Over the weekend, I visited Mackenzie House. I had read that a theatre group, Single Thread Theatre Company would be rehearsing in the home for a play, Firebrand that would be performed in the home in February.
The home was interesting and it was my first time checking it out. I joined two other people who were with one of the volunteers doing a walk through. Although not all the furniture and items were original to the home, they were typical for the period and for a middle-class family. The Mackenzie family were middle-class and lived in this home during the1 1850s. You can read about them here.
Stove
Coffee Roaster
The theatre group was doing their readings / discussions of the play in the basement of the home in the kitchen area. By the time I was ready to leave, the group was beginning their rehearsals.
At the end of the walk through the home, we ended up in the print shop. We learned a little about the printing press, print apprenticeships, and general things about Mackenzie and his work with printing.
Print Press
I walked away remembering only one thing and that was the meaning of the saying “cut to the chase”. The saying in modern times means get to the point, at the time it was originally being used in print shops during the 1800s, it had a completely different meaning. A chase was the frame in which a story would have to fit to be printed. So if a story was too long, the author would be told it would have to be shortened to fit the chase, or “cut to the chase”.
