LITMIR.BIZ

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puts her aching hands into the hot soapy water for the last time that day, cleaning the crockery and cutlery. Once she has had something to eat herself in the kitchen, the cook will send her to bed, much to her chagrin – it’s only when the servants have finished their work for the day and are relaxing in the servants’ hall after dinner that the fun begins.

      Tomorrow will be the same again. With just one half day off a week, the routine is relentless. At the end of her arduous day, Daisy trudges wearily up the stairs to her room. Just a few hours later, she’ll wake again to another day in Downton Abbey.

      Writer, Julian Fellowes

      ‘While bells are now seen as a symbol of servitude, at the time the bell-boards came in, around the 1820s, they were hailed as an absolute liberation. Up until that point, the footmen had to sit on hard wooden chairs within earshot of the family – usually in the hall. They would get a message, say, “Please ask my maid to come and see me”, then have to go downstairs, find the maid and then go back to their chair. With the bell-board, they could not only simply be wherever they wanted to be but if the bell rang from, say, the mistress’s bedroom, it was immediately obvious who was needed.’

      THOMAS

      ‘And they’re off.’

      Carson, the butler, is the most senior member of the below-stairs family, overseeing the work of all the male servants, and is Lord Grantham’s right-hand man. Butlers were sometimes grand enough to attain a little notoriety: Edwin Lee, the long-serving butler for Cliveden, an estate comparable to Downton in size and splendour, was known even by guests as ‘Lord Lee’. While the butler’s practical duties are few – monitoring the wine cellar, decanting port, pouring wine at the dinner table, and cleaning the fine pieces of silver (the footmen clean the rest) – he is the one who makes sure that everything is running exactly as it should be, and woe betide the footman who neglects to snap to attention. Carson believes the responsibility for the entire house is his, and if there is no one to do something that needs doing, he’ll do it himself. When they are short-handed during the war, he risks his own health rather than let standards slip.

      Alongside Carson is Mrs Hughes, the housekeeper, who is in charge of the housemaids – both their work and their welfare. With a big bunch of keys jangling at her waist, she manages the household accounts, draws up the servants’ rotas, checks the linens (sheets and tablecloths are used in rotation so they last for years) and keeps a careful eye on orders for the kitchen store cupboard. This last responsibility, of course, is a bone of contention between Mrs Hughes and the cook, Mrs Patmore, who cannot understand why the stores do not fall under her jurisdiction.

      Working long hours in a kitchen that was boiling hot all year round, cooks were famously short-tempered, understandably so when you learn that Mrs Patmore is up before 6am and won’t go to bed until 18 hours later, after cooking eight meals for the family and the servants.

      Attending to guests

      Gordon Grimmett was second footman at Cliveden while it was the country home of the Astors. The many high-profile guests, including film stars, politicians and writers such as Charlie Chaplin, Gandhi, T.E. Lawrence and Winston Churchill, meant a lot of work for the staff. ‘Every morning would see us up at seven, running down to the stillroom, eventually emerging with six small morning tea trays arranged on one large butler’s tray, distributing them round the guests’ rooms, opening curtains and gently but firmly waking them. We didn’t want them slipping back to sleep again and blaming us for their having missed breakfast. Then we collected their clothes from the night before, and whipped them into the brushing-room, to sponge, brush, fold and hang them. Then we would be laying up the breakfast table, and bringing in the various dishes ... and the constant running to and fro with fresh toast.’

      PREPARING FOR HOUSE PARTIES

      The arrival of guests at a house such as Downton is an important event not only for the family, but for the servants, too. Most household staff had real pride in their work and the house in which they served, and visits were a chance to show just how good they were at their jobs. The presence of a very noble visitor, such as a Duke, was considered an honour and the servants would be eager to serve him and make sure that he left feeling that their house was a well-run one.

      CARSON

      ‘It’s certainly a great day for Downton, to welcome a Duke under our roof.’

      Preparations at Downton are begun by Cora, who decides which bedrooms will be used, then the right menus are put together with Mrs Patmore – for meals that will show off the best of the home farm produce as well as the cook’s ability to create a worthy feast. Once agreed, the menus are written in French. Cora then decides the placement around the dining table at each meal in advance. At the lunches and dinners, if more people are staying than the footmen could reasonably be expected to serve, the valet is asked to help. Carson might help out in the dining room if necessary, but never a maid – although this rule had to be relaxed on occasion during the war when there weren’t enough men.

      Mrs Hughes then makes sure the bedrooms are made up freshly on the day of the guests’ arrival, and clean towels and new soaps are placed in the bathroom. Inkwells must be full, and sheets of Downton Abbey writing paper and envelopes must be laid out on the bedroom table. The head gardener is asked to supply cut flowers for the house and for an arrangement in a vase for each of the guests’ bedrooms.

      If the visitors arrive without either a valet or lady’s maid of their own, a footman or housemaid is assigned to them. Branson, the chauffeur, is despatched to the station to meet everyone off the train. Arriving at the house, they are greeted by Lord and Lady Grantham and their daughters, Carson, and William and Thomas, who take the luggage.

      Guest luggage is unpacked in a room that has a series of locker-like cupboards. If several ladies are staying, this is the opportunity for their maids to compare the dresses planned for the Saturday-to-Monday and thus avoid anyone wearing anything too similar at the same time.

      The footmen, Thomas and William, are the servants most visible to the family and any guests, and therefore they are dressed in tailored livery. They answer the front door, deliver messages to the village, serve in the dining room and stoke the fire if a member of the family is in the room. William is also in charge of walking Pharaoh, Lord Grantham’s Labrador, first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and Thomas has been given the unusual responsibility of cleaning all the clocks in the house, because his father was a clockmaker. Footmen were often known for their arrogance – their appearance gave them an advantage over the rest of the servants and they weren’t afraid to use it.

      MRS HUGHES

      ‘You have to ease up a bit or you’ll give yourself a heart attack. Things cannot be the same when there’s a war on.’

      CARSON

      ‘I do not agree. Keeping up standards is the only way to show the Germans they will not beat us in the end.’

      Below stairs, the day begins early, and breakfast is eaten after completing their morning tasks but before the family come down from their bedrooms. Gordon Grimmett, third footman at Longleat House during the First World War, did not look forward to breaking his fast in the morning: ‘It was a picnic kind of meal with people coming and leaving as their duties required. There was little variety, it seemed it was always kedgeree on weekdays and bacon on Sundays. As it was war time we were each given a quarter of a pound of butter a week, which we kept in a small tin; once that was gone it was dry bread.’

      Lord Grantham and his daughters, as well as any guests, arrive in the dining room for breakfast at around 9am – Lady Grantham is absent, as married women enjoy the privilege of breakfast in bed. The footmen serve tea, as well as coffee and hot toast, but otherwise everyone helps themselves. This is the most informal meal of the day, when the family themselves lift the lids of silver chafing dishes, kept warm by small oil burners beneath and laden with bacon, eggs, devilled kidneys and porridge. Cold slices of tongue, ham and grouse are placed on the sideboard. Cornflakes, called ‘Post Toasties’, which have come from America, are on the table, with milk from the house’s dairy.

      Phyllis Logan is Mrs Hughes

      ‘I

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