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By Root 1410 0

and soap, and then start scraping the fireplaces. Her hands were perpetually plunged in soapy water, for her job was to scrub: furniture, utensils, stonework, floor, and hearths. The streets were so muddy that clothes often needed to be washed daily. A French visitor decided that an ideal lower servant was a "fat Welsh girl, who was just come out of the country, scarce understood a word of English, was capable of nothing but washing, scowering, and sweeping the rooms, and had no inclination to learn anything more."3 Emma, however, knew exactly what she was missing.

Short biographies of Emma's fellow maid Jane Powell were published after she became an actress, and all claim her work in Chatham Place was harsh. The Budds, like most employers, no doubt expected their servants to work like drones, show meek obedience whenever they encountered a member of the family, and accept punishment submissively. Servants were beaten for laziness, insolence, untidiness, slowness, or carelessness, and often if the master was simply irritated. One girl who became a maid of all work at the age of ten claimed she was regularly hit with sticks. Maids strove to avoid their mistresses, always ready to go to the pump or buy provisions at the market. Although the cook dealt with the tradesmen (a sought-after task, as it gave the opportunity for taking bribes), maids were allowed to buy milk from the milkmaids leading cows through the squares. Emma's lunch break came at around half past eleven, and then she resumed her laundry, polishing, and sweeping. After her supper at four she would assist with the preparation of the Budds' meal. A typical supper for middle-class families was pea soup, stewed carp or tripe, rabbit or veal, vegetables, and then ajam or fruit tart, usually taken at about five. Emma had to work longer in summer because of the light, but in winter, unless the Budds entertained at home, she was free by seven, after all the pans had been scrubbed and replaced and the bedrooms prepared for their occupants.

Mrs. Budd would have given Emma one of the many bestselling servants' manuals. Rather than assisting the servant to live on a tiny salary and cope with homesickness, a spiteful mistress, the sexual advances of a master, and the petty cruelties of the household's children, such books dwelt on how servants could be corrupted by dissolute behavior and drink. The authors preached that the "Town proves a school of corruption" and the streets "swarm with these servants of Iniquity, who are continually carrying on a trade of sin" and "subsist by the price of slaughtered souls."4 Like most servants, Emma and Jane paid no attention to such instructions. In their room upstairs after work, they tried to beautify themselves, then ventured out to the city.

Neither girl had any desire to stay in domestic service and work her way up to becoming a cook. Emma would have tried to avoid putting her hands in soap whenever possible, if she already suffered from the psoriasis that later plagued her.5 Everywhere she saw women in fine clothes she could not afford. As one of the magazines that she might have read when she was in Chatham Place declared, "luxury was never at so great a height as at present."6 Indignant with envy, she scrubbed the hearth, cherishing hopes of a better life.

CHAPTER 7

Temptations to Voluptuousness

After seven o'clock, genteel families such as the Budds drank tea behind thick curtains that shut out the street. Elsewhere, the owners of gin palaces and taverns brushed the straw over the floor and set up tables for gambling as prostitutes began their toilette. The novelist Henry Fielding described the alleys of the City as "a vast wood or forest in which a Thief may harbour with as great security as wild beasts do in the Desarts of Africa or Arabia.1 The backstreets of London were no place for a young girl fresh from the country. Emma was lucky to have Jane as her guide.

Jane Powell was Emma's first close female friend. She had a crucial influence on her new fellow maid, little Miss Lyon, fresh from the Welsh hills.