6d. Did Liz spend it, or die for it?

[curious4]

Yes, boar (or other animal of your choice) bristle.

[curious4]

Hair broom

To elucidate, animal rather than vegetable.

[RivkahChaya]

Yes, boar (or other animal of your choice) bristle.

What animal, other than a boar, produced hair that was stiff enough to make bristles? not saying none does, just can't imagine a rabbit-fur broom.

[curious4]

Think we're getting a little silly now, just rabbiting on for the sake of it lol

Could have been a broom for sweeping up hair, I suppose. Could Mrs D have been a hairdresser?

[curious4]

Hair broom

In case anyone else is curious (lol), a hairbroom was a broom made from wood and horsehair, sometimes goat hair.

www.victorianlondon.org/.../cassells-23.htm -
c.1880s [no date] - Servants of the House - (1) Domestic Servants and their Duties ....www.victorianlondon.org/.../cassells-23.htm...:


Timespanner: Street Stories 22: The broom maker
timespanner.blogspot.com/.../street-stories-22-... -
7 jan 2012 – ... manufactured brushes and brooms, using both local (horsehair and .... in the early and the late 1880s (one of Lawrence's children, however,

or Google hair broom from 1880s.

So now we know. A little off thread but my obsessive gene kicked in here.

Best wishes,
C4

[curious4]

Hello Lynn,

Missed the Mayfair crone bit on the first time round but I must protest on behalf of all crones! Mayfair matrons were picked not just for their good breeding, but for being good breeders. Once a week and think of England - never! And the chances were they were still lively up to a good old age - aided and abetted by a majestic butler or handsome footman if his lordship`s syphilis was giving him gyp, I suspect. Heard of the naughty nineties?

All good wishes,
Gwyneth/C4

[RivkahChaya]

Mayfair matrons were picked not just for their good breeding, but for being good breeders.

Well, if you are really, really fertile, you could get away with doing it once every ten months, and have a houseful of future nobles.

[curious4]

Every ten months

All depends on whether his lordship was firing blanks, of course! Which is where the butler came in....

[lynn cates]

Alisoun

Hello Gwyneth. Thanks.

Are you thinking of the Wife of Bath again? (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

[curious4]

Wife of Bath

Hello Lynn,

Never off my mind. But I am not gat-toothed, sadly.

Gwyneth

[RivkahChaya]

All depends on whether his lordship was firing blanks, of course! Which is where the butler came in....

This is true. Wow. Being married to an infertile peer before about 1910 would have really sucked, since up until about then, men were not infertile as long as they produced fluid, so the woman must be barren, but you kept praying and trying, and getting dirty looks from the in-laws.

I don't know whether that sucked more than being pregnant every couple of years or not.

Yes, I know which choice would suck more now, but I'm talking back when you had to take cultural considerations-- no, wait, considering risk of death during birth, I guess I'll go with "pregnancy every two years."

"Sorry dear, not tonight; I've got a meeting with Mrs. Pankhurst in the morning."

[lynn cates]

Now I get it.

Hello Rivkah.

"Being married to an infertile peer before about 1910 would have really sucked."

That explains the infertility, then? (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

[RivkahChaya]

Hello Rivkah.

"Being married to an infertile peer before about 1910 would have really sucked."

That explains the infertility, then? (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

Wow. That would have been difficult to explain to mother.

"Maybe next year, mother. There's lots of time; the wind just hasn't blown in our favor yet."

Then I start giggling uncontrollably, and he kicks me under the table.

[lynn cates]

language game

Hello Rivkah. Thanks. A strange thing is language.

Cheers.
LC

[Hunter]

Hello Rivkah.

"Being married to an infertile peer before about 1910 would have really sucked."

That explains the infertility, then? (heh-heh)

I just spewed my drink all over the monitor... one of the best one liners I've seen of late.