Imagine the room full of people, arriving
for a weeklong party, women with their elaborate stiff dresses sweeping the
floor – made of velvet, silk, brocade, jeweled headdresses piled high,
the men dressed up in breeches and jackets, slashed sleeves and wide sashes,
with swords, and stiff ruffs.
There might also be musicians playing in a corner - flutes, lutes, drums would
have all been used during this time. The men and women would dance in intricate
formal line and group dances. Servants would discretely sweep through the
room offering food and drink, placing platters on a broad oak table. Children
would peer in from the corners and under the table to watch the gentlemen
and ladies.
Or perhaps, at Christmas, the tenant farmers on the Drewe’s estate might
be welcomed to the house for a reception, with the Drewes showing their gracious
patronage as landlords and overlords of the land. These people would wear
their best, perhaps wool or silk, but nothing to compete with the their surroundings.
