Charles James Stuart, Duke of Cornwall

What people wore

Respectability through Sunday best

To maintain respectability despite limited income, common people kept a wardrobe with at least two outfits, saving the better one for Sundays, holidays, and leisure.

Daily life

Lighting homes with animal fat rushlights

Ordinary people relied on rushlights made of rushes dipped in animal fat for light, as beeswax candles were too expensive.

Work

Highly Seasonal Female Agricultural Work

Women's agricultural work was highly seasonal, with 72.7 per cent of their recorded workdays occurring between July and September.

Music

The Popularity of the Viol

The viola da gamba, a fretted instrument with six strings played with a bow, became very popular for domestic music-making because of its shimmering sound and relative ease of learning.

At the table

Ale and beer replaced water daily

Ordinary people avoided water because it was considered unhealthy, instead consuming about one gallon of ale or beer per day.

Getting around

Slow Pace of Early Coaches

Early coaches were slow and uncomfortable, often moving at a walking pace of about 2 to 3 miles per hour because of poor road conditions.

What it cost

Daily wages for English laborers

In the early seventeenth century, unskilled labourers typically earned fourpence to fivepence per day, while skilled labourers earned sixpence to eightpence.