Servants – emerging from the Shadows”
Paxton House 21st
April to 31st October 2013.
Stories of
Drunken Butlers
My attention has been drawn to what looks like a most interesting
exhibition at Paxton House near Berwick
(below)
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| Paxton House |
In Country House like Paxton there is usually ample evidence of the
lives of the owners and their families. The lives of their servants are less
well documented. However in the writings, wages books and household account
ledgers of the Home family there are valuable fragments of information. When
these are put together, the working lives and characters those who served the
Home family in their various houses, begin to emerge from the shadows.
As well as hard facts such as rates of pay, terms of employment, cost
of uniforms and servants perks, there are more personal glimpses of the people
themselves; the butler who struggled with alcoholism was given a second chance
after stealing his masters whisky but finally “let go” after drinking the
“spirits of wine” or “ meths” for the lamps; the coachman who fared better, avoiding the sack by joining the Temperance Society and was still in the Home’s
employment 10 years later.
Several of the servants stayed with the family for
many years, rising from footman to butler Fife . “He’s no much to look at” but “he will leave me very comfortable.”
Some of the most exciting finds were photographs although usually the
servants are on the sidelines of a photograph in the family album. There are
grooms holding horses, a coachman seated on the carriage and nursemaids and
governesses with the children. The Paxton gamekeeper is pictured with his dog,
and the rather homely dairymaid with a bucket and her ginger cat. In some cases
the names are known but sadly, most are anonymous.
An exhibition well worth a visit.
Ronald Morrison
