skills upon which some light and regular instruction can improve. Especial care should be taken with reading, above all that the girls read fluently. A mistress should ensure freely available access to texts including, for example, the Bible, Walter Scott, Mr. Dickens, Richardson and so on.
However, my intention is not only to advocate the education of servants but also to examine how else we might get the best out of them. I cannot but acknowledge once again my inefficiency to discuss fully the many important bearings on the matter of the domestic class but it rejoices me exceedingly that in writing this book I am able to contribute my stock of information and if any single observation or suggestion of mine should tend to elucidate a difficulty or lead to any practical result such a prize is all I can expect. With all its imperfections, and I am aware that there may be many of them, I place this book before an indulgent public…
And so on. So this was it. This was why her fingers was sometimes stained with ink. The missus was writing her own book! She had been at it for years, indeed since not long after she arrived at Castle Haivers.
You could have knocked me down with a feather.
I flicked through the next pages, they were a further introduction along the same lines about men of genius and how missus herself was barely worthy to look at a pen never mind pick one up which I thought at the time a terrible shame for in my opinion she wrote awful well with some lovely phrases and the punctuation was tremendous. In fact there was one or two sentences in there I thought were the most elegant I had
ever
read in
any
book.
In the next part, entitled “Servants of My Experience Thus Far‘ missus started in observing about somebody named Freda. This Freda seemed to have worked for the missus father in Wimbledon. She was a foreign girl but she only got two pages of observations before she was sent packing back to Germany. Apparently she had behaved in a forward manner with a gentleman caller who came to tea then took his leave but was later found skulking in the basement after dark near this Fredas room. The gentleman himself was full of apologies when confronted and he was so charming about it all that it wasn’t long before he was forgiven. Not so the bold Freda, she kicked up a powerful fuss and gave vent to some rude remarks before she was ejected onto the pavement.
Missus had summed it all up quite neatly.
This one example does not mean, however, that the Foreign domestic is not to be trusted. There are many cases that would prove the opposite. For instance, I did hear of one Frenchie that has proved to be meticulous in his duties as valet to a great man of importance who is of my father’s acquaintance and it is well known in society that Mrs. B—of M—goes nowhere without her coal-black Negress…
Next missus observed at great length about Nanny P.—a paragon of a woman who I am surprised is not numbered among the saints judging from the missus account of her virtues. Nanny Ps death was a terrible blow to missus and a few lines here and there was smudged as though tears had fallen to christen the page.
After that there was a whole clatter of entries, none of them long and each headed up with a girls name. I got the impression that these were girls who had preceded me at Castle Haivers in the distant past and will transcribe some phrases to give the gist.
Margaret… sauce-box… refuse to record… impertinent… good riddance… Vhari… Highland girl… only five days… middle of the night… spoons missing… Shona… another Highlander… all of three weeks… somewhat wasteful… James displeased… bitter argument… marching orders… Peggy… rather pert… cow eyes at all and sundry… terrible cook… flounced back to wherever she came from…
And so it went, page after page of girls and misdemeanours. Then there was a few blank pages and another heading.
Some Notes on Physiognomy and Other
However, my intention is not only to advocate the education of servants but also to examine how else we might get the best out of them. I cannot but acknowledge once again my inefficiency to discuss fully the many important bearings on the matter of the domestic class but it rejoices me exceedingly that in writing this book I am able to contribute my stock of information and if any single observation or suggestion of mine should tend to elucidate a difficulty or lead to any practical result such a prize is all I can expect. With all its imperfections, and I am aware that there may be many of them, I place this book before an indulgent public…
And so on. So this was it. This was why her fingers was sometimes stained with ink. The missus was writing her own book! She had been at it for years, indeed since not long after she arrived at Castle Haivers.
You could have knocked me down with a feather.
I flicked through the next pages, they were a further introduction along the same lines about men of genius and how missus herself was barely worthy to look at a pen never mind pick one up which I thought at the time a terrible shame for in my opinion she wrote awful well with some lovely phrases and the punctuation was tremendous. In fact there was one or two sentences in there I thought were the most elegant I had
ever
read in
any
book.
In the next part, entitled “Servants of My Experience Thus Far‘ missus started in observing about somebody named Freda. This Freda seemed to have worked for the missus father in Wimbledon. She was a foreign girl but she only got two pages of observations before she was sent packing back to Germany. Apparently she had behaved in a forward manner with a gentleman caller who came to tea then took his leave but was later found skulking in the basement after dark near this Fredas room. The gentleman himself was full of apologies when confronted and he was so charming about it all that it wasn’t long before he was forgiven. Not so the bold Freda, she kicked up a powerful fuss and gave vent to some rude remarks before she was ejected onto the pavement.
Missus had summed it all up quite neatly.
This one example does not mean, however, that the Foreign domestic is not to be trusted. There are many cases that would prove the opposite. For instance, I did hear of one Frenchie that has proved to be meticulous in his duties as valet to a great man of importance who is of my father’s acquaintance and it is well known in society that Mrs. B—of M—goes nowhere without her coal-black Negress…
Next missus observed at great length about Nanny P.—a paragon of a woman who I am surprised is not numbered among the saints judging from the missus account of her virtues. Nanny Ps death was a terrible blow to missus and a few lines here and there was smudged as though tears had fallen to christen the page.
After that there was a whole clatter of entries, none of them long and each headed up with a girls name. I got the impression that these were girls who had preceded me at Castle Haivers in the distant past and will transcribe some phrases to give the gist.
Margaret… sauce-box… refuse to record… impertinent… good riddance… Vhari… Highland girl… only five days… middle of the night… spoons missing… Shona… another Highlander… all of three weeks… somewhat wasteful… James displeased… bitter argument… marching orders… Peggy… rather pert… cow eyes at all and sundry… terrible cook… flounced back to wherever she came from…
And so it went, page after page of girls and misdemeanours. Then there was a few blank pages and another heading.
Some Notes on Physiognomy and Other
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