Before 1752 and the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar this was Lammas Day (see my post (here). 

Charles Kightly in his ‘Perpetual Almanac of Folklaw’ quotes an 18th Century description of the Scottish practice of trial marriages:

‘At the Lammas Fair, it was the custom for unmarried persons of both sexes to choose a companion, according to their liking, with whom they were to live till that time next year.  This was called Hand-fasting, or hand in fist.  If they were pleased with each other, then they continued together for life: if not, they separated, and we’re free to make another choice. ‘

Old Statistical Account 1794, Parish of ‘Eskdalemuir’

Previously, I posted about the selling of wives at country fairs as depicted in Thomas Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge.  Look here to see it.

Handfasting was an established part of what my grandmother would call courting.  There are many sources of information about it but the most interesting one I have come across is the one Shakespeare was involved with.  This is described in detail in Charles Nicholl’s book ‘The Lodger’.  This investigates Shakespeare’s time living in lodgings in Silver Street, between the Guildhall and the Aldersgate in the City of London.

He was called as a witness to a marriage between the daughter of his landlord and their apprentice.  The son-in-law accused his father-in-law of not paying the agreed dowry.   Shakespeare was called because he had been instrumental in bringing the young ones together and seems to have presided over their handfasting.

It was recognised that a marriage could be contracted by a pledge in front of witnesses while holding hands.

The Church insisted that a Church marriage should be held before sex could be enjoyed.  But popular opinion was that it was permissable and often after the Handfasting ceremony the couple would be sent to bed with ceremony.

George Wilkins a fellow lodger and playwright used handfasting in a play of his.  Shakespeare used the custom as a central part of the plot in Measure for Measure.  As You Like It also pivots around a betrothal.  These plays were written about the time Shakespeare was involved in his own betrothal drama.

For much more detail read the excellent book by Charles Nicholl who also wrote a wonderful book in Christopher Marlowe called ‘The Reckoning’

Finally, Charles Kightly also alerted me to this method of choosing a wife (please don’t try this at home):

So William Roper came one morning pretty early to Sir Thomas More with a proposal to marry one of his daughters… who were then both together abed in their father’s chamber asleep. He carries Sir William into his chamber and takes the sheet by the corner and suddenly whips it off. They lay on their backs and their smocks up as high as their armpits. This awakened them and immediately they turned on their bellies. Quoth Roper I have seen both sides and so gave a pat on the buttock he made choice of, saying Thou art mine.  Here was all the trouble of the wooing.’

Quoted in John Aubrey ‘Brief Lives’. Late 17th century.

Perseid Shower at its peak today

Perseid meteor shower coming to its peak.  But they arrive every year. This year from July 17th to Aug 24th.  As this roughly coincides with St Lawrence’s Day on August 10th they are also known as the Tears of St Lawrence.

https://www.timeout.com/london/news/perseids-2025-how-to-see-the-biggest-meteor-shower-of-the-year-in-london-this-week-072125

The Martyr Treasurer

St Lawrence was the Treasurer of the early Church in Rome.  He was called in front of a magistrate and told to hand over the treasures of the Church.

He said: 0k I’ll need three days to do that.

3 days later he came back with sick people, disabled people, old people, orphans.  These, he said, are the treasures of the Church of Rome. He had also distributed the treasures to the poor to prevent then getting into Roman hands.  He is, thus, the patron saint of the poor.

So, the Romans sentenced him to be executed on a griddle over a fire.  I presume because they hoped he might relent and give information about where the treasures really were.

Where he was executed is not known but, normally, martyrdoms were held at an amphitheatre.

When the burning was halfway through, Lawrence turns to the executioner and says: Turn me over.  I’m done on this side.

So, he is the patron saint of City Officials, Cooks and Comedians! Also Tanners, Butchers and Librarians.

St Lawrence Church in London is on the site of the Roman Amphitheatre.  Now, us archaeologists didn’t know this till the 1980s.  But presumably they did know it in the medieval period.  Unless the attribution is a lucky coincidence.

He was martyred during the persecution of Valerian 258 AD.

For more about the London Amphitheatre see my posts here and here.

Because the Perseids Meteor Shower are at their peak around this period, they are called the tears of St Lawrence.

See my post on August 12th.

On This day

Death of Cleopatra August 10th 30BC

So, I started to write about the importance of beans on July 27th until waylaid by the Earl of Oxford’s Fart (see my post here).

This is the time of year when Beans were being harvested. The humble bean (Broad beans) were surprisingly important for the pre-modern diet. Virgil in his Georgics comments on the fallow system as follows:

‘Likewise, alternate years, let your cut fields lie fallow, and the idle ground harden with neglect: or sow yellow corn, under another star, where you first harvested beans. rich in their quivering pods’

Beans were introduced to the UK in the Bronze Age and are often found in Iron Age sites. But they grew in importance. By the thirteen hundreds beans represented 17% of Leicestershire crops, 30% by 1400 and 46% by 1588, and thereafter declined. Beans fix nitrogen in the soil so would have helped with the general fertility. But they were also a very healthy and filing food which had the added advantage that, when dried, they are virtually indestructible.

Aelfric of the Cistercian Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire wrote of eating ‘leaves and egg, fish and cheese, butter and beans’. Beans or peas would also have been eaten with bacon, which is like our Pea and Ham Soup. The salted bacon would provide the salt. Physician Andrew Boorde suggested the Danes lived on Beans and Salt Fish. (A Dyetary of Health 1542.) The place of Broad Beans in our diet has largely been replaced by beans from the Americas.

Elizabeth Tingle in ‘The Bean-Bellies’ of Leicestershire gives an interesting account of how much beans dominated midland farming. A well-known saying was ‘Shake a Leicestershire man by the collar and you may hear the beans rattle in his belly’

The Feudal system in the medieval system had the land owned by the Lord of the Manor, and managed by his Reeve. The land was divided up into three large fields which the Reeve arranged the dividing up of between the peasants. The fields were divided into furlong-length strips. A furlong was a furrow length, and was 220 yards long. By the end of the furrow the ox needed a rest, and were turned around. This system lead to the creation of ridge and furrows which you can often see in fields even to this day. (In Scotland its known as rigg and furrow.) These long ridge and hollows in fields are caused by non-reversible ploughs, which threw up the soil on the same side building it up.

The first field normally grew wheat or sometimes rye. The second field was planted with a mixture of crops which included peas and beans, rye, barley or oats, which are spring crops. The third field was left fallow, which allowed the sheep to graze upon it and their dung helped the field recover. The next year the fields were rotated. There were also water meadows and a common field. The common field was usably by everyone and became vital for the succour of poor people. All its resources could be exploited: for grazing, firewood, mushrooms, etc. The meadows were used to graze cows and then for making hay. ( see my post on haymaking here🙂 The woodland areas would be used for grazing pigs, providing fuel, and wood for manufacturing tools, and structures. Peasants had their own garden plot and often kept a pig.

Apart from the Bean-Belly article linked above, https://hodmedods.co.uk/blogs/news/ and https://charlescordell.com/17th-century-almanac-march were very helpful for this post.

To finish, it has to be with flatulence. Please guess who wrote these quotations:

‘A happy fart never comes from a miserable arse’

‘We are here on earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different’

‘Fart for freedom, fart for liberty – and fart proudly’

Ok, here is a clue, the authors are Benjamin Franklin, Kurt Vonnegut and Martin Luther.

Answer Benjamin Franklin (3), Kurt Vonnegut (2) and Martin Luther (1).

First published on 29th July 2025

‘This Earl of Oxford, making of his low obeisance to Queen Elizabeth, happened to let a Fart, at which he was so abashed and ashamed that he went to Travel [for] 7 years. On his return the Queen welcomed him home, and said, ‘My Lord, I had forgot the Fart’.’

John Aubrey Brief Lives (1693). From https://en.m.wikiquote.org/

Now, Google AI tells me that:

‘Beans cause flatulence due to the presence of oligosaccharides, a type of sugar that the body struggles to digest. These sugars pass through the small intestine undigested and reach the large intestine, where gut bacteria ferment them, producing gas (hydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide) as a byproduct. ‘

This is the second time I’ve used AI, the other was to get a short history of ice cream. (Click here to read it).

The Earl of Oxford is, of course, Edward de Vere (1550 -1604). One of the favourites of those who think Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare’s Plays. De Vere lived in a big house in Clapton, Hackney.  On the other side of Brooke Rd where I lived in the 1990’s. The House was originally called the King’s Place, and had a part in Henry VIII’s reconciliation with his daughter Mary. It came into the hands of Thomas Cromwell, and was eventually bought by de Vere. He died while living there and is buried in the nearby St John’s Church, Hackney. But plans for a grand tomb for him and his wife were not honoured by his heirs, and so his burial plot is not known. The House was renamed Brooke House, after Fulke Greville (Lord Brooke) Poet and courtier who lived here 1609-1628. He was from the Warwick Family.  Shakespeare was involved with his relative who enclosed the common land where the Royal Shakespeare Memorial Theatre now is. 

Fulke Grenville wrote the first biography of the inventor of the Sonnet, Sir Philip Sidney, his dear friend. The form which Shakespeare used to such good effect in his Sonnets.

Sir Philip Sidney’s sister Mary was a formidable literary star in her own right, completing some of her brother’s work after his death. She ran formidable salons in her houses at Wilton and Baynards Castle (in London).  She married the Earl of Pembroke.  Their son was William Third Earl of Pembroke who was founder of Pembroke College with James 1st and the Chancellor of Oxford University. But also he and his younger brother, Philip were the “incomparable pair of brethren” to whom the First Folio of Shakespeare’s collected works was dedicated in 1623.

Quite some literary nexus at Brooke Road, Clapton. De Vere himself was part of this world.  Considered one of the best Court Poets, Playwrights anf a patron of the arts. He was also a champion jouster. Not only was he from one of the oldest families but he was a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and married to Lord Burghley’s daughter.  He was evidently charming.  But also  murderous as he got involved with various fatal street battles with his enemies in London. His career  was up and down and full of crises.  He was involved with the Boy Companies that acted in the old Blackfriars friary.

There seems to have been an attraction to Catholicism, but he accused Arundell and Henry Howard of involvement in Catholic plot. They counter claimed he was guilty of

‘atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing “everything with the worst grace that ever woman did.

They claimed he was guilty of

‘serial child rape, claiming he’d abused “so many boyes it must nedes come out. Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care.’

(Quotations from Wikipedia)

None of the three suffered from these mutual accusations.

And I began this piece wanting to talk about the humble bean!

There is much more to say too, about Brooke House, De Vere and the Sidney’s.

But enough for now.

First Published 27th July 2025