Keeping Their Place

[Su]

I am reading Keeping Their Place, Domestic Service in the Country House, by Pamela Sambrook.

It is a great read for anybody whose ancestors were in domestic service.

It contains extracts from letters and diaries of both servants and their employers.

From the fly leaf:

"There are moments of great poignancy as well as hilarity: a steward's dawning realisation that the housekeeper he befriended is a thief: a young footman chasing a melon as it rolls through a castle's corridors into the moat: This was an era when footmen were paid extra for being six foot or over, and female servants had to wear black bonnets to church."

I can recommend it as it is a real insight into the lives of domestic servants, as all the letters and diaries are authentic.

It was first published in 2005
ISBN 0-7509-3559-6

My copy is from my local Library.

Su