Here are a few things I found a little interesting:
The word "hobby" was first used during the reign of the Tudors in England. More specifically, during the reign of King George (forgot which number-sorry!) because he was a big-time gambler. His "hobby" was horse racing. As a matter of fact, he would import some of the finest horses in the world to compete for him and would make bets on who was going to win. (Keep in mind, the English aristocracy in general loved to gamble during this time-period.) Unfortunately, King George racked up a debt that was in the millions/billions of pounds. This was astronomical for the times because the average worker only had an annual income of five pence.* From that the people of England would go on to use the word "hobby" for any type of activity that was otherwise trivial to survival.
*(I don't know the configuration of that type of currency, but I'm taking a good guess that its equivilent is much like our own national debt verses the amount earn annually. =_=; Honestly, our politicians talk of trillions like it's nothing!)
The first time chairs and floors began to have apolstry [forgive me for spelling ^^;] was during the reign of the Tudors, but it wasn't the royal family who first started using it. It was actually the richest woman in England--next to Queen Elizabeth--who started that off to make her lifestyle more comfortable for herself while showing off her power.
Sugar, during the early reign of the Tudors, was a sign of wealth because it was expensive during these times. (That was because sugar was a product of the "new world" at that era in history.) To really show off their wealth the aristocracy would create entire meals featuring sugar, called "banquetes" (which we now just call "dessert"). [Brace youself, I found this kind of gross] The noblewomen, to show off that they had a lot of sugar, would puposly blacken their teeth because it was common knowledge that sugar gave you cavities.
I would post up more, but I think I'll save that for another time. (I just KNOW how enthusiastic people are about history. 
)
Source: History International. Show: What the Tudors Did For Us. Episode: "The Good Lyfe"
