Up and Down Stairs
Page 37
There are also many country-house owners and those have who lived in and worked in country houses, all of whom gave me time for interviews, tours and advice, especially: David Bateman, Sir John Becher, Charles Berkeley, the Hon Mary Birkbeck, Lady Mairi Bury, the Earl and Countess of Carnavon, James Cartland, Henry Coleman, the Hon. Hugh Crossley, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, Peter Frost-Pennington, Martin Gee, the Earl of Glasgow, the Knight of Glin, the Hon. Desmond Guinness, Edward Harley, James Hervey-Bathurst, Laura Hurrell, Lord Inglewood, Sir John Leslie, Bt, Sammy Leslie, Jim Link, Auriol, Marchioness of Linlithgow, David and Rhona Lowsley-Williams, Ian MacNab, Maureen Magee, Sir David and Lady Mary Mansell-Lewis, Lord Neidpath, Della Robins, the Earl and Countess of Rosebery, Stephanie Rough, Lord Sackville-West, the Earl and Countess of Sandwich, Alan Shimwell, Sir Reresby and Lady Sitwell, David Stacey, Christopher Simon Sykes, Sir Tatton Sykes, and Rosalinde Tebbut.
I have to thank my colleagues on Country Life magazine, not least for giving me the wonderful opportunity to visit so many country houses over the past fourteen years, and to the BBC and the National Trust for the same great privilege. Also all the owners of country houses I have visited, all those who work in them and, indeed, all those who work to maintain and open such houses to an interested public. I am continually humbled by the dedication, devotion and hard work of country-house servants in history, as well as their staffs in modern times, and I hope that this book does some justice to the skills and dedication that I have encountered and perhaps understood only now for the first time.
I am immensely grateful to Clare Alexander, of Aitken Alexander, my literary agent, for all her wisdom and kind encouragement and to Roland Philipps of John Murray Publishers for his faith in the project and his wise editorial insight and helpful guidance, also to Helen Hawksfield of John Murray for all her hard work, kind support and enthusiasm, and to Celia Levett for her masterly copy-edit that helped improve the text so much, and to Sara Marafini for her design work and to Anna Kenny-Ginard for her work on promoting the book, and to all those who make it possible to produce a book in the twenty-first century.
A special thanks to my family, my wife Sophie, my daughters Georgia and Miranda, and our dog Archie, who all support me in everything I do.
For the following permissions to quote from copyright material, I am immensely grateful to:
To the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire for permission to quote from her book The House: A Portrait of Chatsworth; Mrs Gill Joyce for permission to quote from the memoirs of her father Stanley Ager, and to Fiona St Aubyn his co-author, and to James St Aubyn of St Michael’s Mount; the trustees of the Goodwood Estates for permission to quote from the memoirs of Mrs Jean Hibbert; to Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth, Bt, for permission to quote from the Thomas Kilgallon memoir; to Mr Ian McCorquodale for permission to quote from the Etiquette Handbook written by Dame Barbara Cartland, first published in 1952 and re-issued in 2008 by Random House; to the Duke of Northumberland Estates for permission to quote from manuscripts held in Alnwick Castle relating to the 1st Duke and Duchess’s Household Regulations and the Kildare Household Regulations; to the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, for access to, and permission to quote from, the diaries of Hannah Cullwick; to Lord Sackville for permission to quote from the Knole Household Catalogue; to Christopher Simon Sykes for permission to quote from his memoir, The Big House: The Story of a Country House and its Family, published by HarperCollins in 2005; to Taylor & Francis for permission to quote from the memoirs of maidservants published in John Burnett’s Useful Toil; to A.P. Watt and the literary estate of H.G. Wells for permission to quote from H.G. Wells’ Experiments in Autobiography, published in 1934, and Tono Bungay, published in 1909; to Frances Lincoln Ltd for permission to quote from The English House, 2007, by Hermann Muthesius, translated by Dennis Sharp.
Attempts to trace the copyright holders of Frederick Gorst, Of Carriages and Kings, published in 1956 by W.T. Allen (now a title of Random House, and of Rosina Harrison, Rose: My Life in Service, published in 1975 and Gentleman’s Gentleman edited by Rosina Harrison, by Cassell plc (now a division of Orion Publishing Group), were unsuccessful.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, but if there are any errors or omissions, John Murray (Publishers) will be pleased to insert the appropriate acknowledgement in any subsequent edition.
Notes
Introduction
1. Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language , London 1755 reprinted in facsimile (Times Books), London 1979.
2. For surveys that include discussions of urban and middle-class households at this time, see Pamela Horn, Flunkeys and Scullions: Life Below Stairs in Georgian England (2004), The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Servant (1991), and Life Below Stairs in the 20th Century (2004).
3. Horn, Flunkeys, pp. 16–19, and example dated 27 January 1922 (ten male servants £7 10s and 4 dogs £1 10s) in the Highclere archives, thanks to Lydia Lebus and by kind permission of the Earl of Carnarvon.
4. Daily Telegraph, 11 May 2004.
5. Shorter Oxford Dictionary (1972) and see Naomi Tadmer, Family and Friends in Eighteenth-Century England (2001).
6. Susan Whyman, Sociability and Power in Late-Stuart England (2002), p. 60, cites the example of a private coachman, employed by the Verneys in the late-seventeenth-century, who believes it is below him to be a servant, so he leaves to work as a cabman in London.
7. Sarah and Samuel Adams, in The Complete Servant (1825), and Arthur Young, General View of the Agriculture of Hertfordshire (1804), as quoted on www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk.
8. Andrew Hann, ‘Report on the Service Wing of Audley End’ (2007); Eric Horne, What the Butler Winked at (1923); and report by Fred Scott for Manchester Statistical Society in 1889, see www.manchester2002.uk.com/history/victorian.
9. Merlin Waterson, The Servants’ Hall (1980).
10. Horn, Flunkeys, p. 189.
11. John Burnett, Useful Toil (1975), p. 146.
12. Burnett, Useful Toil, p. 146.
13. C.M. Woolgar, The Great Household in Medieval England (1999), pp. 8–14.
14. Frederick Gorst, Of Carriages and Kings (1956), p. 132.
15. Mark Girouard, Life in the English Country House (1979), pp. 190–9, and Horn, Rise and Fall, p. 25.
16. John Bateman, The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland (1971), first published 1876; the Appendix on p. 595 shows that, at that date, there were around 1,688 principal landowners, including peers and owners of large estates. Assuming these great country landowners employed 120 servants each (indoors and out), this could account for only around 84,000 of the total employed in domestic service, with gentry households as well, still less than 250,000.
17. Giles Waterfield (ed.), Below Stairs (2004), p. 10, and Burnett, Useful Toil, pp. 136–7.
18. 1911 Census, as published January 2009.
19. Fiona Reynolds, conversation with the author, 30 January 2009.
20. Barbara Tuchman’s The Proud Tower (1966) shows how landowners remained at the centre of the political world until political reforms in 1911, with their town houses at the hub of political life.
21. Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life (2004), p. 22.
22. Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais (1732–99), entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica (1911), in which we are told how much Napoleon admired his play, The Marriage of Figaro, banned by the French king.
23. John Galsworthy, The Country House (1907), pp. 1–2.
24. James Sutherland (ed.), Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes (1975), p. 377.
25. D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Penguin), London 1960 and also see Lady Chatterley’s Trial (Penguin), London 2005.
26. Julian Fellowes, interview with the author, 30 January 2009; Mr Fellowes wrote the screenplay for Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman and released in 2001.
27. Julian Fellowes, interview with the author, 30 January 2009.
28. Countess of Rosebery, interview with th
e author, 10 December 2008.
29. Christine Horton conversation with the author, September 2004.
30. Della Robins, interview with author, 17 December 2008.
31. Stradey Castle and Renishaw Hall were both featured in the BBC2 series Curious House Guest, screened in 2006.
32. The Earl of Leicester, interview with the author, 20 December 2008.
33. James Miller, Hidden Treasure Houses (2006), pp. 78–99.
34. Earl and Countess of Rosebery, interview with the author, 10 December 2008.
35. Philip Ziegler, Osbert Sitwell (1999), p. 11.
Chapter 1: The Visible and Glorious Household
1. Peter Fleming, Family and Household in Medieval England (2000), p. 7.
2. Girouard, Life in the English Country House, p. 8.
3. Woolgar, pp. 9 and 10.
4. Woolgar, p. 4.
5. Fleming, p. 29.
6. Alison Sim, Masters and Servants in Tudor England (2006), pp. 69–79.
7. Girouard, Life in the English Country House, p. 71.
8. Woolgar, p. 1.
9. For the surviving titles of the royal household, see http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalHousehold/OfficialRoyalposts/OfficialRoyalposts.aspx.
10. John Goodall, English Castle Architecture, 1066–1086, forthcoming from Yale University Press. I am very grateful to Dr Goodall for the opportunity to read in draft his chapter on the household.
11. Girouard, Life in the English Country House, pp. 14–18.
12. The National Trust Handbook (2009).
13. Goodall, English Castle Architecture.
14. Girouard, Life in the English Country House, p. 71.
15. Goodall, English Castle Architecture.
16. ‘The Household Book of Algernon Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland’, usually known as ‘the Northumberland Household Book’ (Sections 43–9), as reprinted in English Historical Documents: 1485–1558, 1996, pp. 905–9, edited by C.H. Williams (hereafter cited as Northumberland Household Book (1511/12)): for a web site version, see Victoria.tc.ca/~tgodwin/duncanweb/documents/Northumberland.html. I was very privileged to see the original in the Duke of Northumberland’s estates archives at Alnwick Castle; there is also an eighteenth-century edition, edited by Thomas Percy.
17. Goodall, English Castle Architecture, and Woolgar, p. 50.
18. Norman Davis (ed.), The Paston Letters (1983), p. 111.
19. Paston Letters, p. 76.
20. Paston Letters, p. 76.
21. Paston Letters, pp. 54–5.
22. P.W. Fleming, ‘Household servants of the Yorkist and early Tudor gentry’, in Early Tudor England (1989), p. 31.
23. Colin Richmond, ‘Paston family’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004–9).
24. Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, scene v.
25. Mark Girouard, ‘Sir John Thynne (1512/13–1580)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004–9).
26. John Russell, ‘The Book of Nurture’, (afterwards cited as Russell) as published in Edith Rickert and D.F. Naylor, Babee’s Book: Medieval Manners for the Young: Done into Modern English from Dr Furnivall’s Texts; see also ‘Book of Courtesy’, pp. 79–121. (1908), pp. 26–38.
27. Kenneth Vickers, Humphry Duke of Gloucester: A Biography (1907), and G.-L. Harris, ‘Humphry, Duke of Gloucester (1391–1447)’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004–9).
28. Peter Brears, The Boke of Keruynge (2003), pp. 2–3, and Molly Harrison and D.H. Royston, How They Lived, Vol. II, p. 166–7.
29. Woolgar, pp. 34–5.
30. Peter Fleming, Family and Household in Medieval England (2002).
31. Dorothy Stuart, English Abigail (1946), p. 2.
32. Douglas Gray, ‘John Russell’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004–9).
33. Russell, p. 27; Stanley Ager and Fiona St Aubyn, The Butler’s Guide to Clothes Care, Managing the Table, Running the Home & Other Graces (1980), p. 11, has retired butler Mr Ager’s memories, looking back to the 1920s when he recalled: ‘A cook was usually very bad-tempered; if she wasn’t struggling against a clock, she was struggling against an oven.’ I am grateful to Mrs Gill Joyce for permission to quote from her father’s memoir.
34. Russell, p. 76.
35. Brears, p. 2.
36. Russell, p. 56.
37. Russell, p. 52.
38. Russell, p. 50.
39. Woolgar, p. 136.
40. Russell, p. 51.
41. Russell, p. 51.
42. Russell, p. 52.
43. Russell, p. 52.
44. Russell, p. 52.
45. Woolgar, pp. 22–3.
46. Russell, pp. 54–5.
47. Russell, pp. 55–6.
48. Russell, p. 62.
49. Russell, pp. 58–9.
50. Sim, p. 99, and Woolgar, p. 159.
51. Russell, p. 62.
52. Russell, p. 58.
53. Russell, pp. 63–6.
54. Russell, p. 63.
55. Russell, p. 64.
56. Russell, p. 65.
57. Russell, p. 66.
58. Russell, p. 68.
59. Russell, pp. 69–70.
60. Girouard, Life in the English Country House, pp. 14–16.
61. Girouard, Life in the English Country House, p. 20.
62. Woolgar, p. 15.
63. Phyllis Cunnington, Costume of Household Servants (1974), pp. 15–30.
64. Sim, pp. 72–4.
65. Woolgar, p. 25.
66. C.L. Kingsford, Stonor Letter Papers (1996), p. 21.
67. Northumberland Household Book (1511), in (ed.) Williams, (1966), pp. 1088–9.
68. ‘Northumberland Household Book 1511’, in (ed.) Williams, (1966), pp. 905–9. The date is now usually given as 1511/12.
69. Goodall, English Castle Architecture.
70. J. Scarisbrick, The Reformation and The English People (1984).
71. Shorter Oxford Dictionary (1972), p. 835: ‘Of unknown etymology’; the original sense seems to be ‘Boy, male child’.
72. ‘Northumberland Household Book (1511)’ in (ed.) Williams, (1966), p. 906.
73. Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More (1999), p. 255.
74. ‘Northumberland Household Book (1511)’ in (ed.) Williams, (1966), p. 1089.
75. For early brewing, see Peter Sambrook, Country House Brewing: 1500–1900 (1996).
76. Kate Mertes, The English Noble Household, 1250–1600 (1988), pp. 1–17 and 103–36.
77. Woolgar, p. 39.
78. Woolgar, pp. 32–3.
79. Luttrell Psalter (ff. 207v–208), see Janet Backhouse, The Luttrell Psalter (1989).
80. P.W. Fleming, ‘Household Servants of the Yorkist and Early Tudor Gentry’ in Early Tudor England (1989), p. 29.
81. Sim, p. 69.
82. Woolgar, p. 38.
83. Girouard, Life in the English Country House, p. 16; and Molly Harrison (ed.), How They Lived, Vol. II, p. 167.
84. Douglas Gray, ‘Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004–9).
85. Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, p. 29.
86. Mark Thornton Burnett, Masters and Servants in English Renaissance Drama and Culture (1997), p. 177.
87. Rosemary O’Day, ‘Roger Ascham (1514/15–1568)’, New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004–9).
88. Goodall, English Castle Architecture.
89. Sim, p. 84.
90. Woolgar, pp. 87–9.
91. George Cavendish, The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, first published by early English Text Society (No. 243), Oxford University Press, London 1959, edited by R.S. Sylvester, and accessible on the University of Toronto website ‘Renaissance English Texts’ Web Development Group, University of Toronto Library, 1997, general editor: Lan Lancashire; see (afterwards cited as Cavendish), http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/ret/cavendish/cavendish.html.
92. Cavendish, pp. 1–23.
93. Cavendish, p. 68.
94.
Susan Groom et al., The Taste of Fire (2007).
95. Sim, pp. 81–2.
96. Maurice Howard, The Early Tudor Country House: Architecture and Politics 1490–1550 (1987), pp. 72–8.