The Real Life Downton Abbey (19 page)

If it rains, the guests might go for a ride. Sometimes a shopping expedition in the car is organised to a nearby town – when the ladies are forced to cover their faces in long floaty veils because there’s such a lot of dust flying around the bumpy country roads: protective goggles are also sometimes worn. And when the women return, to change, yet again, into their flimsy tea gowns before taking tea, the men take the opportunity to play billiards and snooker – playing these games after dinner is considered impolite and offensive to the women.

In the nine years of his reign, Edward VII (or Edward the Caresser as history has dubbed him, because of the legion of mistresses he had following his marriage to Queen Alexandra in 1863) continues to pursue the high-maintenance
country-house
party lifestyle he’d created over many years as Prince of Wales, fitting it all in with his kingly duties which frequently take him on official trips abroad. Essentially, this highly social yet mainly sporting calendar goes like this:

August:
Yacht racing on the Royal Yacht
Britannia
at Cowes, Isle of Wight. The King is a keen yachtsman. The
last-ever
royal racing yacht, the
Britannia
, built for him in 1893, is one of the most successful racing yachts in the world. And Cowes Week, organised by the exclusive Royal Yacht Squadron where class rather than cash is the entry point, is an ideal setting for the fashionable elite to show off – mostly to each other – against the backdrop of the yachts gliding along the Solent.

After the exhaustive social round of Cowes comes a stint at a German spa resort like Baden-Baden, Marienbad or Carlsbad, famous European spa centres where guests can fix digestive problems or ease ailments like arthritis by bathing in the warm thermal waters – or immersing themselves in mud. (These attempts at a more healthy spa ‘cure’ away from the excesses of the usual rich dining are somewhat tenuous: delicious menus still include calorie-laden delicacies like ices, sweetbreads or duck.) And another big attraction of Baden-Baden is its casino, a top draw for the wealthy gambler, as is Biarritz, where Edward loves to picnic alongside busy roads, pretending to be anonymous but knowing he is highly visible.

October:
Deer-hunting in Scotland.

November
Early spring is spent at the country-house estate – where the King, at Sandringham, frequently plays host to his rich cronies (dubbed the Marlborough House Set, after Marlborough House in London, his official residence when in town). Or his friends entertain him in their country homes (Queen Alexandra, discreet and tolerant of her husband’s excesses, does not accompany him to these gatherings – which sometimes include the King’s mistress of the time).

May:
The focus is London and The Season again, after a month or so on the French Riviera in early spring. Attending the first night of the Opera Season at Covent Garden is an important ‘see and be seen’ event, a good opportunity for the women to show off their latest creations – and their jewels. Horse racing, too is another passion – and a costly one. The country-house set often organise house parties around the big summer race meetings at Newmarket, Ascot, Sandown, Goodwood and Epsom where the women display their fashionable outfits and the men frequently race their own horses – and blow huge sums of money on equestrian betting and gambling.

Theatre-going, as well as opera, forms part of the social calendar, in the opulent surroundings of the new, plushly decorated grand theatres of the West End of London. Formal evening dress is worn for opera and theatre-going, though the upper crust audience do not expect – or get – anything too daring or controversial up on the stage; the fashionable set expect to be dazzled by spectacularly beautiful sets rather than
thought-provoking
drama.

Wimbledon in
June
is another sporting highlight as are the big dates on the cricket calendar: the April openings at the Oval and the July Test Matches at Lord’s are all occasions where the elite indulge endlessly in the Good Life – and keep a close eye on each other’s doings.

And so it goes on, an endless round of parties, balls, weddings, race meetings – and servant management. For the mistress of the country or town house, the organisation of such an intensely social round of activity is both time-consuming and exhausting. Given the dictates of The Season and the exclusivity of the elite circle, many guests visit the same houses, year after year, a tight, jewel-encrusted coterie of people locked into a world of glittering displays of ostentation and wealth.

There are certain drawbacks: if the house party includes King Edward VII, getting to bed after a long day can be tricky and often means a very late night given his dedication to food, wine and life’s pleasures. Royal etiquette demands that no lady retire before the Queen – who mostly doesn’t attend the house parties – and no gentleman can climb into his bed until the King decides to spread his huge bulk between the sheets of the regal boudoir.

The King must travel with two valets to keep him looking slick and spruce at all times, as well as half a dozen other servants, his private secretary and two equerries. He has a somewhat disconcerting habit, when hosting a shooting party at Sandringham, of having all the clocks in the house set forward by half an hour – to give him more time for hunting. And if he is a guest at one of his set’s country houses, the hostess must always remember his bedside requirements: a cold roast chicken by the bed, in case he fancies a snack in the small hours.

Being part of this elite group means that the royal tastes eventually dictate the habits of everyone else; at one point, the traditional after-dinner ritual of cigars for the men is changed by the King to include cigarettes. And eventually it becomes more fashionable for women to smoke. This means special orders for the butler and the staff – because the traditional after-dinner serving of port has to be replaced with brandy, since brandy and cigarettes are seen to complement each other. Attention to detail at all times, 24/7.

In view of all this, the make-up of the country-house shooting party is very carefully considered: the names of the guests are carefully listed in the social columns of the London newspapers. (Etiquette dictates that such guest lists are made up of people who know each other, anyway.) So the indoor staff, especially the butler, housekeeper and cook, spend a great deal of time, in between their everyday duties, making sure that everything goes exactly to plan. Guests may bring their own personal servants too, so there is a lot of communication between staff from other great houses – and usually a lot of gossip, too. Not surprisingly, given the boredom of the rigid social routine, the country-house party is also the prime opportunity for the wealthy guests to indulge in extra marital dalliance (see Chapter 10 for more on this).

The lady of the house, in planning the event, must use incredible tact and discretion when considering the needs of her guests. In order to amuse or entertain the wives while the husbands are off shooting, for instance, she will sometimes invite a few spare men who don’t care for sport to make light, even flirtatious conversation or gossip with the women. (These are called ‘lap dogs’, which gives a pretty clear idea of their role.)

And when it comes to drawing up the sleeping arrangements she has to be very cautious, too. The rules dictate that the name of each guest is written on a card, which is then slipped into a tiny brass frame on the bedroom door. But whose name should be displayed on the card of the room next door? It can be very tricky. A man who considers himself a great lover of women can get quite upset if his next door neighbour is a woman accompanied by her husband. And so on…

While their limited time off (half a day a week and one day off a month) and brief holiday periods are in stark contrast to the endless leisure pursuits of their masters, the servants do get to enjoy their time off, although a relatively isolated country house can’t offer the same diversions for relaxing pursuits as those found in the town or city.

In the very big, grand country houses, the large numbers of servants working there often form a little community among themselves, especially if the lower servants’ relationships with each other are friendly.

In the evening, between chores, they might read a newspaper, play dominoes or cards. Or sing, accompanied by a piano-playing colleague who enjoys tinkling the keys of the servants’ hall piano in the corner. Making music is a cheerful diversion; someone might play a banjo, or a fiddle. It’s a time for housemaids to chatter, exchange thoughts, as they work on their sewing – away from the stern gaze of the housekeeper or the unwanted leering of a new, lecherous second footman.

In the daytime, walking is the most common way of enjoying time off, given the complete lack of alternatives in the countryside. It’s healthy, at least. Footmen, chosen for their physical attributes, are traditionally the fittest, most athletic of the country-house staff. A footman might walk several miles during his time off. Some employers even encourage footmen to keep fit by rowing on a lake on the estate. The housemaid on her day off is most likely to take a walk through the country lanes with other servant girls in the area or perhaps take tea with them. Bicycles, at this time, have become safer, cheaper and more commonplace. So the use of a bike, if it’s available, can make a big difference to precious time off; it makes it easier, for instance, to cycle into the nearest town.

Church every Sunday, which the servants attend with the family, the lowers walking the two or three miles and back while the uppers and family are transported by horse-drawn trap or car, isn’t exactly entertainment as such. But it does afford the opportunity to be sociable and exchange pleasantries with other workers in the area; given the size of the house and estate, there are always casual workers, carpenters and artisans working around the house to chat to briefly during the day. Friendships are most likely to be formed, however, between female lower servants. We’re still a long way off from male/female platonic friendship in this segregated environment.

A servant’s one-week annual holiday is mostly spent visiting family. And this must be arranged with the housekeeper to fit in with the routine of the house. Quite often, the holiday break is taken when the family is away in London during The Season and the big spring-cleaning session is being organised in the house. Which doesn’t allow much of a break from the daily grind. Especially when you consider that going home, for female servants, often means cleaning or cooking if there are younger siblings or older relatives at home.

But servant socialising isn’t always as limited as we might imagine. The valets and lady’s maids travel with the job, all over the country, to London and abroad. It’s a chance to experience very different environments, some of them scenically stunning, some exciting – think the South of France or Derby Day – or very grand settings like the poshest town houses in the London Season. Mostly, they’re working. And they might have to sleep in the smallest or lowliest room in the house. But the experience itself in different surroundings is stimulating, and there are always other servants around, working for other families, to network with.

In some country houses, the toffs encourage the servants and estate staff to organise their own entertainment, with regular staff dances every month in the servants’ hall. If the outdoor staff joins in, there are no shortages of male partners for the housemaids to dance with. Or flirt with (discreetly). And a celebratory tenants’ dinner is traditionally thrown by the bosses if a new male heir is born, simultaneously raising employment hopes on the estate, a job in the baby’s nursery, for example, or as a wet nurse.

Mostly, though, the bosses organise formal once-a-year staff dances for the servants which they attend as benevolent masters. Everyone has to dress up. It’s a big date on the calendar – though in some houses, where servant-master relationships are not exactly warm, they’re viewed with a mixture of anticipation and scepticism, similar to the feelings we sometimes have about annual office parties, if you like. If you don’t like the boss and his missus, how can you fully relax when they’re around?

It’s even harder to relax and let your hair down if your working life is controlled by so many different rules and regulations. These big formal occasions are thrown open to everyone on the estate; the tenants, their families, even local tradesmen are invited by the toffs – and everyone wears their best party or ball dresses to enjoy the food and drink and perhaps dance the night away. Whatever their feelings about the bosses or the uppers, most have a good time. And there’s bound to be plenty of fodder for gossip the next day.

The other big day on the calendar, of course, is Christmas. This is usually celebrated by a huge dinner in the servants’ hall for all the indoor and outdoor servants. The hall is decked with bows of holly and there is a generous supply of punch, ale and beer to wash down the splendid meal: a roast, usually beef, with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings followed by plum pudding and mince pies. Later, according to the custom of the family who usually organise a gift-giving session with the servants after they’ve exchanged gifts with each other, the servants line up – in their usual pecking order of seniority – to be handed their Christmas gifts.

Like everything else, the giving of Christmas presents to servants is carefully planned. Housekeepers are in charge of organising and sourcing the gifts – and keeping a detailed record of the costs for their bosses. And the gifts themselves tend to be given strictly in accordance with the status of the servants.