And so he went off through the time tunnel and into the 16th century. As usually with soon to be 9 year olds it is a mystery what actually happened there but I imagine them running through the woods shooting small birds and rabbits with bows and arrows and spit roasting them outside a stone cottage, washing some clothes in stale urine and then ending it in true Tudor style with a visit to the executioner. Either way, he came home alive and smiling and that is enough for me.
The internet is a wonderful place sometimes and if it wasn't for the blogs about button making, Pinterest patterns and just one of the best named music videos of all times, Medieval hardcore party mix, I would have found this much trickier. I find it really interesting how in just small ways people did things differently, prioritised differently in other times. Aside from of course only having access to natural materials. The shirt is cotton, which is not impossible but quite unlikely in this context but I had to work with what I had (an old pillowcase). The rest though is wool and linen! The trousers and doublet is linen fabric imported all the way from Scandinavia, where the preference for synthetics never really caught on, and the hat is a woolly felt cap. Everyone in Tudor times did have to wear their woolly hats..
The little felt bag on the leather belt he made him self and wore proudly.
And I'm just going to pick up my horn and blow it for just a minute and say that I thought he was the most authentic Tudor child on the whole trip. They were all good, the whole class looked amazing, even the teachers were dressed up and I was just a little envious that I couldn't go, but..even if no one else had cared I still knew it was made out of linen, from an actual 16th century pattern and had buttons made in the medieval way. And even if my fingers and knees bled and it half stressed the life out of me I could never really water out the passion for these things. I think in a way, my addiction to details and historical obsession comes out of a want to connect. With every hand-sewn stitch I feel like I can reach out and almost touch the people that lived right here hundreds of years before me. Like their footprints are still in the very ground I stand on and if I can just replicate every step I can almost...
"Up to the present day Cambridge has 19 student houses, in addition
to which 14 colleges have been built with such grandeur and magnificence
that you might think they were royal palaces and not accomodation for
students. In short, although I have travelled in many countries and seen
many cities, I must admit that I have hardly ever seen anything
comparable to this town and these schools, for everything is in such
perfect order that nothing better could be imagined."
I'm half tempted to make my self a 16th century kirtle and cap now..
Luckily I have this book to help me on my way.
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