by Tessa Boase
6 Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, 1901.
7 ‘Footman left for impudence’: 11 September 1903. ‘The groom is a worry but I will make him leave the house at 10pm’: 10 January 1904. D/E/2816.
8 ‘At moments when a glass of barley-water might have been acceptable’: J. B. Priestley, The Edwardians, p. 61.
9 Sara Paston-Williams, The Art of Dining, p. 334.
10 ‘The doll in the blue knitted wool dress [in the dolls’ house] was dressed by a Miss Penketh who was stone blind. She was sister to the thief Cook who was at Erthig for many years’. From Facts and Fancies: A description of Erthig, Denbighshire by Louisa Matilda Yorke 1863–1951. This typed manuscript is kept at Erddig.
11 ‘…one never knows when they will turn nasty’: Vita Sackville-West, The Edwardians, p. 30.
12 As reported by the Wrexham Advertiser, Thursday, 5 December 1907. Mr Davies was called as first witness on the second day at the Ruthin Assizes.
13 Annie Kennedy, Memories of a Militant, on her first imprisonment in Holloway. Quoted in ed. Joyce Marlow, Votes for Women: The Virago Book of Suffragettes, p. 41.
14 The Criminal Prisons of London, and Scenes of Prison Life, p. 194.
15 Mr Artemus Jones was made King’s Counsel in 1919 and a judge of the County Court in 1930. The practice of the judge offering a defendant a dock brief would have allowed Ellen Penketh to pick any barrister then in court to defend her for a very small sum, if any. My thanks to Victor Tunkel of the Selden Society for information on court practice during this era.
16 ‘Like many other country-house cooks, Mrs Penketh made free with the whisky and cooking sherry. “She’s at it again”, John Jones the footman was overheard to remark to Frank Lovett, as she approached unsteadily along the basement passage’: Merlin Waterson, The Servants’ Hall, p. 191. The anecdote comes from interviews between Waterson and the teetotal Philip Yorke III (who was two years old at the time of Ellen’s trial), and former maid Bessie Gittins, who joined Erddig in 1909 as a nursery maid, two years after Ellen’s departure.
Part 4: Hannah Mackenzie
The privately held diaries and photographs of Nan Herbert, ‘Scrapbooks 1909–1916’, are the basis for my story. Andrew Hann and Shelley Garland’s guidebook Wrest Park (English Heritage, 2011) is useful on the house’s history and contents. For details on nursing during the First World War, I consulted the Royal London Hospital Museum, together with Sue Light’s excellent website www.scarletfinders.co.uk.
BLARS–Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service.
1 Extracts from King George V’s diary quoted in J. B. Priestley, The Edwardians, p. 284.
2 H. G. Wells, Mr Britling Sees it Through. ‘outside English experience’…‘thoroughly at war’, p. 208; ‘something like competition’, p. 250.
3 Caroline Dakers, The Countryside at War 1914–18, p. 39.
4 Mr Britling Sees it Through, p. 207.
5 The Bedfordshire Times, 11 September 1914.
6 Quoted in material at the Royal London Hospital Museum.
7 The Bedfordshire Times, 21 August, 4 September.
8 Obituary for Sir Sydney Beauchamp in the British Medical Journal, 3 December 1921. He was knocked down and killed by a ‘motor omnibus’ in Pall Mall, aged 60.
9 ‘A Scotsman on the make’, in J. M. Barrie’s play What Every Woman Knows, Act II (1908). ‘Almost painful in its intensity’: Lisa Chaney, Hide-and-Seek With Angels: A Life of J.M. Barrie, p. 104.
10 Writing to Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland 12 January 1917, quoted in Janet Dunbar, J.M. Barrie: The Man Behind the Image, p. 285. The play was The Old Lady Shows Her Medals, adapted into the film Seven Days’ Leave (1930) starring Gary Cooper.
11 Letter to Lord Lucas, 30 March 1916. Ed. Viola Meynell, Letters of J. M. Barrie.
12 Nurse’s autograph book, First World War. Imperial War Museum, Documents 351 (private papers).
13 Independent, 28 December 1914.
14 John Buchan, These for Remembrance: Memoirs of Six Friends Killed in the Great War, p. 22.
15 Barrie to Charles Turley Smith, Hide-and-Seek With Angels, p. 309.
16 Cynthia Asquith, Portrait of Barrie, p. 2.
17 Letter to Nan Herbert, September 1916, on the death of Raymond Asquith.
18 From Eyes of Youth (1943), quoted in Richard Davenport-Hines, Ettie: The Intimate Life and Dauntless Spirit of Lady Desborough, p. 22.
19 Balfour to Mary Elcho (later Lady Wemyss), August 1891. Ettie, p. 44.
20 Woman’s Life, October 1920. Quoted in Virginia Nicholson, Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War, p. 97.
21 To Mrs Hugh Lewis, 1 September 1915. Letters of J. M. Barrie.
22 The Times, 4 December 1916.
23 Lady Herbert to Mr Surtees, 17 August 1917. BLARS L 26/1516
24 ‘They just went on the same’: Grant, Howard. Transcription of oral history interview with Tara Kraenzlin, 23 February 2001. The Preservation Society of Newport County Archives (PSNCA).
25 ‘A stalwart, heavy British’…‘individual shepherd’s pies’: Massé Smith, Genevieve (Charles Massé’s daughter). Transcription of oral history interview with Barbara Shotel, 16 August 2000. PSNCA.
26 Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr, Queen of the Golden Age: The Fabulous Story of Grace Wilson Vanderbilt, p. 310.
27 ‘Everybody pitched in’: Coleman, Patricia (daughter of Norah Kavanagh Sarsfield). Transcript of oral history interview with Tara Kraenzlin, 5 August 2001. PSNCA.
Part 5: Grace Higgens
These notes are very much intended for the general reader rather than scholars of Bloomsbury. For background material on Charleston and its inhabitants during Grace’s era, I consulted the following: Quentin Bell and Virginia Nicholson, Charleston, A Bloomsbury House and Garden; Frances Spalding, Vanessa Bell; Angelica Garnett, Deceived with Kindness; Quentin Bell et al., Charleston Past and Present; interviews with John and Diana Higgens by Joyce Duncan, 2004, NLSC Artists’ Lives series, British Library. Quotes from Henrietta Garnett come from Stewart MacKay, The Angel of Charleston (British Library, 2013). All letters from Vanessa Bell quoted in the text are found in Regina Marler, ed., Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell (Bloomsbury, 1993), unless otherwise specified.
I give dates rather than reference numbers to Grace’s diary entries, and only when this seems important. The Higgens Papers are kept at the British Library (Add MS 83198-83258). Letters written to Grace are part of the Higgens Papers.
I interviewed Diana Higgens, Anne Olivier Bell and her daughter Virginia Nicholson in June 2013. Grace’s son John Higgens sadly died of cancer in April 2013, aged 77.
1 ‘Awesomely noble’: Frances Partridge, quoted in Charleston Past and Present, p. 142.
2 ‘Splendid, devouring, unscrupulous’: Virginia Woolf to Vanessa Bell, 16 February 1919.
3 ‘Oh, skivvies!’: Margaret Powell, Below Stairs, p. 173.
4 ‘Lady Astor’s personal maid’: Rosina Harrison, Rose: My Life in Service.
5 ‘Laundry maid Nesta MacDonald’: Pamela Sambrook, The Country House Servant, p. 207.
6 Harold Nicolson, Diaries and Letters 1930–1964. 28 June 1936.
7 ‘Dear Mr Bell’: Grace Higgens to Clive Bell, May 1934. Modern Archive at King’s College, Cambridge: ‘Maid at Charleston 1920–1970’.
8 ‘Please forgive me writing to you’: Grace Higgens to Vanessa Bell, 1937. Modern Archive.
9 ‘Servants all over the country’: see Virginia Nicholson, Millions Like Us, p. 17.
10 ‘Shoplifting proliferated’: Lewes Remembers the Second World War.
11 ‘A mother in Essex’: Millions Like Us, p. 62.
12 ‘A young Lewes mother’: Lewes Remembers the Second World War.
13 ‘Try to run a home’: Barbara Cartland, The Years of Opportunity, p. 134.
14 ‘Yours is a full-time job’: Good Housekeeping, August 1941.
15 ‘I’m happy just where I am’: author interview wit
h Diana Higgens.
16 ‘Creative power base…height of my ambition’: Millions Like Us, p. 351.
17 ‘A family appendage’: Duncan Grant to Bunny Garnett, 13 October 1971. Frances Spalding, Duncan Grant, p. 479.
18 ‘Every mortal thing…that lot’: author interview with Diana Higgens.
19 ‘Scones and cups of tea…superbly’: Christopher Mason to Grace Higgens, June 1969, Higgens Papers.
20 ‘Secretly a little pleased’: Richard Shone to Grace Higgens, January 1970, Higgens Papers.
21 ‘I don’t usually have much time’: Grace Higgens interviewed for Duncan Grant at Charleston, dir. Iain Bruce, 1969. Charleston Trust Recordings, British Library (C1180).
22 ‘What a remarkable record!’: Nigel Nicolson to Grace Higgens, 11 May 1978, Higgens Papers.
Epilogue
1 Daily Telegraph, 23 February 2002.
2 ‘Very like an Inn’: Adeline Hartcup, Below Stairs in the Great Country Houses, p. 79.
3 ‘A nervous breakdown’: James Lees-Milne, Diaries, 1942–1954, p. 288.
Acknowledgements
Many people have helped in the process of writing this book. At the early research stage, Andrew Hann of English Heritage, Helen Lloyd of the National Trust, Jeremy Musson, Virginia Nicholson, Pamela Sambrook and Merlin Waterson kindly let me pick their brains. For the individual stories, my thanks to the following:
For the Prologue set at Hatfield House, I’m grateful to the Marquess of Salisbury and archivists Vicki Perry and Sarah Whale. For the story of Dorothy Doar at Trentham Hall, Pamela Sambrook generously alerted me to Mrs Doar’s letter in the Sutherland archive; thanks also to staff at Staffordshire County Record Office and the Trentham Estate.
At Uppark for Sarah Wells, thanks to Helen Roadnight for her patience with my queries about the house; also to Sophie Chessum and James Rothwell of the National Trust, staff at the West Sussex Record Office, and the University of Illinois Rare Book and Manuscript Library. At Erddig for Ellen Penketh’s tale, Jill Burton was exceptionally generous with her research and in egging me onwards. Thanks also to Graeme Clarke and Sara Lewis of the National Trust; Beryl Jones, distant relative of housekeeper Harriet Rogers; staff at Flintshire Record Office, Denbighshire Archives and Shropshire Archives; Victor Tunkel of the Selden Society, George Turnbull of Manchester Transport Museum, Wrexham County Borough Museum, and Ruthin Gaol.
For Wrest Park and Hannah Mackenzie, I am indebted to Nan Herbert’s family, also to her great-granddaughter Hannah Palmer for encouragement. The help and enthusiasm of Andrew Hann at English Heritage was fundamental; thanks also to Wrest Park’s committed volunteers Mike Brown, Jane Heywood and Debbie Radcliffe. Ross Mackenzie, Hannah’s great-nephew, was warmly hospitable; researchers Jo Foster and Catherine Tremain left no stone unturned; Barbara McMahon checked J. M. Barrie’s diaries at Yale; Caitlin Emery and Holly Collins of Newport Mansions Preservation Society hunted for Hannah among the Vanderbilts. For fleshing out Cecil Argles, the land agent who fell for Hannah, my thanks to Judith Argles, Charles Marsham Argles and Mike Turner. Sue Light of www.scarletfinders.co.uk was helpful on British military nurses, as were staff at Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service, and the Imperial War Museum Collections.
For Charleston and Grace Higgens, I’m exceptionally grateful to Anne Olivier Bell, Diana Higgens and Virginia Nicholson for their hospitality and memories. Alistair Burtenshaw, Darren Clarke and Wendy Hitchmough at Charleston were helpful; gardener Mark Divall let me poke around his attic flat and Grace’s kitchen. For the Epilogue set at Holkham Hall, thanks are due to Viscountess Coke for her trust in letting me into her home, to housekeeper Nicky Garner for her time and patience, and to Celia Deeley and Christine Hiskey.
I regret that many wonderful (and splendidly named) housekeepers within living memory did not, in the end, make it into this book. Mrs Tricker (and her sparring partner, the nanny Florence Screech) at Merevale Hall in Warwickshire were brought to life for me by Sir William Dugdale, an interview kindly set up by his children Laura, Matthew and Matilda. Mrs Lickiss, the last remaining servant at Haigh Hall, Lancashire during the Second World War, was crisply evoked by the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres and his brother the Hon. Tom Lindsay. For memories of Dorothy Dean, first housekeeper at Chatsworth asked to look after the public, I am grateful to the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, Helen Marchant and Christine Robinson. Clare Macpherson-Grant Russell, Lord Lieutenant of Banffshire, shared memories of family treasure Mrs McCardie, housekeeper at Ballindalloch Castle, who dropped dead of a heart attack days after retiring, aged 73, after fifty years’ service. Judy Macdougall had fascinating stories of housekeeping in the laid-back seventies at a large National Trust house in Buckinghamshire, her tenure coming to an abrupt end when her master remarried. I dearly wish it were possible to tell this housekeeper’s tale, but most of the participants are still alive.
More general thanks are due to Karen Wiseman at Blenheim, Rachel Boak, Juliet Carey and Colette Warbrick at Waddesdon, the Marquess of Cholmondeley and Sam Lloyd at Port Lympne, Matthew Beckett of www.lostheritage.org.uk and Tracey Jewitt of Greycoats Agency. I am grateful to the staff of the National Archives, the British Library, the Foundling Museum, the Museum of Brands, the Museum of London and the Royal London Hospital Museum. Thanks also for advice, leads and general encouragement from Jacqueline Aldridge, Catherine Bailey, Dirk Bennett, Hattie Ellis, Oren Gruenbaum, Christina Hardyment, Fiona Hill, Sue Hills, Pam Ingleby, Elisabeth Jay, Natasha Kerr, Bronwen Riley, Katie Roden, Michael and Judy Watson, Jane Whetnall and Hannah Williams. Several friends read chapters and gave feedback: Lucy Brewster, Fiona Napier, Penel Lee and Rachel Doyle. Especial thanks to Sophie Carter, Casilda Grigg and Catherine Tremain–and to my husband Nick Glass for his invaluable criticism and steadfast encouragement.
Graham Coster commissioned this book and steered it to fruition: I am grateful for his wise insights and spot-on instincts. At Aurum, I’d like to thank my unflappable and meticulous editor Melissa Smith, together with Charlotte Coulthard and Iain Macgregor; also my copy editor Jenny Page. The book could not have happened without the enthusiasm and drive of my agent Georgina Capel.
When I started researching The Housekeeper’s Tale in 2010 my children were aged four and one; they soon learned to parrot back at me my exasperated refrain, ‘I’m not a servant!’ It has sometimes seemed more than a little ironic to be writing about housekeepers without a housekeeper, so I’d like to thank the women whose help has enabled me to work: my child-minder Jasminka Livaja from Croatia, and my Brazilian cleaner Marcia Santos.
Bibliography
All archives consulted are listed in the notes section.
Georgian (Trentham Hall)
Creevey, Thomas. The Creevey Papers (John Murray, London, 1903)
Dickens, Charles. Sketches by Boz (first published 1833–6 in newspapers and periodicals, pbk edn: Penguin, London, 1995)
The Diaries of Sylvester Douglas, Lord Glenbervie (2 vols, Constable, London, 1928)
Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville, 1810–1845 (Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1894)
Henley, Dorothy. Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle (Hogarth Press, London, 1958)
Horn, Pamela. Flunkeys & Scullions: Life Below Stairs in Georgian England (Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2004)
Huxley, Gervas. Lady Elizabeth and the Grosvenors, Life in a Whig Family 1822–1839 (Oxford University Press, 1965)
Richards, Eric. The Leviathan of Wealth: Sutherland Fortune in the Industrial Revolution (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1973)
Vickery, Amanda. Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2009)
Victorian (Uppark)
Briggs, Asa. Victorian Things (Batsford, London, 1988, pbk edn: Penguin, London, 1990)
Flanders, Judith. Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain (Harper Press, London, 2006)
———. The Victorian House: Domestic Life from Child
birth to Deathbed (HarperCollins, London, 2003)
Hall, Michael. The Victorian Country House (Aurum Press, London, 2009)
Horn, Pamela. The Rise & Fall of the Victorian Servant (Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 1990, pbk edn: 2004)
May, Trevor. The Victorian Domestic Servant (Shire Publications, Oxford, 2011)
Meade-Fetherstonhaugh, Margaret and Oliver Warner, Uppark and Its People (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1964, pbk edn: Century, London, 1988)
Oppenheim, Janet. Shattered Nerves (Oxford University Press, 1991)
Rowell, Christopher. Uppark (National Trust, 1995)
Summerscale, Kate. Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady (Bloomsbury, London, 2012)
Wells, H. G. Experiment in Autobiography Vol. I: Discoveries and Conclusions of a Very Ordinary Brain (Since 1866) (Gollancz, London, 1934)
Wells, H. G. Tono-Bungay (Macmillan, London, 1909)
Edwardian (Erddig)
Arthur, Max. Lost Voices of the Edwardians (Harper Perennial, London, 2007)
Crow, Duncan. The Edwardian Woman (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1978)
Garnett, Oliver. Erddig (National Trust, 1995)
Marlow, Joyce, ed. Votes for Women: The Virago Book of Suffragettes (Virago, London, 2001)
Priestley, J. B. The Edwardians (William Heinemann, London, 1970, pbk edn: Penguin, 2000)
Sackville-West, Vita. The Edwardians (The Hogarth Press, London, 1930, pbk edn: Virago Press, London, 2009)
Streatfeild, Noel, ed. The Day Before Yesterday: Firsthand Stories of Fifty Years Ago (Collins, London, 1956)
Waterson, Merlin. The Servants’ Hall: a domestic history of Erddig (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980, pbk edn: National Trust, 1993)
First World War (Wrest Park)
