THE SIGHTS AND SMELLS OF DAILY LIFE
The reign of Elizabeth I is remembered as a ‘golden age’ for England. It calls to mind the genius of Shakespeare, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the inspiring architecture of stately homes such as Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire (famous for being ‘more glass than wall’) – not to mention those more modest, but equally charismatic black-and-white timber-framed town houses found almost everywhere.
Add the exploration of the Americas and the discoveries of exotic wonders such as tobacco and potatoes, and the circumnavigation of the world by English mariners, and you can see immediately that this was an age full of ambition and confidence. You might also picture the gentlemen wearing tights and people of quality sporting one of those starched linen ruffs around their necks. Let’s face it: you have to be confident of yourself to carry off that look.
These are all features of the Elizabethan age. Yet they are not the images that would have dominated people’s minds at the time. Few people outside the upper classes