"The Housemaid's folding back her window-shutters at eight o'clock the next day, was the sound which first roused Catherine...her fire was already burning." from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Chapter VII.
While chatting last week it struck Alison and I that if we had lived in Jane Austen's England we wouldn't have to do the washing, or the ironing, or prepare any meals. In fact it is likely that the most energetic task in our diaries for the day would be a brisk walk in the countryside, possibly accompanied by a large hunting dog.
Sure, we wouldn't have been able to inherit property but as I face a large pile of ironing, an ever-growing pile of laundry and decisions about what to cook for dinner I wonder how far we women have really come in the last 200 years.
Even Elinor and Marianne Dashwood in their straightened circumstances were able to afford a cook and a male servant when kicked out of the family home.
So where have we gone wrong?
I'd be more than happy to put up with the hassle of having to 'dress' for dinner if only someone else would cook it for me. And as for having to rise at eight to the sound of someone opening the shutters and the cackle of a newly lit fire ... I guess I could get used to it.
13 comments:
Unless... you had the misfortune of being born into the wrong class - then you'd be doing nothing but washing and cleaning.
that was my thought too peppermintpatcher, that I might well have been born to the wrong class and only had Sunday afternoon off. If that.
No.... I was BORN to be a lady.
Damn this 21st Century!!!
actually now I think about it, we did have staff when my parents lived in Port Moresby from when I was 15 to 18. We had a housekeeper who did all the washing and cleaning and helped with the cooking when my mother had to entertain. It was good, especially for my mother, but strange and awkward at the same time. Oh, and there was also a gardener and a security guard if my father was away on business.
Funnily, at first my mum didn't want staff, but with the satff accomodation vacant, there was a steady stream of people asking for the position because it meant housing in the city, a regular wage and a chance for the children to complete school. So working for expatriates was a very sought after job. Well, that's my memory of it in the late seventies.
But it was very strange. And made some expatriate kids (and parents) into utter brats.
Some of us would have had staff. The rest would have been staff. I pointed out to CK recently that 100 odd years ago his working life would have been over a few years back once his need for glasses became paramount.
Had a cleaning lady when I was working full-time and the children were young but I don't suppose that counts as staff. It would be nice to have someone to do the necessary, frequent chores that I absolutely hate. I was always convinced I was meant to be a "Lady" as I absolutely love champagne. Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors. I find her writing absolutely beautiful but a male expedition companion thinks, "She's so bitchy!" He did borrow one eventually, in desperation, as we'd hit a spell of bad weather and he'd run out of books. He didn't change his mind, though.
When I was about 10 years old, Mum had her own business and dad his, so they employed a live in housekeeper. First off she lived in a caravan we had in the backyard, then the council found out and my sister and I had to share a room so she could move inside the house. We had a few over about a two year period. One named Judy, rode a motorbike, a big one and was terribly exciting to have around as she would often come home on the weekends when she had her time off, a little (actually a lot) tipsy. Us kids thought it was very funny, Mum 7 Dad did not, goodbye Judy. One poor lady my sister just did not take to and was driven out of the house. One was on parole (I think my parents were trying to help her out) and used to drink the vodka in the fridge and top the bottle up with water. And the last one Fay had a son with her and while we were on a weekend away, shot through with mum's engagement ring, fur coat and money from a bank account she had managed to get into. Oh the joys of staff. After that my sister and I just had a chores list to do...not much fun
Some of us would have been staff (a nice clean word for servants); some of us would have been factory workers; and lots of us would have been agricultural labourers.
And an awful lot of us, in the city, would have been prostitutes. I'm picturing Hogarth here ... Over 10 % of the women in London worked the streets at the turn of the 19th century.
Such was women's lot if you missed out on the lottery of birth.
But to be able to employ a cook-housekeeper? Yeah — it's a nice fantasy!
I have friends in South Africa with full time staff. Knowing that they are providing a family with a decent living doesn't quite balance against my inherent hatred of social imbalance and injustice, although my opinion might be completely different if I lived there.
Still, if I had lived in Jane Austin's time, the chores would have been too much for one person to do on their own.
Nowadays, I manage quite well with a wonderful cleaning lady who comes in every fortnight and even changes all the sheets!
As much as I hate laundry and cooking, I would prefer to do them rather than instruct someone else as to how I would like them done.
Oh, and I don't iron! But if I did my opinion might be different!
What I'd really like would be someone to do my meal planning and food shopping.
Like Frogdancer I would never entertain the thought that I would have been anything other than one of Jane Austen's heroines!
I would, of course, been an extremely benevolent mistress and given the staff at least one Sunday off a month.
Damn the 21st Century indeed!
If we did live in Jane Austen's England, Megan, I suspect I'd be the one with the calloused hands and worn knees scrubbing your fireplace while you were out strolling through the park with your hunting dog. I think I probably have life a loteasier than my forebears 200 years ago.
In my ideal world, I wouldn't want staff so much as an entourage... I'd like a personal assistant, a chef, a driver, a poolboy and gardener, a personal trainers, someone to make the packed school lunches, and another assistant to deal with all the school-related paperwork.
'Lady Jane' that has such a good ring to it. I'm sure I was meant to be a lady. What went wrong?!!
A friend of mine lived in Hong Kong or somewhere like that for a year and had staff and she said it was not all that it was cracked up to be. She was constantly giving directions and only had 10% of these understood or followed properly and felt that if it wasn't the system (providing employment for local labour) it would have been easier to do it herself.
Personally I have just started having someone come clean for me for 2 hours a fortnight and think I've died and gone to heaven.
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