The Real Life Downton Abbey. Jacky Hyams

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      When the family do go away, it is customary to take just a few servants with them, leaving the rest of the staff in the country house. At such times, some families might give the remaining staff in the house cash as payment, in lieu of providing their meals. Other toffs stop providing any food at all while they’re away – and just pay their servants’ board wages.

      WHEN EVERY PENNY COUNTS

      Long-term upper servants can fare slightly better if their employer dies and the household is broken up. In some cases, they might receive a small gift as a legacy before they start to search for a new position. Or even a small pension.

      Amazingly, given how tiny their pay packets are, many live-in servants do their best to save; when working really long hours (on average, 16–17 hours a day) with food and board provided, there is not much free time available to do anything but sleep. So it is not impossible to set aside a tiny sum of money.

      The cash saved is frequently sent or handed out to support their own family, a household where there are often many very hungry mouths to feed. Even a very small amount of money from a very small pay packet can make a real difference to a family with one adult wage coming in.

      Many poverty-stricken parents living in shockingly cramped and impoverished conditions actively welcome the idea of a teenage daughter going into service for this reason alone – and if she doesn’t make the grade in service, there’s no fulsome welcome home. Once you can earn, no matter how small a pittance your contribution, losing that meagre sum can put the survival of others on the line.

      Long-term live-in servants also save whatever they can because they worry about their old age. State pensions do not exist until 1909 and, without savings, many servants face a very tough time indeed if they grow too feeble to work. There are country-house employers who treat their older servants kindly by giving them a small pension. But there are no guarantees of anything.

      In the Edwardian era, London is the world’s financial capital. In the years between 1890 and l914, nearly half the international flow of capital is controlled by the City, or the Square Mile as we now know it. Millionaires from all over the world settle in London, buying grand houses in places like Park Lane or Grosvenor Square; they too become part of the wealthy coterie of Edward VII’s smart set. Yet the servants they employ to do their bidding are, in many cases, virtual slaves, trapped by a rigid, harsh social hierarchy in a world where one false move or mistake can mean unemployment and ruin. The only way to survive is to work hard, focus on keeping the employer happy and accept the role you’ve landed; you could, after all, win a promotion in time. Even if you did, however, the roles of master and servant, as we will see, are very clearly defined…

      THE HAVES

      Churchill’s American mother

      One very successful early merger of American money and aristocratic class is the wedding of stunningly beautiful New York heiress Jennie Jerome to Lord Randolph Churchill, 2nd son of the Duke of Marlborough, in 1873. Their first-born son becomes British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.

      Jennie’s two sisters, Clara and Leonie, also marry into the English aristocracy, Leonie to one of the sons of Ireland’s biggest landowning families; Clara marries an English aristocrat for love. Her husband, Morton Frewen, a financially incompetent son of English landed gentry has a nickname: ‘mortal ruin’.

      Throughout her twenty-year marriage to Lord Randolph, Jennie Churchill is reputed to have many lovers, young and old – among them King Edward VII – yet she becomes well respected and greatly admired as an unofficial ‘ambassador’ for American society in the influential, high-born circles of the time. Following Lord Randolph’s death in 1895, she remarries – twice. She dies in 1921, following a fall down a flight of stairs – in a new pair of high-heeled shoes.

      The status hunter’s bible

      Rich American mothers on the lookout for a titled spouse for their daughters subscribe to their own quarterly listings magazine called Titled Americans: A list of American ladies who have married foreigners of rank.

      The magazine lists all the American women who have already married aristocratic foreigners. And it carries a handy list of all the eligible titled bachelors, where they live, their incomes, the size of their estates and, in some cases, a listing of their debts.

      The dancing marquess

      Some of the cash-strapped British aristocrats of the time just blow their money for the hell of it. Take the antics of Henry Paget, the 5th Marquess of Anglesey, the ‘dancing marquess’. On inheriting 30,000 acres in Staffordshire, Dorset, Anglesey and Derbyshire on the death of his father, plus an income of £110,000 a year – around £10 million in today’s terms – Henry manages to blow the lot in six years.

      Where does the money go? Lavish parties, yachts, extravagant theatrical productions – which frequently involve priceless costumes studded with expensive jewels – and Henry’s own elaborate outfits. These include a diamond and sapphire tiara, a turquoise dog collar, ropes of pearls, and slippers studied with rubies. At one point he modifies his car so that the exhaust sprays out perfume. And it is rumoured that he likes to make his wife lie naked while he prances around, covering her body with jewels. Very soon he is mortgaging his estates to cover his mounting debts and, after finally being forced to sell off his jewels, dogs, cars and carriages he is declared bankrupt. He moves to the South of France, where he dies, age 30, in 1905.

      The matchmaker

      New York society snobs shun wealthy financier’s daughter Mary ‘Minnie’ Stevens because there is a rumour that she was once a chambermaid. But she still manages to up her social ante by marrying into the British aristocracy and becoming the wife of Sir Arthur Henry Fitzroy Paget. Once established as an aristocratic wife, she becomes a top-end marriage broker, introducing American heiresses to British aristocrats looking for wealthy brides. Yet the English toffs claim she has made society ‘more shallow and vulgar’ than before.

      Send him the bill

      Because male and female roles in the aristos’ world are so rigidly cast, paying the bills is always the man’s responsibility. The mistress of the house never carries any money at all. An English aristocratic wife is never involved in the financial planning of their estates. Yet she can spend – things like expensive clothing and décor are considered part and parcel of the massive effort in maintaining appearances at all times, and, of course, keeping up with the other wealthy women in their set.

      THE HAVE NOTS

      What servants earn in 1910:

       The Butler: £50–£100 a year

       The Housekeeper: £40–£70 a year

       The Cook or Chef: £18–£500 a year

       The Valet: £35–£50 a year

       Lady’s СКАЧАТЬ