Up and Down Stairs (50 page)

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 the 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.

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.