In 1851, more than a million Englishmen were in the service, and in 1891, already at the end of the Victorian era, we will get more accurate numbers - 1,386,167 women and 58,527 men. Even the poorest families tried to hire at least one maid - the so-called maid of all works, who had to cook and clean. Climbing higher up the social ladder, we will meet more servants, not to mention the aristocratic houses, where the servants numbered in the hundreds. For example, in late XIX century, the sixth Duke of Portland kept 320 male and female servants.
People from the lower classes, mainly from the countryside, came into the service. With the development of railways, provincial housewives were indignant that now you couldn’t find good maids in the afternoon with fire - all the peasant women went to London, where they paid better and where there was a chance to meet a worthy husband.
They hired servants in several ways. In the provinces, for centuries, workers and owners met at special fairs, and the workers took with them some object denoting their profession: roofers held straw in their hands, maids - a broom. All that was required was a handshake and a small upfront payment to secure an employment contract.
But in the cities, old-fashioned inventions were no longer in demand, so it was customary to look for servants through labor exchanges or employment agencies, or even through acquaintances. Before hiring, the job seeker showed letters of recommendation, and woe to the one who would dare to forge them - this was a matter of jurisdiction. Corrosive housewives turned to the previous owners of a Mary or Nancy to find out whether she was clean, whether she really performed her duties well, whether she had a tendency to steal.
"Madam! Since Bridget Duster wishes to be the only maid in my house, I ask you, her former owner, to tell me if she is suitable for such a serious obligation. In the past, I have suffered from the impudence and meanness of servants (who, in my opinion, are sent solely to torment decent people), and therefore I ask you not to be angry at some scrupulousness of my inquiries ... I must admit that I am pleased with Bridget's appearance. I've never seen such deep pockmarks... And the more plain-looking servants, the better. An unsightly appearance is something like a cheap uniform for maids, intended by nature itself: it shows them their place and turns them away from all sorts of nonsense. So far, Bridget seems like a worthy candidate...
I hope she's sober. And then after all, when the maids are so ugly, they sometimes kiss the bottle in order to take revenge on nature. At this point, no matter how you lock the brandy, you still can’t save it from them. Doesn't Bridget break dishes? I always charge for broken dishes but who will pay for my nerves? In addition, the servants can kill so many dishes that the salary is not enough. Is Bridget honest? Here, madam, if you please, answer more precisely, because I have already been deceived in people so many times. Once I hired a maid with excellent recommendations, and literally a week later I saw her giving three cold potatoes to some organ grinder with white mice. Is this honesty? Is Bridget polite? Does she take a well-deserved reprimand? Can Bridget get up early, no matter what time she goes to bed? A good maid is like a needle - she always sleeps with one eye open. Does Bridget have suitors? I will not tolerate such rascals. The maid should be like a nun, she leaves everything worldly behind as soon as she steps over the threshold of the house. .
The letters of recommendation show how dependent the position of the servants was. Although the owners were convincingly asked not to slander the former employees, as well as not to praise them undeservedly, many did not deny themselves the pleasure of ruining the lives of the servants. It was almost impossible to prove slander. The opinion expressed in the recommendation was considered subjective, and people make mistakes, don't they? Is this a crime?
Sometimes the servants, quite desperate, sued the owners for taking away their chance to work. So did the maid whose mistress in a letter called her “an impudent and impudent girl who stays in bed for a long time, but at the same time she is clean and does a good job”. The judge did not see malicious intent in the words of the hostess and closed the case, while the plaintiff was left without a job and, most likely, with a tarnished reputation - who would hire a litigator? You can imagine how many lives have been broken because of a few unfair words. Among the servants, there was also word of mouth: meeting during the day, the maids gossiped about their masters and could advise the comrade a suitable place or dissuade from the bad.
If even a petty bank clerk could hire a servant, the servant was considered a symbol of prestige. Since 1777, each employer had to pay a tax of 1 guinea per male servant - in this way the government hoped to cover the costs of the war with the American colonies. It is not surprising that it was men who dominated the world under the stairs.
Maids. Drawing from Punch magazine. 1869
The male servants were commanded by a butler. Sometimes he was engaged in cleaning silverware, which you would not trust to a simple servant, but in general he was above physical labor. He was in charge of all the keys, as well as the wine cellar, which served the butler as a considerable advantage - he made deals with wine merchants and received commissions from them. The butler announced the guests and made sure that the dishes for the gala dinner were served on time, he could also look after the owner’s wardrobe, but did not help him get dressed - this is the duty of the valet (valet).
The owner's personal servant, the valet, prepared his bath in the morning and clothes for going out, collected luggage for travel, loaded his guns, waited at the table. The ideal valet, "the gentleman of the gentleman", is, of course, Jeeves, the hero of the stories of P. G. Wodehouse - even in the 20th century he observes Victorian values. The services of a valet were used by bachelors or elderly gentlemen who needed constant supervision. Was that why Jeeves was so zealous in driving potential brides away from his master, Bertie Wooster? Marriage would mean separation.
calling card lackey (footman) was his representative appearance. This position was taken by men tall, stately and always with beautiful legs, so that the calves looked good in tight stockings. Dressed in livery, the footman served at the table and, with his appearance, gave solemnity to the moment. In addition, footmen carried letters, opened the door for guests, brought trays from the kitchen and lifted other weights (although cartoons depict a footman carrying a tray with a stack of letters, while a maid, straining, drags a bucket of coal). When the lady went shopping, the footman respectfully followed her and carried the purchases.
The possessions of the male servant extended beyond the home. A huge role in the estate was played by gardeners who created real masterpieces in English parks. In town houses the gardener was a visiting one, who came once a week to mow the lawn and tidy up the palisade. Servants such as the coachman, groom, groom, errand boys, etc. were involved in stable work. According to stereotypes, coachmen were uneducated, ill-prepared for such work, cruel to horses, lazy drunkards, and thieving to boot. But since the Victorians were stern about any servant, it is not surprising that they had a low opinion of the coachmen.
The following requirements were imposed on the coachman: he had to be excellent with horses, distinguished by a sober lifestyle, accuracy, punctuality, composure in all circumstances. For an urban coachman, the ability to drive a carriage well was an urgent need, since maneuvering through the streets was not so easy. Ideally, city coachmen should have been trained, that is, served as an apprentice for another coachman. For a rural coachman, such thorough preparation was not required. It could be taken, as they say, from a plow. If the main disadvantage of the city coachman was that sooner or later he began to boast of his position, the rural coachmen were for the most part lazy - the horses were infected by their apathy and barely crawled along the road. At least, that's how stupid lazy they often appear in English manuals on arranging the stable. The duties of the coachman were to drive the carriage, take care of the horses, keep the harness and the carriage itself in order. Sometimes he had to clean the saddles. If the stable contained more than three horses, a suitable boy was hired to help the coachman.
Richer families could also afford a groom. His salary in the 1870s started at £60 a year and could go up to £200-300. A good groom from childhood was with horses and learned useful skills from senior servants. Although the word "groom" is often applied to any servant employed in the stable, it primarily means a worker hired specifically to keep the horses in the best possible shape. The groom oversaw the cleaning of the horses, their diet, walks, etc.
The groom also accompanied the owners on horseback riding, but rode a little further, behind the gentlemen. An 1866 guide to etiquette advises gentlemen to bring a groom with them if ladies are present during the trip. Ladies were not advised to ride alone, except perhaps in the countryside. As for unmarried persons, they should go for a walk not only accompanied by a groom, but also by some gentleman who is in the confidence of their families. Probably so that they look after each other - but will any of them allow any liberties?
The work of a large stable was led by a senior groom (head-ostler, foreman). Weak people did not stay in this work. To keep the staff in a tight grip, the senior groom had to be a real tyrant, but at the same time a sober, responsible and fair person. Among other things, he bought food and monitored its quality, could negotiate with merchants, invite workers to fix the stable or call a veterinarian. However, not all senior grooms immediately called the veterinarian if necessary. Some were proud that they themselves could treat horses, alone or, at worst, calling a blacksmith for help. The results of such amateur performances were often sad.
As for the female servants, the most senior position was the governess, who belonged to the middle class. But it was the governess who stood out from the hierarchy, because the Victorians themselves did not know where to attribute her - to the owners or to the servants. The real boss of white aprons and caps was the housekeeper, colleague, and sometimes rival of the butler. Hiring and counting maids, shopping for groceries, supervising housework are just some of her responsibilities. An experienced housekeeper easily distinguished young lamb from old, prepared delicious jams and pickles, knew how to preserve apples during the winter and skillfully cut ham. Her interests extended beyond the buffet: among other things, the housekeeper looked after the behavior of the maids, who just let them get a gentleman! English literature retained many images of housekeepers: there is the affable Mrs. Fairfax, who so cordially received Jane Eyre, and the narrow-minded Mrs. Grose from Henry James's novel The Turn of the Screw, and the deeply tragic character of Mrs. Danvers from Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca. But the most striking tandem of the butler and the housekeeper, of course, is captured in the Japanese novel Katsuo Ishiguro "The Remains of the Day" - a story of unspoken love and lost opportunities against the backdrop of a huge old estate.
Hostess and maid. Drawing from Cassels magazine. 1887
A personal maid, or lady's maid, was the female equivalent of a valet. Pretty persons, with an agreeable disposition and literate, claimed for this job. The maid helped the hostess with her hair and dress, cleaned her dresses and washed lace and linen, made her bed, and accompanied her on her travels. Before the mass production of creams and shampoos, all these products were prepared at home, often by maids. Servant's allowances offer recipes for lotions for freckles, balms for acne, toothpastes (for example, based on honey and crushed coal). Very often, the maids got the worn dresses of the hostess, so that they dressed much better than the rest of the servants. By the standards of the XIX century, it was a very prestigious profession.
As the 1831 Servant's Manual states, " cooking is, strictly speaking, a science, and a cook is a professor» . Indeed, cook dinner in mid-nineteenth century was quite a feat, since dinners consisted of several courses, including a couple of desserts, and the kitchen equipment was very primitive. At the very least, one could only dream of such a luxury as an oven with a temperature regime. The cook (cook) herself decided how to bring the fire in the oven (or even in the open hearth) to the desired temperature and not only not burn the dish, but also cater to the exacting tastes of the owners. The work was very responsible, given that the British took food very seriously. Add to this the lack of effective detergents (soda, ash, sand were used), the lack of refrigerators and a million modern appliances, the exaggeration of disturbing rumors about harmful additives, and it becomes clear that working in the kitchen was more difficult than in another laboratory.
From the cook required cleanliness, extensive knowledge of cooking and quick response. In wealthy houses, an assistant was assigned to the cook, who was responsible for cleaning the kitchen, chopped vegetables and cooked simple dishes. The unenviable duty of washing dishes, pans and pots went to the dishwasher (scullery maid). The negligence of a dishwasher could cost the life of the whole family! At least that's what the home economics manuals said about the dangers of copper pots, which show a poisonous patina if they're not properly dried.
In urban middle-class families, it was customary to keep at least three servants: a cook, a maid and a nanny. Maids (housemaids, parlourmaids) were engaged in housework, and the working day could stretch for 18 hours. For almost the entire year, it began and ended by candlelight, from 5–6 in the morning until the family went to bed. The hot season came during the season, which lasted from mid-May to mid-August. It was a time of entertainment, dinners, receptions and balls, during which parents were looking for profitable suitors for their daughters. For the servants, the season turned into a nightmare, as they went to bed after midnight, only with the departure of the last guests. And I had to wake up at the usual time, early in the morning.
The work of the maids was hard and tedious. There were no vacuum cleaners, washing machines, or other household appliances at their disposal. Moreover, when the achievements of progress appeared in England, the owners did not seek to buy them. Why spend money on a car when a person can do the same job? The corridors of the old mansions stretched for almost a mile, and they had to be scraped by hand, on your knees. This work was done by the lowest-ranking maids, often girls of 10-15 years old, the so-called tweenies. Since they had to work early in the morning, in the dark, they lit a candle and pushed it in front of them as they moved down the corridor. And, of course, no one warmed the water for them. Purulent inflammation of the periarticular mucosal sac developed from constant kneeling. No wonder this disease is called housemaid's knee - "maid's knee".
Hanna Kallvik, a maid and one of the most famous memoirists of the 19th century, described her typical working day on July 14, 1860: “I opened the shutters and lit the fire in the kitchen. She shook out the ashes from her things into the garbage pit, and threw all the ashes there. She swept and wiped the dust in all rooms and in the hall. She lit the fire and carried the breakfast upstairs. Cleaned two pairs of shoes. She made the beds and brought out the chamber pots. Cleared the table after breakfast. Washed dishes, silverware and knives. Brought lunch. Picked up again. Tidy up the kitchen, unpack the shopping cart. Two chickens were carried by Mrs. Brewers, who gave her answer to the owner. I baked a pie and gutted two ducks, then fried them. Kneeling, she washed the porch and the pavement in front of him. She rubbed graphite on the scraper in front of the steps, then scrubbed the pavement outside, also on her knees. Washed dishes. She tidied up the pantry, also on her knees, and scrubbed the tables clean. She washed the sidewalk near the house and wiped the window sills. Picked up tea for Mr. and Mrs. Warwick in the kitchen at nine. I was in dirty clothes, so Ann took the tea upstairs. I washed the toilet, the corridor and the floor in the scullery, also on my knees. I washed the dog, then cleaned the sinks. Brought dinner, which Ann took upstairs - I was too dirty and tired to go there myself. I took a bath and went to bed." .
In addition to the main duties, the servants also got rather strange tasks. The maids were sometimes required to iron the morning paper and staple the pages down the center to make it easier for the owner to read. The paranoid gentlemen liked to test their maids by slipping a coin under the rug. If the girl took the money, it means that she was dishonest, but if the coin remained in place, it means that she did not wash the floors well!
It is interesting that the servants of a higher rank - like a butler or a maid - were called exclusively by their last name. Remember, at least, Jeeves from the stories of Wodehouse - a real relic of the Victorian era. His owner, the varmint Bertie Wooster, calls him exclusively by his last name, and only by chance do we learn the name of the indefatigable valet - Reginald. Housekeepers and cooks were given the honorary title "Mrs." in addition to their surnames, even if they had never married. The maidservants were called by their first names, and even then not always.
In some families, the maid came up with a new name if one of the young ladies had already “staken out” her name, or for the sake of simplicity. After all, maids come and go, so why fill your head with their names? It's easier to call each new Mary or Susan. Charlotte Bronte also mentions the collective name of the maids - Abigail.
In the middle of the 19th century, a middle-level maid received 6-8 pounds a year, not including money for tea, sugar and beer. However, Cassels magazine advised against paying traditional "beer money" to maids. If the maid drinks beer, then she will certainly run after him to the tavern, the source of all sorts of trouble. If she does not drink, then why corrupt her with extra money? Although the cooks considered bones, rabbit skins, rags and candle stubs to be their fair game, Cassels tripped them up here too. Home economics experts insisted that where the maids were allowed to take the leftovers and scraps, theft would inevitably begin. Only the hostess should decide who to give what. The cooks grumbled at such advisers, because the sale of skins to junk workers brought, albeit a small, but pleasant addition to the salary.
The personal maid of the mistress in the middle of the century received 12-15 pounds a year plus money for additional expenses, livery footman £13–15 a year, valet £25–50. In addition, on December 26, the so-called Boxing Day, servants were given clothes or money. In addition to the salary, the servants also counted on tips from the guests. When a guest left, all the servants lined up in one or two rows near the door, so for people who were short of money, tipping was a nightmare in reality. Sometimes they might decline an invitation only out of fear of appearing poor. After all, if the servant received a mean handout, then the next time the guest visited, he could ignore or alter his orders - there is no need to stand on ceremony with a greedy person.
By setting aside savings, servants from wealthy households could accumulate a significant amount, especially if the owners did not forget to mention them in their wills. After retirement, former servants often went into trade or opened their own business, although some joined the ranks of the London beggars - here it will fall down. Favorite servants, in particular nannies, lived out their lives with their owners.
The British preferred servants to be identifiable by their clothing. When a maid entered the service, in her tin box - an indispensable attribute of a maid - she usually had three dresses: a simple cotton dress, which was worn in the morning, a black dress with a white cap and apron, which was worn in the afternoon, and a dress for the evening. The average cost of a dress for a maid in the 1890s was 3 pounds - i.e., half a year's salary for an underage maid who had just started working. In addition to dresses, the maids bought themselves stockings and shoes, and this item of expenditure was a bottomless well, because because of running up and down stairs, shoes wore out quickly.
The traditional uniform of footmen included knee-length trousers and a flamboyant frock coat with coattails and buttons, which bore the family coat of arms, if the family had one. The butler, the servant king, wore a tailcoat, but of a simpler cut than the master's tailcoat. The coachman's uniform was especially pretentious - high boots polished to a shine, a bright frock coat with silver or copper buttons and a hat with a cockade.
Footman in the club. Drawing from Punch magazine. 1858
The Victorian house was built to accommodate two distinct classes under one roof. To call servants, a bell system was installed, with a cord or button in each room and a panel in the basement, which showed which room the call came from. The owners lived on the first, second and sometimes third floor. The valet and maid had rooms often adjoining the master bedroom, the coachman and groom lived in quarters near the stables, and the gardeners and butlers might have small cottages.
Looking at such a luxury, the lower-level servants must have thought: “Lucky for some!” They had to sleep in the attic and work in the basement. When gas and electricity became widely used in homes, they were rarely taken to the attic - according to the owners, this was an unacceptable waste. The maids went to bed by candlelight, and on a cold winter morning they found that the water in the jug was frozen and to wash well, you would need at least a hammer. The attic spaces themselves were not distinguished by aesthetic delights - gray walls, bare floors, lumpy mattresses, darkened mirrors and cracked sinks, as well as furniture in different stages dying.
From the cellar to the attic is a long distance, and the owners are unlikely to like it if the servants scurry around the house for no good reason. This problem was solved by the presence of two stairs - front and black. The staircase, a kind of border between worlds, has firmly entered Victorian folklore, but for the servants it was a real instrument of torture. They had to run up and down it, carrying heavy buckets of coal or hot water for Bath. While the gentlemen dined in the dining room, the servants dined in the kitchen. Their diet depended on the income of the family and on the generosity of the owners. In some houses, the servants' meals included cold poultry, vegetables, and ham; in others, the servants were kept starving. This was especially true for children and adolescents, for whom there was no one to intercede.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, servants were not entitled to days off. Every minute of their time belonged entirely to the owners. But in the 19th century, the owners began to give the maids days off or allow them to receive relatives (but by no means boyfriends!). And Queen Victoria hosted an annual ball for palace servants at Balmoral Castle.
The relationship between masters and servants depended on many factors - both on the social status of the masters and on their character. Usually, the more well-born a family was, the better it treated the servants. Aristocrats with a long pedigree did not need self-affirmation at the expense of servants, they already knew their worth. At the same time, the nouveau riche, whose ancestors belonged to the "vile class", could push the servants, thereby emphasizing their superiority. Following the covenant “love your neighbor”, the masters often took care of the servants, handed them worn clothes and called the doctor if they fell ill, but this did not mean at all that the servants were considered equal to themselves. Barriers between classes were maintained even in the church - while the gentlemen occupied the front pews, their maids and footmen sat in the back rows.
The servants were called: butlers, maids, footmen, maids, valets, waiters, coachmen, housekeepers, cooks and janitors. These people were busy serving their masters. The most significant figure and head of the servants in the house was the butler (in Western Europe, the majordomo). These were elderly people from the ranks of lackeys who had won the confidence of the masters. Such a person knew the rules in the family well, carefully supported them, observed family customs and traditions.
The maid was called the personal maid of the hostess, often she was trusted: the person of the hostess, who supervised the work of the maids, who disposed of the female servants. The valet was the personal lackey of the owner or his son, who served them not only in the house, He accompanied the master on walks and travels. These people knew the intimate aspects of the life of their masters and quite often had "influence" on them.
The maids performed various duties, but the main one was the service of the female part of the family. Sometimes they were brought in to serve male half. This often led to love affairs. In poor houses, maids performed the duties of waiters. coachmen, kennels and janitors united under the name of yard servants.
A somewhat isolated position was occupied by wet nurses and nannies, who raised and educated lordly children until the age when caregivers appeared in the house. The woman who fed the master's child with her milk was involuntarily a close person for the hostess. As a rule, she turned into a nanny and often lived in a manor house until her old age.
The educators of children, as a rule, from foreigners, were an intermediate link between masters and servants. In ordinary life, they were invited to the master's table, but they never took part in dinner parties and dinners. In most cases, ordinary servants did not like this category of people. The servants were required to wear neat clothes (as a rule, they were issued by the gentlemen), the obligatory cleanliness of the body, hands and face. Depending on the fashion, the men were either shaved or wore sideburns. Solidity of behavior was required from the male servant, gaiety and good looks from the female servant. The gentlemen did not like to sit in front of them with boring, sick or tear-stained faces. A good servant should be impassive, which was considered a sign of good taste. The female servants wore dark clothes. but moderately coquettish, never naked, had an apron or an elegant white starched apron, and a white starched headdress on her head. By these signs, the maid was easily recognized. Male servants, depending on the custom in the house, could wear liveries or tailcoats. At the beginning of the 20th century, waiters began to wear tuxedos. Livery - clothing of a special, sometimes rather pretentious cut for a given house, it was dressed according to a single pattern and represented something like 438 forms. The dress coat of these people differed from the master's in that it always had a black waistcoat and a black bow tie. The footman-waiter had in his hand a rather large white napkin. The desire to serve the masters and thereby seek various kinds of handouts (tips) led to the fact that people of these professions gradually acquired a peculiar posture, gait and gestures that betrayed their profession. In these actions and movements, the humiliation of a person was manifested.
In the behavior of the maid, modesty and speed of service were valued. If the footman was old or held the post of butler, then some slowness and importance in behavior were assessed as the solidity of the house. This characteristic of serving people is typical not only for Russia, but also for Western Europe. When a cook was called into the rooms to the gentlemen, he came in professional clothes. Traveling coachmen and lackeys had the form adopted in the house. She always matched the style of the departure. The team could be Russian, French or English. The dress of the coachmen and lackeys was in accordance with this style, so demanded a good tone.
The duties of the servants included cleaning the premises, furniture and utensils, cleaning the gentlemen's suits and shoes, cooking, preparing the table. Servants helped dress and undress their masters. They carried out a variety of orders; it was they who created the opportunity for the masters to lead an idle life. In post-serf times, good manners demanded that the master pay for any service rendered to him by a servant from another family or by an outsider, if this person was lower in the social ladder. So, for example, when leaving, the guest gave the maid and footman money in his hand, after they helped him get dressed. Tips were also given to the doorman who opened the door and to the footman who helped him into the carriage. It is worth noting that when paying with a doctor, they imperceptibly handed him the amount due for a visit during a handshake, instead of openly handing over the money. Payment for the services of solicitors, trustees, notaries, actors, artists, builders wore an open form. Apparently, this happened because the amount paid to people in these professions was quite substantial and occurred mainly at the end of the case, while most doctors received for each visit to the patient and the amount was insignificant.
Ex. No. 362. Master and maid (footman). Etude.
Construction - ranks. One male - gentlemen, the second female - servants. The gentlemen are dressed in overcoats, top hats, mufflers, gloves and canes. Execution technique. The master enters and with a gesture of his right hand (with a cane) says to the servant:
"Report." The maid makes a curtsey, as if to say: "I obey" - and quickly leaves. She appears and says (small bow): "You are asked." The gentleman, passing by the maid, gives her the cane, taking a few more steps, taking off the top hat, bows to the mistress of the house, then passes the top hat to the maid, takes off his coat - passes it to the maid, then the scarf. Then he takes off his gloves, throws them into the top hat and approaches actions of the maid (footman): she takes or catches a cane, puts it to her left under her arm, then, taking the p.ch-lindr with her right hand, puts it on her left side, pressing it with her left elbow, then helps the visitor to take off his coat. She takes this with her right hand by the right hand of the half of his coat near the collar, and with her left hand by the bottom of the left sleeve. This position allows you to conveniently remove the coat from the person's shoulders. The coat is placed on the forearm of the left hand. Then she takes out the guest’s cylinder from under her elbow with her right hand and, holding it out, holds it with the crown down - this is an invitation to give the gloves; having taken off the gloves, he throws them into the cylinder, throws the removed muffler there. It is possible that the guest first removes the muffler, then, taking the muffler with her right: with her hand, the maid hangs it on her shoulder, and then puts the top hat under her gloves.Having received the guest's outer clothing, the maid makes a curtsey and quickly takes everything - into the hallway.
Methodical instructions. This etude requires the acting dexterity of the actor-servant and the tempo-rhythm and physical harmony of both partners. Second study. the same plan consists in the reverse action, when the servant brings the top-dress and helps the guest to get dressed. Naturally, performers should play both roles in the lesson.
The theme of servants in the 19th century is truly inexhaustible; it is not possible to cover it in one article. But don't eat so bite :)
So, the story about the servants is dedicated to Wodehouse fans.
Servants in the 19th Century
In the 19th century, the middle class was already wealthy enough to hire servants. The servant was a symbol of well-being, she freed the mistress of the house from cleaning or cooking, allowing her to lead a lifestyle worthy of a lady. It was customary to hire at least one maid - so at the end of the 19th century, even the poorest families hired a "step girl" who cleaned the steps and swept the porch on Saturday mornings, thus catching the eyes of passers-by and neighbors. Doctors, lawyers, engineers and other professionals kept at least 3 servants, but in rich aristocratic houses there were dozens of servants. The number of servants, their appearance and manners, signaled the status of their masters.
(c) D. Barry, "Peter Pan"
Main classes of servants
Butler(butler) - responsible for the order in the house. He has almost no responsibilities associated with physical labor, he is above it. Usually the butler looks after the male servants and polishes the silver. In Something New, Wodehouse describes the butler as follows:
Butlers as a class seem to grow less and less like anything human in proportion to the magnificence of their surroundings. There is a type of butler employed in the relatively modest homes of small country gentlemen who is practically a man and a brother; who hobnobs with the local tradesmen, sings a good comic song at the village inn, and in times of crisis will even turn to and work the pump when the water supply suddenly fails.
The greater the house the more does the butler diverge from this type. Blandings Castle was one of the more important of England's show places, and Beach accordingly had acquired a dignified inertia that almost qualified him for inclusion in the vegetable kingdom. He moved--when he moved at all--slowly. He distilled speech with the air of one measuring out drops of some precious drug.
Housekeeper(housekeeper) - Responds to bedrooms and servants' quarters. Supervises the cleaning, looks after the pantry, and also monitors the behavior of the maids in order to prevent debauchery on their part.
Chef(chef) - in rich houses, often a Frenchman takes very expensive for his services. Often in a state of cold war with the housekeeper.
Valet(valet) - the personal servant of the owner of the house. She takes care of his clothes, prepares his luggage for the trip, loads his guns, serves golf clubs, drives away angry swans from him, breaks his engagements, saves him from evil aunts and generally teaches the mind to reason.
Personal maid/maid(lady "s maid) - helps the hostess comb her hair and dress, prepares a bath, looks after her jewelry and accompanies the hostess during visits.
Lackey(footman) - helps bring things into the house, brings tea or newspapers, accompanies the hostess during shopping trips and wears her purchases. Dressed in livery, he can serve at the table and give solemnity to the moment with his appearance.
Maids(housemaids) - they sweep the yard (at dawn, while the gentlemen are sleeping), they clean the rooms (when the gentlemen are having dinner).
As in society as a whole, the "world under the stairs" had its own hierarchy. At the highest level were teachers and governesses, who, however, were rarely ranked as servants. Then came the senior servants, led by the butler, and so on down. The very same Wodehouse describes this hierarchy very interestingly. In this passage, he talks about the order of eating.
Kitchen maids and scullery maids eat in the kitchen. Chauffeurs, footmen, under-butler, pantry boys, hall boy, odd man and steward "s-room footman take their meals in the servants" hall, waited on by the hall boy. The stillroom maids have breakfast and tea in the stillroom, and dinner and supper in the hall. The housemaids and nursery maids have breakfast and tea in the housemaid's sitting-room, and dinner and supper in the hall. The head housemaid ranks next to the head stillroom maid. The laundry maids have a place of their own near the laundry, and the head laundry maid ranks above the head housemaid. The chef has his meals in a room of his own near the kitchen.
Jeeves played by Stephen Fry.
Children with a nanny
Henry Morland, A Lady's Maid Soaping Linen, OK. 1765-82. Of course, the era is by no means Victorian, but it is simply a pity to miss such a charming picture.
The washerwomen came for water.
A maid in the kitchen of a rural cottage. Judging by the photo, this is still a very young girl. However, at that time, 10-year-old children were sometimes hired to work, often from orphanages (like Oliver Twist)
Hiring, Paying and Position of Servants
In 1777, each employer had to pay a tax of 1 guinea per male servant - in this way the government hoped to cover the costs of the war with the North American colonies. Although this rather high tax was only abolished in 1937, servants continued to be hired. The servants could be hired in several ways. For centuries, there were special fairs (statute or hiring fair), which gathered workers looking for a place. They brought with them some object denoting their profession - for example, roofers held straw in their hands. To secure an employment contract, all that was required was a handshake and a small upfront payment (this advance was called a fastening penny). It is interesting to note that it was at such a fair that Mor from Pratchett's book of the same name became Death's apprentice.
The fair went something like this: people looking for work,
broken lines lined up in the middle of the square. Many of them are attached to
hats are small symbols showing the world what kind of work they know
sense. The shepherds wore shreds of sheep's wool, the carters tucked
a strand of a horse's mane, interior decorators - a strip
intricate Hessian wallpapers, and so on and so forth. Boys
wishing to become apprentices crowded like a bunch of timid sheep into
in the middle of this human whirlpool.
- You just go and stand there. And then someone comes up and
offers to take you on as an apprentice,” Lezek said in a voice that
managed to banish notes of some uncertainty. - If he likes your look,
Certainly.
- How do they do it? Mor asked. - That is, how they look
determine whether you qualify or not?
“Well…” Lezek paused. Regarding this part of the Hamesh program,
gave him an explanation. I had to strain and scrape through the bottom of the internal
warehouse of knowledge in the field of the market. Unfortunately, the warehouse contained very
limited and highly specific information on the sale of livestock wholesale and in
retail. Realizing the insufficiency and incomplete, shall we say, relevance of these
information, but having nothing else at his disposal, he finally
made up his mind:
“I think they count your teeth and all that. Make sure you don't
wheezing and that your legs are all right. If I were you, I wouldn't
mention a love of reading. This is disturbing.(c) Pratchett, "Mor"
In addition, a servant could be found through a labor exchange or a special employment agency. In their early days, such agencies printed lists of servants, but this practice declined as newspaper circulation increased. These agencies were often infamous because they could take money from the candidate and then not arrange a single interview with a potential employer.
Among the servants, there was also their own "word of mouth" - meeting during the day, servants from different houses could exchange information and help each other find a new place.
To get a good place, you needed impeccable recommendations from the previous owners. However, not every master could hire a good servant, because the employer also needed some kind of recommendation. Since the favorite occupation of the servants was washing the bones of the masters, the notoriety of greedy employers spread quite quickly. Servants also had blacklists, and woe to the master who got on it! In the Jeeves and Wooster series, Wodehouse often mentions a similar list compiled by members of the Junior Ganymede Club.
“It's the Curzon Street valet club, and I've been a member of it for quite some time. I have no doubt that the servant of a gentleman who occupies such a prominent position in society as Mr. Spode is also a member of it and, of course, told the secretary a lot of information about
its owner, which are listed in the club book.
-- As you said?
-- According to the eleventh paragraph of the statute of the institution, each entering
the club is obliged to reveal to the club everything that he knows about his owner. Of these
information is compiled fascinating reading Moreover, the book encourages
reflections of those members of the club who conceived to go into the service of the gentlemen,
whose reputation can not be called impeccable.
A thought struck me, and I shuddered. Almost jumped up.
- What happened when you joined?
- Excuse me, sir?
"Did you tell them all about me?"
“Yes, of course, sir.
-- As everybody?! Even the case when I ran away from Stoker's yacht and I
did you have to smear the face with shoe polish to disguise it?
-- Yes, sir.
-- And about that evening when I came home after Pongo's birthday
Twistleton and mistook a floor lamp for a burglar?
-- Yes, sir. On rainy evenings, club members enjoy reading
similar stories.
“Oh, how about with pleasure?” (With) Wodehouse, Wooster family honor
A servant could be fired by giving him a month's notice of dismissal or by paying him a monthly salary. However, in the event of a serious incident - say, the theft of silverware - the owner could dismiss the servant without paying a monthly salary. Unfortunately, this practice was accompanied by frequent abuses, because it was the owner who determined the severity of the violation. In turn, the servant could not leave the place without prior notice of departure.
In the middle of the 19th century, a mid-level maid received an average of £6-8 a year, plus extra money for tea, sugar and beer. The maid who served directly to the mistress (lady's maid) received 12-15 pounds a year plus money for additional expenses, a livery footman - 15-15 pounds a year, a valet - 25-50 pounds a year. In addition, servants traditionally received a cash gift at Christmas.In addition to payments from employers, servants also received tips from guests.Tips were distributed at the departure of a guest: all the servants lined up in two rows near the door, and the guest handed out tips depending on the services received or on his social status (i.e. generous tips testified to his well-being).In some houses, only male servants received tips For poor people, tipping was a nightmare in reality, so they could decline the invitation, for fear of appearing poor.After all, if the servant received too stingy tips, then the next time he visited the greedy guest, he could easily give him a dolce vita - for example, ignore or twist all orders guest.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, servants were not entitled to days off. It was believed that when entering the service, a person understood that from now on every minute of his time belongs to the owners. It was also considered indecent if relatives or friends came to visit the servants - and especially friends of the opposite sex! But in the 19th century, masters began to allow servants to receive relatives from time to time or give them days off. And Queen Victoria even gave an annual ball for palace servants at Balmoral Castle.
By setting aside savings, servants from wealthy households could accumulate a significant amount, especially if their employers remembered to mention them in their wills. After retirement, former servants could go into trade or open a tavern. Also, servants who lived in the house for many decades could live out their lives with the owners - this happened especially often with nannies.
The position of the servants was ambivalent. On the one hand, they were part of the family, they knew all the secrets, but they were forbidden to gossip. An interesting example of this attitude towards servants is Bekassin, the heroine of comics for Semaine de Suzzette. A maid from Brittany, naive but devoted, she was drawn without a mouth and ears - so that she could not eavesdrop on the master's conversations and retell them to her girlfriends. Initially, the identity of the servant, his sexuality, as it were denied. For example, there was a custom when the owners gave the maid a new name. For example, Mall Flanders, the heroine novel of the same name Defoe, the owners called "Miss Betty" (and Miss Betty, of course, gave the owners a light). Charlotte Bronte also mentions the collective name of the maids - "abigails"
(c) Charlotte Brontë, "Jane Eyre"
With names, things were generally interesting. As I understand it, the higher-ranking servants, such as the butler or personal maid, were referred to exclusively by their surnames. A striking example we find such treatment again in Wodehouse's books, where Bertie Wooster calls his valet "Jeeves," and only in The Tie That Binds do we recognize the name of Jeeves - Reginald. Wodehouse also writes that in conversations between servants, the footman often spoke of his master familiarly, calling him by name - for example, Freddie or Percy. At the same time, the rest of the servants called the said gentleman by his title - Lord such and such or Earl such and such. Although in some cases the butler could pull the speaker up if he thought that he was "forgetting" in his familiarity.
The servants could not have a personal, family or sexual life. The maids were often unmarried and without children. If the maid happened to become pregnant, she had to take care of the consequences herself. The percentage of infanticide among the maids was very high. If the father of the child was the owner of the house, then the maid had to remain silent. For example, according to persistent rumors, Helen Demuth, the housekeeper in the family of Karl Marx, gave birth to a son from him and kept silent about it all her life.
The beginning of the 20th century is a very troubled time. The lower classes, as Comrade Lenin later wrote, could no longer, while the upper classes did not want to. They did not want, in particular, to notice living people in their servants, in their household staff. The former serfs were often treated like livestock, without pity, without any sympathy.
Has anyone ever heard that at least one native Muscovite or Petersburger recalled that his ancestors ended up in pre-revolutionary capitals as coachmen, sex workers, laundresses or maids? Hardly, because it's probably unpleasant to tell you that your grandparents were covered by the Cook's Children Circular of 1887. And at the beginning of the twentieth century, the capital's parents of cook's children lived like this.
In the Ogonyok magazine No. 47 dated November 23, 1908, Mrs. Severova (literary pseudonym of Natalia Nordman, unmarried wife of Ilya Repin) was published about the life of a domestic servant in Russian Empire beginning of the 20th century.
“Recently,” recalls Ms. Severova, “a young girl came to me for hire.
Why are you without a place? I asked sternly.
- I just got back from the hospital! The month lay.
- From the hospital? What diseases were you treated for?
- Yes, and the disease was not special - only the legs were swollen and the whole back was broken. This, then, from the stairs, the gentlemen lived on the 5th floor. Also heads spinning, and knocks down, and knocks down, it happened. The janitor took me straight from the place to the hospital and took me. The doctor said, severe overwork!
- Why are you there stones, or something, tossing?
She was embarrassed for a long time, but finally I managed to find out exactly how she spent the day in the last place. Get up at 6. “There is no alarm clock, so you wake up every minute from 4 o’clock, you are afraid to oversleep.” A hot breakfast should be in time by 8 o'clock, two cadets with them to the corps. “You chop cue balls, but you peck with your nose. You will put the samovar, they also need to clean their clothes and boots. The cadets will leave, to attend the service of the master, also put on the samovar, clean the boots, clean the clothes, run to the corner for hot rolls and a newspaper.
“The master, the lady and three young ladies will leave to celebrate - boots, galoshes, clean the dress, behind some hems, believe me, you stand for an hour, dust, even sand on your teeth; at twelve o'clock to make them coffee - you carry it to the beds. In the meantime, clean the rooms, fill the lamps, smooth out something. By two o'clock breakfast is hot, run to the shop, put soup for dinner.
They just have breakfast, the cadets go home, and even with their comrades they knock, they ask for food, tea, they send for cigarettes, only the cadets are full, the master goes, he asks for fresh tea, and then the guests come up, run for sweet rolls, and then for a lemon, right away - sometimes they don’t say, sometimes I fly off 5 times in a row, for which my chest, it used to be, ache not to breathe.
Here, look, the sixth hour. So you gasp, cook dinner, cover. The lady scolds why she was late. At dinner, how many times they will send down to the shop - either cigarettes, or seltzer, or beer. After dinner, there is a mountain of dishes in the kitchen, and here put the samovar, or someone will ask for coffee, and sometimes the guests will sit down to play cards, prepare a snack. By 12 o’clock you don’t hear your feet, you hit the stove, just fall asleep - a call, one young lady returned home, just fall asleep - a cadet from the ball, and so all night, and get up at six - cue balls to chop.
“Crossing over 8-10 p. the threshold of our house, they become our property, their day and night belong to us; sleep, food, amount of work - it all depends on us."
“After listening to this story,” writes Ms. Severova, “I realized that this young girl was too zealous about her duties, which lasted 20 hours a day, or she was too soft-spoken and did not know how to be rude and snarl.
Having grown up in the village, in the same hut with calves and chickens, a young girl comes to Petersburg and is hired by one servant to the masters. The dark kitchen next to the drainpipes is the scene of her life. Here she sleeps, combs her hair at the same table where she cooks, cleans skirts and boots on it, refills the lamps.
“Domestic servants are counted in tens, hundreds of thousands, and meanwhile the law has not yet done anything for them. One can really say that the law is not written about her.
“Our back stairs and back yards inspire disgust, and it seems to me that the uncleanliness and carelessness of the servants (“you run, you run, there is no time to sew on buttons for yourself”) are in most cases forced shortcomings.
On an empty stomach, serve delicious dishes with your own hands all your life, inhale their aroma, be present while they are “eaten by the gentlemen”, savored and praised (“they eat under escort, they cannot swallow without us”), well, how can you not try to steal a piece at least later , do not lick the plate with your tongue, do not put candy in your pocket, do not take a sip from the neck of wine.
When we order, our young maid should serve our husbands and sons to wash, bring tea to their bed, make their beds, help them get dressed. Often the servant is left with them all alone in the apartment, and at night, upon their return from drinking, takes off their boots and puts them to bed. She must do all this, but woe to her if we meet her with a fireman on the street. And woe to her even more if she announces to us about the free behavior of our son or husband.
“It is known that the domestic servants of the capital are deeply and almost completely depraved. Female, for the most part unmarried youth, who arrive in droves from the villages and enter the service of the St. And a lackey, and ending with a dandy soldier of the guards, a commanding janitor, etc. How could a vestal tempered in chastity resist such a continuous and heterogeneous temptation from all sides! It can be positively said, therefore, that the largest part of the female servants in St. Petersburg (in complexity, there are about 60 tons of them) are entirely prostitutes, from the point of view of behavior ”(V. Mikhnevich,“ Historical Sketches of Russian Life ”, St. Petersburg, 1886 ).
Ms. Severova ends her reasoning with a prophecy: “... 50 years ago, servants were called “domestic bastards”, “smerds” and were also called that in official papers. The current name "people" is also becoming obsolete, and in 20 years it will seem wild and impossible. “If we are ‘humans’, then who are you?” one young maid asked me, looking expressively into my eyes.
Mrs. Severova was a little mistaken - not in 20, but in 9 years, a revolution will happen, when the lower classes, who do not want to live in the old way, begin mass sawing of the upper classes. And then the young maids will look into the eyes of their ladies even more expressively ...
50 thousand euros per year is the average wage a modern butler with a vocational certificate. Housing, clothing and food are most often provided free of charge. Despite the very comfortable working conditions, modern servants from time to time neglect their duties or even harm the interests of their masters. However, such troubles happened all the time.
"A glutton, a drunkard and a notorious liar"
One of the benefits of wealth is that wealthy man relieved of having to do unpleasant household chores. In addition, the presence of servants has always distinguished a rich house from a not very rich one, so hiring a servant is still a matter of prestige. At the same time, when inviting a nanny, housekeeper or gardener to work, the employer lets a complete stranger into the house. Often servants become a source of problems for their masters, and they regret that they contacted wage labor at all. So it is now, and so it was in the old days. In ancient times, the role of domestic servants was usually performed by slaves, and the owners had every reason not to trust such workers too much. The Romans even had a proverb "How many slaves are in the house, so many enemies are in the house", and these were not empty words. In A.D. 61 e. Pedanius Secundus, the prefect of Rome, that is, the head of the city administration, was killed by one of his slaves. The Senate ordered the execution of 400 slaves who were in the house of the prefect at the time of the murder in order to frighten others. And yet the slaves continued to hate their masters, and the rich Romans, surrounded by crowds of ill-wishers, lived like on Vesuvius.
Evert Jan Boxes
Un duo
IN early Middle Ages the feudal lord was served by his squad. The noble lord provided his warriors with a table and a roof over their heads, and they defended the castle from raids, cooked food, looked after horses, hunting dogs, etc. The lord usually dined in the banquet hall along with his archers and horsemen and treated them more like to comrades-in-arms than as servants. Warrior servants were good in combat, but they were clearly not good at sweeping the floor or knocking dust out of tapestries, so one could not be surprised at the unsanitary conditions that prevailed in medieval castles.
In the late Middle Ages, the life of the feudal lords changed significantly, life in castles acquired a certain sophistication. The servants have also changed. In the houses of noble lords, now mostly young people from poor, but noble families served as servants. Such service was considered a very honorable occupation. Serving in the castle of a duke or count, a young nobleman learned the basics of court etiquette and made useful contacts, which could help in later life.
Servants-warriors also did not go anywhere, because the feudal lords still needed armed guards, although there could no longer be any talk of the former military brotherhood with the masters. Warriors who wore uniform with the coat of arms of their master, they called footmen (Old French laquais - "foot soldier"). The gates of castles were often guarded by Swiss mercenaries, who were called porters, or porters (French portier - "gatekeeper"). Women also worked in castles. They were mostly cooks, laundresses and seamstresses.
Of course, not only wealthy feudal lords kept servants. The 16th-century French poet Clement Moreau had a servant who ended up running away with his money. The frustrated poet left us a detailed portrait of the runaway servant: "A glutton, a drunkard and a notorious liar, a deceiver, a robber, a gambler, a blasphemer, from whom one hundred steps smells like a gallows rope, but, by the way, the most wonderful of mortals." Most of these epithets could well be applied to Moreau himself, who happened to be in prison, dine in taverns and run from the Inquisition, so that servant and master were worthy of each other.
french evolution
In the 17th century, great changes took place in Europe, affecting primarily one of the richest and most cultured countries of the continent - France. An absolute monarchy was established in this country, which meant the end of the former feudal fragmentation. Noble lords no longer needed numerous armed guards, and young nobles were now taught their wits not in the castles of the titled nobility, but in schools. The medieval servant-soldiers and servant-nobles disappeared, and their place was taken by professional servants recruited from the common people. They were still dressed in luxurious uniforms and called lackeys, although they were clearly not fit for war. But they could serve at dinner, clean silverware, stand at attention at the door and perform many small tasks, appearing at the ringing of a bell.
In France XVII century, almost a third of householders kept servants, and about 40% of all persons in the service worked in the homes of the nobility. The maintenance of a servant cost 150-200 livres a year, while the annual income of the average bourgeois was about 500 livres, so that only representatives of the landed aristocracy could have domestic servants. In addition, the subjects of the French king had to pay a tax on each servant. The tax on male servants was higher than the tax on maidservants, and therefore the number of female servants constantly increased. Yet the French could not and did not want to give up male servants. Keeping a footman was prestigious precisely because it was expensive.
A French aristocrat could not appear on the street without a servant or even a whole detachment of dressed-up lackeys. The book on the rules of etiquette of that time said: "It is not good for a noble lord to wander alone along the street, like some bourgeois." IN early XVIII century, a German traveler noted that the French nobles "constantly boast to each other about the number of their servants, as well as how much their dress or their hairstyle cost them." Wealthy aristocrats hired so many servants that they had to invent new specialties for them. In addition to the usual gardeners, coachmen, grooms and cooks, rocking-chair bearers, drinkers, etc. appeared. Some gentlemen even hired special walkers who ran in front of their carriage at the speed of a horse.
However, some shortcomings of the French system were also conspicuous. The English traveler Philip Tiknes wrote: "The Frenchman always takes care of himself and will never appear in public in bad or unclean clothes, but his dwelling is often covered with a layer of dust and dirt." In other words, the French servants did not overwork. Despite the abundance of lackey specialties, the duties among the servants were not clearly distributed. There were times when the valets, officially responsible for the master's wardrobe, had to prepare dinner, and the gardener was sent to deliver a letter. The butler was supposed to supervise the servants, but his authority in the French house is not so high. As a result, no one was responsible for anything, and sometimes there was no one to maintain discipline. Many gentlemen suffered much from the promiscuity of their own servants. In the memoirs of French nobles of the 18th century, drunken coachmen who overturned the carriage were often mentioned. The coachmen, like the butlers in charge of the wine cellars, had a reputation for being alcoholics, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
The vices of the French servants were easily explained: the servants imitated the habits of their masters. Drunkenness, prodigality and a tendency to violence were inherent in the French nobility, and the servants passionately wanted to resemble titled persons in everything. The gentlemen themselves taught their lackeys to use their fists at the first opportunity and specially hired tall and strong young men. Fights between servants of different masters happened quite often. They fought mainly for the right of way for the master's crew, although the reasons for the collision could be very different. So, on January 8, 1745, the servants of Madame de Beaufremont and the Duke de Fleury fought at the Comedie Italia theater. They fought over a parking space for the carriage. On March 17 of the same year, in the same place and on the same occasion, the servants of Monsieur de Villeprot and the Comtesse de la Marck fought. Knowing the stern disposition of the aristocracy and its lackeys, the Parisian police from time to time forbade the arming of servants. Persons in the service were forbidden to carry swords, sticks, rods, canes, but lackey violence did not decrease.
The French aristocrats were extremely proud of their privileged position, and the servants strove to keep up with them in terms of pomposity and swagger. The French writer of the 18th century Pierre-Jean Baptiste Nougaret wrote: "It is well known that lackeys, when they get together, call each other by the names of their masters. In the tavern of Champagne they call "Duke de ...", Bourgignon is called "Count de ...", and Picard - "Marquis de ...". At the same time, the "dukes" and "counts" from the human area behaved rather provocatively. According to contemporaries, lackeys could easily beat one of the townspeople or make a brawl in a tavern. Once a wealthy English traveler asked the servant of the Duke of Orleans about the reasons for such behavior and received a detailed answer: “In relation to you, your grace, and to people of your position, I always respect myself. But when I meet all these vile people, I behave with all dignity befitting my master the duke." In general, the servants identified themselves with the master they served, and openly despised the common people, from which they themselves came.
On the whole, lackey swagger was in the hands of the masters, because it ensured the loyalty of the servants. However, this loyalty was not synonymous with honesty. Many, if not most, servants stole from their masters. So, a young lackey from Toulouse, Guillaume Fournier, regularly stole watches from the masters, and they, resigned to the inevitable, bought new ones every time. Many servants stole out of a sense of justice. So, the maid Marie Pradel, having become pregnant from the owner, stole from him exactly as much money as was needed in order to get married. Came across among the servants and professional thieves on trust. Someone Pierre Dubedat was hired as a servant only to rob a house and disappear with booty. Dubeda managed to rob about fifty houses before he was exposed.
And yet the French servants, for all their licentiousness, were faithful to their masters and sometimes could not even imagine life without them. So, the Marquis de Fimarson regularly beat his servant Le Franc, but he stoically endured bullying and served his master faithfully for ten years. And even when the guillotine knife was raised over the French aristocracy, many servants remained faithful to their masters. A servant of the Marquis de Barthelemy named Le Tellier voluntarily went to prison with his master, and later went up to the scaffold with him.
Gentlemen with gentlemen
The French nobility never really recovered from the blow dealt by the revolution. During the 19th century, France gradually lost its status as a trendsetter for the aristocracy, while cultural influence England is constantly growing. Foreigners who have visited the British Isles are usually amazed at the well-being of English houses. In particular, they were surprised by the English servants. The American writer Nathaniel Willis wrote: “The arrival in an English house has an absolutely magical effect on a foreigner. Here you are met without any fuss, natural under similar circumstances in any other country. golden dream.
Glory English servants, thundering throughout Europe, was quite understandable. The fact is that the English servants imitated their masters just as diligently as their French counterparts. The Victorian society was characterized by an emphasized respect for hierarchy, and a social pyramid of its own arose in the human society. The English servants were diligent and disciplined, because the older servants watched the younger ones, and all together they watched each other.
In an English wealthy house, there were usually from a few dozen to several hundred servants. The Duke of Westminster and the Duke of Portland, for example, kept about 300 servants each. The maintenance of such a state was very expensive. The Earl of Ashburnham spent £2,742 annually on the upkeep of his houses, of which £769 went to pay the salaries of the servants, £200 to buy beer for the servants, and £138 to purchase liveries and other service uniforms. However, the cost of liveries was then partially reimbursed. After a year of use, a worn livery was usually sold to resellers who traded with the Continent. Poor German officials were happy to buy sewing and braids from the footman's shoulder in order to decorate their uniforms with them.
In England, as in France, there was a servant tax, and the Earl of Ashburnham was forced to pay £42 each year for his male servants and £22 for his maids. By comparison, a country vicar earned about £150 a year, and a farmer about £130. Servants received free housing, clothing and food, and earned depending on their status. The manager of the estate could receive up to £200, the same amount could ask for a French cook, necessary in any aristocratic house. A butler usually earned about £60 a year, and a laundress or undermaid - no more than £10. But social inequality in the world of servants had deeper roots than a simple difference in income.
The entire home staff was clearly divided into two categories. Senior servants included the butler, housekeeper, chef, valet and companion. The status of the manager was even higher, but he had little contact with the servants and was mainly engaged in the general economic management of the estate. The real rulers of the servant world were the butler and the housekeeper. The butler was in charge of the wine cellar and supervised the male servants. But his main task, as the Duchess of Marlborough aptly noted, was to ensure that "everyone knew his place, including himself." The Duchess wrote about her butler: "His power over the male part of the servants was absolute. Only two electricians were considered equal to him, who at that time were treated with great respect, as people of science."
The housekeeper reigned over the female part of the servants. However, some of them managed to keep even healthy lackeys in a tight rein. In 1854, an Englishman described a typical housekeeper: "She is a middle-aged woman who knows her business and is always on the alert. Her vigilance is boundless, as is her tyranny."
If the butler and housekeeper served the house rather than the person, then the valet was always the personal servant of one of the gentlemen. The valet not only looked after the wardrobe and helped the gentleman get dressed. He accompanied his master everywhere and everywhere and was usually aware of all his affairs. The valet was called a gentleman under a gentleman, and there was every reason for this. This servant dressed like a gentleman, wore fashionable hair, often owned foreign languages and was well-read to carry on small talk if needed. Suffice it to say that the famous Jeeves, created by Pelham Wodehouse, was exactly the valet. The companion was the female counterpart of the valet and waited on the lady.
Junior servants were divided into many categories, and each of them had his own narrow specialization. Among the footmen stood out the senior footman, who was always called James, regardless of what he was called at birth. He walked his owner's beloved dog, cooked breakfast and polished shoes. In some houses, James also had to scrub silver coins from dirt in order to destroy a possible infection. The rest of the footmen reported to James. There were also grooms, whose duties included opening and closing curtains, lighting candles and pouring ink into the inkwell, as well as coachmen, gardeners, porters, messengers and other narrow specialists. The servants were also divided into several categories. The maids cleaned the rooms, the cleaners washed the floors, the dishwashers cleaned the dishes, and so on.
There was a veritable gulf between the various categories of servants. Senior servants even dined in a special room, separated from the common dining room, and there was no question of doing the work of one of the junior servants. At times, the service specialization of English servants reached the point of complete absurdity. In the 1870s, a young American, Richard Dane, was visiting Earl Spencer in England. One day he had to watch a picture that shocked him: Earl Spencer and Lord Bruce armed with paint brushes and buckets of paint to mark the tennis field. There were many servants around, but none of them lifted a finger to help the gentlemen. The fact was that the marking was the work of a handyman, and there was no such in the estate at that moment. Deina wrote: "Neither the gardener, nor the footman, nor the valets, nor the shoe shiners, nor even the maids, were going to help. Our hosts knew this too well and therefore did not even ask them."
Perhaps the main vice of Victorian society was boundless and all-pervasive snobbery, and the servants, as always and everywhere, diligently copied their masters. Many English families, for example, in an effort to convince others of their wealth, hired more servants than they could afford. We have heard the story of the maid Rosa Allen, who in the 1830s got a job in one such family: “I never saw a good fireplace in this house, and it was always cold in winter, and the bread was so stale was to dip in water before taking a bite. Candles, of course, also saved as much as they could. But this family contained a lackey, a coachman, a cook, a governess, a maid and several servants of the lower categories.
Servants fully absorbed the snobbery of their masters. One coachman, for example, categorically refused to be hired by a lady who said that he would have to give way to other carriages if it was safer to do so. The coachman declared that he was accustomed to yield only to the carriages of the princes of the blood, and proudly retired.
If in rich houses the system based on a complex hierarchy of servants worked like a clock, then in middle-class houses it rather interfered. The 19th-century writer Mary Sherwood wrote a story about a wealthy farmer who hired several servants but was extremely dissatisfied with the result: "Eight in the morning and no breakfast! Wet laundry is hung all over the kitchen! Coal dust all over the living room! Nothing is in its place, and not a single clean corner!" The unfortunate farmer's servants behaved as if they were in the house of a rich lord, and disdained work that was not characteristic of their specialty.
work at home
World War I destroyed old world, although at first not everyone understood this. In the period between the world wars, the British aristocracy and middle class complained bitterly that it had become completely impossible to hire a servant. In fact, the number of servants in England decreased slightly. If in 1911 there were 1.3 million servants in the service, then in 1921 - 1.2 million, which is not so noticeable for a country that survived world war. But it was not the quantity, but the quality. In England, servants of the old school suddenly disappeared, which, in fact, were the color of the famous English servants.
Society perceived the new situation very painfully. It got to the point that the government of Lloyd George created a special commission to study the problem, which came to disappointing conclusions: “The service in the house is now less and less popular among girls, and their parents are less and less willing to allow them to be hired for such work .. "It is undeniable that workers consider domestic workers to be members of a lower social group... The working time of a servant is unlimited." It was noted that the habit of addressing servants by their first names rather than their last names is experienced as a humiliation, and the liveries and uniforms of the maids are now perceived as a shameful stigma of failure. In other words, the work of a servant ceased to be prestigious, and young people were not eager to be hired even in very good houses.
A similar situation exists in other European countries. People who have been in the trenches have had time to feel the feeling dignity, and now nothing could make them put on a livery or say "Dinner is served." The domestic service was now hired mainly by those who had no other choice. Sometimes people who belonged in prison or in a mental hospital got into houses. So, in 1933, the whole of France was shocked by the story of the sisters Christina and Leia Papin, who killed their mistresses - Madame Lancelin and her daughter. A quarrel broke out between Madame Lancelin and her maids, and the mentally unbalanced Christine Papin promised to rip out her mistress's eyes. No sooner said than done. The sisters attacked their mistress and her daughter, beat them to death with a hammer and a frying pan, after which they tore out the eyes of their victims with their fingers. Such cases, of course, were rare, and yet the Europeans were less and less willing to let complete strangers into their homes.
After the Second World War, the middle class quickly began to refuse servants. On the one hand, the rapid development of industry created new jobs. Work at the enterprise was better paid and was much more prestigious than the work of servants. It was now possible to attract a servant only with a high salary, which was beyond the means of a representative of the middle class. On the other hand, firmly entered into life Appliances, and housewives were able to easily do the work that previously required laundresses, dishwashers and polishers, so that the absence of servants was no longer perceived as an irreparable loss.
The old aristocracy also gradually abandoned the servants. Falling income from land rent and rising property taxes forced many to abandon huge country houses, and in a city apartment you don’t need many servants. The number of servants began to be reduced even by those who could afford not to. For example, Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980s ordered the demolition of the servants' house on her Sandringham House estate because most of The rooms in this house were usually empty.
The aristocracy gradually left the stage, and the rich of the new formation took its place. Financiers, big managers, rock stars, football celebrities and other heroes of modern times bought castles and mansions, collected car collections, arranged banquets for hundreds of people, in a word, led a life that would have been unthinkable without a significant staff of servants. Demand created supply. In the second half of the 20th century, many schools and courses for future servants were opened in Europe and America, such as the International Academy of Butlers, located in the Netherlands. There is even an International Guild of Professional Butlers that helps future servants find an employer. Chauffeurs and broad-shouldered guards, who replaced coachmen and footmen in livery, also remain in demand.
The old rule has remained unchanged: servants still imitate their masters and adopt from them all the best and all the worst. In an era when class barriers are considered broken, and money is recognized as the only measure of success, one should not be surprised that the most faithful of the servants begin to get into the master's pocket. In 1998, British Queen's footman Andrew Grimston, who earned £13,000 a year, was caught stealing gin. The servant, who served at Buckingham Palace for 12 years, regularly decant the royal gin into a soda bottle, for which he was fired. But the butler of Princess Diana Paul Burrell worked big. In 1997-1998, he stole 328 items of varying value that belonged to Lady Di, Prince Charles and Prince William.
Moreover, the leaders of the third world countries, who have a habit of keeping suitcases with cash at home, are not immune from theft. In January 2009, a Paraguayan couple who served in the home of Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo escaped with 4 billion African francs (about €6 million) and a whole pile of jewelry.
Nowadays, owners are increasingly forced to monitor housekeepers, nurses, cooks and other service personnel using CCTV cameras. This is understandable, given the increased cases of child abuse by babysitters and ordinary theft. It seems that the trusting relationships that existed between masters and servants in previous centuries are no longer out of the question. But if the old Roman proverb "How many slaves are in the house, so many enemies are in the house" becomes relevant again, it means that the servants have learned not the best features of their employers.
(C) Kirill Novikov, Kommersant
