Evr’y morning, evr’y evening,
Aint’ we got fun?
Ain’t got much money, oh but honey,
Ain’t we got fun?
Times are bum and getting bummer
Still we have fun
There’s nothing surer
That the rich get richer
And the poor get children.
In the meantime, in between times,
Ain’t we got fun!
— Whiting & Kahn, “Ain’t We Got Fun?” 1921
Lamentations are going forth because Downton Abbey is done for this year. Oh boohoo, boohoo! The last scene is a shocker in which Matthew, a favorite character, wrecks his car and dies. Ecstatic, he’s on the way back to Downton after visiting his wife, Lady Mary, and their newborn son. A friend wrote that Facebook is abuzz about this. He e-mailed a cartoon in which the PBS announcer says, “Send in your pledge or another Downton Abbey character dies.” A daughter died following childbirth.
I wouldn’t want to live like rich people such as Consuelo Vanderbilt or the fictional characters in Downton Abbey, but I’d surely rather have been one of them than their servants!
There was little fun in the life of servants whose lives were dawn to past dusk drudgery with little free time. The “boss” servants such as the butler, housekeeper and cook were despots who controlled the lives of the maids and footmen.
The Chronicles of Downton Abbey has interviews of people who served in the great houses of England. The life of a kitchen maid was awful. On her first day at work one girl was told by the cook to dress a chicken. When she said that she didn’t know how to do it the cook slapped her, shoved her and kept giving her elbow jabs. In those days, salt was in the form of a block that had to be ground so that the kitchen maids’ hands were always chapped and sore. Think of spending your life in a steaming hot kitchen, cooking gourmet meals on a coal range such as my mother had when I was a girl.
Footmen had to be good looking as they were always in evidence, opening the door, serving food, whatever. Sometimes their handsome uniforms were made in London by Saville Row tailors. Some of them made extra money by selling wine bottles and the corks of vintage wines that were then inserted in bottles of cheap wine.
The valets were supposed to know myriad details about clothing, what to pack for the masters’ trips and the accouterments of wealth. Since the wealthy men changed clothes at least twice a day, some valets wore their masters’ underwear before putting it in the laundry. One fellow was fired when he made the mistake of wearing a guest’s socks that were decorated with a crest.
Maids were to be as invisible as possible. Jewelry and lipstick were frowned upon. The lady’s maid was very important to her mistress as she knew all her secrets. The job of keeping the lady’s clothes pressed and in order took up a great deal of time as the women changed to different outfits for breakfast, lunch, a stroll outside, riding, tea, dinner or a ball. The maid could not go to bed until her mistress did — no matter how late the hour. Some mistresses were very spoiled and dependent on their maids. One woman slept in her tiara one night because she didn’t know how to take it off.
Some servants became very loyal to their masters, but why in the world would anyone want to live like that? First, there was a rigid class system. If you were born into the lower class, it was very difficult to move out of it. Also, they had no education. In England at that time school attendance was compulsory only to the age of ten.
Downton Abbey is such a success because its producers, writers and actors care passionately about it. Next week: Other passions: It’s Oscar time. wclarke@comcast.net