Up and Down Stairs

by Jeremy Musson

  The office of butler is thus one of very great trust in a household. Here, as elsewhere, honesty is the best policy: the butler should make it his business to understand the proper treatment of the different wines under his charge, which he can easily do from the wine-merchant; his own reputation will soon compensate for the absence of bribes from unprincipled wine-merchants, if he serves a generous and hospitable master. Nothing spreads more rapidly in society than the reputation of a good wine cellar, and all that is required is wines well chosen and well cared for.105

  At dinnertime

  the under butler or footman lays the cloth, and carries up the articles wanted, under the direction of the Butler, who gives out the necessary plate, kept by him under lock, and generally in an iron chest. [The butler] sets and displays the dinner on the table, carrying in the first dish, waits at the side-board, hands wine round or when called for; removes every course, and sets and arranges every fresh course on the table according to his bill of fare, which is placed at the sideboard for reference; and does not leave the room till the dessert and wine have been placed on the table by him.106

  The servants were waited on by junior servants who were by this method trained in the discipline of serving at table and clearing away.

  Until the early nineteenth century, meals in the grander houses were served à la française, where all the dishes making up a course were laid out together on the table simultaneously. When this was replaced by service à la Russe, the food was served individually to each guest by footmen, with the carving carried out at the sideboard. It took several decades to be fully absorbed into English dining, and inevitably there were frequent compromises of the two styles. The advantages of dining à la Russe were that food arrived hot and there was less extravagant waste. Also servants could control the flow and had to be on hand to serve. At the same time dining became more formal and structured, with greater quantities of dishes and cutlery needed for a larger number of courses.107

  The menservants in the ranks below steward, butler and valet generally wore liveries. At the very end of the eighteenth century, the Earl of Pembroke’s butler at Wilton was responsible for distributing these. The 1790s Wilton household refers to how ‘the livery servants are allowed two suits of Frock Clothing, two hats, and one working dress annually, and one Gt: coat every two years, as is the Coach Man.’108 At Arundel Castle, a series of names have been found inside the lining of a later nineteenth-century state livery coat (which was used only for state occasions), showing how, certainly at that time, they were worn by a succession of footmen.109

  In large country houses the most senior liveried manservant under the butler was still the groom of the chambers – a rather forgotten figure now, but standard in grander households of the nineteenth century. He ensured that the reception rooms were always in order, the silver properly polished, and the desks and writing tables stocked with appropriate stationery, ink and quills.110 In large houses at periods of heavy use during a major house party or family entertainment, this could be more arduous than it sounds. A groom of the chambers was sometimes trained in upholstery and made responsible for cleaning valuable objects such as pictures.111 He also made sure that the state rooms were in presentable order to be shown to the well-heeled tourist, and sometimes acted as a guide.

  As well as serving at mealtimes, the groom of the chambers in the more formal country houses had a primary role in the grander moments of ceremony, being on duty in the front hall to announce guests and to receive cards, to open the doors to libraries and drawing rooms, and also to show guests to their bedrooms.112 In the later nineteenth century his role was often combined with that of a valet.113 In smaller country-house establishments his duties were carried out by the butler or first footman.

  The next senior male figure was usually the valet, although Mr and Mrs Adams considered the duties ‘of this servant are not so various nor so important as those of the footman, indeed they are very frequently, and particularly in small families, a part of the business of the footman’.

  As the lady’s maid does for the lady, so the valet does for the master. He ‘waits on him when dressing and undressing, has the care of his wardrobe, brushes and keeps his clothes in good order and ready to put on when wanted’. Preparation was the key: ‘every garment or other article of wearing apparel, should be carefully examined, cleaned or brushed on the first opportunity that offers, and then put away in its proper place.’

  The valet starts the day polishing his master’s shoes and boots, checks that the housemaid has prepared the dressing room, and himself prepares the washing stand: ‘fill the ewer with clean soft water, and the caroft [carafe] with fresh spring water – The basins and towels, the hair nail, and tooth-brushes clean, and in their proper places; hot water, and all the necessary apparatus for shaving, quite ready; his dressing gown and slippers airing before the fire.’ The valet should then set out his master’s clothes for the day, ‘with a clean linen or brown Holland wrapper thrown over them, to save them from dust.’114

  Next, the valet assists with shaving his master and combing his hair. Then when the master has gone down to breakfast, he will ‘set the room in order’, look over his things, put away his night clothes, wash his brushes and combs, and clean the dressing stand. He had to be on hand for a change of clothes after a ride or a journey, and was responsible for packing sufficient and correct clothes, as well as shaving kit, when his master stayed at an inn or another house, where the valet should set out his clothes as if at home.

  A valet was often given his master’s cast-off clothes as a perquisite and deliberately cultivated good manners to match.115 Prince Pückler-Muskau, an early-nineteenth-century traveller to England, remarked that a visitor there might easily mistake a valet for a lord, if he thought courtesy and good breeding were the attributes of the nobility.116 On the other hand the Duke of Wellington remarked grumpily to Lord Strangford ‘that I shave myself and brush my own clothes; I regret that I cannot clean my own boots; for menservants bore me and the presence of a crowd of idle fellows annoys me more than I can tell you’.117However, he was said to have had a good relationship with his own faithful valet, Kendall, who was famously protective of his master.118

  Lady Violet Greville, who denounced the superfluity of the footman, wrote in The National Review in 1892 that the well-trained valet was a most invaluable servant: ‘He never forgets a single portmanteau or bag or hat-box; he reads Bradshaw [the railway timetable] excellently, he takes tickets, and tipping the guard efficiently, secures a reserved railway compartment; he brings his master tea, or brandy and soda, at the stations; he engages the only fly [a horse-drawn taxi] at their destination . . . He has the soul of a perfect army commissariat.’119

  The great country houses continued to employ the male cook or chef, who was ‘now a requisite member in the establishment of a man of fashion’ and was ‘generally a foreigner’. He ‘has the entire superintendance of the kitchen while his several female assistants are employed in roasting, boiling, and all the ordinary manual operations of the kitchen’.120 The exacting nature of his work, ‘with the superior skill requisite for excellence in his art, procures him a liberal salary, frequently twice or thrice the sum given to the most experienced female English Cook’. Male cooks were often the highest-paid servant in a household after the steward. The Dukes of Sutherland paid their French chefs £108 annually in 1818, and £200 in the 1870s – the value of the latter in modern-day money would be around £114,000 p.a.121

  In England, the Adamses observed that ‘men cooks are kept only in about 3 or 400 great and wealthy families, and in about 40 or 50 London hotels. But it is usual in smaller establishments to engage a man cook for a day or two before an entertainment.’122 The grandest houses often had their own dedicated pastry chefs and confectioners. There is a delicious, if somewhat unbelievable, anecdote concerning one Duke of Buckingham who was being forced by circumstances to scale down his spending. When it was suggested that, as he already had a Fr
ench chef and an English roasting cook, he might dispense with his confectioner, he is said to have replied: ‘Good Gad, mayn’t a man have a biscuit with his glass of sherry?’123

  At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the famous French chef, Joseph Florance, worked for three Dukes of Buccleuch for whom he became not just a servant but a confidant and family friend. He was also admired by the novelist Sir Walter Scott. On one occasion when the celebrated author dined at Drumlanrig Castle, the chef created a dish called Potage à la Meg Merrilies, after the character in Guy Mannering. His excellent portrait, painted in 1817 by John Ainslie, survives, showing an upright, elegant figure pointing to an elaborate menu, his cook’s knife tucked in his belt.124

  Florance travelled to Lisbon with the 4th Duke, and in July 1827 wrote a letter to the 5th Duke of Buccleuch, significantly advising him on the wise management of his household:

  It must be gratifying to a Nobleman to know how he stands with the world, with his income, and with his expences. To facilitate this, the greatest regularity must be established and your Grace must set the example of enforcing your commands, your Orders will always be given with moderation and reflection . . .

  My plan is simple & will be gratifying to all honest men. The expenses of your household must be laid before your Grace once a week without the exception of a farthing. For the day I should recommend tuesday, on monday the steward will gather the bills, and your secretary will arrange them so you may see the whole at one view.

  By this means, he argued, all errors or ‘false dealing’ will be identified. ‘All will depend upon yourself to make your Household a happy one, if you have a bad servant part with him, a diseased sheep spoils a whole flock.’125

  Employers took pride in the skills and training of their chefs. The 6th Duke of Devonshire recalled in his Handbook of Chatsworth and Hardwick (1845):

  My cook, Mr. Howard, ought to be the best in the world; for thirty years ago, when at Paris, I modestly requested Louis XVIII, to place him in his kitchen, to which his Majesty immediately consented for some months: and it was kind of the lately restored Monarch, at a moment when many thought him in constant danger of poison; but he was gracious to me, and always said ‘Duc, c’est l’air natal que vous respirez.’ Mr Howard studied also at Robert’s and Very’s.126

  Among the principal outdoor servants attached to the house, the head coachman was often a figure of some magnificence in his imposing livery, according to the Adamses: ‘Every genuine Coachman has his characteristic costume. His flaxen curls or wig, his low cocked hat, his plush breeches, and his benjamin surtout, his clothes being also well brushed, and the lace and buttons in a state of high polish.’127 The fineness of coachmen’s appearance was not always matched by their care for their passengers – or other vehicles. Prince Pückler-Muskau criticised some coachmen that he encountered in London: ‘As soon as these heroic chariot drivers espy the least opening they whip their horses in, as if horses were an iron wedge; the preservation of either seems totally disregarded.’128

  The coachman’s duties were not confined to driving the horses out on the road, but included overseeing the maintenance of the coach and the care of the animals themselves. ‘If not fatigued by late hours on the preceding night, he rises to take care of his horses, at the same hour as the other men,’ meaning the head groom and the other grooms. The coachman also oversaw the ‘necessary morning business’, mucking out and cleaning the stalls. After breakfast, he prepared the stables against the possibility of a visit from the master. He then inspected and cleaned the harness and ornaments, blacking the leather, which was followed by cleaning the coach, down to polishing the glass and trimming the lamps.129

  Under him came the grooms, who attended to the horses, cleaned the stables, exercised the horses when required, took them to where they needed to be, and so on. As grooms often lived over the stables, this created a separate community within the wider household. In larger establishments there might be as many as sixty horses, as well as several under-coachmen and postilions (the latter rode the lead horse to ensure the good running of the team).130

  A coachman might even be expected to help in the organisation of moving family and staff from one estate to another, or from the country house to the London house. In 1822, the 6th Earl of Stamford transferred his household from Enville Hall in Shropshire to London for the season. The head coachman, one David Seammen, kept the accounts when eleven of the family’s servants used the family’s private carriages for the journey, setting off early in the morning and stopping overnight in Coventry and St Albans.131 The other servants travelled by post-horse (which meant changing horses at regular intervals) and had only one overnight stop, while the earl and his valet, Samuel Church, followed later, also by the post-horse system.

  The footman, made familiar to us in the eighteenth century, served the house, under the butler or steward, and attended the coach in livery on journeys. And, as in the eighteenth century, the footman’s duties were according to the Adamses ‘multifarious and incessant’, so he was not merely the liveried flunkey of fiction.132 For his household duties, he must rise early to get the dirtiest part of his work done first: cleaning shoes, boots, knives and forks; brushing and cleaning clothes; cleaning and dusting the furniture; cleaning all brass, looking glasses, frames and pictures. Next he cleaned the lamps in the family rooms, for which ‘his working dress should be generally a pair of overalls, a waistcoat and fustian jacket, and a leather apron, with a white apron to put on occasionally’. Good families ‘generally allow the footman a proper dress of this sort, exclusive of his liveries’.133

  After his early cleaning duties, ‘the attendance of the footman will now be required in the breakfast parlour, for which purpose, he must prepare by washing himself, and throwing off his working dress’. Wearing his livery, he set out the table, waited at breakfast and tidied up afterwards. ‘The footman now carries such messages and cards as he is charged to deliver.’ He was responsible for laying the cloth for dinner, and placing the knives, forks and glasses, while the butler arranged the silver plate and saw that the whole was done correctly.134

  The Adamses described the service current in the 1820s (à la Russe), in which the roles of footman and butler must blend seamlessly: ‘when the butler takes the first dish, and [he] is followed by the under butler and footman with the remainder of the fish and soups, which the butler places on the table, and removing the covers, gives them to the footman and under butler, who convey them out of the room.’ The servants ‘then take their respective stations, the butler at the side-board, to serve the wines or beer when called for; the footman at the back of his master’s chair, and the lady’s footman, if any, behind his lady.’135

  After the soup and fish have been consumed, the next course, generally ‘solid joints of meat’, was served, the plates and dishes of the previous courses being removed by the butler and carried away by the footmen. After the meat had been removed, a third course (usually pastry, pies, tarts with cheese and salads) followed. The groom of the chambers or the footmen then prepared the drawing room, ensuring ‘that lamps and candles are lighted, and the card tables set out’ and that the chairs and sofas are ‘properly arranged’. The butler and footmen finally repaired to the butler’s pantry where the footmen washed and wiped the glasses, with the under butler cleaning the plate. The footman would also carry the coffee into the drawing room, plus additional trays of toast and muffins.136

  When with the coach, ‘the footman should be dressed in his best livery, his shoes and stockings being very clean, and his hat, great coat, &c. being well brushed’. He would assist the family to enter or descend from the carriage. He was also required to accompany the ladies of the family on their walks, when ‘he should preserve a modest demeanour, and protect [them], if necessary, from intrusion or insult’.137

  Footmen often travelled with their employers to house parties, which added no small amount of extra luggage to the party. One nineteenth-century footman from Ca
stle Howard in Yorkshire recalled travelling to Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire with two five-foot steel cases to take his suits of full- and half-livery, two leather portmanteaus for smaller liveries, and six hatboxes.138 At Welbeck and at Longleat special rooms were set aside as footmen’s powder rooms, fitted with long looking glasses and washbasins.139

  Mrs Beeton suggested that the footman ‘while attentive to all . . . should be obtrusive to none: he should give nothing but on a waiter [tray], and always hand it with the left hand and on the left side of the person he serves, and hold it so the guest may take it with ease . . . After each meal, the footman’s place is in his pantry: here perfect order should prevail – a place for everything and everything in its place.’140

  In his diary account of his tour of England made in the 1820s, Prince Pückler-Muskau was not entirely impressed by the arrangements of some country houses: ‘England is the true land of contrasts – “du haut et de bas” – at every step. Thus, even in elegant houses in the country, coachmen and grooms wait at dinner, and are not always free from the odour of the stable.’141

  The senior outdoor figure – after the land steward, or estates bailiff, who looked after estate administration – was the head gardener, of whom, according to the Adamses, much was expected: