The Bog

 In Britain, a cesspit was once called a bog. The toilet was the bog room. When people stopped using cesspits and had flushing toilets they kept calling the toilet room the bog room. Soon it shortened to bog. Apparently the Australian word dunny comes from an old English word meaning a store of dung. There is a lot more to the history of toilets than you might think.

Sumerian Women

 Sumer was the world's first civilization. It arose in what is now Iraq about 3,500 BC. Sumerian women could own and sell property such as land and slaves. They could also own businesses. Women could be witnesses in court the same as men. Some Sumerian women could read and write. Some women were doctors, others were scribes or priestesses.

Square Meal

 Why do we say 'a square meal' There is a popular myth that this saying comes from the time when British sailors ate off square plates. In reality, the phrase began in California in the mid-19th century and it simply meant a good meal for your money, as in the phrase 'fair and square'. Later the saying made its way to Britain.

Wareham

 I wrote about the town of Wareham in Dorset. It began as a Saxon settlement. 

Spartan Women

 In Sparta women owned much of the land. We also know from records that women owned land in Thessaly and in the Cretan city-state of Gortyn. In Ancient Greece some women were tavern keepers. Others sold food or perfume. Some were wool workers.

Girls married when they were about 15. (Except in Sparta where they were typically older). Marriages were often arranged. However Ancient Greek women could divorce their husbands.

Four poster beds

 I sometimes come across this old myth: Four Poster Beds had canopies to catch mice falling from thatched roofs. No, four-poster beds had canopies and curtains to keep out drafts. (Old houses had many drafts). There is no evidence that the canopy was designed to catch falling rodents. In any case, a four-poster bed was very expensive. If you were wealthy enough to afford one you would normally have a roof of tiles, not thatch. Even if you did have a thatched roof in a wealthy home all bedrooms had proper ceilings. So there was a ceiling between the bed and the roof.

Garden Gnomes

 Today we have garden gnomes but in the 18th century, rich people sometimes paid human beings to pose in their gardens. They were called ornamental hermits and they usually lived in a hut on the grounds of a large house. Often they were paid to wear strange clothes (sometimes they were dressed as druids). Sometimes they were supposed to just stand or sit in the garden without speaking to anyone. Garden gnomes were introduced in the 19th century.