The Servant
Page 29
He was told Thomasina lives in a hamlet near Barnet, not so very far distant from Broad Oak. There was rejoicing in our house when he returned carrying the letter addressed to her wet nurse, commanding her to deliver the child into our care.
Betty, Peg and I have spent every free moment refurbishing the old nursery for its new arrival. Stitching and knitting. Rescuing old toys and teething rings. Anything to help the time pass until we can collect her. And Betty was eager to offer to feed my little daughter alongside her own toddling son. They will grow up as playmates.
One day soon, I hope to have a reply to the invitation my generous husband has sent to Mrs Lamb, care of Major Harper’s household in York. He knew my dearest wish would be for her to take her retirement with us at Broad Oak and thinks it a splendid idea. Betty, too, is overjoyed at the prospect of the farm again becoming full of life.
One hand is in my lap and the other has sneaked under Thomas’s coat to grasp his strong thigh, for comfort, as he reins in the horse outside a tumbledown cottage. How fortunate my daughter is to have him for a father. How fortunate little Suzy will be, later in the week, when we travel to collect her.
It is more a smallholding than a farm. Nothing like the prosperous Broad Oak. There are ancient-looking beehives and some scrawny goats in an orchard at one side. Part of the thatch is mended with canvas and black smoke from the chimney suggests they are burning damp wood and cannot afford a sweep. But it pleases me to see a quantity of clean washing spread to dry on bushes: aprons and caps, children’s clouts, woollen stockings and workmanlike smocks that must belong to the man of the house.
On the other side of a split-rail fence three children play under the gnarled trees, two of them boys, teasing a mongrel puppy with a stick. The third, a gangling girl of about eight, plays with a doll, rocking it in her arms. They look shabby, but in good health, so my spirits lift.
When she realises the trap is stopping and we intend to get out, the young girl clutches the doll against her pinafore and the cloth in which it is wrapped slips to reveal a halo of dark hair. A tiny fist grasping the girl’s pigtail. My heart lurches in my chest. That is no doll. That is our daughter.
***
The End
End Note
Back in 2015 I visited London’s Foundling Hospital Museum for the first time. It is an emotive place and I could not get the heart-breaking stories it told – about the tokens desperate mothers left in the hope that they might, one day, be able to retrieve their precious child – out of my head. My book, The Servant, is the result.
Founded by Royal Charter in 1739, The London Foundling Hospital came into existence after seventeen years of effort by retired sea captain William Coram to provide ‘Provision for Foundlings’. His eventual success was due, to a great extent, to his gaining the support of sixteen ladies of high rank, headed by the Duchess of Somerset. Their signatures on The Ladies Petition was presented to George II in 1735.
Some things are known – that sand was put down on the receiving room floor when women took part in the lottery for a place for their babies – others remain conjecture. I must therefore stress that The Servant is a work of fiction and will undoubtedly contain many errors and omissions, together with the occasional flight of fancy. I hope, however, that it will encourage everyone who can to visit the Museum and to spare a thought for the plight of the women obliged to seek its help long before the advent of women’s emancipation and when social injustice was rife.
Although I consulted a multitude of books and sources whilst researching the novel, the following is a select biography of those I found most useful:
London’s Forgotten Children, Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital by Gillian Pugh
Fate, Hope & Charity, Essays by Janette Bright and Dr Gillian Clark, exploring the poignant stories behind the Foundling Hospital tokens
Threads of Feeling, The London Foundling Hospital’s textile tokens, 1740-1770, by John Stiles
Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies – Sex in the City in Georgian Britain, by Hallie Rubenhold
The Secret History of Georgian London by Dan Cruikshank
The Pleasure of the Imagination by John Brewer, English Culture in the Eighteenth Century.
Longbourn, by Jo Baker
Anne Hughes, ‘Her Boke’, The Diary of a Farmer’s Wife, 1796-1797, first published by the Farmer’s Weekly
Old Bailey Online – The Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1913
All mistakes, misunderstandings and anachronisms are my fault and mine alone.
My thanks must finally go to The Historical Writers Association for selecting The Servant for their HWA/Sharpe Books Unpublished Novel Award 2020 and, equally, to my ever-patient husband and to my magnificent writers’ group (ninevoices.wordpress.com) who have encouraged me every long step of the way.
I welcome feedback on my writing and can be contacted via my email: maggiedavieswriting@gmail.com