Well, it's been a week and not a word have I written. Stop cheering - it's not good for the vocal cords.
The reason I took so many pictures of the interior of the Corwin (or Witch's) House was that it provides a very good picture of what life would have been like for a prosperous person in the late 1600s. Salem was a prosperous port and the town was able to support what was, for the time, a good life.
This is the obligatory sign that explains that Mr. Corwin purchased this home in 1675. He had married or was about to marry a widow who had five children of her own. The couple ended up having ten children. Mr. Corwin was a merchant and considered to be well-to-do. And, as a pillar of the community, he served as a selectman and as a magistrate. He was one of the judges during the trials.
Rather than have visitors try to imagine what the foundation and building materials for a building such as this looked like, caretakers of the home have hung on a wall a cross section of foundation (rocks) and lath (slender slats of wood nailed to longer pieces and used as the basis for walls. The percentage of rock to lumber is about right. Rock dominates much of this area still, a gift from the melt of the last continental glacier to cover the area approximately 10,000 years ago.
We are standing with our backs to the large kitchen fireplace and looking across toward the kitchen table and a window that's tricked my camera just a bit with all the light that's coming in. The furniture is from the period and varies in style. The floors are wide pine boards. And the walls are plaster laid over the lath that we saw a second ago.
See that chair over on the far wall - the one that's sort of sitting like it owns the room? Thought I'd give you a better look:
The carving is wonderful, and the folks at Antiques Roadshow would have happy conniptions because the chair has been maintained well, but not refinished over the centuries. This is a lovely example of what creative souls could do with wood. I suspect that the seat is stuffed with something incredibly comfortable, such as horsehair. (I am being ever so slightly facetious). This would have been either the chair used by an honored guest or by Mr. Corwin himself.
Here we have another sturdy piece of furniture. It's a storage chest and would have been used for whatever the Mrs. of the house wanted - everything from linens to pots, depending on the person. The wood is a rich reddish color and the design is simple but perfect for the purpose.
One of the things that I hate about learning a new technology is my rather embarrassing penchant for erasing things I should have kept. My SD card is ever so clean and I have lost a number of my images (oh dear, oh dear, what shall I do? Why, go back, of course!!!!)
What is that image up there? No, it's not an early banjo, although that might be a reasonable assumption. And where is it?
That, my friends, is the 17th century equivalent of an electric blanket. It's a bed warmer, and believe me, it was a great thing to have. Coals were place in the pan and the lid was closed. The pan was then put under the covers and worked about until the sheets or blankets (depending) had warmed up. Then, before the heat dissipated, people hurried to bed.
The warming pan stands hear the bedroom fireplace. A little smaller than the behemoth in the kitchen, the bedroom fireplace did what it could to keep the cold at bay.
To reach the bedrooms upstairs, one must ascend this exceptionally (to our eyes) steep and narrow winding set of stairs. I have size 9 feet. They were not happy attempting to find the way up.
There are two large sleeping areas on the upper floor. This loom, which would have helped keep the family in blankets and clothes, is exceptionally large. Setting the threads would have involved hours of work on the part of the lady of the house. Beside the loom is a covered foldaway bed that would have been large enough to rest several of the family's children.
Please forgive the blurring, I was not standing still, either because I was shivering or had decided to see if I could destabilize the image. This is a typical bed of the period. The mattress is a pallet, and could have been stuffed with straw or with some other material, such as (you guessed it) horsehair. The slats of the bed are actually ropes. To keep the pallet from sagging, each night the ropes were pulled tight and reknotted. Not the most comfortable thing, but better than the floor when the cold night fell. Again, this would have slept three or four children.
Across the landing at the top of the stair was the second, larger room. To the left of the cradle, you can see the skirt of a formal gown. Please don't think that everyone wore black and white all the time. They didn't. The cradle is of the period and beautifully carved. Both the cradle quilt and the large quilt on the trundle bed are of the same material, a lovely blue that did not come out well here. And the quilting is magnificent.
The cradle is off to your left. This is the trundle bed. In this case, the trundle, or lower bed, is about the size of a full or double bed today. The master bed is surrounded by drapery to keep away the drafts. In the summer, the material would be linen. In the winter: wool.
There existed not a whole lot of privacy in homes of this time. So people learned to "not hear" anything that might upset them. It's an interesting thought: I wonder how we'd do with it today in this country.
I am utterly bummed that I have lost so many pictures. I have more of the town itself, and will share those. But I am pouting large time at my fondness for the delete key!
Off I go, into the night. More as soon as my brain focuses again!!!! Where the dickens did I put that warming pan, anyway?
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