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Old December 19th, 2009, 07:56 AM   #2
haroldeye
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Wednesday week means, a week on Wednesday or seven days after the next Wednesday. The day named can be any day of the week. If I said I'll see you on Monday week I would mean the first Monday after the next Monday.

We have several Bank Holidays in the UK. They are days when the Banks were forced to close for a day in order to give their workers a days rest. Holidays for the workers are a relatively recent invention, until just before 1900 most blue collar people worked five or five and a half days a week and were lucky to have any paid holidays at all. Bank opening times were strictly limited by law to prevent runs (I think something similar happened in 'It's a wonderful life' the James Stewart Christmas film). By granting the compulsory holidays for the bank it meant that workers got several long weekends every year.

Public schools are so called because when they started they was Private education (tutors for the rich) Church schools for the middle classes (the church was all powerful in late medieval England) and no schooling for anyone else. Schools were founded and funded by the public purse to educate the poor. Over the years these schools became private, fee paying schools but never lost the name Public. What Americans would call public we call 'State schools'.

The toilet business is very Victorian and date from the time before plumbing. The valet (for the master) or maid (for the Ladies) of a large house would take their employer hot water, soap, clean towels etc so the employer could wash or bathe. Even when plumbing came in the maid would draw her lady a bath of the right temperature and make sure the right toiletries were to hand.
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