England's Mistress_ The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton - Kate Williams [18]
We can reconstruct the life of the Budds by reading the accounts of similar families. Chatham Place was convenient for Dr. Budd's work at St. Bartholomew's hospital in Smithfield, on the edge of London's East End. Attachment to a hospital was a high-prestige position awarded only to the most esteemed doctors. After breakfast, Dr. Budd would take a sedan chair to his usual coffeehouse to read the papers and drink thick coffee from a pot that had been simmering for hours over the fire. At about ten o'clock, he took his chair to St. Bartholomew's, a hospital newly rebuilt and completed in 1770. Four buildings around a courtyard, it probably held about two hundred of the sick and the infirm. More than seven thousand patients were treated there in 1748, a statistic that suggests they died soon after they arrived. All were poor. The comfortably off were treated at home.
Nurses cared for the patients from day to day, and there were only three surgeons, who set broken bones, treated wounds, drained boils, bled patients, gave enemas, and pulled teeth. The leading surgeon was Percival Potts, an inspiring doctor who had the power to attract and appoint excellent staff Budd's name does not appear on the registers of the hospital as a physician or surgeon, and so he was probably an associate physician and consultant. His job was more genteel, administration in the offices near to the Great Hall and then ward rounds or talks with rich visitors whose purses funded the hospital. Such contact earned him private commissions and the finances to run his expensive Chatham Place household. Budd lunched at his coffeehouse or at home on pies, stews, or delicacies such as sheep's trotters, pig's ears, and brains. On some days, he waited all day at his coffeehouse for an apothecary to attend and communicate to him the symptoms of the sick. It was probably just as well not to linger in London's third biggest hospital—the beds were bug-ridden, the nurses were untrained, and infection was rife.
In the morning, like most ladies of her class, Mrs. Budd busied herself with accounts, writing letters, planning menus, or attending to the children. At about half past ten, she took her carriage to buy cloth and paper in the City or fancy goods in Covent Garden and the Strand. She usually returned at midday to dress for dinner and then spent the afternoon making or receiving calls and administering accounts.
Emma was probably unpaid because she was under sixteen. Budd's income was perhaps £700 a year, and even if she did receive a salary, it would not have been more than £1 a year. She would have had to work harder than in Hawarden for her keep. Most houses had to be washed twice a week from top to bottom, and staircases and entrances had to be scrubbed daily. The maids shared the jobs of housemaid, scullion, and kitchen maid. They needed an almost continuous supply of water to keep the Budds' house clean. Although it is possible that there was a piped water supply or the family paid the extortionate fees of a water carrier, it is more likely that Emma or Jane staggered with buckets from one of the pumps by the Thames. Luckily, the river was thought to have the healthiest air in London, and a visit there was a pleasant trip and a chance to socialize by the fountain.
At five o'clock every morning, Emma would light the kitchen fire, clean the hearth, and prepare the utensils for the cook to make breakfast. She scrubbed, swept, and dusted the breakfast parlor and then, after the family woke, she lit their bedroom fires, emptied their chamber pots, and brought them hot water with which to wash. While the family breakfasted at around eight on bread and meat or porridge, Emma and the other maids made the beds, put back the shutters, swept the rooms, cleaned the grates, dusted, and took the washstand water downstairs. After breakfast, she had to clean the plates and dishes, scour the pans with a mix of sand