Sophia of England

At the table

Pottage was a staple vegetable stew

Poor families relied on pottage, a thick vegetable stew often flavored with small amounts of bacon or meat when available.

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.

Getting around

Walking and Horseback Travel Speeds

Most ordinary people travelled on foot or horseback, with pedestrians typically covering around 3 miles per hour and riders averaging 5 miles per hour.

What it cost

Supplementary income for rural families

During the Elizabethan and early Stuart period, many rural families supplemented their income by growing fruit and vegetables in cottage gardens or keeping pigs and cows.

Music

Music in daily trade and life

Music was ubiquitous, with tinkers singing catches, milkmaids singing ballads, and barbers keeping instruments like lutes and citterns in their shops for customers to play.

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.