Beyond the Door; or “The Homes of the Victorians”: Part Three: The Lady of the House

This is the third and final part of this weeks peek into the homes of our Victorian upper class ancestors, and having already looked at the rooms, the servants and how the homes were lit, we finish by examining the house-proud woman who dwells within:


The lady of the house would fill her days with numerous little hobbies, particularly embroidery and needlework, knitting and crocheting. Painting was also popular, with glass painting, china painting and shell painting being hobbies, as well as bead work, such as making mosaics using coloured beads set in a type of cement, napkin folding, arranging family photographs, drawings and cartes de visite.

The other popular past-time of the lady of the house was receiving and visiting callers. These visits, or calls, happened in two ways; either:

The caller knocked on the door and asked the maid or servant if the lady of the house were home, and left a card if she was not.

Or:

The caller knocked on the door and simply handed the servant a card which would be addressed to the lady of the house, and have the caller’s name on, without attempting to visit.

These calls had to be returned within a week, or at most, ten days. If the caller left a card, then the lady would return a card, likewise, if the caller visited, then a return visit was obligatory.

With all these visits going on, ladies had very busy social lives and would keep a visiting book in the morning room. In the visiting book, she would note the names of callers, when they had called or left a card, and when the visit or card was due to be returned. The keeping of a book ensured that nobody was overlooked who had visited.

Ladies would have specific days when they were “at home” to receive visitors, and all her friends would note this day in their books. Some ladies could receive up to nine visitors a day. Having an “at home” day meant that callers were not continually disappointed by the lady being out, or that the lady was not inconvenienced by a caller at an inappropriate time.

Calling was essential in certain situations. Those situations include;

• After an evening of entertainment such as a dinner party.
• If there was an illness in the house
• After a death

At homes of the ill, or where a death had occurred, it was correct to leave a card, but not calling at all was the height of rudeness and quite unforgivable.

Amongst all this socialising, a lady was also expected to bear her husband children, although the children themselves would be looked after by nurses or nannies and only given to the mother at bed times and any other significant occasions throughout childhood such as birthdays &c. The lady would have fairly little to do with actually bringing up her child. In fact, she had little to do around the house at all, the servants kept the house running whilst the lady supervised, and if there were a dinner party, the lady would do no more than decide what food to put on the menu and arrange the seating plan.

This left her free to fill her day with the hobbies we have mentioned, and receiving her callers, and of course, shopping.

Ladies of the upper classes would have very full wardrobes, as they could undergo up to six clothing changes a day, with a different outfit being worn for different duties:

For breakfast: A floral and light dressing gown

For shopping: A simple tailor made costume

For kitchen operations: A workaday dress and pinafore of overall

For paying / receiving calls: The best dress in the wardrobe to convey a prosperous appearance.

For early evening: A loose and comfortable tea-gown

For evening: A dinner dress.

Along with these, there were also accessories. All women, whether rich or poor wore shawls, upper class women would also not leave the house without a fine bonnet, and an umbrella just in case.

  

Looking after children in the 19^th century was a bit of a minefield as seemingly harmless illnesses and niggles in children could become fatal. Diptheria was often mistaken for croup, with the treatment for croup at the time being drops (up to 24 sometimes) of Ipec (Ipecacuanha – a powdered root used as an emetic, causing vomiting to supposedly expel illnesses) wine and calomel powders (calomel was made of mercury chloride and was also a purgative) this treatment would do little to cure diphtheria.

By the age of five, 40 out of fifty children had either smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, typhus or enteric fever, all of which could be fatal. 

Beyond the Door; or “The Homes of the Victorians”: Interlude: Lighting:

We all use electricity now, and take for granted that when we press the switch on the wall a light will come on, or a television &c.

Experimental Exhibition of the Electric Light - Trafalgar Square

But it wasn’t always that easy, as anyone who has fumbled for the candles and matches during a power-cut will know, so, as an interlude to our exploration of the Victorian home, a very short - and hopefully comprehensive and accurate - history of lighting our homes over the last 150 years…

Ninety years ago, as the 1920’s approached, less than 10% of all homes in Britain had an electricity supply, and of these 10%, most were wired up only for electric lighting and nothing else. The most popular form of lighting at the time was gas, which is what our upper class Victorian ancestors would have used, but it wasn’t as widely used as some people think…

The drawbacks of using gas in the home were plenty; it depleted the air supply, it was dirty, it didn’t smell great and it had a destructive and detrimental effect on certain items, such as certain types of wire, which meant pictures had to be hung on the wall using cord instead, as gas corroded wire. Also, silver, books and furniture would be damaged, and even clothing.

Gas made dyes in fabric fade, and over a period of time, even caused the fabric itself to weaken.

For these reasons, many households limited the use of gas to certain rooms where it would be most beneficial, such as hallways, where a draught from an opening door could blow out the flame on a lamp or candle, nurseries (see part one of these posts for nursery details) to prevent accidents in which lamps or candles could be knocked over, kitchens, where brightness and functionality was required where aesthetics were not, and on occasion, gas would be preferred in bedrooms so lights could be easily struck in the dark without fumbling around for matches or lamps. Reception rooms also relied more on gas.

So if not gas in all rooms, how else were these rooms lit?

Parafin was widely produced from the middle of the 1850’s, and, along with kerosene, became popular in the 1860’s. Parafin had a strong smell, but was very cheap.

Duplex lamps had double wicks and chimneys that allowed the light to be dimmed or brightened with the turn of a screw.

Gas lamps were attached to long rubber hoses so they could be placed on tables like oil lamps so that people could see to sew, read &c.

Oil lamps were a lot dirtier than gas lamps and if oil splashed out of the reservoir where it was held, the smell of hot oil would permeate the house. Also, dust and dirt clogged the little air holes around the wick, and this needed cleaning out every day. The glass chimney also needed washing after every use otherwise the dirt would deplete the effectiveness of the light.

A Peep at the Gas-Light - Pall Mall

The original demand for electricity was mainly for street lighting, museums and theatres &c, and for that a central, distributed supply was required. This supply came from a plant opened in 1882; The Holborn Viaduct plant.

By the 1920’s in London, electricity was supplied by a number of largely private companies. The two largest were the London Power Company, which supplied West London; and the County of London Electric Supply Co Limited, which supplied the East. Both were expanding and both were profitable. Between 1919 and 1924 the homes in the County of London that were being supplied with electricity doubled.

By the end of the 1920s, more households were wired up to the network as old houses which were difficult and expensive to supply with electricity were replaced with new homes with electricity already installed. The majority of the country was finally connected to electricity in the years following World War Two during extensive building programmes.

Beyond the Door; or “The Homes of the Victorians”: Part Two: Servants:

Continuing with our peek through the keyhole of an upper class Victorian home we come to the engine of the house; the servant.

Servants were a big part of the upper class Victorian household, and were generally sought out and employed by the upper classes in three ways:

1. Through word of mouth, via a friend, another servant or a local tradesman’s recommendation 

2. By advertisements in shop windows or newspapers (if you can find an old copy of the times then the front few pages will generally be loaded with advertisements for maids and servants)

3. By going to a registry office

During the 19^th century, around a third of London’s population were servants. Virtually all of these would have been women as only the very wealthy could afford a butler of manservant.

So, what did servants do?

The easy answer is this: they did everything. They would rise early, between four and six in the morning to light the fires in the house and help the cook prepare breakfast. At around eight they would have their own breakfast of bread and butter with some tea or something similar. Their working day would only end when all tasks were complete and the family were back in bed, often well after midnight.

Some of the chores of the servant are as follows:

Cleaning and Sweeping:

Before the fires were all cleaned out the hearth rugs were taken up and cleaned so no ash was dropped on them. The rooms were then swept, with all the dust being swept toward the fireplaces. A cloth would then be placed on the floor and the cinder box placed on the cloth so that cinders could be pulled from the fire and put in the cinder box before being thrown in the kitchen range.

Cleaning the fires:

This was done daily, first, the cinders (see above) and ashes were removed, before the grate was polished using dry leather to rub it. This was also done to the fender and fender irons.

If any rust appeared, this was rubbed off using emery paper (I’ve done that, it is hard work! – A.C) before a paste-like substance called blacklead was applied, buffed with a blacklead brush, and then polished to a shine. Every room would have a fire, and this would be done to every one before the fire was lit and the rugs replaced.

Cleaning the Range:

The range was in the kitchen and was in virtually constant use, so had to be thoroughly cleaned and maintained twice a week, otherwise, when it became hot after a while, the heated metal spread a smell of scorched fat and burning food through the house.

To clean the range, the fender and fire irons first had to be removed, then damp tea leaves were scattered over the fuel to keep dust down whilst cleaning was in progress.

The ashes and cinders from the previous day were raked out and the cinders sifted. The ash was set aside to be collected by the dustman, and the cinders from all the fires in the house were re-used in the range.

Then the flues were cleaned and the grease scraped off the stove. The steel part of the range was polished with a bathbrick and paraffin.

All before anyone in the family woke up, as the maids were supposed to be virtually invisible. Having all the work done before the family rose meant that they were not in the way whilst the family was going about the house.

Quite often servants would be girls from rural areas as they were thought to be harder workers than girls from cities. The ‘Girls Friendly Society’, founded in 1874, was a charitable agency that ran servant registries - establishments in towns and cities where women and girls would find a placement with a family. Girls coming from out of town would often have to sleep in the attics of the registries whilst they waited for a placement as they were so far from home and had no money to stay anywhere else.

Another major source of servant was the workhouse. This was due to the fact that the girls were thought of as hard working and able to stick to strict rules. These girls, though, were often avoided by better off families as, coming from a workhouse, they had no experience of cleaning and handling delicate and expensive items.

Servants did enjoy the odd perk; a ladies maid would receive cast-off clothing, and some servants could dine on the left-over food of their masters. Not only that, but because their job was one that required them to ‘live-in’, they also had a home, although, a servants room was sparsely decorated and furnished, usually with nothing more than an old bed, washstand, drawers and little else. The floor would be bare wood.

Servants had to be on their best behaviour at all times, as when they left one position for another, they could not get another job without a good reference, or ‘character’ from their current employer. If the servant was slow, loud or just inept, she would receive a poor character from her employer and struggle to find another job.

For more reading on servants, I recommend this great and brilliantly researched article by a real historian, Alison Kay of propertyhistorian.com, which delves into the costs of keeping a servant. Click here for the Property Historian site.

Tomorrow, a short interlude to our curtain-twitching, as we examine how the Victorians lit their rooms...

Beyond the Door: or "The Homes of the Victorians" Part One: Rooms

This week, here at The Victorianist, we will be taking a look at various aspects of the Victorian home.

Since this is a fairly broad topic, there will be a few parts, three if all goes to plan. So, today is part one – the rooms in the average middle class house.

I have only included descriptions of the more interesting / less obvious rooms, which is why there is no description of bedrooms and bathrooms &c.

So, in the 19^th century, the average middle class home in London would have a lay-out roughly like this:

Top Floor:

Servants Rooms, Children’s Rooms & Nursery

Second Floor:

Master Bedroom & Second Bedroom

First Floor:

Drawing Room

Ground Floor:

Dining Room & Morning Room

Basement:

Kitchen & Scullery

We’ll work our way up from the bottom of the house:

Basement:

The Kitchen & Scullery:

The kitchen was used for cooking, and cooking only, unlike the kitchens of today which are often also eaten in, and sometimes become the centre of a home. Fresh food would be stored in a larder, and a store room would used to keep dried foods and cleaning equipment.

The scullery would usually have running water, and so food preparation that made a mess such as de-scaling or cleaning fish, or preparing vegetables would have taken place there, the running water also made it the ideal place to clean dishes and other utensils, though this also sometimes happened in the pantry.

The pantry was also used for storing silver, glass and china, and the sink in there would be made of wood and lined with lead to make it soft to avoid cracking and chipping to crockery.

Once a year kitchens would be painted to get rid of the smells of cooking and to cover the soot and dirt that came from the range.

In smaller houses, the kitchen would have been nothing more than a dark and damp basement; in these cases, the scullery would have been a small passage just off the kitchen, the pantry a small china closet, the storeroom a cupboard and likewise the larder – though, as the larder would keep fresh food, this would preferably be as far from the hot range in the kitchen as possible as the range was hot for 18 hours a day – it being used to heat the whole hot water supply of the house.

Being below ground level, the kitchen would have been an unpleasant place to work all day. It received virtually no natural light, so gas was burned all day with little or no ventilation. The best to be hoped for was a few ‘air bricks’ to relieve the heat of the kitchen in smaller houses, and in larger houses the cook may be lucky enough to have a tiny window high up in the wall (at ground level).

Ground Floor:

Dining Room & Morning Room:

The morning room was the domain of the mistress of the house, and all the household organizing happened there. Women who had staff spoke to their servants there, did their correspondence there and kept their accounts there – all morning tasks for the organized house keeper.

Close friends were entertained in the morning room in a less formal way than other guests, and (when not required in more formal parts of the house) sewing and other household tasks would take place there.

Being almost exclusively female spaces, morning rooms were decorated in a less formal way than the home’s drawing room. It was the public face of the house, and as such would be decorated in a way that best presented the prosperity of the family.

First Floor:

Drawing Room:

The drawing room was the best room in the house and contained all the finest furniture and ornaments. This is where visitors would be entertained. “Drawing Room” comes from “Withdrawing Room”, as this is where guests would withdraw to after dinner. Usually located on the first floor in larger houses, the drawing room ideally had high ceilings, a bay window, paintings and flowers. From the 1850’s fern collecting became popular, and these too were displayed in drawing rooms, usually covered by a glass dome. (When the sun warmed the air, the moisture in the soil evaporated and condensed on the glass before dropping back down onto the plant to water it.)

Other common drawing room items could include a large table with floral print table cloth and thick patterned carpet. The mantelpiece was the centre of the room, as our televisions today are almost always the centre of ours. A large, gold frame mirror would hang over the mantelpiece, and on the mantel itself could be a velvet decorative cloth, a large clock and candlesticks. When the candles were lit they would reflect in the mirror, giving the effect of more light.

In the drawing room, as with the morning room, the furniture and furnishings would be purchased to reflect the social standing of the family. The general consensus at the time was that learning to play a piano improved a girls posture by making them sit up straight, so many drawing rooms would contain a piano covered with serge, felt or damask. The covered piano itself would become an extra shelf, and be laden with flowers and ornaments.

Walls would be papered with flock paper of gaudy designs, and hanging from the walls could be gilt flowers in bunches tied with fine ribbons. Curtains would be big and plush and thick and hung on large poles. Chairs would be covered with a fine cloth and everywhere one looked there would be ornaments a-plenty.

Top Floor:

Servants Rooms, Children’s Rooms and Nursery:

The Nursery walls would be whitewashed or distempered rather than painted, firstly for health reasons, so that any infections the child may have had did not linger in wallpaper or paint, and secondly so that the walls could easily be re-done every year. The windows of the nursery would be barred, again, this was for the safety of the child. Safety was, of course, a huge concern for the Victorian parents where the child was concerned, and in addition to the barred window and the whitewashed walls, the grate would be guarded by a high and sturdy fireguard and the room would be lit by gas to avoid accidents caused by lamps or candles being knocked over by the child &c.

The furnishings in the nursery would have been very few, perhaps a table covered by wipeable oilcloth, chairs for the child to sit on during lessons, a toy-cupboard and a little rug.

Mothers taught children at home, starting at the age of two when the child would be taught to read, sew (if a little girl) and look at an atlas to learn geography. Phrases from the bible would be read and learned until able to read aloud by heart.

This concludes our little look at the rooms within the house, next time; the servants…