Where Queen Elizabeth Slept and What the Butler Saw: A Treasury of Historical Terms from the Sixteenth Century to the Present

Who was a tweenie? How did an ice house work and where would you find a crinkum-crankum wall? What was a chesterfield for, or a Claude glass, and how did a clock jack improve your dinner? Who invented fish and chips and what was a Harden Star Grenade? Why were the windows of Chatsworth gilded on the outside and what do you know about priest holes? Who invented the ha-ha and for what purpose? Who were the members of the Hell-Fire Club? History buffs want to know more than just dates and dry facts. They want to know how people lived, what they ate, how they spoke, how they dressed, what games they played, what their homes looked like. This dictionary offers us a key to the past. It explains what part each object or ritual played in the life of the household and the community. It gives us an understanding of the society, by revealing the fascinating details of life, and allows the reader to travel back in time and experience a typical day in any century from the sixteenth to our own. The book shows social life in all its variety, and it opens a whole new world of understanding. This is a book to give hours of pleasure whether browsed through or used for reference -- it contains a wealth of unexpected information.