BLOGWORDS – Monday 21 August 2017 – NEW WEEK NEW FACE – THE LONG SHADOWS OF SUMMER RELEASE FEATURE – GUEST POST – PEPPER BASHAM

BLOGWORDS – Monday 21 August 2017 – NEW WEEK NEW FACE – THE LONG SHADOWS OF SUMMER RELEASE FEATURE – GUEST POST – PEPPER BASHAM

[image error]

NEW WEEK NEW FACE – GUEST POST – PEPPER BASHAM

 

“ Britallachian romance peppered with grace and humor.”

 

[image error] 

“ I love a good romance, whether it’s set in an Edwardian era manor house or a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains.”

 

Servants in the grand houses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries worked hard—and by hard, I mean their diligence, work hours, and lack of recognition could only be somewhat compared to a mother of triplets.

 

Servants performed the grunge work—the thankless activities—many times starting before dawn and ending after dark. The jobs of Victorian and Edwardian era servants were relentless, and to really become someone of high rank in a household…well, it usually took a lifetime.

 

In most aristocratic households, the servants walked about ‘unseen’ by the family, unless they were upstairs staff such as butlers, housekeepers, lady’s maids, and footmen, as well as governesses/nannies. The lord and lady of the house were raised to only acknowledge them if absolutely necessary and the below stairs servants were not to initiate conversations with the family unless specifically requested.

 

Television adaptations like Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey give us a glimpse into this ‘underbelly’ of downstairs, but their portrayal is much more glamorous than actuality. Mutual respect between servants and families was not necessarily a common theme.

 

Before the break of day, servants completed a massive pile of chores to ensure every need of the family was met.

raked and laid out the fires in the fireplaces
open shutters in the rooms where the families would gather
made certain each room was straightened up from any disorder from the previous day
dusted (including cleaning the floors and carpets)
empty chamber pots (if the house did not have indoor plumbing yet)

 

And then the servants might have a chance to eat their breakfast.

 

Throughout the day there were various other chores to do. Making beds, fetching food and cleaning up. Mending shoes. Preparing the family for outings.

 

Basically, mind-reading to anticipate what the family might want or need.

 

Sometimes the jobs became ridiculous, like ironing the master or mistresses shoe laces or clipping toenails.

 

This necessary ‘underground’ lifeforce of the estate house completed monotonous, repetitive jobs and, many times, only chose this occupation as an alternative to starvation.

 

It was a HARD life…and yet, there are stories of people who found their position and skills valued by their employers.

 

In a story I heard recently while touring the Biltmore, the tour guide told about the differences in which George Vanderbilt and his wife, Edith, viewed their servants. Though George was a kind man, he was raised in wealth his whole life—with less of a reputation of speaking to servants, but Edith broke the mold. She stepped over the divide between class distinctions by having conversations with the servants, sometimes even writing them letters and personally giving them gifts. Her generosity of heart, I’m certain, influenced her husband—because there are later stories of how he interacted with his employees in kind and generous ways.

 

That said—the life of a servant remained a tough one, and the only blessing among the grueling conditions was to have kind employers, marry someone who could take you out of service, or find another job (which is what began to happen more and more during WW1 and beyond)

 

Another time, maybe we could discuss the many different servant roles in the Victorian/Edwardian era, but until then I’d just like to say…if I could go back in time to the Edwardian era….I’d definitely want to come back as aristocracy