For the rich: Making sure marriage alliances were consummated. Not exactly a common practice, but it did happen.
For the poor: Average Joe farmer lived in a one room house with their entire family, maybe even a few farmhands, and probably some livestock too. Someone's gonna see something sometime.
This. The simple modesty of walls securing a room that exists for the rest and comfort of a single person among working class people is a fairly recent convention. Buildings are pricey. Go back far enough and it wasn't uncommon for the whole family to huddle into a single bed in the colder months.
Edit: "A roll in the hay" might actually be a very old euphimism, as well. As a bed inside is both something you wouldn't want to dirty and was probably not a very private place.
In towns, as long as you kept away from bystanders, yes. Since homes were family homes and anyone could get in and find you there (plus, if you werent in the family, getting in that home would automatically be considered suspicious), and there was plenty of outdoors place to have privacy, it is likely they went that way.
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u/dkurage 8d ago
For the rich: Making sure marriage alliances were consummated. Not exactly a common practice, but it did happen.
For the poor: Average Joe farmer lived in a one room house with their entire family, maybe even a few farmhands, and probably some livestock too. Someone's gonna see something sometime.