Up and Down Stairs - Jeremy Musson [103]
Yet even this gruelling routine gave her more independence in her own eyes than country-house service. She found the jobs principally through registry offices, or London’s famous Soho Bazaar, a servants’ recruiting fair.
Even so, Hannah was able to save money. For all its undoubted toughness and insecurity, for many from poorer backgrounds domestic service was a chance to work, make money and acquire training – even an education. In the context of mid- to late-nineteenth-century Britain this was already difficult enough, the alternatives being manual jobs in agriculture, which from the 1880s was in a state of economic depression, or industry.
William Lanceley, a successful butler and steward who served a royal duke among others, started out as a footboy in the local squire’s house in 1870: ‘My wages were to be £8 per year, with plenty of good food besides; clothes found except underclothing and boots, which I had to provide from my wages. I was then told in a confidential way that if I looked well after the visiting ladies’-maids, cleaned their boots nicely and got the luggage up quickly (which was my job with the aid of the odd man) I should pick up a nice little bit in tips, which proved correct.’28
As accommodation, clothing and food were largely supplied by his employer, and tips, he was able to save all £8 during his first year and took it home,
handing it over with pride to my mother. She had been left a widow with nine children, the eldest 18 years of age, and to make matters worse my father had died in debt. I can still see her face when she took it and then, giving me £2 back, said ‘I cannot take it all, lad.’ [He left the £2] quietly on the cottage table where I knew she would find it. Next year my wages were raised to £12, and I felt myself a millionaire and saved the whole of it, again disposing of it in the same way.29
His duties, which started at six o’clock,
were as follows: first light the servants’ hall fire, clean the young ladies’ boots, the butler’s, house-keeper’s, cook’s, and ladies’-maids’, often twenty pairs altogether, trim the lamps (I had thirty-five to look after, there being no gas or electric light in the district in those days), and all this had to be got through by 7.30; then lay up the hall breakfast, get it in, and clear up afterwards.
[After the servants’ breakfast] My day’s work followed on with cleaning knives, house-keeper’s room, silver, windows, and mirrors.
He would have to lay up the servants’ hall supper and dinner and clear everything and wash up, as well as help to carry meals up to the dining room. After washing up the servants’ hall supper, ‘this brought bedtime after a day’s work of sixteen hours; yet I seldom felt tired as the work was so varied and the food of the best, and we generally got a little leisure in the afternoons.’30
In another aside he revealed how country-house service could mean detachment from the values and experiences of home. After four years’ service in his second position, ‘I was offered a holiday as the family were paying a round of visits lasting six weeks and those servants who cared to take a holiday did so. Very few did in those days and no servant would dream of asking for one unless the family were away from home . . . My first holiday was three days, quite enough at that time. Our cottage homes and food were no comparison to what we left behind.’31
Lanceley’s saving his entire wage may seem extraordinary but domestic servants had also to bear in mind the prospect of illness, old age and retirement. In the relatively confined world of the country-house servant, where much could be provided in the way of food, accommodation and clothing, there was potential for making substantial savings. The long-standing gardener