have
> survived tends to be very high, far higher than most modern houses,
> though about the same as my turn of last century home.  Yet houses of the
> same period as these in Massachussetts often have much lower
> ceilings.  This is not because of a difference in height between New
> Englanders and Virginians, but due to climate differences.  I suspect if
> more poorer sorts of homes had survived in Virginia we might again see
> ceiling height differences as builiding costs also are altered.
>
>    I have often heard the retort, "well then why are the beds so
> short".  Well even with the possible alterations in sleeping habits that
> I have heard bandied about, there is no original bed where I work (18th
> century) that is too short for my 6'2" height.  Most of them just appear
> short since they do not correspond with any of our modern bed
> dimensions.  (Much higher and narrower).
>
>Ranald
>
>R.Carnegie at verizon.net
>"Argue for your limitations, and they are yours."
>              R. Bach
>
>_______________________________________________
>Sca-cooks mailing list
>Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
>http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks
>
>
>
>---
>Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
>Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
>Version: 6.0.474 / Virus Database: 272 - Release Date: 4/18/2003
--

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.474 / Virus Database: 272 - Release Date: 4/18/2003
--