Faktrum publishes a fascinating article on "servant emancipation".
I have never 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 - it’s unpleasant to say that your grandparents fell under the “Circular about cook’s children” 1887 of the year. And at the beginning of the twentieth century, the capital's parents of cook's children lived like this.
Photo source: Pikabu.ru
In the magazine Ogonyok, No. 47 of 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 there were no special illnesses - only the legs were swollen and the whole back was broken, which means from the stairs, the gentlemen lived on the 5th floor. Also heads spinning, and knocks, and knocks happened. The janitor took me straight from the place to the hospital and took me. The doctor said severe overwork!
- Why are you moving stones there?
She was embarrassed for a long time, but at last I managed to find out exactly how she spent the day on 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, 2 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, the gentleman will go to the service to “celebrate”, also put a samovar, boots, clean clothes, for hot rolls, and run to the corner for 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 in 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 they go home with their comrades, 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 not to speak, 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 then put a samovar, or even coffee, whoever asks, 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 then 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, fills the lamps.
“Domestic servants are counted in tens, hundreds of thousands, and meanwhile the law has not yet done anything for them. You can really say - the law is not written about her.
“Our black staircases and backyards 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 with your own hands all your life delicious dishes, inhale their aroma, be present while the gentlemen “eat” them, savor and praise (“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 pocket, do not take a sip from the neck of the 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. Petersburg "masters" as cooks, maids, laundresses, etc., quickly and irrevocably environment, and countless, unceremonious womanizers, starting with a “master” and a lackey, and ending with a dandy soldier of the guards, a powerful janitor, etc. Would 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 total, there are about 60 tons of them) are entirely prostitutes, in terms of behavior. (V. Mikhnevich, "Historical Etudes 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 ‘people’, 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 ...
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 middle class was already rich 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 obtain a good place required impeccable recommendations from 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 Bekassin, the heroine of comics for Semaine de Suzzette, is such an attitude towards the servants. 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 of Defoe's novel of the same name, was called "Miss Betty" by the owners (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.
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.
Some Statistics
In 1891, 1,386,167 women and 58,527 men were in the service. Of these, 107167 girls and 6890 boys aged 10 to 15 years.
Examples of incomes at which servants could be afforded:
1890s - Primary teacher's assistant - less than £200 a year. Maid - 10 - 12 pounds per year.
1890s - Bank manager - £600 a year. Maid (12 - 16 pounds a year), cook (16 - 20 pounds a year), a boy who came daily to clean knives, shoes, bring coal and chop wood (5d a day), a gardener who came once a week (4 shillings 22 pence).
1900 - Lawyer. Cook (£30), maid (£25), housemaid (£14), shoe and knife-shine boy (£25/week). He could also buy 6 shirts for £1 10s, 12 bottles of champagne for £2 8s.
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) - responsible for the bedrooms and servants' rooms. Supervises the cleaning, looks after the pantry, and also monitors the behavior of the maids in order to prevent debauchery on their part.
The chef (chef) - in rich houses is often French and 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. Takes care of his clothes, prepares his luggage for the trip, loads his guns, serves golf clubs, (drives angry swans away 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.
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) - sweep in the yard (at dawn, while the gentlemen are sleeping), 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.
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 a fascinating reading, besides, the book suggests
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?” (c) 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 of Defoe's novel of the same name, was called "Miss Betty" by the owners (and Miss Betty, of course, gave the owners a light). Charlotte Brontë also mentions the maids' collective name, "abigails." With names, things were generally interesting. The servants of a higher rank - like a butler or a personal maid - were called exclusively by their last name. A vivid example of such treatment we find again in the books of Wodehouse, 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 in a familiar way, 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.
A uniform
The Victorians preferred servants to be identifiable by their clothing. Maid uniforms developed in the 19th century have lasted minor changes until the outbreak of World War II. Until the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria, the female servants did not have a uniform as such. The maids had to dress in simple and modest dresses. Since in the 18th century it was customary to give the servants clothes "from the master's shoulder", the maids could flaunt in the worn outfits of their mistress. But the Victorians were far from such liberalism and the servants did not tolerate smart clothes. The lower-ranking maids were forbidden even to think of such excesses as silks, feathers, earrings and flowers, for there was no need to indulge their lustful flesh with such luxury. The target of ridicule was often the maids (lady's maids), who still got the master's outfits and who could spend all their salaries on a fashionable dress. one woman who served as a maid in 1924 recalled that her mistress, seeing the curled hair, was horrified and said that she would think about dismissing the shameless woman.
Of course double standards were obvious. The ladies themselves did not shy away from lace, feathers, or other sinful luxury, but they could reprimand or even fire the maid who bought herself silk stockings! The uniform was another way to show servants their place. However, many maids, in a past life girls from a farm or from an orphanage, would probably feel out of place if they were dressed in silk dresses and seated in a living room with noble guests.
So, what was the uniform of the Victorian servants? Of course, both the uniform and the attitude towards it were different among the female and male servants. When a maid entered the service, in her tin box - an indispensable attribute of a maid - she usually had three dresses: a simple dress made of cotton fabric, which was worn in the morning, black dress with a white cap and apron, which was worn during the day, and an evening dress. Depending on the size of the salary, there could be more dresses. All the dresses were long, because the maid's legs must always be covered - even if the girl washed the floor, she had to cover her ankles.
The very idea of a uniform must have driven the hosts into frenzied delight - after all, now it was impossible to confuse the maid with the young miss. Even on Sundays, during a trip to church, some owners forced the maids to put on caps and aprons. And the traditional Christmas present for the maid was... a raise? No. New detergent to make it easier to scrub the floor? Also no. The traditional gift for the maid was a piece of fabric so that she could sew another uniform dress for herself - with her own efforts and at her own expense! The maids had to pay for their own uniforms, while the male servants received their uniforms at the expense of the masters. The average cost of a maid dress in the 1890s was £3 - i.e. half a year's salary of an underage maid just starting to work. At the same time, when a girl entered the service, she already had to have the necessary uniform with her, and yet she still had to save money for it. Consequently, she had to either pre-work, for example, in a factory in order to save up a sufficient amount, or else rely on the generosity of relatives and friends. In addition to dresses, the maids bought themselves stockings and shoes, and this item of expenditure was just a bottomless well, because due to the incessant running up and down stairs, shoes wore out quickly.
The nanny traditionally wore a white dress and a puffy apron, but did not wear a cap. For walking attire, she wore a gray or dark blue coat and matching hat. When accompanying children for walks, nursemaids (nursemaids) usually wore black straw caps with white strings.
It is interesting to note that although female servants were forbidden to wear silk stockings, male servants were required to do so. During ceremonial receptions, lackeys had to wear silk stockings and powder their hair, because of which they often thinned and fell out. Also, the traditional uniform of footmen included knee-length trousers and a bright frock coat with coattails and buttons, which depicted the family coat of arms, if the family had one. Footmen were required to buy shirts and collars at their own expense, everything else was paid for by the owners. 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.
Servants quarters
The Victorian house was built to accommodate two distinct classes under one roof. The owners lived on the first, second and sometimes third floor. The servants slept in the attic and worked in the basement. However, from the cellar to the attic is a long distance, and the owners would hardly like it if the servants scurried around the house for no good reason. This problem was solved by the presence of two stairs - front and back. So that the owners could call the servants, so to speak, from the bottom up, a bell system was installed in the house, with a cord or button in every room and a panel in the basement, on which you could see which room the call came from. And grief was that maid who gape and did not come to the first call. One can imagine what it was like for the servants to be in an atmosphere of eternal ringing! This situation can only be compared with an office in the middle of the week, when the phone is torn incessantly, customers always need something, and you have only one desire - to slam the damned device against the wall and return it to interesting conversation in ICQ. Alas, the Victorian servants were deprived of such an opportunity.
The staircase has become an integral part of Victorian folklore. Take only expressions Upstairs, Downstairs, Belows Stairs. But for the servants, the ladder was a real instrument of torture. After all, they had to rush up and down it, like the angels from Jacob's dream, and not just rush, but carry heavy buckets of coal or hot water for Bath.
Attics were the traditional residence of servants and ghosts. However, the lower level servants were found in the attic. The valet and maid had rooms, often adjacent to the master bedroom, the coachman and the groom lived in rooms near the stables, and the gardeners and butlers could have small cottages. Looking at such a luxury, the lower-level servants must have thought, "Lucky for some!" Because sleeping in the attic was a dubious pleasure - several maids could sleep in one room, who sometimes had to share a bed. When gas and electricity became widely used in homes, they were rarely taken to the attic, because, in the opinion of 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 rooms themselves did not spoil the residents with special aesthetic delights - gray walls, bare floors, lumpy mattresses, darkened mirrors and cracked shells, as well as furniture in various stages of dying, handed over to the servants by generous owners.
Servants were forbidden to use the same bathrooms and toilets that their masters used. Before the advent of running water and sewerage, maids had to carry buckets of hot water for the master bath. But even when the houses were already equipped with hot and cold water baths, the servants could not use these facilities. The maids still continued to wash in basins and tubs - usually once a week - but for now hot water carried from the basement to the attic, she could easily cool down.
But it's time to get down from the attic and get to know the basement. Here were various office premises, including the heart of any home - the kitchen. The kitchen was vast, with a stone floor and a huge stove. There is a heavy kitchen table, chairs, and also, if the kitchen also served as a human one, several armchairs and a wardrobe with drawers where the maids kept personal belongings. Next to the kitchen was the pantry, a cool room with a brick floor. Butter and perishable food were stored here, and pheasants hung from the ceiling - the maids liked to intimidate each other with stories that pheasants can hang for too long, and when you start carving them, worms crawl up your arms. Also next to the kitchen was a closet for coal, with a pipe going outside - coal was poured into the closet through it, after which the hole was closed. In addition, a laundry room, a wine cellar, etc. could be located in the basement.
While the gentlemen dined in the dining room, the servants dined in the kitchen. Food, of course, depended on the income of the family and on the generosity of the hosts. So in some houses, the dinner for the servants included cold poultry and vegetables, ham, etc. In others, the servants were kept from hand to mouth - this was especially true for children and adolescents, for whom there was no one to intercede.
Labor and rest
For almost the entire year, the working day for the servants began and ended by candlelight, from 5 or 6 in the morning until the whole family went to bed. A particularly hot time 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 hoped to hook up a profitable groom for their daughters. For the servants, it was an ongoing nightmare, because they could only go to bed with the departure of the last guests. And although they went to bed after midnight, they had to wake up at the usual time, early in the morning.
The work of the servants was hard and tedious. After all, they did not have vacuum cleaners at their disposal, washing machines and other joys of life. Moreover, even when these advances appeared in England, the owners did not seek to buy them for their maids. After all, why spend money on a car if a person can do the same job? Servants even had to make their own cleaning products for mopping floors or cleaning pots. Corridors in large estates stretched for almost a mile, and they had to be scraped by hand, kneeling. This work was done by the lowest-ranking maids, who were often girls 10 to 15 years old (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 along the corridor. And, of course, no one warmed the water for them. From constant kneeling, in particular, such a disease as prepatellar bursitis developed - a purulent inflammation of the periarticular mucosal sac. No wonder this disease is called housemaid's knee - the maid's knee.
The duties of the maids who cleaned the rooms (parlourmaids and housemaids) included cleaning the living room, dining room, nursery, etc., cleaning silver, ironing, and much more. Nursemaid (nursemaid) got up at 6 in the morning to light a fireplace in the nursery, make tea for the nurse, then bring the children breakfast, clean the nursery, iron the linen, take the children for a walk, darn their clothes - like her colleagues, she got to bed squeezed like a lemon. In addition to the basic duties - such as cleaning and washing - the servants were also given rather strange tasks. For example, 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 masters also liked to check on the maids. They put a coin under the carpet - if the girl took the money, then she was dishonest, if the coin remained in place, then she did not wash the floors well!
In houses with a large staff of servants, there was a distribution of duties among the maids, but there was no worse fate than the only maid in a poor family. She was also called maid-of-all-work or general servant - the latter epithet was considered more refined. The poor thing woke up at 5-6 in the morning, on the way to the kitchen she opened the shutters and curtains. In the kitchen she was kindling a fire, the fuel for which had been prepared the night before. While the fire flared up, she polished the stove. Then she put the kettle on, and while it boiled, she cleaned all the shoes and knives. Then the maid washed her hands and went to open the curtains in the dining room, where she also needed to clean the grate and light the fire. This sometimes took about 20 minutes. Then she wiped the dust in the room and scattered yesterday's tea on the carpet, so that later she would sweep it away with the dust. Then it was necessary to take care of the hall and the hallway, wash the floors, shake the carpets, clean the steps. This was the end of her morning duties, and the maid hastened to change into a clean dress, white apron and cap. After that, she set the table, cooked and brought breakfast.
While the family was having breakfast, she had time to eat breakfast herself - although she often had to chew something on the go while she ran to the bedrooms to air out the mattresses. The Victorians were obsessed with airing bed linen, as they believed such measures prevented the spread of infection, so the beds were aired every day. Then she made the beds, wearing a new apron that protected the linen from her already dirty clothes. The hostess and the daughters of the hostess could help her with the cleaning of the bedroom. When she finished with the bedroom, the maid returned to the kitchen and washed the dishes left after breakfast, then swept the floor in the living room from bread crumbs. If on that day cleaning of any room in the house was required - the living room, dining room or one of the bedrooms - then the maid immediately set to work on it. Cleaning could last all day, with breaks for preparing lunch and dinner. In poor families, the mistress of the house often took part in cooking. Lunch and dinner followed the same procedures as breakfast - set the table, bring food, sweep the floor, etc. Unlike breakfast, the maid had to serve at the table and bring the first, second and dessert. The day ended with the maid laying fuel for tomorrow's fire, closing the door and shutters, and turning off the gas. In some houses, silverware was counted in the evening, put in a box and locked in the master bedroom, away from robbers. After the family went to bed, the exhausted maid trudged to the attic, where she most likely fell into bed. Some girls from overwork even cried in their sleep! However, the maid could get a scolding from the hostess for not cleaning her own bedroom - I wonder when she could find time for this?
When their exploiters left for country houses, the servants still had no rest, because it was the turn of the general cleaning. Then they cleaned carpets and curtains, rubbed wooden furniture and floors, and also wiped the ceilings with a mixture of soda and water to remove soot. Since the Victorians loved stucco ceilings, this was not an easy task.
In those houses where the owners could not support a large staff of servants, the working day of the maid could last 18 hours! But what about rest? In the middle of the 19th century, servants could go to church as a rest, but they had no more free time. But by the beginning of the 20th century, servants were entitled to one free evening and several free hours in the afternoon every week, in addition to free time on Sunday. Usually half of the day off began at 3 o'clock, when most of the work was done and lunch was taken away. However, the hostess could consider the work unsatisfactory, force the maid to redo everything, and only then let her go on a day off. At the same time, punctuality was very much appreciated, and the young maids had to return home at a strictly appointed time, usually before 10 pm.
Relationship with hosts
Relations often depended both on the nature of the owners - you never know who you can run into - and on their social status. Often, the more well-born a family was, the better they treated servants in it - the fact is that aristocrats with a long pedigree did not need to assert themselves at the expense of servants, they already knew their own worth. At the same time, the nouveau riche, whose ancestors, perhaps, themselves belonged to the "vile class," could push the servants, thereby emphasizing their privileged position. In any case, they tried to treat the servants like furniture, denying their individuality. Following the covenant "love your neighbor", the masters could take care of the servants, give them worn clothes and call a personal doctor if the servant fell ill, but this did not mean at all that the servants were considered equal. Barriers between classes were maintained even in the church - while the gentlemen occupied the front pews, their maids and footmen sat at the very back.
It was considered bad manners to discuss and criticize servants in their presence. Such vulgarity was condemned. For example, in the poem below, little Charlotte claims that she is better than her nanny because she has red shoes and is generally a lady. In response, my mother says that true nobility is not in clothes, but in good manners.
"But, mamma, now," said Charlotte, "pray, don't you believe
That I "m better than Jenny, my nurse?
Only see my red shoes, and the lace on my sleeve;
Her clothes are a thousand times worse.
"I ride in my coach, and have nothing to do,
And the country folks stare at me so;
And nobody dares to control me but you
Because I "m a lady, you know.
"Then, servants are vulgar, and I am genteel;
So really, "tis out of the way,
To think that I should not be better a deal
Than maids, and such people as they. "
"Gentility, Charlotte," her mother replied,
"Belongs to no station or place;
And there's nothing so vulgar as folly and pride,
Thought dress "d in red slippers and lace.
Not all the fine things that fine ladies possess
should teach them the poor to despise;
For "tis in good manners, and not in good dress,
That the truest gentile lies."
In turn, the servants were required to perform their duties diligently, to be neat, modest and, most importantly, inconspicuous. For example, numerous Christian societies published pamphlets for young servants, with such promising titles as Present for a Servant Maid, The Servant's Friend, Domestic Servants as They Are and as They Ought to Be, etc. These writings were full of advice, from cleaning floors before interacting with guests In particular, the following recommendations were given to young maids: - Do not walk in the garden without permission - Noisy is bad manners - Walk quietly around the house, your voice should not be heard unnecessarily Never sing and don't whistle if the family can hear you.--Never speak to ladies and gentlemen first, except when it is necessary to ask an important question or to communicate something. Try to be laconic.--Never talk to other servants or with children in the living room in the presence of ladies and gentlemen. If necessary, then talk very quietly. - Do not talk to ladies and gentlemen without adding Ma "am, Miss or Sir. Name the children in the family Master or Miss. - If you need to take a letter or a small package to family or guests, use a tray. “If you have to go somewhere with a lady or gentleman, follow a few paces behind them. “Never try to get involved in a family conversation or offer any information unless you are asked. The last point brings to mind the Wodehouse saga - Jeeves rarely gets involved in Wooster's conversation with his crazy friends or relatives, patiently waiting until Bertie begins to appeal to a higher mind. Jeeves seems to be very familiar with these recommendations, although they are intended mainly for inexperienced girls just starting out in the service.
Obviously, the main purpose of these recommendations is to teach the maids to be inconspicuous. On the one hand, this may seem unfair, but on the other hand, their salvation is partly in invisibility. Because attracting the attention of gentlemen - especially gentlemen - for a maid was often fraught. A young, pretty maid could easily become a victim of the owner of the house, or a grown-up son, or a guest, and in the event of pregnancy, the burden of guilt fell entirely on her shoulders. In this case, the unfortunate woman was expelled without recommendations, and therefore she had no chance of finding another place. She faced a sad choice - brothel or worker.
Fortunately, not all relations between servants and masters ended in tragedy, although exceptions were quite rare. About love and prejudice tells the story of lawyer Arthur Munby (Arthur Munby) and maid Hannah Cullwick (Hannah Cullwick). Mr. Munby apparently had a particular affinity for working-class women and sympathetically described the fate of ordinary maids. After meeting Hannah, he dated her for 18 years, and all the time in secret. Usually she walked down the street, and he followed behind until they found a place away from prying eyes to shake hands and a couple of quick kisses. After Hanna hurried to the kitchen, and Arthur retired on business. Despite such strange dates, both were in love. In the end, Arthur told his father about his love, throwing him into shock - of course, because his son fell in love with the servant! In 1873 Arthur and Hanna got married in secret. Although they lived in the same house, Hanna insisted on remaining as a maid - believing that if their secret was revealed, her husband's reputation would be greatly tarnished. Therefore, when friends visited Munby, she waited at the table and called her husband "sir." But alone, they behaved like husband and wife and, judging by their diaries, were happy.
As we could observe, the relationship between masters and servants was very unequal. However, many servants were loyal and did not seek to change this state of affairs, because they "knew their place" and considered masters to be people of a different sort. In addition, there was sometimes an attachment between servants and masters, which Wodehouse's character calls a tie that binds. Information sources
"Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England", Kristine Hughes
"A History of Private Life. Vol 4" Ed. Philippe Aries Judith Flanders, "Inside the Victorian House"
Frank Dawes
IN modern serials they look quite happy during friendly conversations in closets. But the truth is that the life of most servants in Britain in the early twentieth century was a far cry from what we see today in romantic movies about that era.
17 hours of exhausting work, terribly cramped living conditions, the absolute absence of any rights - these are the realities of life for employees at the end Victorian era King Edward and early Britain.If the maids were harassed by the owners, then they had little opportunity to protect themselves.
Nanny
In her new film series, social historian Pamela Cox, who is the great-granddaughter of one of the servants, explains that these people's lives were far less "comfortable" than modern television dramas portray. Cox Proves Her Ancestors Never Enjoyed free time, like servants in some TV shows.
One hundred years ago, 1,500,000 Britons were employed as clerks.
As a rule, most of these servants worked not in large noble houses, where there were many colleagues and camaraderie, but in the role of a lone servant in an average town house. These people were doomed to a lonely life in dark and damp cellars.
Thanks to the emergence of new members of the middle class, most of the attendants worked as the only servant in the house. And instead of participating in a lively, merry dinner upstairs, these servants lived and ate alone in dark basement kitchens.
british family and their servants, second from the left, most likely a governess, late nineteenth century
Employees of noble houses lived a little better, but, nevertheless, without exception, everyone worked from 5 am to 10 pm for very little money.
Employers would hardly take pity on employees who were overworked, even if they were just kids. Below we provide excerpts from characteristic documents of that era, published on the website http://www.hinchhouse.org.uk.
Rules for servants:
- The ladies and gentlemen of the house must never hear your voice.
- You should always respectfully step aside if you meet one of your employers in the hallway or on the stairs.
- Never start talking to the Ladies and Gentlemen.
- Employees should never express their opinions to employers.
- Never talk to another servant in front of your employer.
- Never call from one room to another.
- Always reply when you received an order.
- Always keep outside doors closed. Only the butler can answer the phone.
- Every employee must be punctual when eating.
- No gambling in the house. Offensive language in communication between servants is not allowed.
- Female staff are not allowed to smoke.
- Servants should not invite visitors, friends or relatives into the house.
- A maid seen flirting with a member of the opposite sex quits without warning.
- Any breakage or damage to the home will be deducted from wages servants.
Master's attitude towards servants:
- All family members must maintain an appropriate relationship with staff. A trusting and respectful relationship must be established with the senior servant who works directly in the family.
- Your servants are a demonstration of your wealth and prestige. They are representatives of your family, so it is beneficial that a good relationship develops between you.
- However, this does not apply to lower-ranking employees.
- While maids clean the house during the day, they must do their best to diligently perform their duties and at the same time stay out of your sight. If by chance you meet, you should expect them to make way for you, stepping aside and looking down as you pass by, leaving them unnoticed. By ignoring them, you will spare them the shame of explaining the reason for their presence.
- In old houses, it is customary to change the names of servants who enter the service. You can also follow this tradition. Common nicknames for servants are James and John. Emma - popular name for a housekeeper.
- Nobody expects you to take the trouble to remember the names of all your employees. Indeed, in order to avoid the obligation to talk to them, lower-ranking employees will strive to make themselves invisible to you. Therefore, they do not need to be recognized at all. (With)
Coty Katya. servant in Victorian England
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.
Some Statistics
In 1891, 1,386,167 women and 58,527 men were in the service. Of these, 107167 girls and 6890 boys aged 10 to 15 years.
Examples of incomes at which servants could be afforded:
1890s - Primary Teacher's Assistant - less than £200 a year. Maid - 10 - 12 pounds per year.
1890s- Bank manager - 600 pounds per year. Maid (12 - 16 pounds a year), cook (16 - 20 pounds a year), a boy who came daily to clean knives, shoes, bring coal and chop wood (5d a day), a gardener who came once a week (4 shillings 22 pence).
1900
- Cook (30 pounds), maid (25), junior maid (14), boy for cleaning shoes and knives (25 pence a week). Advocate could buy 6 shirts for £1 10s, 12 bottles of champagne for £2 8s.
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.
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)- personal servant of the owner of the house. Takes care of his clothes, prepares his luggage for the trip, loads his guns, serves golf clubs, (drives angry swans away 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 with her hair and dress, prepares a bath, takes care of her jewelry and accompanies the hostess during visits.
Lackey
(footman)- helps to 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), 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.
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.
Fairwent 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 aboutits 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 a fascinating reading, besides, the book suggests
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?” (c) 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 middle-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.Usually, when hiring, the owner told the servant how often and in what quantities the house received guests, so that the newcomer could calculate how much tips he should expect.
Tips were distributed at the departure of the 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., a generous tip testified to his well-being). In some houses, only male servants received tips. For poor people, tipping was a living nightmare, 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 arrange a dolce vita for him - for example, ignore or alter all the orders of the guest.
Until the early 19th century, servants weren't supposed toweekend
.
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 of Defoe's novel of the same name, was called "Miss Betty" by the owners (and Miss Betty, of course, gave the owners a light). Charlotte Brontë also mentions the maids' collective name, "abigails."
With names
the whole thing was interesting. The servants of a higher rank - like a butler or a personal maid - were called exclusively by their last name. A vivid example of such treatment we find again in the books of Wodehouse, 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 in a familiar way, 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.
A uniform
The Victorians preferred servants to be identifiable by their clothing. The maid uniform, developed in the 19th century, lasted with minor changes until the outbreak of World War II. Until the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria, the female servants did not have a uniform as such. The maids had to dress in simple and modest dresses. Since in the 18th century it was customary to give the servants clothes "from the master's shoulder", the maids could flaunt in the worn outfits of their mistress.
But the Victorians were far from such liberalism and the servants did not tolerate smart clothes. The lower-ranking maids were forbidden even to think of such excesses as silks, feathers, earrings and flowers, for there was no need to indulge their lustful flesh with such luxury. The target of ridicule was often the maids (lady's maids), who still got the master's outfits and who could spend all their salaries on a fashionable dress. one woman who served as a maid in 1924 recalled that her mistress, seeing the curled hair, was horrified and said that she would think about dismissing the shameless woman.
Of course, the double standards were obvious. The ladies themselves did not shy away from lace, feathers, or other sinful luxury, but they could reprimand or even fire the maid who bought herself silk stockings! The uniform was another way to show servants their place. However, many maids, in a past life girls from a farm or from an orphanage, would probably feel out of place if they were dressed in silk dresses and seated in a living room with noble guests.
So, what was the uniform of the Victorian servants? Of course, both the uniform and the attitude towards it were different among the female and male servants. 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. Depending on the size of the salary, there could be more dresses. All the dresses were long, because the maid's legs must always be covered - even if the girl washed the floor, she had to cover her ankles.
The very idea of a uniform must have driven the hosts into frenzied delight - after all, now it was impossible to confuse the maid with the young miss. Even on Sundays, during a trip to church, some owners forced the maids to put on caps and aprons. And the traditional Christmas present for the maid was... a raise? No. New detergent to make it easier to scrub the floor? Also no. The traditional gift for the maid was a piece of fabric so that she could sew another uniform dress for herself - with her own efforts and at her own expense!
The maids had to pay for their own uniforms, while the male servants received their uniforms at the expense of the masters. The average cost of a maid dress in the 1890s was £3 - i.e. semi-annual salary of an underage maid,
